Home Cinema Plasma Screens

 What size screen should I go for?

In general 42 inch will be the most popular choice for most people who have standard size rooms and you will be say up to 10ft from the screen. If you have a bigger lounge then you could fit in a 50 inch Plasma Screen. The largest size of 60 inches is going to be too big for most homes. If you go to the Cinema you would not want to be in the front row as you are to close to the screen to absorb the information comfortably. The same can apply in a home environment even if you do have an excellent quality image. 

How do I get a TV picture?

There are two basic choices. You can either buy an optional TV tuner with the screen or use the video/Digibox/Ski box to tune the screen for the TV. With the Digi box you would them take DVD input into the Digital Box first and this would then override the SKY when you input a signal. The optional TV tuner will often give you Teletext which may be important to you. 

If you want to use the RGB signal through your Sky Digi Box with the Panasonic or Toshiba screens then you need to talk to us so that we can explain the need to sync the screen via the component input as it has to have horizontal and vertical sync to work with RGB correctly. There are so many variations we cannot cover them all on this page.

Basically if you are going to mix digital and analogue signals this takes some thinking about to avoid having a complete range of remote controls

What screens would we recommend for home cinema use?

In 42 inch the budget choice would be the Samsung is our cheapest screen (we can sell other products that are cheaper but we do not like the quality) and comes in an attractive silver finish. The best quality product is probably the Panasonic or Toshiba which has amazing quality thanks to the 3000:1 contrast ratio. That said the NEC 42MP3 is very close behind. The new Pioneer 433 is also an excellent choice.

In 50 inch then the Panasonic or NEC are the best. The Pioneer HDE which is designed for home cinema is an excellent product but you may not want the TV tuner or all the features.

In 60 inch then the LG stands out as a very good buy. Possibly not quite as good as the NEC but then look at the price difference. You can buy an extra 42 inch for the bedroom!.