Which 50" 1080p Plasma?

thisburningage

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My wife and I dipped our toes into the world of HD TV's a couple of years ago (after lots of research which made what little brains I have ache with information! ;)) when we bought our Series 6 Samsung 46". In fact we were so impressed with it a year later we ended up convincing my folks to buy a 46" Series 7 to replace their ageing 28" CRT! Watching blu-ray films and playing PS3 and PC games are one of the vices we have and, after finally saving up enough to turn our mess of a room into a half decent lounge (the Samsung is in the bedroom) we're now looking for another decent HD TV to go in it.

Although the title says 50" Plasma we're not irrevocably set on that particular path, it's just that we've seen a few interesting looking 50" Plasma's within our price range, £700-800 (we might be able to stretch to £900 but it would be fantastic to pick up one for less if that's even possible! ;)) and the thought of us getting a 50" TV sent us a little weak at the knees! So, our first post on here is asking for advice: which 50" Plasma would you recommend? Would you even recommend going for a plasma or is there a decent 46" LCD screen that we could afford? Ideally it should have plenty of HDMI ports, be quick enough to use for gaming (bizarrely my other half also loves gaming, though more PS3 and Wii. The aim is to eventually set up not only the PC and PS3 for games but also a few retro consoles that we own that haven't been used in donkey's years like my C64 and Amiga 500 while eventually adding a SNES, Dreamcast etc). A nice addition would be a USB port to hook my external drives straight up to in order to play various media from it directly into the TV without having to always route through the PS3. Although the wife has a thing for Samsung products we're pretty much open to any brand that can do the job well (and a wall mountable unit would also be great!).

I'm currently trying to read around the subject again as it's been a while since I last looked into it but unfortunately my brain is a little frayed around the edges at the best of times so if anyone could give us some advice it would genuinely be very much appreciated :)
 
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What about this model.....

LG 50" 1080p 600Hz TV @ Dixons- £578.04 after quidco (50PK350) - HotUKDeals Forum

I am in exactly your position. My old 1st generation plasma (Panasonic 37PV500) has just gone pop. I would love a new 46" wafer thin LED, but they are still a little bit overpriced for my budget right now.

I was thinking about the LG 50PK590 for the freeview HD tuner, but as I never watch live TV, but use Windows Media Center 100% of the time, seems a bit pointless spending the extra when this is available for under £600.

The downside to these LG sets is they suffer from a reflective screen in bright daylight.

I would be interested in what you decide. Let us know.

Cheers

Gary
 
We bought the LG 50PK350 a little over a week ago and are thrilled with it.

Personally don't find an issue with reflections, seems to be the new obsession with people at the moment(kind of like the dead pixel business a few years ago where the problem is more down to people drawing it to your attention in the first place), even in bright conditions we don't find it in the least bit distracting, maybe that's just us(we're a simple folk:)).

It's a georgeous looking set BTW, appears much more like an LCD than a Plasma(as in very slim looking).
 
We bought the LG 50PK350 a little over a week ago and are thrilled with it.

Personally don't find an issue with reflections, seems to be the new obsession with people at the moment(kind of like the dead pixel business a few years ago where the problem is more down to people drawing it to your attention in the first place), even in bright conditions we don't find it in the least bit distracting, maybe that's just us(we're a simple folk:)).

It's a georgeous looking set BTW, appears much more like an LCD than a Plasma(as in very slim looking).

Thanks Tetlee,

I had pretty much made my mind up to get this set. I have also found a nice bracket which holds the TV just 12mm off the wall for £40. Yesterday I came home from work, telling the wife when she drops on me, the dentist has just told her, she needs a false tooth for..... Wait for it...... £2500 !!!!!!!

I could have the latest, biggest, 3D TV for less than the price of a poxy tooth.

Looks like I will be without a TV in the lounge for a while now !!!!!!!
:mad:
 
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Thanks for the info guys, really appreciated (sorry to hear about the tooth £££'s Gary! :eek: )
I think my mind is pretty much made up on going for the LG (the thread topic on HotUKDeals was very useful and pretty much swayed it for me in). Totally agree with Tetlee's observations on the current trend towards focusing on "reflections". Even if it were the case (and I do think it's possibly a hyped topic) the room it's going in only has two very small but wide windows at the very top of the rear wall (facing the TV) and the light they let in never falls on the area of the wall that the TV wil be mounted on.

I love the fact that the LG model has bluetooth connectivity and, more importantly, that it can deal with a helluva lot of media file formats (finally an easy way of playing mkv files! :) Previously it was like pulling teeth...er...sorry Gary...:D:p;)). My only slight concern is that it only has 2 HDMI ports. Would anyone be able to recommend a decent HDMI breakout box with 4 (preferably more) HDMI ports or are they all pretty much of a muchness (I've heard some have trouble playing certain kinds of audio through them so I'm guessing this would be a consideration?)?
 
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Worth checking in store (Currys) for this one (PK350)as they are doing £100 trade in with any tv (even a mini portable the Sales Guy told us yesterday)
 
Worth checking in store (Currys) for this one (PK350)as they are doing £100 trade in with any tv (even a mini portable the Sales Guy told us yesterday)

Ok turns out the Sales guy didn't know what he was talking about & it doesn't include this one.
 
Well, we went into Currys today to demo one (and to see what they said about the trade in offer - thanks CO2000)...we didn't have any trouble finding one as it was sat on display just as you walked in! Unfortunately Currys still seem to be employing monkeys that couldn't find their a*$e with both hands and a map...After one surly individual told us they wouldn't accept a trade in on this particular model (in store price £650) we had another launch into an elongated and incomprehensible monologue about why the online Dixons price is cheaper and why we really should consider buying in store...I don't think even he knew what he was talking about and coupled by the fact we were now surrounded by a mob of 5 sales people (and I use that term quite wrongly) we decided to make a hasty exit.

Luckily we had a completely different experience in Comet. I don't usually buy from the likes of Comet anymore, preffering to hunt down internet bargains, for example I've used Crampton and Moore twice now for the 2 other 46" LCD TV's and been very happy with their service, so it was with some trepidation I went in. But we couldn't have been treated better. The first chap we saw was a bit miffed and tired but he handed us over to another guy who couldn't do enough for us. He took his time, made sure we had any information we wanted and even spent a good 15 mins finding then hooking up a blu ray player so I could see the display in full 1080p and play with the settings.

What we saw we absolutely loved and we bought it there and then. Spent the afternoon setting it up and this evening watching the blu ray of "Leon: The Professional" and frankly we couldn't be happier. It's hard to actually believe the TV costs what it does as the quality is genuinely superb (granted we are both inexperienced in this field so others may well find fault :)). It was a joy to plug in my 32Gb usb key and have it play virtually any media I threw at it (and it had no problem with my 500GB external Freecom drive either) and aside from everything else, the aesthetics are spot on: the thin frame is very pleasing to the eye and the width of the TV itself was quite surprising as it's thinner than our 6 Series Samsung! Definately a set I'd recommend :)
 

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