What type of TV do I need?

[phil_cardiff]

Here's the situation. Sitting 11ft away from the screen, in a pretty dark room (no direct sunlight)usually watching SD Sky but occasional blue-ray and HD broadcasts on free sat. May eventually upgrade to Sky HD. The TV must handle sports well as I love my sport.

So:
What size TV? (fiance believes anything over 37" is too big)
Plasma or LCD?
Full HD or 720?
What spec TV? hertz, contrast ratio etc?

Feel free to recommend a particular model under £700. The more under the better!

[PJ S]

Panasonic Plasma 46" or 50" - women don't know squat about TV's, other than how to get Eastenders/Corrie displayed.
So as this is a technical matter, leave such matters for you to deal with.

She may gurn and yap for a bit, but once she's watched aforementioned shows over the course of a couple of weeks, she'll forgive you.

[parapaul]

What size will fit in the room sensibly? At 11 feet away you could reasonably watch anything up to 48"...

I forget where the threshold is, but conventional wisdom recommends LCD for sizes less than about 39", plasma for 40"+.

You should probably get HD ready - at least 1080i, if not 1080p. HD is becoming so prevalent now that it would be silly not to have the capability.

Edited by parapaul on Sunday 28th February 06:01

[phil_cardiff]

Women eh? Standing about 11 feet away from the TVs in M&S and she declared (without knowing the size of the TV) that the 42" was big enough. Cheers love!

[pmanson]

We sit about 9ft away from our 50" LG 50PS3000 which I paid £719 (inc 5yr warranty) for just before Christmas.

Sources are Virgin V+ (which offers some upscaling on SD along with a selection of HD channels) along with Blu-Ray player and Media PC.

Just watching the football at the moment on ESPN HD and the picture looks great. Some channels are better than others though and HD a big improvement over SD.

These pictures should give you an idea of the size (Old TV on the wall is 32"):






Viewing distance (approx):

[phil_cardiff]

What's this TV like?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5...

2 HDMI ports a problem if I want to run a Sky box, a blue-ray player and a freesat box?

[Ultuous]

I think you can get better for the money than that link... We picked up a Panasonic 42X10 from Richer Sounds for £470 (after they price-matched with their online price) on Friday - only HD Ready, but you won't be able to see any real difference between that and Full HD from 11 feet, and I think it's fair to say that the Panny Plasmas have a great reputation for being amongst the best (if not the best with Pioneer pulling out) on the market - we're thrilled to bits with it...

If you wanted to max out your budget there's plenty of 50" Full HD Panasonic's around at the mo (based on my experience at the weekend) for under 700 - I had to hold myself back from spending another 200 quid on a 42G15!

Edited by Ultuous on Monday 1st March 11:39