Thanks for that I'll note a couple of those down when going to John Lewis soon

You would be hard pressed to find a decent AV receiver of the level of Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon or Pioneer that didn't do the HD formats. My Onkyo 507 was released in 2009 and even it does Dolby/DTS HD.

The HD formats are lossless, so in theory what comes out of the decoder in your home is identical to what went into the encoder at the studio. The other formats use a lossy bitrate reduction system. So what you get at home is only an approximation to what went on in the studio. Close but not identical.

Cheers I'll keep them in mind

I think I decided on that Panny LED (the ET60) I think, the next model in the series is a bit too expensive for me Some specs say that TV is backlit, some say its edge lit, is there any real difference?

Apparently there are rumours on AVForums that the ET61 (from John Lewis) actually includes more advanced options that shouldnt be there (theyre in the higher end models like the WT, such as local dimming). If it turns out local dimming is there thats great

I ordered the ET61 from John Lewis today and it will be delivered a week on Monday

Hey,
Thanks for the earlier links about speaker packages - I found this seperate amp and speakers (so a bit cheaper) so thought it would be another option - are the speakers any good?

http://www.hispek.com/tannoy/hifi-sy...k-pd-14425.php

http://www.hispek.com/yamaha/hifi-re...k-pd-12566.php

Those are not Tannoy TFX5.1 speakers but the cheaper SFX5.1 so that makes me suspicious right from the start. And Richersounds do that combination cheaper than those prices anyway.

http://www.richersounds.com/package/...eals/pah011188

And you get the real Tannoy THX speakers!

And nowt wrong with Tannoy speakers. Listening to a pair of their professional studio monitor range as I type.

Thanks For £400 that looks a damn good system to me Putting that on my shortlist.

I just noticed the speaker package (TFX5.1) on that link dont have a "Buy Now" next to it, could they be OOS?

Which link? Mine or yours?

The Yamaha/Tannoy bundle isn't available online from Richersounds. You either have to tool down to one of their stores or phone them. You know, the way folks bought stuff before this new fangled interweb thing came along

I was talking about your link, sorry for not being clearer

Are the Tannoy HTS101 speakers a good substitute if I can get the TFX5.1 set?

The HTS's are higher up the price tree than the THX's. Not that that necessarily means anything.

They are also a bit bigger and a more conventional rectangular wooden box type than the THX if either of those factors are important to you.

Thanks I think I'd prefer smaller speakers to save space but I'll think it over. If I can I'd rather go with the cheaper set and save money (as you say, price doesnt necessarily mean much).

In the end I went with the Yamaha RXV373 Amp and Tannoy HTS101 speakers

I've got my new set today and have been playing about with it Watching in SD it actually looks enormous (47") I havent tried HD yet though.
I've managed to get a Custom Picture setting thats very close to what I had set the "Cinema" setting to on my Panny LCD, but the out of the box presets are rubbish with Contrast and Sharpness whacked up so I turned those down. Immediately this brought improvement.
Its actually a lovely looking TV, what strikes you most is just how thin it is.
Is there anyway I can switch it on without the banner appearing on the screen for a few seconds at the top?

Easy. Hack into the firmware of the TV, reverse engineer it then delete the bit of code to display the banner. Recompile it and load back into the telly.

In other words I very much doubt it.

Or you could just go

Menu / setup / display settings / banner display time out .( set to 0 to never see it at all )

and

Menu / setup / display settings / viera connect banner ( set to off )

But the home banner is part of the TV and looks like it cant be changed .

Fair enough then The Home Screen banner isnt too bad, its the adverts I object to (which I got rid of by doing what you suggested)
If you have this TV, do you have any good settings for the True Cinema mode? Out of the box its awful so I turned the backlight and sharpness down, but I'm sure it could be better

Have you thought about having it professionally calibrated, this can make a very noticeable difference. Costs around £200.

If you don't want to spend that sort of money, how about something like Digital Video Essentials, they do one for SD and one for HD, they include filter glasses and take you through all the settings and explain what they are and what they do, there are also various test cards to get your settings correctly adjusted. Much cheaper, HD version about £20, SD version about £15.

HD version - http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-Ray/4-/3...130619173752:s


SD version - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Vi...item460d326d13

I'll give those discs/test patterns a go, thanks. Don't want to spend so much money I'm afraid

I was wondering, how exactly do I check if I set the TV up correctly for 'Home' mode? I cant find anything.

The test discs should give you some guidance on what you should be looking for during the tweaking process.

But ultimately it is correct when it looks correct. You are the one who is going to sit in front of it all day, not me nor anyone else on the planet, so ultimately the only opinion that matters a toss is yours. If you are happy with how it looks then it is set up correctly.

By simply selecting 'Home' when you initially installed the set, most recent sets offer the option for 'Home' or 'Shop' when you first plug them in.

If it's set to 'Shop' it's likely to be over bright and over contrast (to compensate for the bright lighting in shops).

Essentially the picture setting usually have various preset defaults, Shop uses the highest one (often called Vivid), and Home uses a middle one.