What 40" LCD? It's all so confusing

[itsnotarace]

I'd be very gratefull for any opinions on my dilema.

Were moving into a new house in a couple of months and have decided to take the leap into LCD technology.
I'm looking at 40" models at the moment. I've been reading up about them on this site and some others and well as the magazines available and have reached a point where i'm so confused, all the models names, numbers and letters have all meshed into one big mess.

Were going to be wall mounting the tv and buying a Yamaha YSP-1100 speaker bar to mount underneath it (my girlfriends concession on the surround sound front.)
We'll be using it to watch Tv, Sky, DVD's and some X-box 360 playing (i say 'we' but the xbox is more a 'me' requirement.)

I was looking at the Sony KDL40W2000 initially and was pretty much sold on it and then started reading into the 'clouding issue.' However, i read through it and decided to take a chance.....and then made the mistake of taking the gf into a shop to see it. No decision has been made yet, but i have the feeling it won't be 'pretty' enough as she saw it beside the glossy finishes of the Samsung etc.

Is the Sony the best 40" out there (clouding aside) as magzines such as What Hi Fi Sound & Vision suggest? Is there another make/model that produces as good/better picture?
Oh and the Yahama has to 'make sense' sitting mounted underneath it on the wall.

Our budget is between £1,000 to £1,500.

I'm sure i could have made this post shorter and more interesting, but thanks for any replys!

 

[Martindh]

Hi,

In my opinion for what its worth, the Sonys and the Pioneers are pretty much the best you can get. Samsungs are good but their sound quality in my opinion is poor.
Looks are also not everything!
There are some new sets coming out now so check the web sites from makers of Panasonic and Toshiba.

Good luck

 

[georgedingwall]

Hi there,

I've just taken delivery of a KDL40W2000 yesterday (Monday 16th). I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far.

I've not seen any of the dreaded "clouding" that is talked about a lot. I only have SD at the moment, but I've tried a few DVDs and Videos and SD TV and Sky channels, and they all look a lot better that they used to on my Toshiba 32 inch CRT set.

There are a lot of setup options, and it might take a while to find a setup that you can live with, but I'm getting there.

There are several excellent reviews of 40 inch LCDs at this site..

I found the KDL40W2000 one particularly helpful in making up my mind which one to buy.

Hope this helps, bye for now.

 

[MrMav11]

Ive just ordered a Samsung LE40R87BDX, cant find any reviews but its just been released so should be better than the last generation the R74 which was a best seller.

 

[thms]

http://www.itechnews.net/2007/04/03/toshiba-regza-h3000-series-full-hd-lcd-tv/

i expect the uk will get this set in the autumn.. i'm holding out for one

''What's special about them is that they all come with a 300GB hard disk drive and even an eSATA port for you to plug in your external hard drives. The 32-inch 32H3000 is HD Ready with 1366×768 resolution while the others are all Full HD with 1920×1080 resolution. They all have 178-degree viewing angle.

They have 2 HDMI inputs, a D4 input and even an Ethernet port. The 32-inch model will be available from 20 April while the others will be launched in June.''

 

[MrMav11]

I couldnt wat any longer and ordered a Samsung LE40R87BDX, its coming on Fri

I know I could have waited but you never end up buying anything that way!

I agree if a ethernet port was included and you could play back movies from a network or something that would be really great, but hey.

I decided against getting "Full HD" as sets were expensive still and dont think I'll really need it yet, at least for another 5 years.

 

[MrMav11]

http://www.itechnews.net/2007/04/03/toshiba-regza-h3000-series-full-hd-lcd-tv/

i expect the uk will get this set in the autumn.. i'm holding out for one

''What’s special about them is that they all come with a 300GB hard disk drive and even an eSATA port for you to plug in your external hard drives. The 32-inch 32H3000 is HD Ready with 1366×768 resolution while the others are all Full HD with 1920×1080 resolution. They all have 178-degree viewing angle.

They have 2 HDMI inputs, a D4 input and even an Ethernet port. The 32-inch model will be available from 20 April while the others will be launched in June.''

How much you think they will be? hope they aren't too chep as I might have had a look at them, with a 300Gb HDD in. I expect they'll be really expensive though being full HD and 300Gb HDD in, say for the 42" about £1500 you reckon?

 

[reaper12]

I'd be very gratefull for any opinions on my dilema.

Were moving into a new house in a couple of months and have decided to take the leap into LCD technology.
I'm looking at 40" models at the moment. I've been reading up about them on this site and some others and well as the magazines available and have reached a point where i'm so confused, all the models names, numbers and letters have all meshed into one big mess.

Were going to be wall mounting the tv and buying a Yamaha YSP-1100 speaker bar to mount underneath it (my girlfriends concession on the surround sound front.)
We'll be using it to watch Tv, Sky, DVD's and some X-box 360 playing (i say 'we' but the xbox is more a 'me' requirement.)

I was looking at the Sony KDL40W2000 initially and was pretty much sold on it and then started reading into the 'clouding issue.' However, i read through it and decided to take a chance.....and then made the mistake of taking the gf into a shop to see it. No decision has been made yet, but i have the feeling it won't be 'pretty' enough as she saw it beside the glossy finishes of the Samsung etc.

Is the Sony the best 40" out there (clouding aside) as magzines such as What Hi Fi Sound & Vision suggest? Is there another make/model that produces as good/better picture?
Oh and the Yahama has to 'make sense' sitting mounted underneath it on the wall.

Our budget is between £1,000 to £1,500.

I'm sure i could have made this post shorter and more interesting, but thanks for any replys!

Get the New Samsung M86 or M87. Probably one of the best LCD TV's out there at the moment. And If you go to the site that georgedingwall recommends above you will see that the M86 gets a great review and comes highly recommended, and your girlfriend will love it, it's a beautiful TV.

 

[MrMav11]

what about the the Sammy LE40R87 ? have you any comments on this TV please? I just bought one