Be Excellent To Each Other

Mrs Caveman and I thought it was high time we replaced our clonky, chunky, 10-year old JVC TV for a new one. I'm not massively into TV but had to admit that the old silver monstrosity was starting to look pretty naff, plus numerous faults like buzzing, audio dropouts and picture aspect ratio changes etc. were all taking their toll on my limited patience.

So, to cut a long story short, I've splashed out £599 on a 42" Panasonic plasma, plus another £99 for a 1000W RMS 5-speaker cinema pack and DVD. I thought it was a darned good deal from Comet; most of the stuff I've seen elsewhere seems much more expensive.

The acid test however is you chaps; was it a good deal or have I unwittingly bought an obsolescent duffer?

Any advice/comments appreciated, even though it's after the fact as it were.

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/produc ... anasonicTV

Thanks

Cavey

seems like a decent TV. Ticks all the boxes. You say you're not a bid TV watcher, so I assume Freeview is sufficient? No Sky/Virgin box to connect?

I see no particular problems certainly.

Cheers chaps.

Nope, no dish or cable to connect - we're massively out in the sticks and there's no chance of a satellite dish anyway as the house is a Listed Building, which precludes anything like that.

Sounds like I've not dropped a clanger then... phew!


Cavey

Assuming that the bit in the specs where it says it doesn't support HDCP is a mistake, it looks all right as far as I can see. If it really doesn't support HDCP over HDMI then I'd cancel the order forthwith.

But I do think it's just a mistake on the specs site, because I can't imagine you could buy a TV with two HDMI ports and no HDCP.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what's HDCP please mate?

Panasonic plasmas are really very good - and that looks like a good price.

When I was working in a TV shop as a student things like that (well, nowhere near the spec, but the size at least) were almost 5 grand. And we sold a lot of them, being in Guildford. That was quite a few years ago, though.

Hi Definition Content Protection. Let you watch Blu-Ray basically

I think, if you care, you can still mount the dish on a mast fixed away from the house a bit.

The copy protection technology used on some hidefinition broadcasts and BluRay discs.

That's the exact TV that my wife and I are looking at for Sky HD goodery. Unfortunately, we won't have the cash for it for at least a couple of weeks so we're likely to miss out.

Ah, cheers chaps.

As you say, I can't really see that this wouldn't be possible despite the existence of the relevant ports, but will check!

(Also, five grand...? Cripes. You'd have to be seriously into TV to splash that kind of cash!)


Cavey

No, as the house and grounds are more or less surrounded by very large trees, so there's no line of sight from the ground. (Not that I would want my own mini Jodrell Bank in any case! )

Cavey

Ah yes. You would, indeed, start needing a fuck off mast for that. And you'd find the rates Sky charge for any non-standard install of that nature quite eyebrow-raising.

Comet have just confirmed TV has full HDCP support and the webpage is in error.

And you believe them?

*breathes in through teeth*

Well as long as it plays my Video2000 tapes, I'm not bothered.

I still say I'm 'taping' when using Sky+

I'm so old

I looked at this exact same package in my local Comet yesterday. (I had the joy of having to spend TV monies on a replacement washing machine - wet socks going round in the drum certainly aren't in HD )

I thought it was an excellent TV for a really good price - just right for watching Dr. No on Christmas day. Enjoy!

Thanks mate, bad luck on the washing machine front though.

I'll put my choice down to beginner's luck methinks, being as I know precisely nowt about such matters. Sorted!