LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[EvilBoris]

c*nt.

'tis being patched... just you wait.

You just keep telling yourself that.......

I'm sure it will be, they'd be stupid not too. Ubisoft are notorius buggers for leaving stuff missing or buggy in their live games. Did you controller modding fail then?

[Crisp_Rapper]

Did you controller modding fail then?

not yet... i hold little hope, it's very tricky.

[krispyk]

I've still not seen anywhere have the 32lxd500 for less than ?1500, while the 32ldx60 is between ?1200 and ?1300, depending on where you buy it. Plus, that second HDMI is rather a useful thing to have.

I saw the LX60 at JL yesterday and was very dissapointed in the quality of the picture compared to several other sets that were near it.

The 60 has 2 scarts (both RGB), 1 component and 2 HDMI.

This was on my audition list and I have TBH and say that I dont think it was as good as the LX500. It looks cheap and I think Panasonic have cut a few corners in build quality to bring these out at the price they have.

I am far more interested in the new Sony's due soon which on face value look like they are going to appeal very strongly to gamers thanks to the generous connections that they have.

[andrewfee]

I have a new tv and, shock horror, I am keeping it!

More details to follow...

[themanwithapc]

I have a new tv and, shock horror, I am keeping it!

More details to follow...

Finally.

I see it's the Sony you were contemplating whether to buy. Do post a full review on this, and what are the opinions on PC usage, as I might be buying one for myself to use as a PC monitor.

[krispyk]

I have a new tv and, shock horror, I am keeping it!

More details to follow...

It must be good then. Do pray tell what it is!

[andrewfee]

First of all I have to say that this is not a "perfect" screen, as you would probably expect from one that I've decided to keep, however it is the first LCD that I've bought where I felt the price was right for the quality/features that you get.

It's the Sony MFM-HT75W:



I have a quick shot I took of it in the "Post your Gaming Setups" topic, but I'll take some proper ones later. (I'm too busy using it )

Now, this isn't a big television; infact, it's not supposed to be a television at all. Sony class this as a 17" monitor rather than a television, but that has a couple of benefits - it means that you get a three year warranty, and you get their X-Black technology. It has a few other benefits as well, with its functionality, but I'll go into that later.

It's surprisingly heavy, and really solidly built. The hinge at the back allows for the screen to be tilted from 0 - 20º and is really stiff so it keeps the screen exactly where you want it. The front of the screen has two big strips of rubber along the bottom to stop it from sliding when adjusting it. Adjusting the tilt is effortless, even though the hinge seems stiff. All you have to do is gently push or pull the top of the screen and it'll go where you want it.

This is one of the main reasons I chose the Sony over other smaller LCDs, as vertical viewing angles on LCD still need a lot of work, and you have to be looking straight at it for the image to look its best.

The remote is small, but feels good, and is the only one I've seen for years with discrete input selection. (it has a button for each input) It does feel strange only having up, down, and ok for the menus, but works well.

It was bought to be a stopgap solution, as the 17" CRT monitor I've been using for my 360 died, and I needed something, especially with Oblivion out soon. After a day or so using it now, I can see it lasting quite a bit longer, to be honest.

The input selection is limited, but it has everything that I need:

• DVI-D
• VGA
• Component
• S-Video
• Composite
• RF

You'll probably notice the lack of RGB SCART - this is one of the few complaints that I have about it, but as it was bought to be a stop-gap, it wasn't an issue. I should also mention that the S-Video and Composite share the same audio input (as many do) and the VGA/DVI seem to share the same 3.5mm audio input. (not that I've tried it)

The set does not have audio output jacks, which is a disappointment, but I've worked around that by sending all audio straight to my amp.

Sony doesn't seem to list this as being "HD Ready" but all the shops I've seen have listed it as being so. It doesn't appear to accept interlaced signals over DVI, but does support 720p50. I'm not sure whether it supports HDCP or not, as I can't test that, but I did see one review mentioning that it had it.



As things are just now, I have my Oppo DV971H connected up over DVI for playing DVDs, My Xbox 360 hooked up over VGA, Xbox/PS2/Gamecube in component through a switch-box, and my Sony VTXD800U Freeview box hooked up over S-Video.

S-Video image quality isn't great, but certainly watchable. After using RGB for as long as I can remember, it's a noticeable step-down for things like menu text/subtitles, but when watching actual programmes it looks decent.

While I said I was sending all audio straight through to my amp (which is fine, as I use it for just about everything) I use the included SCART > Composite adapter connected to the secondary output to send audio to the television as well. (the SCART > S-Video cable I have only does video) For just watching television I tend not to put my amp on, and the built in speakers sound great for what they are.



I haven't actually tested the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube over component yet, but I did try the Xbox 360 and it was excellent. It's a 15:9 screen (typical, as it's a "Monitor") but when sending it 720p over Component or DVI it adds a 5mm border top and bottom. You do have the option to "zoom" which stretches the screen to fill it. So far, I've not really noticed the difference when playing games, although I do leave movies in the proper aspect ratio.

I hate to say this, but the component input was one of the best I've seen. It was easily better than the BRAVIA. With sharpness set to max, it has less edge-enhancement than the BRAVIA did. Going down to zero does not appear to actually blur the image though.

The downside, is that you can't seem to change the colour temperature for the component/s-video/composite/rf inputs. If I could find a way into the service menu I'm sure it could be done, but really, it's fine as is. Perhaps a bit cooler than I'd have liked, but not objectionable.



DVI is superb, as is to be expected. As a PC display, it's flawless. What I did not expect, however, was the best DVD images that I've seen on any screen. That includes any I've owned, demoed, or seen in a shop.

Now, I'm sure that a lot of this has to do with the size of the screen, and that I'm sitting at 4' but the image is incredibly sharp without any edge enhancement etc.

I think one of the other main reasons it looks so good, however, is X-Black. Basically X-Black is an incredibly glossy LCD screen. Now, of course this has the drawback that you're probably all thinking of - reflections.

Unlike CRT or Plasma, however, these reflections do not ruin the image. With CRT/Plasma, most of the display is glass, so any sort of light causes lots of internal reflections, significantly degrading the picture quality. X-Black doesn't have this. Yes, on a full-black screen you can see quite a lot of reflections, but for the majority of the time, it just means you have images with an incredible amount of depth. Black is solid black, but also full of detail. (when brightness is set correctly)

In a room where you can't control the lighting, I can see it being a problem. For me, I usually have my blind down, and a light on in the room. Nothing I have seen has been this black or produced images with such depth. I'll have to try and get some pictures of it later.

With the lights off, the image is a bit disappointing, as the backlight adjustment doesn't really seem to help blacks much at all. They're not terrible, but just typical LCD grey blacks. The Sony BRAVIA is still the best in a dark room with its great backlight adjustment and power saving mode. Normally I prefer to watch in a darker room, but after seeing XBlack in action, I will be watching with the lights on all the time.


As DVI is one of the "PC" inputs, you also get your choice of four gamma presets, and the ability to use a custom colour temperature, which is great, but the sRGB preset seemed to work really well for DVDs.



VGA is just as good as DVI, with one exception. When sending it a 1280x720 signal (720p) you don't have the option to stretch or not - it fills the screen regardless of what you send it.

Due to being able to adjust gamma and colour temperature I prefer to use that for the 360, and for games so far, it hasn't really bothered me.

Surprisingly, Quake 4 has been the game that has impressed me the most so far, but I think that's due to how well Xblack works with it.


The set has a reasonably flexible Picture-in-Picture option - there's one button to turn it on/off, but if you go into the menus you can choose from Component (not tried it with HD yet) Composite/S-Video, or RF. You can choose for it to go in either corner and pick from three sizes. You can also choose whether audio is played from the main/sub-picture.



Now, the screen isn't perfect. For one, it hates the cold. Most LCDs aren't great when they get cold, but I left my window open last night, and this morning, for about 10 mins, response time was really bad.

Once the set has warmed up, however, it does fairly well. Sony quotes 16ms, but it's not quite Sharp's "16ms." If you look for it, you'll notice response issues. There's not really any trailing behind objects on the screen, I've only seen it once so far, and not since. (and it's been on quite a long time already) There's a bit of "defocusing" as you see on most LCDs, but it's certainly not enough to bother me really.

It's like the PSP in this regard; now I don't mean the response times are that bad, they really aren't, but once you actually start playing a game, you don't notice it. I would have liked to see better, but it's good enough to game on, in my opinion.

I would really have liked to see a DVB-T tuner in it, as a regular RF one is pretty useless, in my opinion. (although for RF, the picture is ok)

RGB SCART would be handy, but only because it doesn't have DVB-T. The only thing I use SCART for is my Freeview box, so it's really one or the other for me, and I'd prefer a built in tuner. For older consoles with RGB I will probably use my XRGB2+ assuming that it works over VGA. (I'll have to try it out with my Saturn later)


Again, I'm sick of having all these displays to review, so I've not spent a huge amount of time writing it, so if it feels a little disjointed, that's why. If there's anything I've missed, or any questions you have, I'll try to answer them.

I'm not sure if it's just because I had quite low expectations for a £350 display, but this one has easily impressed me the most out of the ones I've had so far.

With all of the other LCDs I had at least one big complaint with something they did (or didn't do) but really there's not a lot I can fault this for. It's certainly good value for money at £350, in my opinion.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Can anyone recommend a silver 25 inch 4:3 TV for gaming as I got my eye on Silver Sony Trinitron 21 inch TV KV-21CT1B on ebay but none are local so far. I don't know if there is a 25 inch version. As long it got flat screen, decent RGB and are silver and can be hidden in wardrobe there is no problem and cost less than 100 quids I will be happy.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5875413764&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

It will be used for Nintendo 64 via S-video and PS2 games via Scart socket (Non progressive scan games)

[Lyris]

That sounds like quite the bargain Andrew! I'll definitely look into Sony LCDs when I'm eventually replacing my Philips 17" TFT. Could do with a nice widescreen one and a second video monitor wouldn't hurt either!

[themanwithapc]

That sounds like quite the bargain Andrew! I'll definitely look into Sony LCDs when I'm eventually replacing my Philips 17" TFT. Could do with a nice widescreen one and a second video monitor wouldn't hurt either!

Same here. How much did you buy yours for Andrew?

[andrewfee]

Same here. How much did you buy yours for Andrew?

?350 from EmpireDirect. (I hate the company, but nowhere else had it for a reasonable price)

[themanwithapc]

?350 from EmpireDirect. (I hate the company, but nowhere else had it for a reasonable price)

That's decent. Might have to give it a go in the near future. I was thinking of giving my TFT to my sisters and getting a bigger screen.

Just a side question. Is it just me, or does the display not look widescreen in the photos?

[SubparMario]

Looks alright to me although I don't know if it is physically 15:9 rather than just the resolution.

Still, 17" widescreen diagonal makes for pretty tiny screen, surely?

[dataDave]

There has been an admin botch at the Optoma factory and as a result I won't be seeing my projector until Wednesday earliest. I paid ?20 last Wednesday for next day courier delivery too.

I love this.

[Crisp_Rapper]

what you gaming on at the moment dave?