Splitting up from my bird, slightly off topic here but this might be worth mentioning,
Her house in terms of name on deeds, mortgage payment comes from her bank account.However For the last 7 years I have paid a wedge of cash every month into a joint bank account designed to run the house, pay for food etc. All traceable I hasten to add.
Get this for our arse about face laws, apparantley I havent got a legal leg to stand on and cant claim any of the equity in the house. This cant be right, can it???

Anyway, TV's........

Not a bloke to hang about, had my lot with this crackers cow, time to move on, Ive went and bought myself a rather nice new billett, hopefully in by end of September.
Now then in true bloke style I want a rather spanky telly. I have a max of

 

The Sharp Aquos line is good. I like the Samsung DLP TVs, and the Sony LCDs are good too.

If you want to be set for HDTV and HD DVDs, then make sure the TV has a 1080p input.

For fast action, LCD TVs can have a lag effect.

Some people notice a rainbow effect on single-chip DLP sets. Check one out at the store, you'll know soon enough if it bothers you.

Plasmas can have burn-in if you play games with static displays for too long.

I don't know where you live, but you can get a nice 50" TV for under $2000 around here.

For surround sound, the best I've seen under $1000 has to be the SLS Gold system, which goes for $550 at Best Buy. See http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1141762944225

See www.avsforum.com for info and reviews of just about every TV and surround-sound system available.

 

sony's SXRD projection sets are quite good, too. They don't suffer from the "rainbow" that DLPs can, and are available in 1080p starting around $2200US I think for a 50"

 

You've posted this in the USA (real) off topic Jasper, ask one of the mods to move it to the UK one for a better response.

Check AVForums for good advice though.

 

My personal preference?

Sony WEGA KD34XBR960 Tube TV - it's absolutely briliant. HD quality, nice clean design, memory card slot for an SD memory card if you fancy looking at digicam pics on your TV - I've never had any problems with it.

the 30" version is good, though I prefer the 34" - hands down the best tube TV on the market (imho)

it's not as swanky-looking as a plasma as you can't hang it on the wall.. but if you have a recessed hutch for your TV, or stand-alone speakers (which you should... enter surround sound here!) then it looks rather nice set up as well.

 

If you go Sony screens 37+, make sure you go SXRD. The Bravia line is horrible. Even regular Grand Wega in the projections stink.

Samsung makes great LCDs. Just picked up a 40 incher today. Spectacular imaging and a ridiculously good price (<2k)

Hitachi are great for RPTV (CRT), if you can still find them and don't mind the "older" tech. Reality is, it'll still blow away LCDs/Plasma/DLP.

DLP - Tosh, Sammy and Mitsu's.

JVC- DiLA is a great way of getting SXRD tech in a lower pricepoint.

IMO, don't waste your money on 1080p yet. Get yourself a nice 720p or 1080i set (at a significant discount). By the time your new set has run it's course, the 1080p standard will be more mass market and therefore affordable. Right now only BR as 1080p media, and it's a pittance. OTA will not be 1080p for a long...long...long time (read 15+yrs).

 

exactly, 1080p is not a NTSC HDTV standard...and likely won't be for some time. You can count on it not being broadcast or trasmitted for well over a decade as it would simply eat up too much spectrum (VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY expensive) to serve a very small market (even then, most won't have a 1080p set.

 

Reasons to get TV with 1080p input : play HD-DVDs/Blu-Ray movies, or video games such as PS3. As mentioned above, you will not see broadcasts in 1080p for a long ass time since it takes waaaaaaay more bandwidth than 720p/1080i. Reasons not to get one: very little content, high price.

However, you should see some increase in PQ on a 1080p capable display TV with out 1080p input (i.e. upscales 720p to 1080p) such as the 1st gen Sony SXRD LCoS projections. I don't think you will be able to find a true 1080p tv for 1500 GBP anyway but you could probably get a gen1 SXRD which is probably the best TV from the 1st 1080p wave.