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Hi folks,

I don't want to start an avalanche of web rage but I need some advice.

At the beginning of this year I bought an Onkyo 605 receiver, which despite it being superceded since, I am delighted with. I have Monitor Audio Radius R270s plugged in at the front and R90s at the back. The receiver has V+, PS3, Wii and PC going into it and everything ends up on a Samsung LE32R41BD tv.

I have had the tv for a few years now and am now considering what to replace it with. It cost me about £1000 when I bought it and has been a good screen. I keep seeing these huge Plasma Screens everywhere, the 60" Pioneer specifically in my local dealer, and think it is stunning.

Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I should be looking at as I want to get something with a bigger screen mainly. Perhaps 50" would be enough but want to rid myself of the blurring I get on the Samsung with fast moving images. Should I move to Plasma now I want a big screen? Is my dribbling (I need to run for a napkin now!) over that Pioneer misplaced or are they as good as they appear.

My room is about 20 foot long but the main seating position is about 4m from the screen at the moment.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
Pete

Pioneer have an excellent reputation for bigger plasmas.

Pioneer have a free 5yr guarantee offer, just started 1st Sept.

Wow! That sounds like a much better guarantee than paying for an expensive superstore one.

Always good to get extended warranty for free with any tv, and the Pioneer is king of all plasmas and if i was in the hunt for a new one it would probably be the 5090 model for around £2300-2400. The 6090 model is over £4000 a big leap in price difference i would prefer a projector for that size screen. If budget matters the older 508xd would be an excellent alternative to the 5090 at around the £1550 mark leaving you some spare cash for further improvements in the future.

That's all great info. Many thanks. The £1550 option sounds good to me. Is there a vast casm between this and the £4k one?

Mainly size. You've basically got four choices with the large Pioneers: LX6090(£4200), LX5090(£2400), LX508D(£1800), 508XD(£1500). The first two are the newest models and offer small improvements over the last generation in terms of picture quality. There's not a huge chasm in performance, just slightly better blacks and slightly cleaner processing - although the latter won't be as noticeable from your viewing distance. I'd echo Lobby's recommendation of the 508XD at around £1500. It's an awesome screen. However, if you can afford it, and want the cinematic spectacle of having a 60" screen in the lounge, you can't go wrong with the LX6090. It really is the king of tvs.

Based on what you've said, I have just had a look at that 508XD and it does look the dogs to be honest. I wish I had £4000 to spare for the daddy, but I think the 508XD is gonna be the winnder here and for that money, it's no more expensive than some you see in Comet, etc.

I am going to see if I can find somewhere that will let me see it do it's stuff.

Thanks.

One thing I have just noticed in the spec for the 508XD is that it is 720p rather than 1080p. How much difference will this actually make considering the equipment I have.

Seems the site I was looking at was incorrect in its spec listings. Please ignore my last post.

No, that's correct, the 508XD is not not Full HD 1080p. However, it is an amazing screen that outperforms just about every Full HD screen out there, apart from those made by Pioneer. Also bear in mind that in order to get any benefit from Full HD on a 50" screen, you will need to sit at 10ft or closer.

Still, the PDP-LX508D has better contrast than the PDP-508XD (20,000:1 vs. 16,000:1).

I went to see what Comet had instore so I could see the set working next to other tvs and I have to say that the 60" Pioneer they had on display did indeed have much better blacks as described.

I have to admit that I was a little sceptical about some of the claims I had read about these Pioneer panels but they do appear to be every bit as good as people are saying. I even went to the back of the shop to see them all from a distance and the Pioneer was head and shoulders above the rest.

They had large Sonys, Panasonics and lots of Samsungs on display alongside the Pioneer and that was recomendation enough for the Pioneer.

I just need to take the plunge now!

Oipete