LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[Crisp_Rapper]

You are opening a whole can of worms there though, alot of crt sets have an overall geometry, ie you change the geometry at 576i and it also affects 480p, 720p, 1080i etc. etc.

So you get 720p looing great and then go back to watch the TV and it looks like a pirate copy of Jaws 3D!

i thought about that after i'd posted it... oh well. could be nice when we're all HD but not now it seems

[bash]

who's CRT sammy is that? surely you can complain and get a replacment? I was thinking about getting one of these but Im beginning to realise that the more you scrimp on the cost it comes back to bite you on the bum. Better to just save for tried and tested screens.

BTW, can anyone recommend a **** hot 32" plasma? I wanted an LCD but black levels are important to me going from a great 36" crt.

[H-Man]

It seems to be a lottery with the Samsung HD tvs. I've seen various - and geometry varied from good to bad (those screens are by far the worst i've seen. There are others that looks as straight as the LCD i'm returning). If you end up with a duffer you can always return it under the distance selling regulations and try something else.

I can't afford a decent plasma and can't stand lcds for gaming/movies. This set is the only way i'll get any HD gaming in the near future.

[Lyris]

Good god that looks atrocious. Good for them offering an affordable HD option though.

[gIzzE]

Everyone is screeming about HD, but you are better to run the game in progressive on a decent set than run it 720p on a bag of ****e!

[andrewfee]

who's CRT sammy is that? surely you can complain and get a replacment? I was thinking about getting one of these but Im beginning to realise that the more you scrimp on the cost it comes back to bite you on the bum. Better to just save for tried and tested screens.

BTW, can anyone recommend a **** hot 32" plasma? I wanted an LCD but black levels are important to me going from a great 36" crt.

I don't think there are any good 32" Plasmas now; all the "big names" have moved onto 37" and up. (panny, pio etc)

Unless you view in a totally dark room, which is terrible for your eyes, LCDs are capable of perfect blacks now.

This is my 32V2000 turned on showing a full black screen:



That's pretty much straight out of my camera, just ran photoshop's lens distortion filter, and shrunk it down. (normally I would sharpen a bit, as I turn sharpness to -2 on my camera, but I didn't want to mess around with this one) On my screen, there seems to be a colour cast (I hadn't set white balance properly) but again, I haven't touched that either.

That shot is actually exposed brighter than my room is right now (I've got my blind down) and it's still solid black.

I don't have a tripod at the moment, so that mark on the screen is actually the "reflection" of a big box I had lying around that I used to rest the camera on - blacks at totally uniform.

There's no photoshop trickery, and I haven't just turned down the backlight as low as it can go - that's at the same settings as I watch tv / game on.

[Lyris]

I know, the black levels are lovely. You haven't taken the stickers off either I see

[H-Man]

Everyone is screeming about HD, but you are better to run the game in progressive on a decent set than run it 720p on a bag of ****e!

Bag of ****e is a subjective term

The lcd i'm returning is rated by many ppl (AV Forums has a huge thread of ppl singing it's praise) as being the best you can get for ?1000. It's also meant to be superb for HD gaming and movies. To me it looks awful in motion. I'd rather play 360 games and watch movies on an old 28" 4:3 crt.

[Lyris]

What TV is it, H-Man?

[H-Man]

It's a Toshiba 32wlt66. The screen itself looks fab, and i'm trying desperately to like it, but I can't deal with the smearing. What's the point in great PQ if it changes everytime you look around?

[gIzzE]

I totally agree mate, but I respect the opinion of those who can afford to try loads of new sets and only keep the ones they actually rate, problem with forums is you get one person raving about a product so someone else buys one, and then they rave about it and so a couple more people buy it and before you know it everyone has one and they are all raving about it. But ask all those people what other displays they have lived with and I bet the set is their first LCD, they have nothing to compare it with.

Same with the Pionner 436/506-XDE, loads of guys on avforums have been raving about it, but they have gone from a 435 or a Hitachi, LG etc. yeah it is better than them but it is far from 'the best there is' as the are making out. I have had a few of the Pioneer forum guys come and see the Panny plasma, out of the 8 or 9 who have come 6 of them have sold the Pioneer and the others have said they would if they could afford to.

Like this HD service from Sky, the HD picture is shockingly bad, I have been using D-theater for the last few years and stuff sent over from the states and to be honest the Sky stuff is only just a bit better than upscaled DVD imho, but they are raving about it on avforums, compared with what though??

[sj33]

Just a heads-up, Asda have totally revamped their TV range this week. The large majority of their screens are LCD's now, and each screen has an information card clearly marking which are HD-Ready. They stock 'proper' brands like Sony and Sharp too.

They have a rather spiffy looking 27" HD-Ready screen, no name brand but has HDMI w/ HDCP, Component, VGA, dual Scart etc, 8ms reponse for ?429. Not bad at all considering it has all the ports you'll need.

[Angry the Clown]

Same with the Pionner 436/506-XDE, loads of guys on avforums have been raving about it, but they have gone from a 435 or a Hitachi, LG etc. yeah it is better than them but it is far from 'the best there is' as the are making out. I have had a few of the Pioneer forum guys come and see the Panny plasma, out of the 8 or 9 who have come 6 of them have sold the Pioneer and the others have said they would if they could afford to.

There?s an awful lot of aesthetic oooh?ing and aah?ing over the Pioneers I think. Nice designs, albeit magnets for finger prints and smudges around the bezel. I was looking forward to the 6th gen models given the hype, but after playing with them for a while they just weren?t my cup of tea at all.

I really like to have as much control over the image attributes as possible and Panasonic still lead the way with their commercial displays as far as plasmas are concerned. Some people just want a TV of course, which is fine, so the Pioneers compared to say the Panasonic VIERA range is perhaps a more suited comparison given both are held back by their various on board image processing algorithms and what have you.

Of all the LCDs out there I remain impressed by the menu options Sony make available to their users. I?m continuously eyeing an HD8, whilst at the same time continuing demos and research of the latest incarnations of the Bravia V Series LCDs (posts here and elsewhere from Lyris and Andrew have proved invaluable).

[themanwithapc]

I've had to ship back my Sharp 26GA6E to Sharpserv as it has a very annoying fault. It loses picture over component when there is a white picture (e.g. lightning, sky etc.). They've said there is a fix for it, but it does mean I'm without my telly for a while now

[El Leone]

My saumsung LE26R41B should be coming next week, Anyone know where I can get a decent LCD stand for it which can host the TV along with a x360 and some other stuff? Not overpriced would be kool as well..