Panasonic 42" 720p set X10 model for £369 at richer sounds. So good I bought 2. On SD pictures its much better than a 1080 set due to less upscaling I suppose. On HD it is so marginally inferior to a 1080 that you would hardly notice the difference if they were side by side.
A 5 year warranty will be £37, and its one of the best warranties available. Power consumption is about 150watts in use, I measured it over a month of viewing and averaged it out as I too heard horror stories about power consumption on plasma sets.
Now go and buy one and you will never look back
PS. its got 2 rgb scarts and 3 hdmi's among its many connections.
Mick, I have another of those scart connectors things if you want it.
Another vote for this, and I'm gutted at the Richer price. AFAICR I paid around £700 to John Lewis (inc. five year) no more than 18 months ago! At that price I may grab one for the kitchen ... er ... maybe not.I also have a 42 x10, as you state Mr Wolf the sets performance is so much better than a 1080 panel when viewing sd,only on blu ray does it fall down a little compared to it's 1080 panel siblings however from 12" away as you correctly state,the differences are marginal.
We installed a freesat dish and plan to buy a 32" flat screen and box. Initially was going to spend £800 on a Panasonic with freesat HD tuner in it then thought this was daft as we will want to record stuff on a freesat recorder. Should I buy the best value 32" screen without freesat built in and put the cash I save to the recorder?
Any recommendations for freesat HD recorders most welcome.