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Plasma owners : advice please!

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 12:14 pm
by Woz
So - we've just sold our house and the buyers want my projector and screen, so I've got some money to spend in the new house on a new setup.
The plan is to do a garage conversion next year with a screen and PJ, so in the interim we want to put HT in the lounge, but keep it subtle.

I've just ordered six of these :

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http://www.orbaudio.com/

They're getting rave reviews everywhere, and they are being compared to the Anthony Gallo equivalents, but they cost about 1/3 of the price!
They are about the size of a grapefruit, so they should be pretty discrete in the room.

We're also looking at getting a plasma - I think spending about 1500 quid. I know that ReHaB has one, and I think there's some more of you that have, and I wondered if there was anything I should be looking out for.
I want to wall hang it, and I don't want it to have any speakers built in if possible, because I'll have the Orbs to do that. The wall where it would be best is only a stud wall - would this work? I know that they can be heavy, but I presume there is a way of hanging them on there.

Any advice for me?

Thanks.

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 12:50 pm
by jamie
Woz, Ill have a word next week with our guys who fit plasmas,see what they would recomend for a stud wall.

Re: Plasma owners : advice please!

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 12:55 pm
by DE-G@vnor
Woz wrote: Any advice for me?
On second thoughts, no .... 8)

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 1:23 pm
by Woz
jamie wrote:Woz, Ill have a word next week with our guys who fit plasmas,see what they would recomend for a stud wall.
Cheers Jamie.


Up yours G@v.
(I'm still not going to vote either).

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 3:31 pm
by DE-G@vnor
capitalist pig dog.

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 6:48 pm
by John Dee
Good place for plasma is http://www.nexnix.co.uk/ :thumbs:

I got my plasma from them and had no problems

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 9:03 pm
by Woz
John Dee wrote:Good place for plasma is http://www.nexnix.co.uk/ :thumbs:

I got my plasma from them and had no problems
Good site!
I'd forgotten about them, and they seem to have the one I'm looking for at a pretty good price too.
Cheers.

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 10:31 pm
by jamie
Hey John whereabouts in manchester are you from?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 11:01 pm
by John Dee
Manchester :D and not one of those hangers on areas like Oldham or bury

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 11:12 pm
by jamie
City centre then? I live in swinton, and the worlds angriest man himsef lives not too far away in salford.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 12:13 am
by -ReHaB-
Shouldn't have any problems with a stud wall, as long as you know where the studs are. The plasma will be around 40-50kg for a 42" so unless the wall is really flimsy it will be ok. You have to be sure that the holes of the bracket line up with the studs of course :) if not you may have to put in extra bracing inside the cavity of the stud wall (this might be a good idea anyway). As you know, mine is on a solid chimney wall so I didn't have any of those issues.

As far as suggesting a Plasma. Well you need to know what size you want and you have to take into account the design you and your missus want for the room. Also will you need a HD with HDMI connection or will you make do with a SD like mine untill prices of HD drop to a resonable level.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 7:26 am
by Woz
-ReHaB- wrote: As far as suggesting a Plasma. Well you need to know what size you want and you have to take into account the design you and your missus want for the room. Also will you need a HD with HDMI connection or will you make do with a SD like mine untill prices of HD drop to a resonable level.
I'm pretty sure that 42" is the size I'm going for - it's a pretty big room of something like 25x25, so it needs a big screen.
As I'm looking at spending around 1500 quid, I think HD is well out of my range. I know from having a PJ that you can get pretty darned good pictures out of current resolutions, so that doesn't really bother me.

Your's is a Panny PWD6 or something isn't it?
Nexnix seem to be doing the PWD6 for about 1300 quid, so that fits the price I'm looking for.
Does this panny come with a VGA connector on it as standard do you know? It's possible I'll drive most of this with an HTPC...

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:03 pm
by John Dee
Yes the panny PWD6 has VGA as standard and you have to buy more cards for other connections

P.S the panny rocks :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: (it was the one I got)

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:01 am
by Leigh
www.av-sales.co.uk are supposed to be very good for plasmas and have some cracking deals on :)

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 9:05 am
by -ReHaB-
Like John Dee say the PW6 Has VGA onboard. Although I have no idea what broadcast TV will look like going through a HTPC then into VGA.

I have Sky going through a RGB>component converter and DVD using component also. Both are routed through my recently aquired Onkyo TX-NR 900e for switching.

BTW this Onkyo have one great feature apart from sound quality and component switching. It has Net-Tune so it can stream MP3s from my server...gotta love that :thumbs:

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 10:12 am
by Woz
-ReHaB- wrote:Like John Dee say the PW6 Has VGA onboard. Although I have no idea what broadcast TV will look like going through a HTPC then into VGA.
Well, there's several Digital Telly cards for the PC now, so I'm thinking that I would be able to drive DVD, digital telly and streaming media through a moderately low-specced machine. The real problem I see is that I need the interface to be child and wife friendly. They are all used to TiVo, so I need something at that level.
With this, I would be able to dump cable telly - we've worked out that the only thing we watch on the subscription channels is 24 on Sky1, which hardly seems a good deal for 25 quid a month!

With one of these : http://www.av-sales.co.uk/html/rgb_to_p ... n_vga.html
I could possibly drive everything through the one port, and not need to buy any extra boards for the plasma, although I'd need a monitor switch.
-ReHaB- wrote: I have Sky going through a RGB>component converter and DVD using component also. Both are routed through my recently aquired Onkyo TX-NR 900e for switching.
My current amp doesn't do component switching, and I'm not sure I want to spend on an amp as well, so component looks like an expensive option to me.

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 11:32 am
by Worm
Woz wrote:
-ReHaB- wrote:Like John Dee say the PW6 Has VGA onboard. Although I have no idea what broadcast TV will look like going through a HTPC then into VGA.
Well, there's several Digital Telly cards for the PC now, so I'm thinking that I would be able to drive DVD, digital telly and streaming media through a moderately low-specced machine. The real problem I see is that I need the interface to be child and wife friendly. They are all used to TiVo, so I need something at that level.
With this, I would be able to dump cable telly - we've worked out that the only thing we watch on the subscription channels is 24 on Sky1, which hardly seems a good deal for 25 quid a month!

With one of these : http://www.av-sales.co.uk/html/rgb_to_p ... n_vga.html
I could possibly drive everything through the one port, and not need to buy any extra boards for the plasma, although I'd need a monitor switch.
-ReHaB- wrote: I have Sky going through a RGB>component converter and DVD using component also. Both are routed through my recently aquired Onkyo TX-NR 900e for switching.
My current amp doesn't do component switching, and I'm not sure I want to spend on an amp as well, so component looks like an expensive option to me.
My pioneer does Comp and monitor switching, its a great bit of kit for under a grand!

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:13 pm
by Woz
Worm wrote:
My pioneer does Comp and monitor switching, its a great bit of kit for under a grand!
Your amp was a grand?
Well, there's no way I have that sort of money - that's nearly what the plasma will cost!
I have a reasonable amp, and being as this is for the lounge, not the eventual Home Theater, I don't want to spend that sort of money.

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:19 pm
by Worm
Woz wrote:
Worm wrote:
My pioneer does Comp and monitor switching, its a great bit of kit for under a grand!
Your amp was a grand?
Well, there's no way I have that sort of money - that's nearly what the plasma will cost!
I have a reasonable amp, and being as this is for the lounge, not the eventual Home Theater, I don't want to spend that sort of money.
UNDER a grand silly I paid £850 for it, I think its only 600 odd quid now :D (which is VERY cheap for an Air Studios/THX 7.1/DTS/ES blah blah suck my balls and chew my nipples switching AV amp) ;)

See what you mean though, my HT is in my living room as I garage is host to my gym, I already have a games room so I doubt the mussis will let me have anymore space. :? (she will change her mind when I come home with a plasma/projector one day)

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 2:45 pm
by Sander
I've got the Pioneer 434 PDP (or something), almost have it a year now, it works great. I've attached a picture when I just hung it at the wall with the special wallmount.

It was tested best tv by most British magazines.

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