Help me choose a 40/42" TV

hifijunky

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Hi everyone,

I am planning to buy a 40/42" TV (with 100 Hz technology preferably). The viewing distance is approximately 9 to 11 feet. My requirement is mainly movies for the time being (DVDs). I may connect my PC also (since it is going to be in the study room cum Home Theater room) later on (for movies). In future, I will also add Blueray and SD broadcast to the stable. I have searched through the market and found following models (listed with prices) which should suit my need:

1. Philips LCD 42PFL7403 (82K at Ezone, 94K at Croma)
2. Philips LCD 42PFL9703 (1.1L at Croma)
3. Sony LCD 40W450 (1.07L at Croma, 1.06L at Ezone)
4. Samsung LCD 40A650 (84K at Next, 85.5K at Pai, 89K at Ezone, 94K at Croma)
5. Panasonic Plasma PV8/PV80 (48K/52K at Panasonic brand shop, 55K at croma for PV80)

All the above TVs support 100Hz technology. All are Full HD models except for Panasonic Plasma.

I have auditioned all the above mentioned flat panels. If it is simply to go with watching DVD movies (SD content), then Panasonic Plasma appears to be the winner (good VFM). I could not differentiate much between above TVs except when it came to fast motion sequences (or the camera fast Panning across). The Plasma TV scores over others on this front (with the slight exception of W series where again Panasonic Plasma I thought was better, but Sony was close). The Full HD content was better on all LCDs (crispier); but Plasma was also good. I also found Samsung to be juddery than others (with 100 Hz enabled) and colors (specially grass color) to be slightly un-natural. I tried to play with settings for a while; but could not succeed.

I have short-listed #1, #3 and #5. I need your opinions on these TVs (or other TVs you feel may serve my need). In addition, my concern with Plasma is the power consumption (12 hrs average viewing per week) and heat it may generate. When I am working on comp; I will be just 3-4 feet away from the TV. Will sitting so close be uncomfortable because of heat?

Thanks
 
well since u did say u are going to connect it to a pc,and also considering the fact that u said u are going to sit 3 to 4 feet ,well FHD tvs makes sense and a lcd will be a better choice for pc.
as far as the sony W450A its entirely upto u whether u are willing to pay for that extra bit of performance compared to samsung series A650,do note from 3 months from now we will see the samsung getting replaced by a new model called B650 which has a very high contrast ratio and much better SD handling,and not to forget sony their new S550A,V550A models will have improved contrast and again much better SD capabilty due to the bravia engine 2,while the new W550A has all the features of W450A but with more contrast and BE3,there will also be another new version called WE5 which is around 30 to 40% more efficient in power consumption then the normal W550A,since the new WE5 uses a new backlight called HE-CCFL(Highly Efficient).

then again if u want to go for a plasma way still its better to wait for the new panasonic X10plasma. and about plasma getting heated up well they do get hotter then lcds but we well know plasma tvs are reliable for many years,

the new lcds are worth the wait the level with the plasma in pretty much every aspect and in most cases better.
 
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Hi hifijunky,

The way I see it, all the other TVs cost twice the cost of the PV8/80, in fact the PV8 can be had for 45K at J.D. Electronics. Seeing your content the PV8 will be perfect and for a year or so in fact. Pick up the PV8 for 45K now and put the remaining in a fixed deposit. After a year or maybe two you can pick up a FHD Plasma or LCD depending on prevailing costs at that time and also with better technology than on offer today. You will end up with 2 TVs and the PV8 can be moved to the parents room or the kids room or else as a 2nd TV to your bedroom. Also, by going for FHD LCD now (or rather anything other than the PV8) the PQ will be worse off compared to the PV8, you will be paying twice the cost of the PV8 and yet what's the benefit? For every content thrown at it the PV8 wins hands down as you've seen for yourself so why pay twice for something that does not deliver. You might as well earn interest with your money and end up with 2 TVs in a year or two from now and still have a great TV in the PV8 in the meanwhile which as you've seen for yourself delivers better PQ than the others.
 
Thanks much adder and moserw. Your comments were very useful.

adder,

When I said I am going to sit 3-4 feet from TV (when working on the computer); my main concern was the heat Plasma generates. Sorry for not making it clear earlier.

Do you know when X10 series be launched in India? Do you think it will be worth the wait? The glaring advantage is the power consumption which looks to be at par with power consumption of LCDs. It appears to be recently launched in UK.

moserw,

Your comments about going with Pv8/PV80 make lot of sense.What is your opinion on the heat it generates? Will I be uncomfortable sitting at a distance of 3-4 feet?

Have you also seen any perceivable increase in your electricity bill?

All,

I had visited Croma (@Bangalore) other day and talked to them about lower prices others are quoting. The manager there mentioned that if I can bring photo copy of invoice or bill (dated with in last couple of weeks); they will pass on the same price to me. It would be really nice if someone can pass on the scanned copy of bill/invoice; if bought (specially PV8/PV80) for lower prices than indicated above.

Thanks
 
What is your opinion on the heat it generates? Will I be uncomfortable sitting at a distance of 3-4 feet?

Never sit that close for TV/movie watching so cannot say, but do sit that close for gaming and it's really not an issue. But then let me tell you the excitement of playing the game is there and also A/C is always on so you get the picture...

Have you also seen any perceivable increase in your electricity bill?

Not really, but then even if the bill is more I'm sure the A/C and the water heater will get blamed more, but I've not noticed any great increase/difference per se.
 
Thanks much adder and moserw. Your comments were very useful.

adder,

When I said I am going to sit 3-4 feet from TV (when working on the computer); my main concern was the heat Plasma generates. Sorry for not making it clear earlier.

Do you know when X10 series be launched in India? Do you think it will be worth the wait? The glaring advantage is the power consumption which looks to be at par with power consumption of LCDs. It appears to be recently launched in UK.

Will I be uncomfortable sitting at a distance of 3-4 feet?
Thanks

well i felt uncomfortable at 3 feet when i used my 32inch 768p lcd for 2 reason one at that distance u will have to move ur eyes quite a lot from one end of the screen to other,secondly when u work in a lcd/crt monitor due to the high resolution or the small screen,u never notice the the pixels,due to the density of the pixels for eg a 21inch normal CRT tv with a resolution of 640x480 has a pixel density of 1598pixels/sq.inch but a 42inch plasma which has a resolution 1024x768 has a pixel density of 1044pixels/sq.inch and a 40inch FHD lcd on the other hand has a resolution 1920x1080 and has a pixel density of 3035/sq.inch.so what it means u if u look at any part of the screen the in 1 square inch the FHD lcd has almost 3times the pixels compared to a 42inch plasma,and even a 21inch has more then 50%pixels then a plasma in terms of pixel density to size ratio.
so if i was using a 40inch sized tv has a monitor and at a distance of 3 feet i would defintly go for a FHD lcd,and secondly i dont even have to even think about burn in.

and the X10 plasma will probably launch around july,atleast thats we will see the new lcds from samsung and sony.

about power bills u would get aprox Rs20 a month more in a plasma then a lcd in a 40inch segment if the tv runs for about 8hrs a day
 
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Thanks moserw for quick reply.

I may not be watching TV from 3-4 feet; some family member would be watching from 10 feet, while I will be casually working on the comp and TV will be diagonally 3-4 feet away with the TV's back slightly exposed to me. Yes, AC will be there. Do you think I need not pay much heed to this?

Thanks,
 
Thanks moserw for quick reply.

I may not be watching TV from 3-4 feet; some family member would be watching from 10 feet, while I will be casually working on the comp and TV will be diagonally 3-4 feet away with the TV's back slightly exposed to me. Yes, AC will be there. Do you think I need not pay much heed to this?

Thanks,

It's really not an issue. Like I said I've played games sitting close to the TV and it's really not an issue. Even heat is not so much an issue. My PC generates more heat and so does my Onkyo AVR though I don't sit close to the AVR, the CPU is always less than 1 feet from me when I'm working on the PC. Any TV be it CRT, LCD or a Plasma generate less heat than compared to AVRs and PCs so that's not an issue.
 
I have been hunting for televisions (LCD ) for quite some time now. During this time I have got some real good price offers for various FULL HD LCDs.
They are as follows
1) SAM LN40A550 57500/-
2) Sony KLV 40S400 63500/-
3) Philips 42PLF5403 59000/-
4) LG Jazz - 42 in 80FR - 60000/-

With all these price quotes I am kind of confused which model to go for. Please suggest.
Also I was planning to buy the Philips 4750 Home theater system but have been explained that these have been phased out. Philips has come out with another version Philips HTS 3568 for which I have been quoted a price of 17500/-
How good is the Philips HTS 3568.

My requirement is for watching cable and movies .. PC connectivity can also be an advantage .. but as I understand none of these televisions have that feature with HDMI connectivity. (ONLY VGA connectivity ) ...

Thanks in Advance.!!:)
 
@gjsrivastava - Philips is good, displays more natural colors. Sony X series is good, but expensive, not too sure about the others. Will wait for adder to chip in here. Samsung I've not auditioned too much in the LCDs so I cannot really comment and will wait for adder here too. Definitely chuck out the LG though. I would feel anything between the Sony and Philips should be good, but LCDs are really adder's forte so wait for him to chip in.
 
I have been hunting for televisions (LCD ) for quite some time now. During this time I have got some real good price offers for various FULL HD LCDs.
They are as follows
1) SAM LN40A550 57500/-
2) Sony KLV 40S400 63500/-
3) Philips 42PLF5403 59000/-
4) LG Jazz - 42 in 80FR - 60000/-

With all these price quotes I am kind of confused which model to go for. Please suggest.
Also I was planning to buy the Philips 4750 Home theater system but have been explained that these have been phased out. Philips has come out with another version Philips HTS 3568 for which I have been quoted a price of 17500/-
How good is the Philips HTS 3568.

My requirement is for watching cable and movies .. PC connectivity can also be an advantage .. but as I understand none of these televisions have that feature with HDMI connectivity. (ONLY VGA connectivity ) ...

Thanks in Advance.!!:)

well i would narrow down to samsung and sony,now the philips tvs are good have decent pciture quality better then lg,but its image processing is a bit aggresive,so in the long run it may not be good for the eyes,the sony and samsung images are bit soft and are much easy on the eyes,and offcouse they have far greater shadow detail and achieve deep blacks without compromising shadow detail ,this is very philips and lg loose.

but i would go for the sony they either use a AMVA panel or a SPVA panel both are pretty much evenly matched maybe the SPVA has a very slight edge in viewing angle,but in samsung its a lottery they can use either a AMVA,SPVA or the worst of the VA based tech called the SMVA panel it has the least viewing angle compared to others,washed out colors while most want notice this unless told and there are many people who are satisified.

the thing about sony is that for eg it is known that sony uses AMVA panel in Z series in the US,a SPVA in XBR8 series i,e our X450A series, (the asian 32inch V300A which is a 2007 model uses a AMVA, the 2008 32inch,40inch W400A all use APVA confirmed by me),so all the people using the Z series will have the same panel,and X series,V series will have the same respective panels ,but on samsung its a lottery if 3 people buy the same exact model a LN32A550A one may get with AMVA and other with SPVA and some other with SMVA panel.
 
I have been hunting for televisions (LCD ) for quite some time now. During this time I have got some real good price offers for various FULL HD LCDs.
They are as follows
1) SAM LN40A550 57500/-
2) Sony KLV 40S400 63500/-
3) Philips 42PLF5403 59000/-
4) LG Jazz - 42 in 80FR - 60000/-

Thanks in Advance.!!:)

Have the prices for SONY KLV 40S400 reduced to 63.5K? A week ago or so, it was approx. 67K + in Reliance Digital & Ezone.
 
well i would narrow down to samsung and sony,now the philips tvs are good have decent pciture quality better then lg,but its image processing is a bit aggresive,so in the long run it may not be good for the eyes,the sony and samsung images are bit soft and are much easy on the eyes,and offcouse they have far greater shadow detail and achieve deep blacks without compromising shadow detail ,this is very philips and lg loose.

but i would go for the sony they either use a AMVA panel or a SPVA panel both are pretty much evenly matched maybe the SPVA has a very slight edge in viewing angle,but in samsung its a lottery they can use either a AMVA,SPVA or the worst of the VA based tech called the SMVA panel it has the least viewing angle compared to others,washed out colors while most want notice this unless told and there are many people who are satisified.

the thing about sony is that for eg it is known that sony uses AMVA panel in Z series in the US,a SPVA in XBR8 series i,e our X450A series, (the asian 32inch V300A which is a 2007 model uses a AMVA, the 2008 32inch,40inch W400A all use APVA confirmed by me),so all the people using the Z series will have the same panel,and X series,V series will have the same respective panels ,but on samsung its a lottery if 3 people buy the same exact model a LN32A550A one may get with AMVA and other with SPVA and some other with SMVA panel.

Hi Adder / moserw thanks for your inputs !! Just another query - with the approx price diff of 7 k .. is the difference in panels ( quality of video wise) so considerable between sony and sammy. And if the difference is so considerable .. is there a method for us to confirm which panel there is in a samsung ... by checking before i make the purchase .. I understand sony is the best option( safe fall back) but just want to see if I can get a better VFM. when I had checked these models in the show room, I had liked philips .. for it had a smoother motion..compared to both sony and samsung. .. Sony and samsung looked almost alike. As noted by adder .. even I found the philips processing to be very aggressive ...so much as to that, some times .. the hand clapping looked faster in the philips television than sony / samsung ...
well but other vise it looked good for the price for 42 inches.

any comments !!
 
Have the prices for SONY KLV 40S400 reduced to 63.5K? A week ago or so, it was approx. 67K + in Reliance Digital & Ezone.

Hi no the guys even quoted me 67.9K. I just bargained real hard. (Something I am good at :cool: ) I can get you these prices in Bangalore. And if there are more buyers like me in bangalore, who want to make a deal in the next couple of days .. we can collaborate to get something better :)
 
@gjsrivastava - Do audition the Panasonic PV8 Plasma too. It's a great TV and very popular on this forum too. Otherwise if it's LCD you want to go with then I would say Sony or Philips. Does not make sense taking a chance with Samsung and coming up with an inferior panel.
 
As mentioned in an other thread earlier, a friend of mine bought a 40 inch TV the same day I bought my 46 inches. We spent some time comparing brands and models. Here is some data for you:
-- Samsung LA40A550P1 is available for 56K in Bangalore
-- Samsung was better than Philips. As you noticed, the Philips picture does looks over processed.
-- Sony 40S400 was not better than Samsung after we adjusted the settings. 450 was marginally better, but nothing that could justify the extra 30/40K.
-- Samsung produces more LCD panels than Sony. Sony sources panels from others, including Samsung(common facility) and LG now
"Sony's TV business is plummeting. Sony wants to find an alternative supply for LCD panels with cheaper prices," another high-ranking industry official said."
Samsung, Sony Faces Test on Partnership
-- I have not encountered more people hating Samsung than Sony, so not a concern for me.
-- Plasma screens are cheaper. So if you like them go ahead. I personally do not like the glowing glassy picture. Reminds me of glass paintings.

Thanks,
Sharad
 
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As mentioned in an other thread earlier, a friend of mine bought a 40 inch TV the same day I bought my 46 inches. We spent some time comparing brands and models. Here is some data for you:
-- Samsung LN40A550 is available for 56K in Bangalore
-- Samsung was better than Philips. As you noticed, the Philips picture does looks over processed.
-- Sony 40S400 was not better than Samsung after we adjusted the settings. 450 was marginally better, but nothing that could justify the extra 30/40K.
-- Samsung produces more LCD panels than Sony. Sony sources panels from others, including Samsung(common facility) and LG now
"Sony's TV business is plummeting. Sony wants to find an alternative supply for LCD panels with cheaper prices," another high-ranking industry official said."
Samsung, Sony Faces Test on Partnership
-- I have not encountered more people hating Samsung than Sony, so not a concern for me.
-- Plasma screens are cheaper. So if you like them go ahead. I personally do not like the glowing glassy picture. Reminds me of glass paintings.

Thanks,
Sharad


Hi Sharad,
Thanks for all the information you have provided. Can you please tell me where can we buy the samsung ln40a550 tv for 56 k..

Thanks in advance:)
 
Hi gjsrivastava,

We bought Samsung LA40A550P1 for 56K at a new electronics outlet called "Excite" near Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala, Bangalore. This was on March 27, 2009.

Thanks,
Sharad
 
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-- -- Samsung produces more LCD panels than Sony. Sony sources panels from others, including Samsung(common facility) and LG now

Thanks,
Sharad

well sony doesnt produce any lcd panel themselfs, it buys from samsung or au optronics,and sony is yet to use a LG panel,and they are just testing LG panels to see whether it meets their requirements.
on the other hand samsung is know to dump low quality panels in india,when samsung used to have the stickers at the back of the TV with indicating the panels used by letters S for samsung,A for AUO,C for cmo such as samsung bordeaux range i didnt find not a single 32inch samsung lcd with S panel all i found was panels with C in various showrooms in bangalore,chennai and the grey markets.samsung dumps tvs with cheap panels in african ,asian countries (except japan,Skorea).
the sony S series does have the slight edge in contrast ,only thing sony isnt that good at his in handling interlaced videos.the only problem with samsung is u never know which panel u get until u buy it.
 
Hi gjsrivastava,

We bought Samsung LA46A550P1 for 56K at a new electronics outlet called "Excite" near Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala, Bangalore. This was on March 27, 2009.

Thanks,
Sharad

can u post a picture of ur sceen i.e take a macro shot with good magnification of single or a couple of pixels when it is showing a white color.
 
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