Making the leap to the digital lounge room on a budget

Adam Turner | Apr 16, 2009 1:55 PM

When a friend asked for advice on upgrading to digital without spending a fortune, Adam Turner put together his hi-tech short list.

When you're a nerd with expensive taste, it's easy to forget that your average punter doesn't want to splash $7,000 on the latest 1080p Pioneer Kuro plasma and then drop a few grand more on a high-def media centre that will never quite behave itself. Most people are just looking for decent gear that offers good value for money and will work as advertised.

A friend dropped me an email this week, asking for some buying advice on behalf of his workmate Evi. The basic brief was $1500 to $2000 on a nice looking television around the 40 inch mark, plus perhaps a high-def player and a digital video recorder.

After a bit of online window shopping at the likes of The Good Guys, JB Hifi and Retravision, I reckon you'd struggle to find a decent 1080p 40inch in that price range. Of course it depends on your definition of "decent", but remember that I'm looking for "value for money" not just "cheap". Telling people that they should just spend more is not necessarily practical advice.

From my experience, Panasonic still seems to offer the best value for money these days - selling very good televisions for only a few dollars more than the mediocre ones. If I went out television shopping today with $2000 in my pocket, I'd certainly look around for a good price on the 42 inch 1080p Panasonic VIERA TH-42PZ80A plasma. The RRP is $2549, but I'm sure if you shopped around you could find it much closer to the $2000 mark. From looking at the Panasonic website, it seems they'll throw in a Blu-ray player - which certainly sweetens the deal. It looks like it's the Panasonic DMP-BD35, which has an excellent reputation.

Panasonic is launching its new range of televisions at the end of April, so you'll probably get some good deals as retailers clear out the old models.

I'm also very fond of Sony Bravia LCDs, although they tend to be a little more expensive. Flicking through today's paper, I saw the 40 inch 1080p Sony Bravia W4500 LCD for $2388, with a Sony BDPS550 Blu-ray player thrown in. I'd certainly add that deal to my short list as well.

If all this is still a bit much for Evi's hip pocket, I would seriously consider dropping from 1080p to 720p rather than going for the budget brands. There's a lot more to a good television than just the number of pixels, and I've seen good 720p plasma televisions that run rings around some of the cheap 1080p LCD sets.

To stay under $2K I'd look at the 42 inch 720p Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX80A plasma - which retails for $1899 and has had excellent reviews. You'd pick it up for closer to $1500 and, if Evi sweet talks the salesman, she might walk away with the TH-42PX80A plasma and the DMP-BD35 for around $2000.

Things start to get more complicated when you start to talk about recording HDTV. While there's a lot to be said for media centres, as well as jack-of-all-trades PVRs from the likes of Beyonwiz and Topfield, I wouldn't recommend them to Evi unless she's a tech-savvy gadget-lover who likes to tinker. I certainly wouldn't inflict one on my mother-in-law, for example. She knows her way around a computer but when it comes to the lounge room she wants something that "just works".

One option is to go the whole hog and look at the Panasonic Blu-ray recorders, such as the DMR-BW750 or 850 (which aren't quite on the shelves yet).

In theory the BW750 should handle all of Evi's needs, but I don't reckon they're the best PVRs around. When it comes to a balance between advanced features and easy of use, I'd say TiVos are hard to beat. Like most high-def PVRs, there's no easy way to copy recordings off the device.

If burning to DVD/Blu-ray is important, Evi should think about the BW750 - although I'd say there's not that much on free-to-air worth keeping. Otherwise I'd seriously consider an entry level Blu-ray player from Panasonic or Sony. If she's keen on watching DivX movies or YouTube clips, I'd also give some serious consideration to the new LG BD370 Blu-ray player. Alongside the Blu-ray player I'd sit a TiVo (perhaps with the 1TB external drive) and then pick up a cheap Logitech Harmony 785 universal remote.

If Evi shops around, she could easily pickup at the lot for close to $2500 dollars. If I was outfitting a digital lounge room today, with an eye on value for money, this would certainly be a good starting point.