On Harvey norman's website, the price is listed at $1147 but on the back of the Sun Herald in Sydney today, it had $1088 so I suppose they have to honor the price they advertise on the newspaper. I bought this TV for $1500 about a year ago and very happy with it so I would consider $1088 a bargain.
They also have the Panasonic THP50X10A (another 50" HD Plasma) for $1298 which is not too bad either.
full hd is overated, i guess to the uneducated it sounds better lol
Ive just upgraded from 720p to 1080p and your statement is laughable….The quality diff is outstanding.
Exactly. I would never buy anything not 1080P unless it's under 24".
To the naked human eye, there is no real discerning difference between 720p and 1080p unless the screen's bigger than ~40inches, which this TV is. So no, full HD isn't totally overrated.
@Zero_: Thanks Zero.
The jump from SD to HD was a big step. The jump from HD to Full HD can be just hype as it depends how far you sit from the TV.
See this graph: http://davidlenihan.com/WindowsLiveWriter/HDDVDvs.DVD.Fight_…
It's so frustrating that some believe they need to spend the extra money to get Full HD when in fact, if they sit far enough away, they won't even tell the difference between the Full HD and the HD panel.
Anyway, good price.
@ShortyX: lol i linked to the same thing moments after you. + to your post
The thing about viewing distance is, there is a RECOMMENDED viewing distance for any particular sized TV, in order to reproduce a good viewing angle.
for a 46" tv, 1.5-2.5M is what THX recommends…
so if you want to view at that distance, 1080P trumps 720P hands down.
@kimmik: It depends what you are doing with the TV. I say 1080p screens with bigger resolutions will have more desktop space available with a higher quality specially for text — That is if you are connecting a computer to them.
Otherwise it gets pretty close until you get to 40" or above.
@Zero_: If you sit 3 times the diagonal screen distance (what Samsung recommend) then you're sitting 3.8M from this set.
Considering so many people still only watch DVDs and DVB-T (neither of which go above 1080i/720p) then this TV will look identical to a 1080p set. No question about it. Integrated upscaling can help to an extent but not enough to make a discernible difference.
However - when you buy a 1080p set you're not just getting a higher res, many other features also come hand in hand. You get better motion, more inputs, higher grade panels amongst many other features. Are they worth the extra $500? That's up to you.
I remember selling sets like this with far worse features for well over $3,000 a few years ago. I guarantee if I go to any of those customers and ask them what they think about their set they'll tell me it's great and looks fantastic.
Just depends on what you're using it for. (Owner of a 1080p set).
@cyssero: maybe samsung's recommendation is more suitable for tv programs.
http://thx.com/home/setup/display.html
2m is what thx recommends for 50inch screen, for movies.
@TrendyTim: i guess if you sit 1m from a 24" computer screen, you'll know what 2m from a 50" tv screen feels
in fact, most ppl probably sit closer than 1m from their 24" screen. so thx's recommendation is pretty sound.
i agree with the snobs
on 40" plus sets, 1080p is preferable… but DTV is only 1,080i so that's still crap
but on a 32" set… it's marginal difference
thanks for the comparisons guys. I am getting a 32inch 720p television via redemption. I was actually in two minds where to sell it and buy the same but with full hd for extra few hundred dollars. However, I guess there is no point as it doesn;t make that much differece. thanks
Wow great price… this makes me feel better about the $850 I got for my 2.5 year old similar spec (50" 720p) plasma on ebay last week…
To be perfectly scientific, even a 20" screen could benefit from 1080p. it just depends on the VIEWING DISTANCE.
http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html
For 32" tv, you'll see the full benefit of 1080p>>720p sitting at 4 feet.
For a 50", 6.5 feet is the 1080p sweetspot. if you have a 720p 50" set, you should sit 3meters or further, or you'll start to see pixelation.
If the pricing is indeed a mistake HN are not obliged to honour it.
Although, with such a small difference I doubt they would not sell it for that price.
Very hard for them to prove it's a mistake in the printed media. There are far more checks and sign-offs for print ads than simply some gronk making a typo on a website. I'd say they'd be 'strongly encouraged' to honour it, otherwise it could be misconstrued as 'bait and switch' advertising.
this was how i got my sony x series 46" for 3.3k two years ago
dick smith "misprinted" their catalogue so they "wouldn't" honour it, came back the next day and they sold it
got a ps3 from the promo running at the time too
Even if it wasn't a mistake, they are under no obligation to honour that price. A retailer can refuse to accept any offer you make for an item.
Wrong.
The law is simple - the retailer must sell it at any price advertised - even if someone came along and put a sticker from another cheaper TV on to a more expensive one - they must sell it at the price that is labelled for that TV at that time.
—- HOWEVER —-
The retailer has the right to remove the items from sale altogether - meaning they can simply say "Sorry this item is no longer for sale" and cannot sell the item anymore
—- AND —-
In some cases releasing an apology with the same potency as the original advertisement is also accepted - meaning as long as the apology is as strong as the original advertisement the controlling bodies will accept.
@[Deactivated]: You're partly right. Further research shows that the Fair Trading Act (Vic) and the Trade Practices Act (Cth) both state that if a trader advertises goods at a price, they should have a reasonable quantity for a reasonable amount of time. Or, I guess, they could issue a retraction as soon as possible if they've made a mistake. An honest mistake is unlikely to be prosecuted by the ACCC.
But I'm pretty sure changing the price that the retailer marks an item at and then attempting to purchase it at that price constitutes a fraud. But I guess I wouldn't know much about that, being only a first-year law student. That's not to say that a retailer might value the goodwill of selling an item at the marked price, even though they are under no obligation to do so. A contract of sale is formed when retailer accepts YOUR offer for a particular good, not the other way around. Contract 101.
@railer: It's the old 'bait and switch'. "Sorry that was a mistake, but if you're after a television…" Big W seemed to very active in this area. HUGE fold out brochures with cheap cheap LCD TVs. But here in regional Adelaide they only have 2 or 3 in stock for the entire state. But you're already in the store. They used to do the same thing with the Ultimate Bumblebee toy in it's prime.
I think this is why Office of Fair Trading is less tolerant these days of retailers crying wolf over 'mistake' advertised prices. In the end they generate a LOT of interest and more than a few walk in sales.
that is certainly true… if your life involves watching Blu Ray well then sure
but while aus dtv is 1,080i and only 720p, i'll stick with 720p
funny that you should say that, as i dont watch tv lol.
Paid $1400 for this 4 months ago - great price for a great TV.
Wow is it a bargain, they would probably give it to for this price anyway.
I wonder if this will work in WA or just in Sydney??
great price, but i am looking for 50inch LED
This started just after boxing day in 1 of there clearance catalogues which I think ended 16/01….they also had the 46z in the same catalogue for $2k
having owned 720p and 1080p LCD and Plasma,and now using a 720p projector fulltime i can give pretty good advice to anyone getting this, and yes I'd get it for sure.
1080p is better side by side, but we hardly have 2 side by side. but I would not say amazingly better, if you have a tv etc that has very good contrast and colour accuracy, this outweighs resolution on every occasion. no idea on this, but for example i had a 720p first gen kuro and this tv beat any 1080p tv at the time in clarity other than the 1080p model of kuro.
also lots of guys and girls with 1080p tvs will see something in 720p then see it in 1080p and say it's better. of course it is, it's not doing 1:1 pixel mapping so it's having to upscale 720p to 1080p, so it's not sharp. if you had a 720p set and ran it at 720p and a 1080p set next to it runnign 1080p the 1080p will appear clearer but only at certain viewing distances.
but with the right material, display and environment people will find it hard to pic the difference if not side by side. i can vouch as i've had friends see my setup and firstly just say "wow that is soo clear" and I haven't told them it's 720p. yet 1 mate has a 46" 1080p G10 Pana, 2 other friends have some 1080p samsung lcd and an AWA brand 1080p lcd and they were not thinking about 1080p when they saw imax transformers 2 version or bluray monsters inc rip at 720p.
this tv is great for it's price and you won't have any complaints.
Another bonus for 1080p is if you ever hook your PC to it. 720p is very limited real estate when you do that. I find when I connect my laptop to my 720p pana 42 plasma I don't like it at all. I am busting to upgrade when the missus lets me :P
It still looks great when watching tv and I don't quite agree with the comment above about "if it's 1080p it will come with other goodies". I'd say the colour depth and framerate are better on a better brand than didn't just concentrate on sticking as many pixels on as they could. Just like a 12Mpixel yum-cha camera won't stack up to a 7MP SLR
+1 for the PC comment.
I run my HTPC to my 50" Panasonic TH50PX70A 720p plasma via VGA. Had issues with overscan using DVI > HDMI and no amount of fiddling, using Powerstrip, etc fixed it. I gave up and just used VGA with 1366 x 768 res. It looks pretty much the same anyway.
The real estate doesn't matter if you're running some kind of Media Center (I'm currently using Windows 7). It only matters if you're say browsing, iTunes, normal PC stuff.
DVI > HDMI works easy with 1080p sets with no overscan.
100% agreed. Even though I rarely put 1080p source material through my 40" Full HD set, I do have a HTPC connected to it and the extra screen real estate is very worthwhile. These (720p/1080i) sets are really designed for those who just want to watch TV on a nice big screen and throw in a few DVDs here and there. Enthusiasts will look past it.
you can't be an enthusiast with a 40" full hd tv and no 1080p content :P
Rarely :)
Few 1080p rips here and there (probably around 20).
Dont forget Gran Turismo 5!
or any other 1080p games.
another point worth considering is that all 1080 sources will have to be downscaled to 720. this is another layer of processing which can introduces image degradation, and depending on the TV may or may not be done well.
Same goes for 720p content upscaled on 1080p panels.
yes true. but upscaling is generally a much simpler process than downscaling, where aliasing can become an issue and so further filtration is required.
and most context in australia is 1080. is anything broadcast at 720p these days?
espn hd? i'm not sure but it does in states so may here. most of the content can be downscaled to 720p relatively easily, bluray players, foxtel iq2. i have my iq2, ps3, xbox 360 and bluray recorder all set to 720p, the devices can usually downscale fine. it's like shrinking a picture down by 80%, usually looks good and not much difference, don't usually see a picture upscaled by 20% looking better than the original?
Not bad despite it not being 1080p or Full HD. I suspect stores with those specs will try to offload them asap.