I went to an enormous Currys the other day
and the spotty oik informed me:

a. 'Sony don't make anything smaller than 40"'

Eh?

and

b. 'Why would we have SD sources for you to view on them, they're HDTVs!'

which was obviously a useful trip.

@ k2 - I know, I know, and I used to mount the same soapbox myself. I've got a 32" flat JVC CRT, 100Hz, etc etc, bloody lovely telly but it's the size of a 3 bedroom bungalow and I'm redoing the layout of the room so it's going to have to go.

PS - 'overdriving the electronics resulting in poorer reliability' sounds more like internet Chinese whispers rather than technical fact, which unfortunately somewhat discredits the rest of your post. Also, how can upscaling a SD picture off, say, a DVD result in compression artefacts? There's no compression happening...

Given that I want a new TV it seems sensible to future proof by getting HD, and those are only realistically available as LCDs these days. Also there's the obvious size benefits. Hence stating that the quality of the scaler is paramount. I know good scaling can work as I have played at being an A/V tech a little bit (I'm a noise boy really...) and have seen decent upscaling performed by pro bits of kit onto HD plasmas and such. To be honest the compression artefacts in your average Sky digital picture, even viewed on a 20" CRT, are enough to give me a headache so I realise it's not going to make everything look spangly and HD, I just want the best compromise available.

Some food for thought, cheers bill (highly technical explanations always appreciated btw!), unfortunately I live out in the sticks so this is having to be an internet research job, don't you love em? The Samsungs were my close second to the Sonys on the research so far, looks like I may have to try and find some examples and plug SD sources into them to see what they look like.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 20:59, Reply)