LCD TV Reviews Mar 2009

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The attempt to buy the “best LCD TV” or “best plasma TV” or “TV with the best reviews” is in many ways a fruitless quest because:

(a) the technology is moving fast enough such that last quarter’s hero may be next quarter’s zero

(b) the reviewers don’t all agree on what the best TV is and/or they don’t test the same selection of models

(d) some reviewers have biases towards particular TV types or brands

(e) your feature preferences might be different to the reviewers

Nevertheless if you read enough reviews, you can usually spot trends and see which brand scores near the top of the list most of the time and conversely, who hangs around the bottom.

Results of a review by Choice Australia in Late 2008

A surprising aspect of this set of LCD TV reviews was the relatively poor score of most TVs on sound quality. The sound quality scores were mostly well below the picture quality scores.

sony-LCD-TV-KDL40V4000

Interestingly, it took a lot of searching to find the top rated model the Sony KDL-40V4000 on Sony’s Australian website. It may already have been overtaken by their newer, motionflow models.

The price of the Sony KDL-40V4000 was quoted on Sony’s website at AUD2,399.

Also interesting is that Choice rated Samsung’s PS42A410C1D plasma TV second overall and higher than the Samsung LA40A550P1F LCD TV.

Brand/model (in rank order)	Overall score (%)	Panel type	Sound quality score (%)
Sony KDL-40V4000	70	LCD	55
Samsung PS42A410C1D	65	Plasma	45
Philips 42PFL5603D #	63	LCD	70
LG 42LG70YD	62	LCD	50
Samsung LA40A550P1F	62	LCD	60
Panasonic TH-42PX8A	61	Plasma	30
Panasonic TH-42PZ800A	58	Plasma	35
TCL L42E9ADF	57	LCD	35
Sanyo LCD-42XR8DA	54	LCD	45
Sharp LC-42D83X #	53	LCD	25

As always, remember to go to a couple of different shops to check out what you really like in a TV before you go price shopping, on the street or on the web.

Web or Street - Which is Cheaper?

I think most people automatically assume everything is cheaper on the web.

Well some things yes but definitely not all things. In fact I’ve noticed that if you’re willing to shop around and haggle a bit, you can often get things cheaper on the street.

Good shopping!

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