Slight Twist On This "Best 50" Plasma For Under €XXXX?" Question

Phaedrus68

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Hi,

EDIT: This post was made when £ / € were almost at parity.

When I started looking back in June 08 at buying some AV eqiupment, I quickly realised that good products could be bought for great prices.

I put my eye on Panasonic's 50PZ80 pretty early on, and have watched its price plummet in these 6 short months from around €1600 delivered from the UK to Dublin (Dublin-based sellers were then, and still are now, asking €2200 - don't get me started), to €1000 today, collected from Richersounds in Belfast.

Overall, where it first looked like my total spend would certainly end up well onto the nasty side of €5000, between price drops, the currency situation, research & price hunting, my overall spend now looks like it'll be well under €4000, possibly closer to €3500.

So I'm now wondering if an alternative 50" might best the 50PZ80 for maybe €200 - €300 (close as dammit to £200 - £300) more?

See my sig for the sources and AVR/speakers I'll be mating the TV with - I reckon it'll be a pretty well-balanced grouping of products, from market-position and equivalence-in-performance perspectives, but I won't ignore comments.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not keen to spend the extra: I've been, and still am, very intent on getting my overall spend as low as possible, but this will be my big AV set-up to last till the kids have flown (youngest is 3 :rolleyes:), so that bit extra might be okay, but only if it bought me a significantly better TV than the 50PZ80.

My own thoughts are to stick with the 50PZ80 and enjoy a smidge more peace at home for saving that little bit extra, but I'd be really interested in what you guy's thoughts are.


Thanks,

Mark
 
Last edited:
Hi Mark,

I was in the same postion as you a few weeks or so ago mate. I looked about to see if there was anything near the PZ80, the Pioneer's are nearly a grand more, and while I could afford it, I just couldn't justify it as ideally I want to upgrade my projector too this year :suicide: :rotfl:

The only other option seemed to be was spend a bit more and getting a Z81 with built in Freesat and a few other features, but to be honest I'd rather spend that few hundred quid in a years time (if freesat gets more HD channels) and get a Freesat box that records too.

I did a fair bit of looking around, and I really think the PZ80 is the best TV for that price. A few hundred more may get you freesat and few extra features, but picture quality is pretty much the same. The real difference is if you get a Pioneer and they are almost double. I got my PZ80 two Saturday's ago and I'm chuffed to bits with it. Freeview looks fine, but Blu-Ray and HD games on it look :eek:

Personally if I were you and if you have a spare few hundred pounds, and have the space for it, then I'd also look at getting a HD projector. You can get them pretty cheap now a days, especially in the classifieds on here. As 50" sure does seem big, but 128" seems cinema like ;)

Any questions please feel free to ask,

Cheers

Craig
 
. . . to be honest I'd rather spend that few hundred quid in a years time (if freesat gets more HD channels) and get a Freesat box that records too.

Looks like we'l both have pretty similar set-ups. The Foxsat HDR will be my "Freesat box that records too".

Any questions please feel free to ask . . .

Okay then . . . ;)

Are you controlling your PS3 with your 885? If yes, how are you going about it?

Is the 885 controlling absolutely everything you want it to?

Once I have all my gear, I'll probably have loads more questions for you, given that we'll each have some of the same stuff.


Thanks,

Mark
 
Okay then . . . ;)

Are you controlling your PS3 with your 885? If yes, how are you going about it?

Is the 885 controlling absolutely everything you want it to?

Once I have all my gear, I'll probably have loads more questions for you, given that we'll each have some of the same stuff.


Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mark,

My Harmony 885 is great and controls everything from my Topfield PVR to my Xbox 360, to my Onkyo amp. My housemate now has a Harmony and my dad got one a couple of weeks ago, both after seeing mine. The only problem with the remote, and many have found this too is the charging cradle. The contacts are not the best on it (USB charging would have been the best way to go in my opinion).

The PS3 is a bit different due to it only having Bluetooth and Sony not using their wisdom in placing an IR receiver in it too. (I take it from asking me about the PS3 you already know a bit about this).

I started a thread on it while back here. In short, yes you can get the PS3 to function with the Harmony 885, just not turn it on as the PS3 needs to be awake to for the IR dongle to work in the first place.

When you get all you equipment please feel free to ask any other questions.

Cheers

Craig
 

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