LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[Soi]

Anyone got a link to some technobabble about why it's really hard to make 1080p plasmas with full 1920 pixel columns at anything less than 50" ?

Panasonic have announced they are attempting a 42". Just interested in why it's harder to make the pixels smaller.

Each pixel has 3 sub-pixels (one for red, one for green and one for blue). Each sub-pixel is most easily thought of as a little fluorescent light containing low pressure ionised gas (the plasma). The full colour for one pixel is made by balancing the output from the 3 sub-pixels.

What actually happens is that electrodes are used to excite the plasma, causing it to give off light (typically UV light). The light from the plasma hits a phosphor layer, which gives of visible light. Each sub pixel uses a phosphor that emits either red, blue or green light. Hence, a plasma TV is a bit like having lots of fluorescent lights shining through filters to give different colours.

The short answer to your question is that making the sub pixels small enough is a challenge.

[EJG1980]

Cheers to everyone who replied to my 1080P LCD question, I think my best bet is to try and find a shop with both running and see if I can tell the difference. If I can't (or the difference is barely noticable to me) I'll go cheap

[bash]

Can I quickly ask if everyones screens here support Pal progressive aka 576p?

Cheers

[Lyris]

Yep. All do now.

[EJG1980]

Yeah, my current plasma screen does.

[EvilBoris]

Cheers to everyone who replied to my 1080P LCD question, I think my best bet is to try and find a shop with both running and see if I can tell the difference. If I can't (or the difference is barely noticable to me) I'll go cheap

I could see it dead easily when I went to look at sets in comet, they had them all hooked up running the same HD trailers. When the Logo was on screen and stuff you could distincly see that the samsung was interfering with the image as the logo was smudgier than the others.

[Stoise]

I have a spanking new Toshiba wlt68; and I was changing the settings (to yours Haribo thanks alot) and 'Cinema Mode' is greyed out - is there a reason for that?

[Flompy]

I have a spanking new Toshiba wlt68; and I was changing the settings (to yours Haribo thanks alot) and 'Cinema Mode' is greyed out - is there a reason for that?

I don't think it works over HDMI. And despite the finality of my settings I have changed them once again, I think the only difference is backlight 25 and colour 45 but I'll never be content with anything

Enjoy the TV, it's by far the best 720p LCD out there

[andrewfee]

"Cinema Mode" is to do with deinterlacing, so it'll be greyed out with progressive sources.

Got my PS3 today, and 1080p is perfect on this screen; text is absolutely pin-sharp and perfectly legible. (was a little worried tbh, but I should have known the scaler would handle it)

My settings are now:

Back Light: 10
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 58
Colour: 42
Tint: 0
Sharpness: -50
Black Stretch: Off
MPEG NR: Off
DNR: Off
Colour Temperature: Normal
Colour Management: On
Red: 0 0
Green: 0 -1
Blue: 0 -7
Active Backlight Control: Off
Cinema Mode: On
Active Vision M100: On


Haribokart, the colour settings I've posted are the most accurate ones, measured with my colorimeter.

360 via VGA is the same, but with 20 backlight and 33 for brightness. (iirc)

[sj33]

Brightness: 58
Colour: 42

Interesting that. While I know my screen is different, my settings are pretty similar to yours except those are pretty much the other way around (Brightness 48, Colour 55).
Of course the different screen makes all the difference, but if we're taking 50 as neutral...

As for VGA, I installed Vista this week, and Media Center has a calibrator to help people set up their screen. It's not the best thing, but it did help me nail down the fact that I had the brightness over VGA set far too high. Looks much better now.

[Daragon]

"Cinema Mode" is to do with deinterlacing, so it'll be greyed out with progressive sources.

Got my PS3 today, and 1080p is perfect on this screen; text is absolutely pin-sharp and perfectly legible. (was a little worried tbh, but I should have known the scaler would handle it)

My settings are now:

Back Light: 10
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 58
Colour: 42
Tint: 0
Sharpness: -50
Black Stretch: Off
MPEG NR: Off
DNR: Off
Colour Temperature: Normal
Colour Management: On
Red: 0 0
Green: 0 -1
Blue: 0 -7
Active Backlight Control: Off
Cinema Mode: On
Active Vision M100: On


Haribokart, the colour settings I've posted are the most accurate ones, measured with my colorimeter.

360 via VGA is the same, but with 20 backlight and 33 for brightness. (iirc)

See, there's something there that doesn't quite gel with me. How can you have pin sharp text yet sharpness -50?

If anything, text would probably be the complete opposite, or at least it is on my 32WLT66. It might be missing the ABC and AVM100 features, but I'm willing to bet any difference they add would be minimal at best.

That said however, the TV is sat about 8 ft away from me in my bedroom, so maybe such settings are more appropriate for use in a decent sized lounge, at a distance of 10-20 ft.

[andrewfee]

See, there's something there that doesn't quite gel with me. How can you have pin sharp text yet sharpness -50?

The sharpness control on a television basically enhances edge contrast, typically adding glowing edges to things onscreen, it is not making things sharper. Sharpness at -50 on this set is showing things as they're meant to look.

EDIT: See here: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showp...postcount=1228

[Roost]

Do you have a sharpirimeter for that?

[Lyris]

Nope, but I can imagine the effect's pretty obvious to see with just a pair of good old eyes

Can't stand "sharpening" - all the detail that gets lost drives me crazy!

[Roost]

Woosh hehe. I was being slightly sarcastic, i think with all settings it should be all down to your eyes and what image you like not using gadgets to check it is all supposedly perfect.