TVs - reviews and price comparison

This guide focuses primarily on Plasma- and LCD-TVs with screen size over 28 inch, but contains useful information about other television sets.
Guide to flat screen TV 14-28".

TV technology

For most people buying a new TV today the choice is between a plasma- and a LCD-TV.

Plasma TV

This is a flat TV which is not more than 10cm thick, which makes it easy to hang it on a wall. There are Plasma TVs from 32 up to around 70 inches. Plasma TVs are relatively expensive but the prices went down considerably during the last year. The picture is very sharp works really well with a good DVD-player.

LCD TV

LCD TV is a competing technology. They are as thin as Plasma TVs and can also be placed on a wall. LCD TVs exist in all sizes, from a few inches up to circa 60 inches. LCD TVs are in general more expensive than plasma screens in the same size. LCD usually has a higher resolution than Plasma which enables you to use them as computer screens, provided that they have a PC input.

In short you can say that for watching movies Plasma is the better alternative and gives value for money, while LCD works well if you also want to use the TV as a computer screen. Since LCD TVs have better brightness than Plasma it is also more suitable if you are mostly using your TV during daytime.

Typical LCD/Plasma TV in profile	Typical analogue (traditional) TV

Which technology do I choose?

For screen sizes up to 32” inches the choice is easy – LCD, since the other technologies don’t offer screens in these sizes. From 32” and up the choice is harder. Today the LCD TVs are more expensive than a plasma in the same size, but if you want to use your screen for showing movies and as a computer screen the LCD TV is to recommend. If you are mostly watching movies on TV and DVD a Plasma TV is more worth its price.

Screen size

The pictures below show the television sets in different sizes with a 5'9" tall person.

32 inch	37 inch	42 inch

HDTV

A European broadcasting system for High Definition TV, HDTV, with superior picture quality has recently been established. For a TV to be able to show HDTV it needs high resolution and the right connections. There is now a marking, “HD ready”, which is put by manufacturers on TVs which meet these requirements.

What about Full HD? (show text) Full HD (1080pixels) has an even better picture quality than regular HD. Compared to Full HD the ”regular” HD has either a lower picture updating frequency (1080i) or lower resolution (720 pixels).
There are still quite few TVs that can show Full HD, although many have the required resolution – but it takes a correct picture processing too.
Furthermore it requires that the shown material is of Full HD quality to make the most of the picture. There are no TV broadcasts in Full HD yet, but Sony Playstation 3 and the new Blu-ray players will support Full HD. If you absolutely want a Full HD TV you should read a lot about it before purchasing or wait six months or a year so that the technology is more established.
hide text

Digital TV

The TV broadcasting net will be switched from analogue to digital in the coming years (look on digitaltelevision.gov.uk for more info on that). This means that older TVs will need a separate digital TV box. Some new TVs come with a built-in digital box which might be a nice solution.

Inputs

There are a few different ways to connect your other devices such as DVD-player, digibox, PC and so on to the TV. The most common way is with a scart connection, which all TVs have.
HDMI, DVI and component video are three inputs with higher picture quality than scart. If any of these exist on the DVD-player or other device that is being connected to the TV it is recommended that you use it. (For DVI and component video you will need a separate audio cable)

SCART	HDMI
Component video	DVI

Computer inputs

If you want to use the TV as a computer screen you will need a VGA-port or DVI-connection on both the TV and computer. DVI gives a better picture quality.
If both the TV and computer has an S-video input you can also use this connection, but this will give you a lower picture quality.

VGA	DVI	S-video

Rating/awards

On testwinner.co.uk all the different ratings given by expert testers have been translated into a percentage from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum rating.
The average rating for a product can indicate different things. A low average rating is a warning that the product maybe won't live up the expectations created by the ads for the product. A high rating often means that the product has great features and works well. The more tests of the product the better accuracy in the average rating.

The amount of test wins/awards shows how many times the product has been named winner or been selected "Editor's Choice", "Best Buy" or received similar positive awards in tests. An award means that the product stands out from the competition in one way or another. It can be by giving value for money or by being innovative, or simply by just filling its purpose in a really good way.