can anyone recommend a 42" plasma tv?

[dk]

I have been looking for a plasma tv for a couple of months now but I am not
impressed by the picture quality of anything I`ve seen.
I was almost buying a Pioneer 435FDE but was put off by a review which said
tv sources did not give a good picture.

I want to spend about £2000 and if pushed maybe upto £3000 if worth it. The
screen will be used as the main TV with analogue cable and needs to have VGA
connection for PC.

Viewing the screens in shops has not impressed me with the picture quality
even on more expensive screens, am I expecting too much?

Anyway I thought it was best to get some opinions from people who have a
plasma, and any general advice would be welcome, I`m finding it a very hard
decision but have sold my 42" RPTV and the 28" i`m using looks like a
portable now, so I want to make a decision soon.

Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks if
they have one:

Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put off
by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.

Any help would be appreciated.


Des.

[Mike]

Post by dk
I have been looking for a plasma tv for a couple of months now but I am
not impressed by the picture quality of anything I`ve seen.
I was almost buying a Pioneer 435FDE but was put off by a review which
said tv sources did not give a good picture.
I want to spend about £2000 and if pushed maybe upto £3000 if worth it.
The screen will be used as the main TV with analogue cable and needs to
have VGA connection for PC.
Viewing the screens in shops has not impressed me with the picture quality
even on more expensive screens, am I expecting too much?
Anyway I thought it was best to get some opinions from people who have a
plasma, and any general advice would be welcome, I`m finding it a very
hard decision but have sold my 42" RPTV and the 28" i`m using looks like a
portable now, so I want to make a decision soon.
Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks
Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put off
by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.
Any help would be appreciated.
Des.

Personally i'm not that impressed with the picture quality of any of them.
If i was buying a Plasma today i would get the cheapest one possible and
live with the poor picture just have the size
with the intention of upgrading it in a few years.
Paying £3k on something that's going to be worth less than 1k in 3 years
time is frightening.
They have got to improve, or more than likely be replaced by LCD.

[pyme]

Can I ask why you sold your RPTV. I'm really interested in them now as they
seem really good value for money and space isn't an isssue. Just curious.

Pyme

Post by Mike

Post by dk
I have been looking for a plasma tv for a couple of months now but I am
not impressed by the picture quality of anything I`ve seen.
I was almost buying a Pioneer 435FDE but was put off by a review which
said tv sources did not give a good picture.
I want to spend about £2000 and if pushed maybe upto £3000 if worth it.
The screen will be used as the main TV with analogue cable and needs to
have VGA connection for PC.
Viewing the screens in shops has not impressed me with the picture
quality even on more expensive screens, am I expecting too much?
Anyway I thought it was best to get some opinions from people who have a
plasma, and any general advice would be welcome, I`m finding it a very
hard decision but have sold my 42" RPTV and the 28" i`m using looks like
a portable now, so I want to make a decision soon.
Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks
Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put
off by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.
Any help would be appreciated.
Des.

Personally i'm not that impressed with the picture quality of any of them.
If i was buying a Plasma today i would get the cheapest one possible and
live with the poor picture just have the size
with the intention of upgrading it in a few years.
Paying £3k on something that's going to be worth less than 1k in 3 years
time is frightening.
They have got to improve, or more than likely be replaced by LCD.

[dk]

Post by pyme
Can I ask why you sold your RPTV. I'm really interested in them now as
they seem really good value for money and space isn't an isssue. Just
curious.

I originally wanted a plasma about 2 years ago but they were way too
expensive for what they were so I settled on a RPTV, but now that plasmas
are much cheaper and better I wanted to sell before it was worth nothing.

However having seen the quality of some of the plasmas I now appreciate how
good the picture was on the RPTV. We also have a smallish room so the
plasma would free up about an acre of living space :-)

Thanks by the way for everyone's response.

Des.

[Tim S Kemp]

Post by dk
However having seen the quality of some of the plasmas I now
appreciate how good the picture was on the RPTV. We also have a
smallish room so the plasma would free up about an acre of living
space :-)

Other advntages of Plasma inclyude lack of convergence issues, and viewing
angle. RPTV is really only a better solution in longer rooms or for corner
positioning.

[Stan The Man]

Post by dk
Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks if
Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put off
by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.

I had the opportunity to compare all of these in my local John Lewis
viewing room - with a Sky digital feed and with me having access to the
remote and TV setup controls. I was able to get them all looking a lot
better than the shop displays but there was no doubt in my mind that
the Panasonic picture was best - so I bought one. But even the best of
them is a trade-off: the posterisation, when it occurs - which is maybe
10% of the time - is very distracting. But at least the Panny delivers
no movement smearing, no colour bleed and acceptable compression
artifacts, posterisation apart.

Stan

[Scott]

Post by Stan The Man

Post by dk
Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks if
Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put off
by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.

I had the opportunity to compare all of these in my local John Lewis
viewing room - with a Sky digital feed and with me having access to the
remote and TV setup controls. I was able to get them all looking a lot
better than the shop displays but there was no doubt in my mind that
the Panasonic picture was best - so I bought one. But even the best of
them is a trade-off: the posterisation, when it occurs - which is maybe
10% of the time - is very distracting. But at least the Panny delivers
no movement smearing, no colour bleed and acceptable compression
artifacts, posterisation apart.

Excuse my thickness but what is posterisation exactly???

[Stan The Man]

Post by Scott

Post by Stan The Man

Post by dk
Some screens I`m interested in and would like to know what anyone thinks if
Pioneer 435FDE. Love the look and has lots of features I like but put off
by tv quality.
Philips 42PF9946 . Picture looked best in currys compared to others on
display.
Sony KEP42M1S. Nice picture but could see pixels making up the picture
Panasonic TH42PE30. Looks nice.

I had the opportunity to compare all of these in my local John Lewis
viewing room - with a Sky digital feed and with me having access to the
remote and TV setup controls. I was able to get them all looking a lot
better than the shop displays but there was no doubt in my mind that
the Panasonic picture was best - so I bought one. But even the best of
them is a trade-off: the posterisation, when it occurs - which is maybe
10% of the time - is very distracting. But at least the Panny delivers
no movement smearing, no colour bleed and acceptable compression
artifacts, posterisation apart.

Excuse my thickness but what is posterisation exactly???

Some people refer to it as banding. It is where graduated colour tones
break up into blocks of colour because there isn't enough data present,
or enough processing power, to display all the original colours. Thus a
halo of light around the moon in a dark sky breaks up into four or five
hard-edged rings of colour; skin looks patchy (aka 'paint by numbers'),
etc.

Stan

[Tim S Kemp]

Post by dk
I have been looking for a plasma tv for a couple of months now but I
am not impressed by the picture quality of anything I`ve seen.
I was almost buying a Pioneer 435FDE but was put off by a review
which said tv sources did not give a good picture.

Compared to a 28-32" CRT broadcast TV looks a bit off on any plasma - the
size exaggerates any interference and the zooming required to fill the
screen from analogue 16:9 / 14:9 broadcasts. The reduced colour gamut of
many of them causes some banding / noise in dark areas too (notably not on
the Viera though).

Digital (freeview) fairs better though with proper 16:9 and vivid images. I
got the LG42PX11 telly and the image quality fed RGB from the Pace Twin is
brilliant.

Big screens look best fed component / rgb / dvi from a good DVD source - I'm
yet to be impressed by analogue TV fed to a screen over 32" in a 15x15 room.

So my opinion - get the LG and save your money (for ultimate quality feed it
DVI with an external scaler...) or for top picture it's the Viera.