Televisions

LG’s plasma screens have a reputation for unassailable value, but the brand was also first to ink deals with THX and ISF for certification and calibration, and has generally impressed with the finesse of its larger panels.

Ask any AV enthusiast to recommend a plasma TV and they’ll invariably mention Panasonic. The same isn’t always true of LED TVs, though – something the PDP giant will hope to change with its new 2011 range of LED sets.

The LC-37LE320 is an LED flatscreen that takes its design cues, if not its picture technology, from Sharp’s high-end Quattron TV range. These panels squeezed a fourth pixel from the usual RGB array, and the yellow pixel’s arrival certainly led to a significant step up in performance.

LG is telling anyone who cares to listen that it’s ‘Sky’s brand of choice’ for 3D tellies, and it’s been uniquely prolific about offering 3D models in every type of TV technology. So far we’ve had direct and edge LED, CCFL LCD and even a Passive 3D LCD model to go with the more popular Active ones.

Toshiba desperately wants a slice of the high-end flatscreen TV market. It’s been trying for years to secure a beachhead, first with its ill-fated SED project and more recently with the first generation Cell TV.

Just as Spinal Tap’s amps go to 11, then Philips’ 58PFL9955H goes to 21. Or 21:9, to be precise. This is the much-anticipated sequel to the brand’s original, ground-breaking and seriously movie-friendly Cinema 21:9 – a TV which laughed in the piffling face of your usual 16:9-ratio TVs and stretched to embrace the extra girth of the ultra-wide CinemaScope aspect ratio still used on the majority of cinematically released films.

Anyone of a certain vintage will fondly recall the ‘Ullo Tosh’ ads of the mid-80s. Inspired by an Alexei Sayle comedy single and voiced by the much-missed Ian Dury, Toshiba’s ‘Blueprint Man’ would extol the virtues of the company’s midi systems and the latest in flatter, squarer TV sets. But none of the copywriters involved in this memorable ad campaign could have foreseen the sophistication that today’s TV sets would reach.