Recommend me a 40" LCD

any suggestions for a purchase in the new year?

I like Samsung TV's but are they as good as the Sony Bravias?

Sony's are slightly better IMO.

Laptopsdirect.ie have some good offers on TV's at the moment.

just had a look in power city website and they always seem to be very competitive even compared to online...

They have the following

SONY - KDL40S5500U for €650 or
SAMSUNG LE40B530 for €525

which would you go for?

I'd go for the Sony, the Samsung picture is great but the sound is weak and thin.

just measured the alcove that the tv is going on and the 40" will be shoe horned in so going to opt for a 37" instead.

Seen a LG 37LF2510 on power city for €500....any opinion on them? No 37" Bravias at power city so just looking at alternatives

TOsullivan - PM me & I can give you a really good contact in Power City who will look after you. My little sis bought that LG yesterday & it's gorgeous

Just realised my home cinema is a Sony and is set up to work in tandem with a Sony Bravia TV (one control, one button on & off) so would prefer a Sony TV now.

Lots of good reviews online for the Bravia KDL-37V5500. Any thoughts on this one?

As far as I know, Samsung and Sony use the same screens, so it's more down to the design of the TV, and the decoding software. I gather Samsung has the edge on that for Standard Definition content such as a normal Sky subscription, but Sony might be slightly better on Hi Definition, so it will depend on your usage.

I've a Series 6 Samsung and love it, but since you have a Sony, you'd be as well off going for a Sony. The one you mentioned looks good.

just been out pricing the Sony and its not worth the price just for the ease of it mating with the home cinema system. Looking at a Philips 37PFL5604 now. Looks good, plenty connectivity, very good reviews and has USB input for MP3/MP4 & Divx

That's the newer version of our TV and it's gorgeous... wish we had the USB input on ours!

just for the ease of it mating with the home cinema system

Click to expand...

If it's mating via CEC signals transmitted over HDMI then it's likely TVs from other manufacturers can also mate with the Sony home cinema kit. I have a similar Philips TV setup to control a Sony blu-ray player over HDMI. I've also got a PS3 working with a Samsung TV in the same way.

Also, since you mention Philips, The Philips Shop / Richer Sounds have a 10% boards.ie discount.

Finally got a TV today up in Currys, Derry. It's a LG 37LH5000 for £549 (200Hz True Motion). So far the picture quality is excellent. Sound a bit poor when you jack up the volume but I got a home cineam to take care of that problem, but one big plus is the ability to play DiVx direct from a USB stick into the side of the TV.

How you getting on with that TV and the divx playing. Is it effective.
Will it play files off a usb hard disk?
And how is the picture quality.

I bought a samsung mpeg-4 tv from currys for €599 before christmas and found that whilst the SD tv singnal is obviously not as good as my old 28" crt its was way much better than any I've seen in any showrooms.

I notice you bought in the North but I found Currys in the South were for ones matching Northern prices.
I have another to buy for someone so I'm curious as to how you are getting on.

So far I have only tried playing them from a memory stick (8GB) No problems. The quality is excellent aswell. I am going to try my external HDD this weekend and see what happens when I connect it.
Manual says it will accept up to max 1GB Externally powered USB HDD or 32GB memory stick. No problems so far playing DivX and will also play other movie formats aswell.

To be honest I hadn't considered this TV and hadn't seen it down here either. I just walked into Currys in Derry and seen it. I went back to the hotel and read a few reviews & spec on it and it came up trumps so bought the next day. I didn't get a chance to ring Currys down here to see if they had it or whether they would match it but Tesco in Maynooth have the LH4000 for €799 so I think the price I got it for is not going to be matched down here. The 4000 cant play DivX and is only 50Hz afaik.

Gonna try out the PStation this weekend and check its gaming quality but pic quality so far is very very good. Plenty ports on this aswell so all in all it looks like a sound buy