hd tv helps

[Midget]

right, recently technology in television has really changed, and i've never bothered trying to keep up, so i don't have a clue whats what

so basically, i'm getting a small hdtv for xmas that i can take to uni with me next year for watching tv and dvds and playing xbox 360 on

so, this is what i'd like to know:
lcd or plasma?
what size? i've been looking at 20" but i don't know what is good
what is a good resolution?
what should i be looking for in terms of sound? it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect, but i'd like it to be decent
what exactly do i need to make my 360 work in hd?

these are my requirements:
has to be quite small because of small uni flat and simply because ive never liked big tvs
would prefer it to have built in freeview
looking to spend up to about £300

here (http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=415227) is one i've been looking at, it looks alright to me, but you're the experts :p

cheers

[Dingboy Bob The Slammy Walrus Bitch]

LCD is best for smaller TV's I think. To get your 360 on HD you need to use the special cable that I think you get with the 360, at one end it has a switch that changes from SD to HD I think. On the other end there are 5 different colour cables and you plug them in the back of your tv, Voila!

[piemastermike]

voila

from what i've heard LCDs are better for smaller screens.

[Joe G]

If you have premium you need to look for component input which is the 'special cable' with red, green and blue outputs aswell as red, yellow and white. The TV you suggested does have this so it would do 720p which looks lovely with the 360. But for that size you could save and go for one of these:
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3348756/LG-M228WA-22-Widescreen-LCD-TV-Monitor/Product.html
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3385383/LG-M198WA-19-Widescreen-HD-Ready-LCD-TV-Monitor/Product.html
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3435702/Samsung-22-LE22S86BDX-HD-Ready-Freeview-Widescreen-LCD-TV/Product.html (cheap but the reviews suggest it makes funny noises)
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3435709/Samsung-19-LE19R86BDX-Freeview-HD-Ready-LCD-TV/Product.html
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3496910/Samsung-Pebble-SM932MW-19-Widescreen-LCD-TV-Monitor-With-Tuner-And-HDMI/Product.html

To be honest the top one looks the best to me or the bottom for the nice look and freeview.
Edit: Some of those do 1080i but it's no better than 720p for gaming apparently and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see much of a difference.

[Scribbly]

Only 20"?

You can get a 22" widescreen (for computer) Samsung for around 250 euro's. That's near to HD quality

[Beef Magic]

Ding ding

Get a computer monitor, they have been HD for ages.


(Charlie Brooker said so)

[Lewiji]

Only 20"?

You can get a 22" widescreen (for computer) Samsung for around 250 euro's. That's near to HD quality
Actually if you can get a display that supports it, the newest cards support higher than HD standard resolution.

[Soapie]

For 20", LCD. 37" is the smallest you'll find plasmas on the market at the moment.

Only you can decide what size, you'll find 19, 20, 22 and 23 inch sets, so not the easiest decision to make.

Televisions will mostly be either 1366x768 or something very similar at that size. Computer monitors and some televisions will be 1440x900. This is a different aspect, so either everything will be stretched (more likely) or you'll have letterboxes.

Every TV that big pretty much sounds like shit. Brand name ones will usually have better sound (and picture, for that matter) than super market specials. Look at Sony, Philips and Toshiba. Humax are reasonable if you want to save a few pennies (excellent for Freeview).

Use component for your 360 set to 720p and you'll be fine.

Try this (http://www.dixons.co.uk/product.php?sku=635730&camp_id=froogle). Bit more expensive than what you were looking for, but a nice size, and a really really nice set to boot. If it's too big, there's also a 19" version (http://www.froogle.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=PHIL-19PFL5522D), but that's got the computer monitor aspect ratio. I think you can choose letterboxes or zoom on this particular set though.