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Thinking of going for a HDTV (32in LCD looks like being the realistic choice). Any Recommendations?

But mainly, in the shop I was looking in they were banging on about lead quality, and how replacing the bundled leads with better (dearer!) leads would inprove picture quality.

Does it make that much of a difference, or are they just trying to profit from scare stories?

I have just read that there are still less than 100000 subscribers. I really think cost is the bugbear. By the time you spend ?1000 on a decent Sony/Phillips/Loewe TV, ?300 on the Sky box, ?10 a month on top of your Sky package fees,.more on cables, speakers etc it is a dear do.

On the positive my Golf Club has just installed a 46" Sony Vega, it is superb, the sound and colours make my own set look puerile!

I'm more interested in a future-proof new TV at the moment, rather than getting an actual HD feed. Should have made that clear.

Peter, Sony's Bravia colour processors are excellent, but their TVs (except the HUGE ones) only have one HDMI socket at the back. If you're going to run a DVD player/recorder or upgrade to HD-DVD or Blue-ray, you'll need to buy another box that splits the HDMI signal.

It starts getting pricey. And guess which brand I have? Uh-huh.

Sky's HD service is amazing. Sport looks stunning, Planet Earth is... wow. Anyway, although they currently only have 96,000 subscribers, that's not bad for six months and the service will only improve.

However, I would say that there's fook all point in buying a nice LCD or plasma unless you're going to upgrade your satellite stuff, too. Terrestrial TV looks cock on an LCD telly. Especially footie. Back in the summer, I had to watch some of the games on analogue. There was a lot of digital noise on the pic, which made it shite to view.

I've only just moved to sky+, I guess i'm locked into that for a year before I can consider upgrading to HD (without a penalty). Its just I currently have a TV which needs turning on by banging the top hard several times, so I definatey need a new one now, with the options for updating the feed later.

I've considered the samsungs and the Panasonic TX32LXD60 which has the two hdmi's you're on about.

Peter, providing your current TV is not too old, then I would recommend it be repaired.Faults as you describe are rarely serious and may just require an engineer and a soldering iron. If you want some free impartial advice on anything regarding TV, then feel free to email me.I have been in elecronics servicing for 25 years and might be able to prevent you wasting a whole load of cash on something you might end up really disliking.

Rob.

Peter now is the time to get rid of your TV and replace it with WiFi monitors connected to your laptop/computer. You can get hundreds of TV channels now streamed at no extra cost. Try one now free on
TVs are obsolete.
Mike Freeman

Peter wrote:

> Thinking of going for a HDTV (32in LCD looks like being the
> realistic choice). Any Recommendations?
>
> But mainly, in the shop I was looking in they were banging on
> about lead quality, and how replacing the bundled leads with
> better (dearer!) leads would inprove picture quality.
>
> Does it make that much of a difference, or are they just trying
> to profit from scare stories?

The quality of the leads (not just the inter-connects but also the cable supplying the power from your wall socket!) makes a substantial difference.

Make sure whatever set you go for has at least two HDMI connections (you'll need one for your Sky HD box and one for your HDDVD player)

A good place to get info is http://www.avforums.com/index.php (a link I've posted several times already in past similar threads)

So what should I be looking for when choosing 'better' cabling?

Dinosaur