In fact, after doing a bit of research, my options are now the Samsung listed in my original post, the Toshiba in my original post, and this Toshiba:

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=355461&tab=specification#spec

It's the model up from the one in my first post. It's the same size, but has 3 HDMI inputs instead of 2, supports 1080p, and has a CR of 3500:1 instead of 1000:1. Also if buying from Comet it includes an Onkyo sound system.

Obviously if it's not worth the extra £300 on that TV, I would go for one of the other 2. Just throwing that one in there ;)

[QUOTE="renegadeds"]

I'm currently in the market for an LCD HDTV - I want to avoid Plasma due to the problem with burn-in (I know it's getting less and less, but I want to protect my investment).

The TV will be used primarily for 360 gaming, with an hour or two of standard arial TV viewing (as in a normal signal, not HD) each night. I will also watch movies on the TV, currently on the standard 360 but soon using the HDDVD drive. I only have the 360 connected (no DVD player, I use the 360) and audio is not a problem because using the VGA cable I connect the audio to an amp and speaker system.

I have around £900 to spent on the TV, and have been looking at the following models.

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=318019&tab=specification

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=355941&tab=specification

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=364045&tab=specification

Any recommendations based on experiences with the sets, and what I want to use it for?

GalvatronType_R

I'm currently in the market for an LCD HDTV - I want to avoid Plasma due to the problem with burn-in (I know it's getting less and less, but I want to protect my investment).

The TV will be used primarily for 360 gaming, with an hour or two of standard arial TV viewing (as in a normal signal, not HD) each night. I will also watch movies on the TV, currently on the standard 360 but soon using the HDDVD drive. I only have the 360 connected (no DVD player, I use the 360) and audio is not a problem because using the VGA cable I connect the audio to an amp and speaker system.

I have around £900 to spent on the TV, and have been looking at the following models.

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=318019&tab=specification

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=355941&tab=specification

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=364045&tab=specification

Any recommendations based on experiences with the sets, and what I want to use it for?

HuusAsking

Thank you! Finally a good answer.
ElToRo_14

A good answer because it completely agrees with you?

I also think that 1080p is overkill for gaming. However, gaming isn't the only thing that can be done on an HDTV, is it? In fact, most people would say that gaming is the minimal thing they do on their TV - SD or HD. I use a HDTV, and went back to a SDTV recently. I couldn't see who I was shooting at, couldn't see the variation in the maps, couldn't see clearly in shadow - you name it, everything was wrong with SD. I think SD is fine, until you get used to HD. I can't go back at all now I'm afraid.

The price of HDTV is dropping significantly, enough so to fall into many consumers price range. It will come down further, which is why I'm waiting to invest in a bigger HDTV. However, it is staggering how much of a difference it makes in high end or action games - Gears, Splinter Cell, Graw - all look massively better on HDTV. Just because YOU can't find a use for it, doesn't mean everyone else can't either.

Oh, and about you being on a higher gamerscore than him - here is a quick lesson for you. Those points mean absolutely NOTHING about how good you are at games. NOTHING. ZERO. So him being behind you means? NOTHING. It's very annoying when people are like 'yeah Im better than you, my gamerscore is higher!'. They don't mean a single thing.

Basically if we assumed you have a monitor, a spare tower, a spare hard drive, and a spare DVDROM and all the accessories, for a good PC with the following it would run like so:
CPU: AMD64 X2 3800+ AM2 $148.99
MOBO: MSI K9N nForce 550 $73.49
Memory:  Kingston DDR2 400 512x2 (1GB) $119.99 (probably need 2GB)
Video: XFX GeForce 8800GTS $489.99

Total: $832.46
which is not too bad considering you now have graphical capabilities that are 2X a PS3
cashnmillions

OK, so if that was the case (which it isn't - assuming people have all that lying around in the first place is a lot to assume) it would mean that I have graphics capabilities 2x the PS3. But what is the use if I can't take advantage of that? Far Cry was a poor game - Crytek do not have a good record, or base to start on. I already said I'm absolutely NOT excited about Crysis - it just appears to be Far Cry with polish.

It's like having two cars which look exactly the same, same colour, same style, etc etc. One of them can do 300mph top speed, the other can do 200mph top speed. The 300mph top speed car is £800k. The 200mph top speed car is 300k (in relation to PS3 costing £425 and a TOP spec PC costing £1000). Which would you want to get? Faster car, right? However, how many roads do you know that you can do 300mph on? Think about legally, too. What's the point in having 1/3 extra power and speed, if you will never be able to take advantage of it? Crysis is the one game that has superb graphics, but as of yet nothing else can match it - meaning for the extra money spent for all the capabilities, you still only have one game to take advantage of it anyway. By the time games come out that can cast Crysis aside, the PC you bought to run Crysis will be old news, new components will be avilable, current components will be obsolete, etc etc. At that point, it will still be cheaper to buy the next Playstation or Xbox and play the entire 'next gen' of games, then to buy a cutting edge set of components again.

I have NOTHING against PC gaming - however, games that require a whole new set of hardware is just asking for trouble. Splinter Cell Double Agent requires pretty cutting edge machines to run it at the moment, so what are people with out of date machines supposed to think? 'Yeah, I'll spend $600 on a computer update to run SPDA', or 'Wait a minute, there is a 360 with SPDA for $400'.