LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[andrewfee]

Can anyone see any downsides to this TV?

It's 8th generation, rather than 9th gen, so it's a little lower contrast than what's available, and less burn-in resistant (Panasonic claim the 9th gen models have CRT levels of resistance) but I'm sure it's fine.

Resolution doesn't matter - it's only part of the equation. I've got a ?350 854x480 projector putting out a 55" image and it looks better than most of the displays I've had in the last year or so. (and when things are blown up that size, you see lots of little details you couldn't make out before)

The Panasonic "monitors" should be great - better than the consumer ones, as they don't have the same image processing. (caused some smearing with interlaced stuff) I'm not sure if they have any left, but "AV Sales" had them very cheap a while back.

Personally, I found the plasma "rainbows" to be very distracting though - I tried to live with them, but they annoyed me too much. Same goes for the response time. I've now got DLP, and those "rainbows" aren't nearly as bad.

[charlesr]

It's never going to be plugged into my PC, so the res doesn't matter (it does 720p so that's good enough). It's for my consoles and films. You always have to buy more plugin boards for the monitor plasmas - they come with the bare essential. I'm wanting something like this because it doesn't have speakers on it so it's more compact for the screensize, and hopefully I'm paying for the image quality alone and indeed lack of image processing I'll never use (I've got a vast menu page of image processing options on my CRT TV and it looks better with them all off).
I can't see any hdmi plugins for it though (accessories list. Not that I've got any hdmi kit yet, but would be nice to know it could do it. I can get a little slot in PC though. wtf

[gIzzE]

I still rate the 42PHD8 as the best plasma available, I have gone back to one after owning upgrading to the 50PHD8, the 42" definitely looks better so I am going to stick with it for a couple of years and then get a 1920x1080p panny commercial screen.

You can get an hdmi board for it when needed, cost around ?120.

[charlesr]

Good to know thanks. Where do you shop for your screens?

[themanwithapc]

I don't understand how the 360 can be bad at scaling stuff. The GPU in there is absolutely state of the art, and a very, very expensive part. So unless the 360 is scaling it's output with a different chip... it really makes no sense if the output isn't high quality.

Like Shakey_Jake33 said, it's not the GPU that does the scaling, it seems to be a different chip entirely that handles the scaling. The games are all natively output at 1280x720.

[Mayhem]

So I'm looking at the Sony LCDs, and you've got the V2000 and the S2010 series by the looks of it for each size. The difference that the V2000 gives over the S2010 seems to be a backlight (how much difference does it make?) and Live Colour Creation (anyone care to explain what that is?). Is that worth ?200 more however?

[Lyris]

I don't think it's worth that much extra. It's a subtle effect.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I got my new TV today (Toshiba Regza 42WLT66). The design of the TV itself isn't as pretty as a Samsung, but it looks decent and inoffensive. Once on however, it leaves the Samsung for dead.

I tried various things with it:

- Telewest HD (BBC HD, ITV HD, plus various HD shows on Telewest's Video on Demand system) - All in 1080i which are converted to full 1080 progressive on the Toshiba it looks beautiful. There are some motion artefacts of course, but generally it looks fantastic. Shame Telewest's EPG is in SD.

- Telewest SD - Looks passable on the BBC channels the other higher quality stuff, but near unwatchable on crappy channels due to the MPEG artefacts. Gastly.

- Freeview - Contrary to what I had read the built in Freeview isn't too slow and works pretty well. The quality is just like Telewest SD.

- Xbox Media Center - Even more useful than before as it will upscale everything to 1080i. DVDs look pretty damn fantastic, well, the good ones do anyway. And it even does a decent job upscaling xVids and the like streamed from my PC. Despite being the same resolution as SD TV, upscaled DVDs look so much better it's rather amusing.

- Xbox 360 - I tried through VGA but found the picture to be so offset as to be useless. On component all is well and it looks lovely in both 720p and 1080i.

Although I don't use the TV's own internal sound I gave it a try and it's pretty good for TV speakers.

The only downwers I have with this panel so far are that it does look a little washed out if viewed too off angle, and the remote is a bit cheap.. but then so are most remotes these days.

Overall a superb bit and just ?1400 for a 1920x1080 resolution panel is just pretty damn amazing.

[sj33]

What's the maximum progressive resolution the screen will accept from PC?

[Kotatsu Neko]

I don't know actually, it doesn't mention that in the manual. You could email Toshiba and ask them - I emailed them a couple of questions and they were very quick to respond.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Hang on, I just found it in the manual.

The maximum is will accept through VGA is 1280x1024/60hz. Through component or HDMI it will go up to 1920x1080.

[RLench]

VGA resolutions are the same as the 32" version then . Although the 32" will accept 1360x768 over VGA as well but it doesn't work properly (the image is moved to the left by a few inches ft: )

[andrewfee]

Looks like some new Toshibas have been announced today:



Looking better than the BRAVIA rip-offs from last year in my opinion, and judging from the pic, they're still going to be offering an optional subwoofer.

All models from 32" to 42" will have three HDMI sockets and 100Hz processing.

The 42" will have a 1920x1080 panel with an 800:1 contrast ratio, but it looks like it may be 1080i again. The rest will be 1366x768 with 1000:1 panels. (CR seems quite low to me)

All models sport integrated digital tuners giving customers instant access to over 30 Freeview channel including Film 4, E4, Sky News & Sports, BBC 24 and Sky Three. Nicam stereo sound and SRS WOW are all supported across the range and the trio of HDMI ports hasn?t meant sacrifices elsewhere with Component, S-Video and PC inputs along with two SCART ports. An optional subwoofer can also be purchased and installed invisibly in the WLT68?s VESA mounts (above right) if you have no desire to stick it on the wall.

Apparently due here in October, no word on pricing. (but I would imagine they'll be even cheaper than last year's, as that's how LCD seems to be going)


EDIT: Added quote from TR article.

EDIT2: I was mistaken with the contrast ratios - the smaller panels have 1000:1, with the 42" only being 800:1.

[sj33]

Still a while to wait for 32" 1080p screens then huh?

[andrewfee]

Still a while to wait for 32" 1080p screens then huh?

From Toshiba anyway.

I'd love to have a 32" 1080p set with a DVI connection for PC use, but I doubt we're going to see it any time soon - if they're going to be selling 1080p, they want to get more money out of you buying a bigger panel.

I'm not in the market for display now really (got a fantastic projector and LCD setup now) but if I could get a 32" 1080p set at a good price, I'd probably pick one up to use (mainly) as a monitor.