Team-BHP - The TV Thread

Hey guys. I'm looking to spend Rs.30k on a 32" LCD TV for my parents bedroom. This TV is going to be running off a STB mainly and a DVD occasionally. What would bhpians recommend?

I can go up on budget by around 3-5k. But thats it. Looking at good response times and contrast ratios. Wanted to know if the Panasonic LCD's are as good as their Plasmas?? I was also considering Philips/Samsung. Sony seems to be wayy out of my reach.

would suggest the samsung 32A450 or the panasonic 32lx80. both are around the 35-36 range here in hyd.
panasonic lcd's are good, equally popular as the the plasmas here in hyd.

guys, was wondering is there any device which upsacles the feed to full hd? seeing quite a few ads for dvd players which upscale the image to full hd, so was wondering if there is any standalone devices to which we can connect any external feeds like stbs, regular dvd players and so-on

@flipsyde - Consider 26" for the bedroom. Is big enough for most bedrooms (especially if you are going to be viewing the TV along the width instead of length, if you know what I mean) and considerably cheaper. Full HD 1020p doesn't make a lot of sense at this point in time either - HD transmission isn't going to come to India anytime soon, so unless your parents are planning to watch blue ray movies (higher than dvd quality) it isn't really worth the extra money.

As for brands, LG and Samsung are good from my experience - just stick to the newer models (released in the last 3-4 months). That would ensure you'll get good refresh rates/ contrast ratio blah blah.

I presently have a 55" rear projection TV - Philips 16:9 Pixel Plus, bought about 4 yrs ago for 1.25L. It even has a 4 yr warrantly. Is there a way to exchange this one for a 42" Plasma TV anywhere in Bangalore? Is yes what's the offer I can expect?

I need this change since I'm moving in to a new Flat which does have the living room space I have in my current flat.

Please suggest.

@aadix & aloathsomebrute : The room is 16' in length and 13' in width. The LCD would be mounted on the longer side as the bed is oriented accordingly. Right now they use a 29" CRT which they find comfortable. So I think the 26" maybe a little smaller than what they need.

I am not looking at Full HD specifically as I have plans of getting a 42" Plasma for the living room and hook up a PS3 to it. That will have to be Full HD not this one.

I was interested in the Panasonic 32LX80C which I am able to get for Rs.33k all inclusive and free installation. I hope thats a good price would try to negotiate a bit before I jump for it. The Samsung 32A330 was not very impressive in person to be honest. The colour reproduction in the Panny was a slight bit better in fact. Anyway I will look at it again.

So I guess Philips is out of the race. I did see the LG Black Pearl. Loooks and sounds good but I am sceptical about LG as a brand.

hey flipside, the 32A330 isnt that great, i meant the 32incher in the series 4, the 32A450, overall i found it good.

i personally wouldnt go in for a lcd lesser than 32inches, as i find the 26 inch too small.

Guys, I'm in Ludhiana , rite now & searching for a Plasma (40"-42") for my parents bedroom here.

The problem is this:
Panasonic is available here with just one shop, plus the company service/ after sales support is virtually non existent here. This coupled with the fact that the shop didn't have TH42PV80 in stock & was quoting a price of 68,000/- for the same tv which I bought in Delhi 2 weeks back for just 58 k.

Now, I have two options , either to go in for Lg 42PG61 (had too soft pictures), available here for a best buy offer of 54,000, including a LG DVD player, HDMI cable & a set of 50 DVD's (festive offer).
or
Samsung Plasma PS42A450P1 , available for about 66 K, But I think can be bought down to about 64-63.

Or Should I go ahead & buy my Dad the S- series Sony LCD he likes (72,900).

Viewing is going to be only Tata- Sky & a very occasional movie off the DVD player.

Can any one help me with this dilemma.

hey car_crazy - as you have bought the pv80 for 58k, 68k may seem too high. However the same deal as delhi may not be available in ludhiana due to lack of mass sales. Infact 58k is not even available in other metros and class b cities like pune/bangy
I would still suggest go for the panny as for regular tv/cable/hathway/tata sky viewing, plasmas are the best. LCD would make sense for 1080p viewing only and cannot compete with plasma for daily tv viewing. If it makes financial sense, buy it for 58k in delhi and get it shipped to ludhiana :)
Unless you get a lemon (which you can easily return to the dealer and get a new one) most plasmas/lcds today are virtually hassle free for the 100k hrs of lifetime and require no support. Dont compromise on your parents' viewing experience :)

Thanks for the advice Jassi! TV's (or for that matter everything else too) is expensive in Punjab due to the 4% entry tax , as they call it (more like highway robbery to me),imposed by the Punjab government on every goods that are being sent to Punjab (including cars). Hence the price difference, But I'll still try to get the best deal possible & the quickest delivery time. Lets see what comes off it.

Which generation of Panasonic Viera plasmas are currently being sold in India? Are we a generation behind? Or two?

The ones currently being sold in the US are the PX80U (720p), PZ80U (1080p), PZ85U (1080p), PZ800U (1080p, THX) and PZ850U (1080p). Any idea if any of these are available in India, and at what price?

we are on same generation as else where (10th i believe) however the full hd ones are not launched here
also some alphabets change here and there like px80 instead of pv80, pv80d instead of pv80h, etc

I have been using big tv on my panasonic PV80 since 2 weeks. Picture clarity is good but i have a peculiar situation. The big tv logo which is big and solid is causing problems. I see some kind of image retention of logo on the blue screen when i'm changing channels. If i play dvd, say a movie completely, the image retention is disappearing and appearing again when i view tv for sometime. What do you suggest.

In continuation to my earlier post, the big tv logo is solid and not transparent (opaque) and red in color and one cannot see the image/text behind it unlike tata sky. We generally watch tv for around 8 to 10 hours. Is it better to remove big tv?

that shouldnt be happening, contact the dealers asap. image retention isnt a big issue on the new gen panny screens. could be a defect. i have seen digital shoppy guys use a 42pv7 as a computer screen and a 50pv70 as a jukebox without any probs for a long time.

well sometimes when i put a ps3 download and leave the screen on (20 mins for the download) - there is image retention for 2 mins or so and then it goes away. Modern plasmas are very resistant to this problem with all the pixel rotation, pre-burn-in, etc.
However in the first 100 hrs you better be careful as that is the burn-in period for the phosphors.
I have hathway and there is no hathway logo and i don't generally stick to a channel for more than 2-3 hrs, so no channel logo retention. Besides I am way past my first 100 hrs :)