Lounge/living room TV.

Our current random CRT (Its not widescreen nor 4:3, we got it when widescreen was only just getting popular and my dad was sold on the fact it wouldnt be too bad letterboxing either way :|)

Hes actually asked me to do some research this time, rather than his usual of picking up the first thing he sees at the price hes willing to pay.

So, any suggestions on a good quality good price TV for a main TV. Our lounge isnt huge, but at the same time the placement of the TV puts it further away than recommended.

Obviously would be good if it was HD so that its future-proof, though I pointed out at our budget, the size screen wed get and the distance wed be you wouldnt notice the difference really.

I was surprised that my father was thinking £800, so Id say the budget is between £500-£1000, as Ill be putting some money in.

For me itd be great if it had some extras like the ability to play videos from a usb stick etc, though to be honest I hardly get a chance to use the TV as it is so its not much of a priority!

I love all my Samsungs. You might be able to get one of the LED ones now in that budget.

I have a sammy 40" 720p and its a lovely TV, I think now you can get 1080s for a similar price, although Im not convinced that you will really notice much difference.

Bare in mind that often you can get a 32" samsung 720 for around £300 so in your budget you could actually get quite a lot more.

Also mine is an LCD, a plasma will give you better blacks, but suffer more from image burn as its basically burning gas (LCDs dont suffer at all), if you have the same stuff up on your screen often then go for LCD, and TBH you can get some really good contrast ratios on the LCDs now. LED is even better really good blacks and no image burn and very thin, but you will pay a lot more for that over the other two options...

Panasonics and Sonys are supposed to be good as well though, but everyone I know has the samsungs (LCD and Plasma)

Depends on the actual size of screen you end up with, anything over 36" and its worth considering 1080.

Many computers can interface with a HD screen using hdmi. Cables are relatively cheap for this from 7dayshop.com and some other places.

I bought a 47" 1080p from the local branch of Aldi a couple of years back for under £1K. Damn nice picture still.

tbh, you need to walk into smiths and see what what hifi most recently gave 5 stars to in your price range. then cross over to currys and pick it up. jobs a goodun.

Matt

They generally all feed off the same source in shops and what youll find is the cheaper ones look better because they have something cartoony on like Finding Nemo full of rich colours, and the TVs by default have massive contrast and are oversatured. Awesome for cartoons, not so awesome for general TV and film. The better sets are usually more reserved in picture out of the box, Id guess this is why youre seeing the cheaper sets looking better than the better sets.

Bear in mind they wont have anal staff with the knowledge, time or training to calibrate displays even if it could potentially sell more sets.

i love my panny 50" - £1400 with a 5yr warranty...

Ask at AV-Forums tbh, otherwise people will only recommend their own sets

Not sure why its going cold, but comments may be on there soon:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/615464/samsung-le40b550a5-40-inch-widescre

Looks a good deal, depending on size you are looking for..