Buying a big new television.

To replace the fuzzy, lower-than-low-def trinitron box we have now that fails to even work 60% of the time... total budget including stands and whatnot about £500, so nothing too fancy. 40" ish I suppose, will need to fit into the alcove which is about a metre wide. Any recommendations, or stuff to avoid?

Hot UK deals is your friend for this.

Sony 40" LCD with fressat £499: http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/697176/sony-bravia-40-kdl-40v5810u-full-hd

Samsung 32" LCD £249: http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/698016/samsung-32-lcd-tv-248-97-pcworld

def worth getting to a couple of department stores or Rumbelows etc to take a look at a few tellies on demo as well, so you can find out if yr eyes prefer the look of LCD or plasma, and to get a general feel for screen sizes.

That Sony Billy's linked to is a real bargain, esp. if you already have a satellite dish so you can get freesat straight off.

Seems worthwhile making a few specific recommendations too:

Sony - pretty good, especially the more high-end models, their budget end less so and you are paying for the name there. The one above is a great tv, particularly at that price.

LG - for the money, they make excellent LCD TVs. Long been regarded as a bit of a second tier brand, but their more recent stuff gives the premium kit a real run for its money - when my Sony blu-ray player crapped out after 13 months use recently I got an LG to replace it and it is better than the Sony in every regard (and cost half as much).

Panasonic - I'll let a statistic speak here: of the eight people I know who've bought a hi-def tv in the last two years, all but one have bought some model of Panasonic Viera Plasma (myself included). For films and sport plasma has noticeable benefits in terms of PQ, and they handle standard def. broadcasting excellently as well.

However, as above, a great deal of this is subjective - it's well worth checking out a few sets on display.

i have an LG (42 inch), it's excellent. I have a samsung too ( smaller, 720 one), it's kind of shitty; harder to calibrate, also, the only speakers it has are on the back, which makes it hard to hear.

Love my panny plasma too. We first picked up a samsung LCD but exchanged it for the plasma.

I was really looking for a good-citizen thread to post this on. I bought a 47" today (after a lifetime of tube-models), and it wouldn't fit in the car. Some guy leaving the store saw me and the salesman struggling, so he offered to put it in his wagon and drive it over. I felt awful having to ask him for some ID, but I felt nervous about saying great, here's the TV, see you over there. Anyway, he gave me his driver's license to hold, followed me home with the TV, and that was that. I offered to take him to lunch, but he didn't have time, so I gave him a couple of DVDs from my box of duplicates instead. He took Coming Home and The Graduate.

awww.

awesome!

love that guy!

I am looking for a new TV. I want:

-Probably about 42"
-Must be 1080
-Do NOT want glossy screen, like matte
-Don't care about apps or sound as I want externals (bluray player, sound system) that can provide these, but picture MUST be great
-Under $1000
-Also, any recommendations for affordable sound system for such a TV?

you'll be fine

I've got a Sharp Aquos that meets all of those except the size (mine is 39"). It's a solid tv, though at a refresh rate of only 60hz it sometimes ghosts a little during football games or any tv show with rapid action. You could go up to 120hz, but then you get the soap opera effect when you may not want it.

You could go up to 120hz, but then you get the soap opera effect when you may not want it.

Although, most 120hz tvs iirc give you the option to go back and forth between 120 and 60 pretty easily, so it wouldn't be a big deal.

http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/tvs/

Anybody spent any time with a 4K tv yet? Is the resolution really a difference maker?

i just want a 32-inch OLED

(preferably from LG but frankly i don't care who makes it)

Is it true that all these new TVs are built like shit and won't last five years?

They seem to be made well, but the technology makes them obsolete in five years more or less.

My parents DLP was still working when we gave it away (never had to replace the bulb either) it just looked like shit after 12 years

googling LG 32-inch OLED brings up a shitload of news articles from like 2012 saying "32-inch OLEDs coming from LG"

i have been planning to buy a new tv for about 3/4 years - i keep wavering between a smaller one for my room, or buying one for the main room in my flat with likely no contribution from flatmates.

no decision made yet.

Planning on buying a new one here in June once the move is complete -- selling off my current one since I didn't want the hassle of worrying about packing and moving it. Also I want to double check what the best size will be for the new locale...

One of the two HDMI ports on the TV in my office has crapped out, but one still works fine. Any ilxors use HDMI splitters? Recommendations?

Sorry, getting my terminology straight — I need a switch, not a splitter. Multiple inputs, one output to the tv.

Make sure the thing isnt going to get any wetness on it. Results are fatal.
So don't use the top as a drinkstand, fishbowl balancer, or screen as waterpistol target. But you probably knew that.
& don't use a wet cloth to clean off a year and a half's dirt. Or you'll never see anything through it again.

weird to think that all the big new TVs being discussed at the start of this thread were actually really bad but nobody knew yet

This means that the 65EF9500 will be able to detect the HDR (high dynamic range) metadata and apply the necessary PQ EOTF (perceptual quantizer electro-optical transfer function) over HDMI when Ultra HD Blu-ray eventually arrives