Help me choose the best TV

[TheGuyFromThere]

So I've narrowed it down to 3 potential candidates to fulfil the role of forcefeeding me entertainment when I'm bored. I'll be using the TV 90% of the time to play xbox with, so a 1080p is a must.

 

My natural choice of these 3 is the Bravia, simply because it's Sony Bravia, and they're without a doubt thee best. At the same time, the lesser models, LG and Samsung (where LG is my least preferred) have more added features it seems. But what I don't know, is, are these features a load of bollocks? Compared to the Bravia, are they better TVs?

 

In order of preference;

 

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/sony-bravia-k...982299-pdt.html

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-le40c...037935-pdt.html

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/lg-42ld550-42...978994-pdt.html

 

I am open to suggestion, if anyone can recommend a good 40-42" TV with the best contrast, best refresh rate, best response rate, 1080p a must, for the region of £300-£500. Plasma preferably, for the low response rate.

 

Thanks

[Wolf68k]

I will warn about this with Samsung, this is from personal experience as well.

If you have a HTS/HTIB (Home Theater System/Home Theater In a Box), or plan to get one later, Samsung and Panasonic do not pass surround sound signal from HDMI to the optical out. They will only pass stereo out over the optical. The only way to get 5.1 from the TV to your HTS is from the antenna.

LG will pass it through no problem, again this is from personal experience. Sony I'm not 100% sure of since their manuals doesn't say exactly one way or the other but they do imply it passes the surround sound through.

 

The reason this is something to know about a head of time is that if you get a HTS which usually doesn't include a DVD or Blu-ray player you'll have to connect your devices to the HTS to get the surround first, if go with Samsung or Panasonic but if you have LG (and maybe Sony) you can connect them to the TV. Now if you get a HTIB then you'll need to either make sure it has is HDMI inputs or digital audio inputs and most HTIBs do not, so you'll have to get a switch.

The upside to TVs like LG, going device->TV->HTS, is that you can watch whatever from the device without having to have the HTS on. So it's late at night and you want to watch some TV or a movie but you don't want to wake everyone up that's sleeping then you can do that easily. With going device->HTS->TV then all of those speakers are on all of the time namely the sub.

I love my Samsung LN40C550 don't get me wrong, but this just pisses me off.

 

Also just so you know, AnyNet+ has nothing to do with the internet or even just a LAN network connection. This is for connecting other Samsung products to each other. Without any programming to the remote needed I can use my TV or HTIB remotes and can control either my Samsung TV and my Samsung HTIB.

Connect Share Movie is just being able to connect a USB drive to the TV and watch movies that are on it, listen to music and look at pictures.

 

 

If you really want to learn more about the the TVs go to the maker's website and look in the Support area, enter in the model number and then read the User Manual (not the quick guide). It's the best way to see what all it can do and learn about the selling terms (like AnyNet+) before you buy.

 

Long winded I know but I hope it helps.

[Garfield 2]

I have purchased 100Hz LG 42LG7000 around a year ago. It's a great TV, works perfectly fine with my PC too and the image quality is outstanding, the contrast is massive, it has 4 HDMI ports, a component port, 3 AV ports a VGA port and much more! Bluetooth as well! It's a great TV and I don't regret spending $1200 on it.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LG-42LG7000-1080P-10...=item1e5d49d46c

[TheGuyFromThere]

Thanks both. Though any further input may be in vain, as this morning I bought the Bravia and it's arriving on Tuesday.

 

I'm going to take a quick skim over the manual on the website on your recommendation, Wolf, but a bit late now if it's not all up to par! Though I'm sure it will be. Bravia isn't a market leading name for no reason.

 

A HTS is definitely on the cards at some point, or atleast some Dolby 5.1 surround speakers. If anyone can recommend a good sound system, I'm all ears.... somewhat of a pun?

[Wolf68k]

I really like the same Samsung HT-C6500 I have. It was a toss up between really 2 Samsung HTIB; HT-C5500 and the one I got. They are both exactly the same but for the things I'll point in a bit but first they are 5.1 theaters systems with blu-ray player. They both have a mic to let you calibrate the speakers to your room; just put the mic where you would normally sit and let it play the test pattern. They both have [email protected] which let you stream Netflix, Pandora, Youtube and so on but it's not like a PopBox or Boxee or anything like that but close. Because it has network access it also supports DLNA which install a program on your PC and it will stream media from your PC to your TV. And both have an iPod dock which you can play music and videos but for some reason you can't look at images or at least I couldn't on my iPhone 3GS. Lastly both can view files on a USB drive. And the supported video file list is huge.

The 6500 difference is this; 2 HDMI input (the 5500 has none), built in 1GB of storage that is used for BDLive content (5500 you have to use a USB stick), built in wifi 802.11a/b/g/n (5500 can do wifi but you have to buy an optional dongle that cost around $80USD).

Now Samsung does have a HTS (minus the player) that are the exact same as both of those so if you already have a blu-ray or dvd player you're happy with then you can all the same features without buying yet another player or having one that's unused, although you could sell the stand-alone player to make up the cost of the HTIB

I looked at Song, Panasonic and Philips HTIB systems as well and for the same price as either one of these at Amazon they didn't offer nearly as much as the 5500 much less the 6500. One of the problem with Philips is that it only supports coax digital audio in. BTW this is something you need to keep in mind when buying a TV and HTS; what digital audio inputs does they have and the rest of your equipment as well.

Again as before check out from the store you're gonna buy from what they have to offer in the price range you want then check out the manual.

One other thing to think about is like I said before about my Samsung TV and HTIB is that Sony most likely has a synergy type thing with the TV and HTS/HITB and other Sony products.

 

From a THX surround sound demo DVD I have, I can't say where I got it because of the forum rules plus I can't find it any more from the same source, I found the DTS is better than Dolby and I kinda hate to say that. Now Dolby might be better with a 7.1 system but that's a moot point.

 

Last point and I'll shut up. If you're gonna buy this soon then great and good luck to you. If you're not buying it now but going to wait even 2 months to get something then just wait to start looking until then. In 2 months so much can change, more so the price on what is out now. Not but 2 weeks after I got mine from Amazon the price dropped $50 and Amazon doesn't support price matching any more

[TheGuyFromThere]

Thanks again Wolf. That's a lot of info to take in.. once it comes round to picking up a HTS, I'll give you a PM or something.