Samsung LCD (LA40A50) V/S Panasonic Plasma PV8

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i believe whatshifi magazine quoted the sony V series as the best 40inch lcd.
the sony has greater ANSI contrast and shadow detail compared to series 5 and 6 .samsung also has a slightly higher input lag as high as 30ms while the sony is 10ms so for gaming the sony is better.

 

[GeoTracks]

Thnx particleman. I'll check it out.

Btw, i just compared the above mentioned Sony and Samsung models. Couldn't really find a difference. And by specs, samsung leads. And i love the extra USB feature in samsung.
Thank you hifivision and thanks each one of you who helped me get to the best thing. I'm giving a green light to Samsung

Did you finally get the SAMSUNG? Please post user experience with the LCD you currently have.

 

[GeoTracks]

even i am confused between the two now. i think the sony comes for 61-63k and samsung for 56-58k in delhi here. I prefer samsung over sony but my family says sony(biased against samsung as the samsung refrigerator has given many problems).

some suggestions would really help. in the long run, i plan to connect it with a htpc(i have some HD movies atm).

i asked a shop 2day and the were giving sammy 40a610 for 61k today? between these three, i still dont know

What was your final take?

 

[nfsfan]

bought none. waiting for sammy series 6 prices to drop, coz they r really good. if series 5 drops substantially then , it would be viable as well.

waiting for series 7, so these prices drop.

 

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bought none. waiting for sammy series 6 prices to drop, coz they r really good. if series 5 drops substantially then , it would be viable as well.

waiting for series 7, so these prices drop.

well samsung 7 series will cost quite a lot considering it has a LED backlight screen,the samsung series 650a will soon be replaced by the series 650B which has much better image processing and better contrast and to challenge that will be the new sony V500A/v550a series which will have 100hz motion flow and even greater contrast,bravia engine 3.

new models from sony should be launched in july going by the previous years .

 

[GeoTracks]

well samsung 7 series will cost quite a lot considering it has a LED backlight screen,the samsung series 650a will soon be replaced by the series 650B which has much better image processing and better contrast and to challenge that will be the new sony V500A/v550a series which will have 100hz motion flow and even greater contrast,bravia engine 3.

new models from sony should be launched in july going by the previous years .

So when new models would be launched (may it be Samsung or Sony), they would discontinue the earlier models, rather than bring down the prices substantially right? e.g. If current model Y costs C, then when new models come, the model Y would cost C - n, where n would be a small delta and then they discontinue that model. The new model of Y would be brought on to the market with a price tag C + r, where r is a large number.

What I am trying to say is that even if we wait for newer Samsung / Sony models, we are never going to get them at cost Y (current cost of current models). Is it then worth waiting to buy the current model/s, just to get that difference of n on current models when newer models come out? Anyway, going in for newer models at that time is not going to be VFM, since it will cost C + r (where r is a large number). And VFM is the most sort after feature in this forum. Then, folks will say let me wait a little longer until prices drop to Y of the newer model. So then we need to wait another year to get the price of Y on newer models coming out.

Thoughts?

 

[spirovious]

We can design dream TV with Panasonic-
Win a Plasma! | Panasonic VIERA Plasma TV

 

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So when new models would be launched (may it be Samsung or Sony), they would discontinue the earlier models, rather than bring down the prices substantially right? e.g. If current model Y costs C, then when new models come, the model Y would cost C - n, where n would be a small delta and then they discontinue that model. The new model of Y would be brought on to the market with a price tag C + r, where r is a large number.

What I am trying to say is that even if we wait for newer Samsung / Sony models, we are never going to get them at cost Y (current cost of current models). Is it then worth waiting to buy the current model/s, just to get that difference of n on current models when newer models come out? Anyway, going in for newer models at that time is not going to be VFM, since it will cost C + r (where r is a large number). And VFM is the most sort after feature in this forum. Then, folks will say let me wait a little longer until prices drop to Y of the newer model. So then we need to wait another year to get the price of Y on newer models coming out.

Thoughts?

well the newer models are better(in this case more contrast,better image processing) so if they do cost more u arent loosing anything,and u may see a price cut in the older models,and may be the newer models could also be cheaper then the current models due to the decrease in manufacturing cost,but thats unlikely considering due to the fact the dollar is up and new batches of import may be at a higher cost.like for eg a sony jacked the prices of its DSLR in india even though it got cheaper in the US,thanks to ur weak rupee.so its a gamble.
i waited 6 months before i could by my tv in my case i knew 4months in advance that sony would launch a new model and didnt want to go for the latest samsungs because every showroom i saw had a samsung model with panel C(C for cmo panel btw this was in 2007 when samsung had sticker at the back with the letter,nowdays they dont show that because people are aware).anyway in my case it turned out that when the new better model was launched it was actualy cheaper then the old model.

another thing i dont understand is the sony X series worldwide its more expensive then Z series but in india its the otherway round,this could because when sony imported the the X series dollar could have been lower and when they imported the Z series dollar could have been more then Rs50+.

 

[GeoTracks]

well the newer models are better(in this case more contrast,better image processing) so if they do cost more u arent loosing anything,and u may see a price cut in the older models,and may be the newer models could also be cheaper then the current models due to the decrease in manufacturing cost,but thats unlikely considering due to the fact the dollar is up and new batches of import may be at a higher cost.like for eg a sony jacked the prices of its DSLR in india even though it got cheaper in the US,thanks to ur weak rupee.so its a gamble.
i waited 6 months before i could by my tv in my case i knew 4months in advance that sony would launch a new model and didnt want to go for the latest samsungs because every showroom i saw had a samsung model with panel C(C for cmo panel btw this was in 2007 when samsung had sticker at the back with the letter,nowdays they dont show that because people are aware).anyway in my case it turned out that when the new better model was launched it was actualy cheaper then the old model.

another thing i dont understand is the sony X series worldwide its more expensive then Z series but in india its the otherway round,this could because when sony imported the the X series dollar could have been lower and when they imported the Z series dollar could have been more then Rs50+.

Any word on Sony or Samsung 2009 models?

On a side note, as usual, Sony did not have any spectacular deals during Ugadi 2009. Read in some places that LG & Samsung were offering deals, but Sony as expected....no deal. Really confused. How is Sony still maintaining market share if they are never competing in terms of deals with competitors in India?

 

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Any word on Sony or Samsung 2009 models?

On a side note, as usual, Sony did not have any spectacular deals during Ugadi 2009. Read in some places that LG & Samsung were offering deals, but Sony as expected....no deal. Really confused. How is Sony still maintaining market share if they are never competing in terms of deals with competitors in India?

well i remember reading a book about sony history,and in that it mentions that normaly manufactures decrease the price if demand is more or if u buy in bulk orders but not according to the founder of sony he increases the price if demand is more.
well sony believes people pay for the quality and performance,sony is still a premium brand although over the years they have been forced to cut the prices due to stiff competition as performance gaps narrow down.
anyway in india sony has strong sales,so they arent that bothered ,it is unfortunate from customers point of view,sony even jacked up the prices of its dslr and prosumer camera which are selling realy well,and they even launched their new camera like HX1 in india while people in the US are still waiting for it to ship.

 

[GeoTracks]

well i remember reading a book about sony history,and in that it mentions that normaly manufactures decrease the price if demand is more or if u buy in bulk orders but not according to the founder of sony he increases the price if demand is more.
well sony believes people pay for the quality and performance,sony is still a premium brand although over the years they have been forced to cut the prices due to stiff competition as performance gaps narrow down.
anyway in india sony has strong sales,so they arent that bothered ,it is unfortunate from customers point of view,sony even jacked up the prices of its dslr and prosumer camera which are selling realy well,and they even launched their new camera like HX1 in india while people in the US are still waiting for it to ship.

2 observations:

(i) Just look at the response from this forum members itself....number of folks who made PV8 / PV80 as their final choice and others who made LG / Samsungs as their final choice. Only a handful, maybe less, opted for Sony, that too S or V series (low end Sonys) and may be 1 odd person for a W series.
This forum can be considered as a sample population of thoughts, what other prospective buyers' across the country may also be debating, while considering purchase of Sony over non-Sony LCD. Most must be settling for a non-Sony LCD / Plasma for reasons discussed in this forum.
This said, really hard to imagine how Sony can still be considered as 'doing strong sales' in India.

(ii) In the US, the difference in prices between comparable SONY and non-SONY brands is much less than in India. This is what is most intimidating! Try buying a SONY LCD with features comparable to a Samsung 5 in India and it will take you well into the W series and higher. Like somebody pointed out in this forum in another thread, looks like the Z series in India is priced more than the X series, while in the US etc. it is the other way, given that X series is top of the range! Really strange, makes one wonder, what is SONYs marketing strategy for the Indian market!

 

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2 observations:

(i) Just look at the response from this forum members itself....number of folks who made PV8 / PV80 as their final choice and others who made LG / Samsungs as their final choice. Only a handful, maybe less, opted for Sony, that too S or V series (low end Sonys) and may be 1 odd person for a W series.
This forum can be considered as a sample population of thoughts, what other prospective buyers' across the country may also be debating, while considering purchase of Sony over non-Sony LCD. Most must be settling for a non-Sony LCD / Plasma for reasons discussed in this forum.
This said, really hard to imagine how Sony can still be considered as 'doing strong sales' in India.

well sony does sell quite a lot of lcds in india,and i found that many people who go for lcds in 40inch cattegory such as lg42inch lcd and panasonic plasmas is for the extra 2inches compared to samsung/sony which offer only 40inches,and this extra 2inches factor only occured to me when people said that they get 2 more inches in lg and many people that i have spoken simply go for the biggest tv they can afford and lg,panasonic tvs are anway cheaper.
at the same time there are people out there who also go for sony by the name,whether its a lcd or camera or what ever.

(ii) In the US, the difference in prices between comparable SONY and non-SONY brands is much less than in India. This is what is most intimidating! Try buying a SONY LCD with features comparable to a Samsung 5 in India and it will take you well into the W series and higher.

well as far as features of samsung series 5 comparable to sony W series only applies in 32inch segment,again samsung series 5 doesnt use SPVA panel like sony,it uses a AMVA panel which is inferior to the sony W series SPVA panel,only tv such as samsung series 6 come with SPVA panel.samsung series 4 uses a even more inferior SMVA tech ,where as sony answer for that the sony T series uses a AMVA panel,while the S and V series uses a SPVA panel (except 37inch uses AMVA),samsung is know to use a AMVA panel even in 40inch series 5 and SMVA panel in 37inch.

Like somebody pointed out in this forum in another thread, looks like the Z series in India is priced more than the X series, while in the US etc. it is the other way, given that X series is top of the range! Really strange, makes one wonder, what is SONYs marketing strategy for the Indian market

that was me who pointed out, anyway i do agree that sony should be more competitive and reduce it prices slightly,but most of the their tv have the performance edge compared to its closest rival like samsung.