Hey fella's, the old man has given me a job to buy him a big plasma screen and a sound system. His shelf is 168cm long so it can fit a pretty decent size screen in there. I went to Harvey Norman and saw a few screens there, all different prices, sizes etc etc and same goes for the sound system. I was just wandering what your thoughts are on brands, models etc etc. He's willing to spend over 5k on the screen and a bit on the sound system too... thanks..

give me the 5k and ill get him one :D

My only advice is go for quality and not the biggest TV you can get for your money - stick to industry recognised brands.

Check out the DBA forums - http://www.dtvforum.info/ as to some of the reviews from people on different gear.

you could get a decent surround setup for 1K (I got a decent setup about 2 years ago for that) leaving you with 4k for the TV, I'd go with ticman's advice on that, quality over size. Maybe get a high quality DVD player too so you can output the best signal to the TV and surround setup.

dont forget to get a good STB as well

From what I've heard around here, Panasonic is the best at the moment for plasma screens

dont forget to get a good STB as well

yes definitely good advice cos the picture is so bad without it if the plasma is HD ready.

Yeah Panasonic or Fujitsu

Sony's are way overpriced, steer clear.

Hitachi or Panasonic at the moment

www.dtvforum.info ftw

ok, here's the story.

Panasonic are very nice, but not the best. best contrast, but not quite as good on high motion or scenes with mpeg2 artifacting.

Hitachi is the same panel as the fujitsu, but without the benefit of the AVM2 chip, so no point.

Fujitsu. hands down the best image on a plasma. only complaints i've had about it from customers is dumbasses who didn't want a set top box and bitch that there's no analogue tuner in it.

i can't recommend the fujitsu enough. msn me if u want more info on it, i sell plasma's every day. k_hove@hotmail.com


as for the sound system, it really depends on what u'r after. some people will say that $1k will get u a great sound system, some will say it's only entry level. it depends on what you're after. but i'd recommend getting an amp with component upscaling, as it makes life a lot easier, both in wiring, and in operating the system.

m $0.02

LCD!!!!!

die.

nah, LCD's are good, but plasma gives a more natural picture.

lcd's are better for games and pc hookup, but for home theatre, plasma FTW. better for action scenes etc, and no, i'm not talking about ghosting/response time, they pixelate and display GOP's (groups of pixels, aka "box up")

that said, if u MUST go LCD, u gotta take a look at the new philips 42". 3ms response time, scanning backlight, and ambilight. but still, plasma for home theatre

i prefer the lcd pixture
longer life as well

im buying me a nice lcd real soon

longer life is BS. any decent brand plasma has a half-life of 20,000 hours, which means after 15 years (4hrs a day) that it will be half as bright as when u buy it. but seeing as you would only run them at about 50% brightness, then u just turn up the brightness in 15 years

Too right erik, these other c***s need to get a clue before they start raggin on plasmas. Plasma > LCD any fkn day, even for PC hook up, watching a movie on the s*** isn't gonna make any difference anyway.

PC hookup on plasma screen is asking for burn in!

Hell, we've got the Guitar Hero GUI burned into ours at work, and the GUI in question is only ever up for 5 minutes at a time...

I went with the best CRT around for my $$'s, ended up with the Sony KVHR-something or other, ending up costing $3200 about 18 months ago.

You must have a rather s***ty plasma at work there stinky. Modern plasmas just don't suffer from burn in anymore. It has to have the same image for hours for it to effect it, and once it does switching the television off for an hour or two will bring it back to normal anyway, no big deal.

woah ditch, LCDs are good to, it just depends what you're using it for. LCD is better for pc-hookup though.

My oldies bought a Fujitsu couple of years ago. No problems.
I believe that Fujitsu actaully made the first plasma screen technology? And panasonic use Fujitsu screens in their Plasma's aswell?

ended up getting the 50" Pioneer plasma for the boardroom @ work after looking at a whole heap and found it to be best price/picture for what we were after. Had a real minimilist bezel too which looks nice without the speakers. wtf the persist in even giving you s*** like that is beyond me. If you can afford the panel the last thing you are going to use with it would be sound from tinny crap.