Bargain Samsung plasma - worth a punt?

[vladcjelli]

Had a little wander round Comet earlier today and spotted this



http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Plasma-TVs/buy-SAMSUNG-PS...

Would £329 for 43" of plasma loveliness be a wise purchase? Does anyone else have one?

In the shop the picture looked a cut above the nearest either side, but you never know which sets are running off what source, so taken with a pinch of salt.

Even a modest purchase such as this requires the good lady to sign off on it, so help me to convince her that we need a new telly.

[OldSkoolRS]

Just so your aware this TV is only 1024 x 768 pixels. That's not to say the picture won't be any good, but it's quite a long way short of more upto date models that have 1920 x 1080 pixels ('Full HD'). Even Plasmas from a couple of years ago had 1280 x 720 pixels ('HD ready') and this set uses retanglular pixels as 1024 x 768 doesn't equate to 16:9 if you do the maths.

Something like this might be worth considering as it includes a Freeview HD tuner, so you get to see a few channels (4 at the moment) in HD as standard definition can look poor on larger TVs:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/3d-tv/panasoni...

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 30th December 20:58

[PJ S]

OldSkoolRS said:

Just so your aware this TV is only 1024 x 768 pixels. That's not to say the picture won't be any good, but it's quite a long way short of more upto date models that have 1920 x 1080 pixels ('Full HD'). Even Plasmas from a couple of years ago had 1366 x 768 pixels ('HD ready') and this set uses retanglular pixels as 1024 x 768 doesn't equate to 16:9 if you do the maths.

Something like this might be worth considering as it includes a Freeview HD tuner, so you get to see a few channels (4 at the moment) in HD as standard definition can look poor on larger TVs:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/3d-tv/panasoni...

EFA
That resolution (and size) sounds like the old Pioneers of about 6-7 years ago.
Our 37" Panny is 1024x720 and looks perfectly fine with broadcast HD - mind you, it was double (and the rest!) the price this one is, 4 years ago.

[anonymous-user]

I got one from Tesco yesterday but for £350

I'm doing out the spare room as a bit of a movie room on a budget so wanted a bigger tv. I went with the that over the 1080p sets of the the same price because the refresh rate (is that right?) was 600hz against their 50hz. I'm told thats why my LCD Samsung is a bit choppy when showing fast moving stuff.

[OldSkoolRS]

I got my plasma resolutions mixed up with the 'HD ready' resolutions there. (To be fair projectors are my main interest and they are 1280 x 720 when not 'full HD' spec).

It's frightening to think how prices and specs change over the years: The old 43XDE(?) Pioneer sets used to be on my 'wanted list', but things move on I guess: My JVC projector is now available for half what I paid 3 years ago and the lastest model is available for £700 less than I paid yet has much better specs plus 3D. If the OP waits long enough there will be a 50" full HD 3D set for this sort of price...

EDIT: Regardless of '600Hz' type specs, I think plasmas generally have better motion than LCDs.

[jas xjr]

Mate has just fixed my old projector that's been sitting on the garage for seven years.
For sheer wow factor do not ignore one of these

[MiniMan64]

Got one of these from Tesco for £350 and its fantastic. Very good picture, very slim border, very clear picture and I think it "upscales" or something to 1080 because it runs in it on the PS3.

Bargin.

[PJ S]

Downscales - it may accept a 1080p signal, but it's only got 768 physical pixels to display it on, unless you're feeding it a 720p signal, which will be upscaled very slightly vertically (which the eyes are more acute to) and cropped horizontally to fit 1280's worth into 1024.

[Eddw86]

Just tdd that the Samsung 600hz tvs aren't actually refreshing at that rate, it will likely be a 50 or maybe 60Hz tv with a computer programme of some kind that adds in guesstimate pictures between each refresh or something along those lines.

I'm not sure how Samsung gets to 600hz but I remember reading somewhere that it was quite dubious. If it results in a decent picture then that's all that matters I guess!

[PJ S]

Same sub-field processing as Panny introduced originally, before Sammy & LG jumped on the bandwagon.
12 frames @ 50Hz, 10 @ 60Hz probably, for NTSC