I just bought a 42 inch HD television...

Ooops? That sounds awesome, model/cost?

It's a Panasonic Viera HD TH42PX8B... It's not exactly their best TV but it is definitely better than a 26 inch CRT that's going blurry around the edges...

This particular TV has a 42 inch panel.

It has a simple, low profile design. I dislike curvy technology. Curves should be reserved for women and nothing else (hmm... says the person who has bought 2 WaveMasters...)

It has a resolution of 1366x768, so it's a high-definition TV. Not Full-HD, but my monitor does >Full-HD whenever I need it to so I'm down-wit-dat. This resolution is fine for playing games on the PS3, watching Blu-Ray and is better supported than the 1080p standard. Only a few games on the PS3 are natively compatible with 1080p - it's difficult for the console to pump out that resolution at a smooth frame-rate. Burnout Paradise City doesn't support 1080p, for example.

The contrast ratio is 10000:1... pretty high!

It uses the new 100Hz interlaced-frame technology in an attempt to reduce motion blur... and it does very well at that.

It's a plasma, rather than an LCD. Originally, I really wanted an LCD and I wasn't even considering plasma... but then I realised that plasma definitely has the price/performance advantage.

It was on special offer, and that offer ended today, which is why I got it today. It normally costs £900, and I got it for £650.

I had to buy a TV stand for an extra £90, but that was also reduced from £180.

And how unlike me... I bought it from a retail store. Thank you Currys.digital in Gloucester and their Bank Holiday Special Offer!

Heh, pretty sweet, so you got it all set up right now?

why name this topic Oops...?
"lol i got a better TV than most of you" is more accurate

It's Aaron's habit of impulsively buying expensive things.

a habit i wish to posses someday.
sadly A-level students aren't notorious for there wealth

Indeed we're not! Scrounging ftw!

thats the way it should be

OK... Now this really will be an oops thread!
I bought the wrong model. This TV isn't even high-def, it runs at 1024x720 (WTF!)
I thought they had stopped making these fakes years back when they were scammed out all over the place...
Going in for a refund today but keeping my eye on the model above.. The 80B not the 8B.

Ah well.

I umm.

I got a refund!

But I bought another one instead! I don't know what the hell my family are going to say when they find out I've bought a new TV for them!

This time, I got a Samsung 5-Series 1080p LCD television. It doesn't have that new 100Hz technology, but I'm not really that bothered... the family probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a lower than the lowest HD spec compared to the highest HD spec anyway, unless they had them side by side, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna get 2 of these things!

... Hopefully, this purchase will help to bring the family closer together. It will be nice to watch some TV together again I think. My family spends so much time apart, at work, and when we get home we generally just get on with our own thing - my younger brother usually stays out with his girlfriend for the evening, my elder brother isn't at home much, my mum works away and comes home late regularly, and my dad loves his crafts. I similarly am away from home more than 50% of the time now (or have been for the last couple of months) and when I get back home I find that the family 'atmosphere' just isn't there any more.

That and GTA4 will look ace in 1080p.

Edit: Grr.. This monitor has curves.

Heh, so how much this new monitor cost?

Oops... I'm talking the computer talk again... I really can't get in to this home theatre lingo... to be honest, it's still a very shady market... there are a lot of hidden meanings. You can tell that these TV's are sold and marketed to people with very basic understandings of both how the technology works and what they actually require...

Anyway, more to the point...

The TV that I bought was also on a special offer with £200 off. Similarly, I got the TV stand for £90 off the retail price (taking it down to £90). I also got a 1m HDMI cable with £25 off (taking it down to £25). The TV itself was £750.

Not a bad deal at all considering it is a Samsung 5-Series and they were only just released in April! Though they also have the 6-Series and the very elusive 7-Series. Basically...

5-Series is for people who want a decent HD TV (beginner)
6-Series is for the people that are serious about their HD TV 'experience' (advanced)
7-Series is for people that live and breathe HD TV and home cinema (enthusiast niche market)

I am very happy with the purchase, it is just a shame that it will not be delivered until either Thursday or Friday of next week. I scheduled it to arrive then because it is being delivered to my work address and I fear for the security of the thing... if I leave it in the goods-in department, it could get damaged by other boxes and it is using up their valuable space. Also, if somebody sees me dragging it through the huge customer services department, they'll probably want a slice of my HD action, and if I leave it at the office overnight there is a very high chance that it would not be there in the morning... So I want it delivered to work and also collected by my family to bring home on the same day.

I have now told the family that they are getting a new TV. They had no idea!

Anyway, I will upload some pictures as soon as I get it.

What was their reaction?

Looks like a very nice TV, though those HDMI cables are crazy expensive... £50!

They haven't said this, but the reaction I get almost says to me that maybe I am spending too much on them. It's not the TV I am really interested in, it's more about spending quality time with my family. That and it's a brilliant TV for the money!

Heh, yeah. I take it you're going to run your PS3 on it, considered trying your PC on it at all?

Yeah the PS3 will be linked up to it and I think it's main function from then on will be as a Blu-Ray disc player instead of a games console!

I don't know about linking the PC up to it... it doesn't really look the part in the living room.

Update:

I changed the delivery to a collection... and collected it today. It is sitting beside me in my office along with the black glass stand. I'm getting a lift back home tonight to set it all up and I'm going to play some 1080p GTA 4...

I didn't mean permanently, just test it to see what it's like.

Have fun with it!

Here's a photo taken on the iPhone of the packaging...


Almost as high as 3 laptop boxes and as wide as my nob.

Here's another picture taken with my girlfriend's digital camera...

Wow, it just looks big without anything to compare too.

Oh, and watch those verbal comparisons...

or at least provide video evidence supporting them

nice TV

Hehehe, here are the pictures...

Another box shot


The new setup


Some GTA4 madness - my brother is playing


Wow... the mini-map is legible! Finally we will be able to see routes and destinations!


The text is also legible! Oh the joy!


Shiny shiny


TV is nice, wall is definitely not


Lives next to a woodburner


And a door where dogs shake mud and water off from the farm and garden



Shiny remote

Looks good no matter what you play - here I am playing some music on the PS3 running a visualisation


What a brilliant TV.
The resolution is amazing. Obviously it isn't as good as my monitor when it comes to sheer number of pixels on screen, but to have this sort of technology in a living room is a completely new experience for me and the rest of my family. Full HD isn't really a massive resolution at 1920x1080 compared to my monitor at 2560x1600, but when you sit back on a sofa and watch a Blu-ray, it just looks incredible.

cool.
what size monitor you have?
couldnt imagine they are many wallpapers for that rez lol

It's a 30 inch monitor and it runs at 2560x1600. InterfaceLIFT offers hundreds of wallpapers at this resolution! It's the premium gaming resolution

InterfaceLIFT: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/inde ... &sort=date
Nvidia XHD: http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_e ... _home.html

I must say, even from camera shots of the TV image, GTAIV is looking pretty fantastic on there!