Foxtel/Plasma/LCD questions

A

amy21322

Hi,
As an avid cricket follower, I am thinking of having Foxtel installed so I can watch live telecasts from England of the upcoming tests and one-dayers. I am quite prepared to sign-up for a 12month contract to achieve the above requirements.
Should I buy a Plasma or LCD?
Viewing from a distance of about 2.8m, what size screen should I be getting?
With digital TV, do I need a new antenna?
I currently use Optus as my ISP, as well as 2 mobiles and landline...should I deal with them, rather than Foxtel?
Is there a website that will give me answers to these questions...and others :D?
Would really appreciate ANY advice.
Thanks in advance
Amy
 
I have a 42 inch plasma, sit about the distance you do. Bigger woudl feel too big I reckon.



Dont know about plasma vs. LCD

Look up Optus' wwebiste & see what they woudl charge normally for Foxtel. Then check what discoung they would give you for bundling all your phones etc together...

You can compare that to Telstra etc and see the rough costs.. Now you may find they wont have the exact smae plans, so work out what youare getting now & how much oyu cna get it for with Optus' discount so you have a base to compare the other offers to.
 
I bought a Panasonic 42inch (106cm) plasma before the Olympics ($1900) and its great. I just measured my dist and I'm exactly 2.8m also and a bigger tv wouldn't have worked. The HD is excellent but when I had foxtel put on I didn't realise is was standard definition and its a little blurry to watch. The HD Foxtel was extra and I didn't think it was worth the $ so never upgraded. I'm getting rid of it soon as my yr is up and I'll see how the withdrawal symptoms are.
 
Daughter brought an LG 42" think it is a plasma from Dick Smith under $1400 last week.

Competition's salesman at another Electrical company happened to mention price as it was cheaper than they could purchase!
 
dude, i wouldn't waste my money on foxtel, the picture resolution is much poorer than terristal SD and HD, get the TV, plasma or LCD, personally i would prefer a plasma with better black for movie watching etc. I'm not sure if you can get the sport on HD with foxtel, if you can you will pay through the nose for sure.

Is channel 9 not playing the cricket live in the evening / early hours? hopefully they will play it live, or on ONE HD hopefully one of the terristerial channels will play it.
 
We also have a 42" plasma and similar viewing distance, ours is a Samsung we would have had it for a couple of years now and are very happy with it. I think if it was to be wall mounted a 50" would be ok.
 
amy21322 said:
Hi,
As an avid cricket follower, I am thinking of having Foxtel installed so I can watch live telecasts from England of the upcoming tests and one-dayers. I am quite prepared to sign-up for a 12month contract to achieve the above requirements.
Should I buy a Plasma or LCD?
Click to expand...
Thats a long winded debate that will never be answered accurately. Go for which ever you like the picture quality. Just remember Foxtel does not have good picture quality and you may notice it on a large screen. As far as I'm aware foxtel HD is 1080i......not true Full High Def, but still better than your normal foxtel or free to air.

amy21322 said:
Viewing from a distance of about 2.8m, what size screen should I be getting?
Click to expand...
Get the biggest you can afford, without skimping on picture quality. Whatever size you buy will look small with a week. I have a Pioneer 50inch and thought it looked massive when I first had it installed, now I need a bigger one.
amy21322 said:
With digital TV, do I need a new antenna?
Click to expand...
Depends which one you have now, if its an old one, it may need replacing. Wait and see once you buy a panel.
amy21322 said:
I currently use Optus as my ISP, as well as 2 mobiles and landline...should I deal with them, rather than Foxtel?
Click to expand...
No idea, get which ever one has the best viewing package for you.
amy21322 said:
Is there a website that will give me answers to these questions...and others
Click to expand...
sure is.
http://www.dtvforum.info/ - the 'Somersoft' of Home Entertainment

http://www.cnet.com.au/plasma-vs-lcd-six-things-you-need-to-know-339273215.htm
http://apcmag.com/plasma_vs_lcd__which_is_best.htm
http://www.plasmavslcdreviews.com/
http://www.panasonic.com.au/energy-wise/plasmavslcd.cfm

My only advice would be to get the best picture quality you can afford.
1920 x 1080p, believe it or not but the 'p' at the end makes a big difference so look for a 1080p not a 1080i (progressive Vs interlaced, google if your interested)
Keep in mind everything is going full high def and in a few years blu ray will be the norm and DVD will go the same way as VCR.
 
Lcd Led

I am really confused re plasma / LCD and now LED Plasma.
My husband and I went to Hardly Normal for a quick look and the salesman said that the new 'LED' was the best. Not sure if he was getting higher commission for selling this but needless to say I was very confused and didn't buy anything.
I don't watch enough TV to care but the family loves the footy!!
So if anyone knows about this LED thing I am all ears:)
 
Doons said:
My husband and I went to Hardly Normal for a quick look and the salesman said that the new 'LED' was the best. Not sure if he was getting higher commission for selling this but needless to say I was very confused and didn't buy anything.
I don't watch enough TV to care but the family loves the footy!!
So if anyone knows about this LED thing I am all ears:)
Click to expand...

Overhead a JB Hi Fi salesperson giving the same spiel last week. Couldn't hear the reason why however.

Maybe they had just come from the same sales presentation from the manufacturers of the units.
 
We have a 37" LCD which is further away than 2.8m and certainly don't want it any bigger. It not only takes over the room but everything filmed in SD looks worse on HD TV and the size will only make this worse - just MHO.

One thing to watch regarding Plasma v. LCD is the room it's in. If you can make it dark Plasma is fine but we have too much light in our house so had to go LCD. Otherwise the reflection would drive me crazy.
 
sparky23 said:
We also have a 42" plasma and similar viewing distance, ours is a Samsung we would have had it for a couple of years now and are very happy with it. I think if it was to be wall mounted a 50" would be ok.
Click to expand...

Actually mine is 48" and wall mounted, looks fine (previously said 42 but bigger might feel too big)
 
I've got a 14 inch palsonic LCD in the tractor, getting high def. It works great too. :D
Make sure you have auto steer but.:rolleyes:

See ya's.
 
Doons said:
I am really confused re plasma / LCD and now LED Plasma.
My husband and I went to Hardly Normal for a quick look and the salesman said that the new 'LED' was the best. Not sure if he was getting higher commission for selling this but needless to say I was very confused and didn't buy anything.
I don't watch enough TV to care but the family loves the footy!!
So if anyone knows about this LED thing I am all ears:)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother listening to what the sales guys at the local Bing Lee/JB HiFi/Hardly Normal said. The vast majority of the time they have no idea (there are always exceptions though) go to a specialist home theatre/audio dealer and listen to what they say or do plenty of research on the internet.
A mark of a good panel is how well it will display black's and shadows.
The LED thing is used to help a previous drawback with the LCD screens which was contrast. Historically LCD's lacked the ability to display anything close to a true black where plasma's got much closer.

There really isnt that much between the LCD or Plasma's at the moment. The contrast ratio of the LCD's has pretty much caught up to the plasma's and the brightness of the plasma's has pretty much caught up to the LCD's.

The important things that I looked for was -
- able to display 1080p as this is true full HD
- able to display 24fps/25fps (frames per second) native Blu Ray signal is 24fps. Some panels can accept a 24fps signal but they convert it to 50fps
- a couple of 1.3 HDMI inputs (pretty much all have now)

If I were in the market for a new panel now...for the kids I'd be looking at a panasonic...for the home theatre I'd be looking at top Samsung's.
 
Hi, everyone,
A big 'thank you' for all the responses to my queries.
I have now ruled out Foxtel, as I didn't realize SBS was broadcasting live, all the cricket tests and one-dayers...thanks, farmilor.
As far as a new TV set is concerned, I've got some URL's to wade through. I'm leaning towards a 40" - 42" LCD, and I'll be taking all your good advice on-board.
You've all been a big help.
Much appreciated
Amy
 
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