"Wall mounted large flat screen TVs" Topic

In a moment of madness I agreed with the family that we'd buy a large flat screen TV and mount it on the wall in the kid's playroom at home so we could all get that family home entertainment experience. Needless to say I know very little about flat screen TVs and home entertainment systems, as I'd rather play with my toys, but I wondered if the TMP collective had any wisdom to offer.

Next I expect they want Digital TV or even Sky

Needless to say I will have to sacrifice the purchase of hundreds, nay thousands even, of little white metal soldiers to pay for this. Just have to paint up some of those I have I suppose and play with them :-).
I'm assuming I'm going to be paying £2,000.00 GBP for the whole kit with speakers and a 40 to 50 inch screen etc…

Any thoughts, other than 'That way lies madness!', greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve P

Get thee to a Consumer Reports. They did an issue on HD TVs not too long ago. There was a lot of really helpful info there. Also here are some other things to think about:

Many HD TVs do not handle regular signals all that well. Which means your regular DVDs, and TV channels may actually look worse. How much HD is really available to you, and how much of that will you watch?

I confess that my experience with HD is "kinda cool but not worth it." I know I'll have to buy one eventually otherwise they will revoke my American citizenship. But I have a 32" regular tube TV and, frankly, it's a tad too big.

Another thing to consider. Big TVs can really dominate the look of a room. Now, you may like the way a huge black metal box hanging on your wall looks, but as for me I was never happier than when I gave away my stereo equipment in exchange for my iPod player. It lies hidden in a drawer and small wireless speakers do the heavy lifting.

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, ScaleCreep.com
Wannabee Luddite, DeepFriedHappyMice.com

HDTV really shines for live sports. Movies are slightly better than DVD, much better than stadard signal or tape.

You may regret asking this 10 days before your tournement.. I thought you were arranging the evening entertainment for us…

Are you in the UK? If so make sure you get a TV with a digital tuner, as all signals are moving that way soon.

A few quid on "what TV" or other magazines in the newsagent/supermarket will be well worth it.

With a wall mounted TV I haven't worked out what you do with all the wires????

Wall mounted fat screens are great. Think of all the extra space for the gaming table.

fred, there's two options; you can hide the wires under the wall, or you can simply let them run down. If the latter, you could use that square conduiting to control them a bit better. If you want to run the cables under the wall, you might be better getting one of the sets that has a separate control box (into which you connect your DVD player, aerial cable, Sky box, etc). That way, there's only one cable (from the control box) to the screen, rather than 5 or 6, and it's easier to change equipment around.

From my time working in Dixons, LG and Pioneer seemed like good makes, but don't quote me on that. We have a 36" Toshiba set at home, and it's also rather good.

Around the 32"-40"-ish size, you can get either plasma screens or LCD screens. IIRC, LCD screens are better, but there may be other trade-offs.

Actually, a huge flat panel TV doesn't look so imposing as a regular CRT, since it's not sticking so far out into the room.

"I thought you were arranging the evening entertainment for us…"

I am. But it doesn't involve flat screens. By the way, what are Rachel's thought on exotic pole dancers ?

Steve P

"Are you in the UK? If so make sure you get a TV with a digital tuner, as all signals are moving that way soon."

I live in the US and that goes for us as well. As of Feb. 19, 2009 all signals will be in only digital. I have 3 TV's that need replacing. :(

Re digital tuners, in the UK you can get a "set top box" which will connect to any TV and allow you to receive digital TV, these are around £25, and widely available.

But it is a pain if you need several of these.

Andrew -- thanks for the info about the wires -- the separate control box sounds good. I'm not sure that I believe you worked in Dixons as you seem to know what you are talking about :-)

As a repair engineer who works for one of the TV manufacturers, I would NOT recommend buying a TV with a built in DVBT (Freeview) tuner. They are a pain in the arse, and if it develops a fault (which it will) you lose your whole TV while it is being serviced.

Buy an HD 1080p Ready LCD TV with as many SCART and HDMI sockets as possible and a cheap Freeview set-top box that you can replace as technology advances.

LCD are better than plasma ? I read review that suggested otherwise but I have no verification that the review was sufficiently independant so am still unsure.

Steve P

Plasmas used to have the advantage for larger screens and for movie watching. LCDs for smaller screens and computer use.

18 months ago I comparison shopped and went with a 42" LCD. I hooked it up to the family computer and the viewing distance didn't really justify anything larger, even for movie watching.

I've just been looking again and this time round Plasmas seemed to have a much reduced presence. LCDs seem to have caught up in size, 50" to 60" are almost "reasonably" priced. The higher resolution required for full HDTV seems to favour LCDs as well.

Saw a 100" LCD on display showing a blu-ray animated movie and it just blew me away. A real bargain at US$70,000 for anyone with a bit of spare cash lying around:-)

By the way, what are Rachel's thought on exotic pole dancers ?

What scale?

GOS of course ;-)

I'm not sure that I believe you worked in Dixons as you seem to know what you are talking about :-)

Actually, most of the staff in the shop I worked in seemed to know what they were talking about. There were a couple of total space cadets, but the rest of us learned to subtley steer the customers away from them :)

GOS of course ;-)

She would regard it as a small step up from Duplo, once I'd briefed her fully….

Plasmas for a room you can darken, LCDs for a room that is well-lit.
Sport & action movies are better on plasma as there is no lag in reaction time.
donald

Well ta for all the advice. Thought I'd do the decent thing and let you all know what we bought lest you had sleepless nights over it :).

I ordered from RGB direct. Service was good, they phoned yesterday to say it would come today and the phoned 1hr in advance to confirm its imminent arrival.

We went 50inch plasma in the end, all sing all dancing:
link

My wife has taken delivery and it's all waiting for me to go home and set it up. Roll on 5pm !!

Steve P