My Panasonic TH42PX60 plasma is only 2 years old but today it came up with all funny colours so I had to unplug it. It's OK now but, in case it's getting ready to die, what's the best TV to replace it with?

I'd like my next TV to have more accurate flesh tones (the Pana seems a little red even after professional calibration) - does their newer models give better flesh tones?

This set looks crisper with HD and SD material when set to 720p as opposed to 1080i. Will the newer 1080p sets be better?

Is Panasonic the best bet or will I get better flesh colour with a Pioneer?

Is 100Hz any good? I watch a lot of SD TV. The Pana's internal freeview picture is not too good - cheap upscaler in this TV?

Bottom line, I'm looking for a plasma TV that has as natural a colour profile as my CRT TV's and my Apple TFT display.

Any recommendations welcome

Since you are very particular about what you want you must see as many TVs as you can especially if the shop will let you adjust the settings. There's nothing wrong in being picky about your TV (in fact it's good) but it does mean that a TV someone else rates may not suit you, your own eyes are always the best judge - I preferred the tones on my PX70 to any of the LCDs I checked out.

Panasonic PZ, I have a PZ81 and its amazing in every aspect. Or go for a Pioneer Kuro if you have the dosh

How about a TV with a longer warranty?

Even if the guarantee has expired you could make a claim against the retailer under the Sale of Goods Act, as 2 years is hardly a reasonable lifespan for a TV. Few people do because they aren't lawyers and don't want the hassle, though!

As for a new TV, if money is no object and you want the best picture, buy a Pioneer. Like bobcar I prefer the skintones on plasma to anything I have seen on LCD (neither is perfect, of course).

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated, but I am curious as to why my 22" Apple iMac 16:9 TFT monitor gives beautiful natural colours which my Pana plasma cannot come close to. Is a TFT similar in technology to an LCD?

Do any plasma's have a "tint" control? When I watch an NTSC DVD I can adjust the tint and make perfect colours, but it's inoperative on a PAL picture.

TFT is just one particular type of LCD.

Plasma has a much poorer colour gamut than a CRT set, and is much further away from the International standard.

I've never seen a gamut for an LCD, but I assume (and results seem to support it) that is has a much better gamut than a PDP.

You need to consider how each type works:

CRT - phosphurs convert the impact of electrons to light, either red, blue, or green - the accuracy of these conversions create the 'gamut'.

PDP (Plasma) - these use phosphurs to convert ultraviolet light to visible light - the poorer accuracy of this gives them a poorer gamut.

LCD - these pass 'white' light through three coloured filters, coloured filters are fairly easy to get accurate, so it mainly depends on how 'white' the original source is.

I've got a Plasma, it might have less accurate colours than CRT or LCD, but I'm perfectly happy with it's performance.

i did after 18 months, a bit of hassle but got my lg swapped for a panny with a 5 year warranty as well

Slightly off subject, but has anyone recently had a message pop up on their Panasonic saying "Found new SOFTWARE. Press OK to Load"?? My Mum's set (32" LCD) did this morning (6/10/08)...Did what was asked and after about 10 minutes the set returned to normal, but for the life of me I can't see any noticable difference. A work collegue got the same message about a week ago.

It could just be a simple bug fix, a lot of bugs may exist in the software which never affect most people so they never notice.