Need a 1080p, 42" TV under £600

[Rave]

My original plan was to save up and buy a lovely Panasonic 50" 1080p Plasma for my front room. They're still well north of £1k though, and to save that up will take some time.

I've just realised that watching the Olympics in HD could potentially be quite cool.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/olympicsnewslet...ingahead.shtml

...and as it happens, I have the BBC HD channel on my V+ box. In a further stroke of luck, I'm finally allowed to do overtime at work, and I've managed to line up about £250s worth (after tax) next week alone. So- I'm very tempted to buy a 42" screen as a stopgap. I can always either sell it or shove it in the bedroom if I decide that I really need a 50" downstairs.

So I was looking at these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136386 - £500

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134875 - £540

Anyone have any experience with either? I'm leaning towards the cheaper one as it apparently has an LG panel and IMO it looks a touch nicer than the Sense model. At the possible cost of confusing my wife I could get over the limitation of it only have one HDMI socket with a cheap switch box, or preferably a nice HDMI switching surround sound receiver.

Alternatively does anyone know of a cheaper/better screen from any other UK retailer?

[Steven.Michael]

empire direct will have a few in there. Reliable as well

[Funkstar]

Does it have to be FullHD? How about a better quality 720p set from a recognisable brand?

Just askin

[dave87]

Do you mind a 40?

If not, here

For those that can't be bothered looking, its a Samsung 40a556, 1080p LCD.

[No.72]

I got the visron 42" from ebuyer, its pretty darn good for the money. Threre are a few issues with it being a LCD pannel but are minimal. For £500 go for it, and get a £20 stand too.

[nichomach]

Do you mind a 40?...For those that can't be bothered looking, its a Samsung 40a556, 1080p LCD.

+1 for Samsung. Haven't regretted my 40" for a moment.

[Rave]

Thanks for the input all. @ Funkstar- there aren't any 720P res LCDs AFAIK? They're all 1366x768 resolution. Albeit that I've tried upscaling downloaded 720p videos to 1366 on my CRT PC monitor and noticed no difference, it would still annoy me to have x1.1 processing added to any 720p output- and anyway, pretty much all the over-the-air HD broadcasts seem to be 1080i anyway.

As for the 40" vs 42" argument- when you see the screens back to back in a shop 42"s always look that much more impressive. The Samsung screen looks very impressively specified both in terms of inputs and claimed contrast ratio (which I don't believe) but I think the loss of at least 10% screen real estate would actually make quite a difference to me- especially since I've worked out that at my viewing distance of 7' I'd need a 50" screen to stand a chance of resolving 1920 pixels worth of horizontal resolution. I only have bog standard 20/20 vision after all.

[dave87]

How about a 42" LG then?

here

[TheReaFireblade]

How about a 42" LG then?

here

I was gonna suggest that very same screen meself the other day, but I remembered the "... under £600" bit.

[AdamAnubis]

Just got emailed this from ebuyer. Dunno if its any good, just saw it and thought of this thread

[SSK]

how about this one

http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/showprodu...t&pid=42LG5000

just over 600 quid tho

[dave87]

I was gonna suggest that very same screen meself the other day, but I remembered the "... under £600" bit.

I'd say it was worth the extra, however people can feel free to disagree with me.

[Rave]

Yes, it's tempting at just over £600 if you shop around. But:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/re...42in-LCD-TV/p1

I'm quite interested in this one now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Touch-E...7673106&sr=8-1

Silly name tho, and unfortunately no reviews to be found anywhere.

[TheReaFireblade]

Of those two, I'd go for the [known brand] LG - without a doubt

[Jay]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/r...SIN=B000Z78CDU

42" 1080P £499 inc P&P

[CrazyMonkey]

Thanks i've gone with the LG one, this thread helped me.

+thanks to lg poster.