LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[Salsa Party Animal]

I went to Sound and Vision show in Bristol yesterday.

I saw Ridge Racer 8 with 1080P output on PS3 (Not sure what display) and it is more stunning than Ridge Racer 7 on XBOX 360. I watch replay only not play it.

I also saw Maria Sharapova playing tennis against Kim Clisters in US Open semi final on HD in 720P or 1080i Filtjsuti (Not sure spelling) 63 inch Plasma and it is awesome to watch. I also had a nice cleavage shot of Maria as well in HD I decided I want 60+ inch 1080p screen in future. (Never going to afford it) Probably need whole 6 month salary to buy one.

Seem to me most of industry there is favouring towards Blu Ray than HD DVD. I saw logitech universal remote and it look a great idea.

I have seen 1080P output on projector display off MI3 (HD DVD) and Seabiscuit (Blu Ray) wow.

Didn't buy anything apart from a hot dog. I hope there will be an excellent budget 1080P Projector to be found under a grand before christmas.

[ascender]

Has anyone bought a smaller TV recently? We're looking for one to put in another room of the house, so are looking at portables, but obviously the shops now mainly seem to be stocking LCDs. Looked at a few in shops today but they weren't even properly tuned in to something, anything, let alone running a demo disc. As a result it was pretty tough to make much of a judgment.

So I was just wondering if anyone else has gone through this recently?

[andrewfee]

The only decent small LCD I've ever seen has been the Sony MFMHT75W which was a 17" Widescreen set with XBlack technology (glossy screen) but I believe it's been discontinued.

I hear Sony's latest models are good, but they start at 20" I believe. Other than that I'm not too sure; what sort of size/budget are you looking at? (and what do you plan on using it with?)

[Lyris]

I reviewed the Sony MFM-HT205 for www.DVDTimes.co.uk . The long and short of it was that it was a great DVI monitor but obviously wasn´t videophile standard. I slated the fact that it only has an analogue tuner in it as well - that´s ridiculous when you consider how soon analogue TV will be shut off.

[andrewfee]

Small LCDs are generally pretty crap though, you have to realise. The 75 was great for HD, and would have made a great "kitchen" TV.

My guess would be that the 20" Sonys are probably the best you'll get right now. I hear Sharp's smaller panels are quite good, but I've never much liked Sharp LCDs.

[Lyris]

It depends whether you buy a TV or a Monitor. Most of the so-promoted ¨combination devices¨ are great monitors with some sort of video capabilities built in (like the MFM-______ Sonys). On the flip-side, the BRAVIA TVs (KDL-_________) have much better video performance and can be used as monitors as well, but it´s very much an extra feature.

[andrewfee]

Sorry, I think I may have been confusing things. I was just mentioning that for a 17" LCD I have yet to see anything better than the MFM-HT75W, however Sony don't do them anymore, as they stopped producing monitors/combination displays last year.

When I was talking about the '20" Sonys' I was meaning the newer BRAVIAs: http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProdu...ory=TVP+LCD+TV

[ascender]

Thanks for the info. It'll be used with Sky and maybe a DVD player, so it doesn't need a tuner built-in. Its replacing a 14" or so portable telly, so anything will be an improvement tbh. Looking to spend a few hundred, but maybe hunting out a nice CRT would be a better bet. Or even a second hand CRT maybe?

[andrewfee]

I think you'd be surprised at just how bad small, cheap LCDs are. We've still got a 14" Trinitron CRT in our kitchen because you just can't get anything for a reasonable amount of money that's good enough to replace it.

It's got to be about 10-15 years old now, and still going strong. (hell, it's so old that it's now back in style, as the case is white)

[ascender]

Yeah I think you're right. I was really disappointed today when looking at screens. A slightly bigger CRT is looking like it might do the job then.

[EvilBoris]

My guess would be that the 20" Sonys are probably the best you'll get right now. I hear Sharp's smaller panels are quite good, but I've never much liked Sharp LCDs.

My girlfriends parents got a small 640*480 sharp LCD tv in there kitchen and I was pleasently suprised by the picture quality when I set it up.

[Freddo]

Has anyone here got/seen the sony SXRD sets? the 55" KDS-55A can be had for around ?1300 now and since thats a gigantic 1080p set I'm kind of thinking about buying one to replace my toshiba 32zp48.

I'd be using it mostly for XBMC hr.hdtv rips, the PS3 and x360, aswell as occasional ps2/gamecube. Any tips?

[Angry the Clown]

Has anyone here got/seen the sony SXRD sets? the 55" KDS-55A can be had for around £1300 now and since thats a gigantic 1080p set I'm kind of thinking about buying one to replace my toshiba 32zp48.

I'd be using it mostly for XBMC hr.hdtv rips, the PS3 and x360, aswell as occasional ps2/gamecube. Any tips?

The SXRD sets are remarkable if you’ve got the space for them. I’ve evaluated them a number of times, and have come so close only backing off due to practicality fears (despite the fact it is slimmer and weighs significantly less than my CRT). These sub £1300 deals for the set, stand and DVD/HDD recorder are seriously tempting me to dismiss concerns for practicality because I genuinely do not believe there to be higher quality TVs on the market right now.

You’ll get slight overscan on them which can’t be helped, vertical viewing angle is a bit fussy and they also do funny things with 1080p over VGA which is unfortunate (nor can it accept 1080p over component), but other than that you really cannot find anything better for the current price they are going for – and even double that price in my opinion as the sets produce a far more film like image than plasma with better real world contrast ratios.

Added benefits are the fact SXRD is inherently three-chip technology, so no rainbows and you’ll either embrace or be slightly terrified at the amount of tweaks you can personally make in the image setting menus. Two HDMI and two component inputs (one is on the front) is nice, and internal de-interlacing/upscaling is better than most TVs as well. Ultra low, less than 2ms, response time so no lag or blurring like you might see in LCD, and SXRD is not susceptible to burn in or image retention either. Understand however you’ll be having to replace the lamp every 8000hrs on the 55” model (that’s actually pretty good for an RPTV).

You’ll want to be about seven to eight feet from the screen for standard definition content, particularly low bitrate sky and freeview broadcasts. A good DVD might not be so bad. HD and HD gaming on the SXRD is phenomenal. If that’s going to be chiefly what you use it for, and you’ve got the space, I don’t know how you could go wrong in getting that set.

They are well worth seeing for yourself (most Sony shops have them on display). Although harder to find on display, it's great to check out the 70inch model for a laugh. It's a beast

[EJG1980]

How much are you looking at cost wise to replace a lamp on the 55 inch model?

[Freddo]

thanks angry the clown, that squares pretty well with what I've read over on avforums, apparently the lamp assembly replacements are about ?275 which is a bit offputting but 8000 hours is about 4 hours a day for five years give or take, and considering I'll likely be in power saving mode and with more conservative settings than most (Like my image naturalistic as possible) I'll hopefully see longer lifetimes than that even.

Now to get together the finances and order up some highdef dvds to watch