LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[ItsThere]

Bluescape, those articles are fantastic, thank you and welcome to NTSC properly!

[sj33]

Anyone after a cheap way of going HD, Asda have a 26" Goodmans HD-Ready for ?299. Dunno how good it is mind.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I got a Loewe 32 inch LCD HDTV and sit about 6ft away (I think) and it is fine for gaming and watching TV. I would like to have a bigger one, but at the time of purchase it is not an option to spend more than 1,100 pounds for HDTV.

For movies and football I would have enjoyed more if I have even bigger screen.

Make sure you test the TV with PS2 with component input before you buy it to see how good it can handle SD or low resolution stuff.

I will buy a new TV in 2009

[icarus0]

Thanks for the feedback guys - it seems the TX-32LXD70 is the way to go. Have found it online for £630 with 5 years free warranty and free delivery which sounds too good to turn down.

Thanks again.

[ItsThere]

Thanks for the feedback guys - it seems the TX-32LXD70 is the way to go. Have found it online for ?630 with 5 years free warranty and free delivery which sounds too good to turn down.

Thanks again.

Quick update for you, SD stuff is good on the Panny. I can't go into detial because I'm not technically knowledgeable but DC through RGB was excellent, 360 set in SD was acceptable - just like it is supposed to look, clean and clear but at a lower resolution. I run my PS2 via component anyway but the 480i games were all noticeably superior to the Samsung. SotC was much improved but alas Ico is still almost unplayably bad. It's res is just too low for new TV's.
It's a great set and I'm sure you'll love the 32" er.

[dannywhac]

Just a quickie question - and possibly a noobish one as well:
Got my first LCD telly week last friday, a Sony 32S2510 and its a corker! Theres one thing that bothers me that might be usual on LCDs - the viewing angle - colours noticably wash out when you get to a 90 degree viewing angle.
I've set it up using Lyris's (big up cheers to Lyris ) guide, so all the bells and whistle functions are off (black correcter, backlight, gamma etc) - am I being a noob and all tellys do this or do I have a kaylied panel? Ta in advance!

[sj33]

I have no complaints with the viewing angles on my 32S2030 (same TV but black and only 1 HDMI), but I know Concept mentioned them about his 26" version too. Either way, not much you can do about it.
All LCD's will have that problem to a degree though, some worse than others.

btw don'r be afraid to deviate from the 'recommended' settings if they're not to your preference! For example, I know I have the sharpness and colour setting higher than Lyris. Personal preference really. Certainly best to turn off the extra processing junk though, including noise reduction disabled on everything except Digital TV.

[dannywhac]

I have no complaints with the viewing angles on my 32S2030 (same TV but black and only 1 HDMI), but I know Concept mentioned them about his 26" version too. Either way, not much you can do about it.
All LCD's will have that problem to a degree though, some worse than others.

btw don'r be afraid to deviate from the 'recommended' settings if they're not to your preference! For example, I know I have the sharpness and colour setting higher than Lyris. Personal preference really. Certainly best to turn off the extra processing junk though, including noise reduction disabled on everything except Digital TV.

Cheers for that - glad to know it's not just me. Would recommend the LCD to people - it's sub ?500, has a great HD picture, and a good SD piccy as well.
Reason why I got bothered is me friend has the sub 500 squid Sammy, and it seems his viewing angles are slightly better - made me think that the panel on mine was a crappy one....

[Concept]

I've seen better panels in my time as well. The LG and Sammy did have superior viewing angles but suffered in other areas. With the LG it was noticeably the wiring of the Component and VGA ports which had noticeable double-imaging (ghosting) issues. The Sammy on the other hand had noticeably poor processing compared to the Sony and LG.

I guess my point is that despite what people say, to my mind LCD technology is still far from perfect and every television is going to have it's pros and cons. Since I use the Bravia I have face on the viewing angle situation doesn't bother me much, and I know I'd take it considering the processing quality (and option range), 1:1 VGA and ghost-free display over each input provides a crisp and clean picture.

[sj33]

The main reason I chose the Bravia over other screens was the fact it accepted native res over VGA. 90% of the time I use this screen for PC, as my PC is my main media device - I use it for region free DVD, HD-DVD, and I have a good 300GB of media on my PC, much of which is HD... in fact, I use my PC for all media except Blu-Ray (which I use PS3 for), so native res from PC was essential. It's quite shocking how so many TV's still cannot accept native res, and display it 1:1.

Though with 1080p screens becoming the norm, usually allowing you to disable overscan over HDMI, that situation will improve.

[Lyris]

Theres one thing that bothers me that might be usual on LCDs - the viewing angle - colours noticably wash out when you get to a 90 degree viewing angle.

That's still normal with LCD, don't worry. Some of the Sony screens have a coating on them that makes them shiny when you look at them from an angle to try and disguise this, but all panels still do it to some extent.

[[nothing]]

Theres one thing that bothers me that might be usual on LCDs - the viewing angle - colours noticably wash out when you get to a 90 degree viewing angle.

If things like this are putting anyone off buying an LCD, beware that i've found Toshiba's (and in particular, the 66 series) to be very bad with viewing angles.

[andrewfee]

The BRAVIAs over 26", and possibly the new Panasonics (I've not seen them in person though) are probably the best for viewing angles around as far as LCD goes. Toshiba and Sharp LCDs are particularly bad for viewing angle. (I believe Philips use Sharp Panels in most of their screens, so they are probably affected too)

If you want better viewing angles, your only real option is a plasma. (or to go back to a CRT)

I forgot to mention it - I had a Samsung LE52M87 for a couple of weeks, and my review for HDTVtest went up the other day: http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Samsung-LE52M87BDX/

[dannywhac]

Ta everyone for your answers

[Concept]

The main reason I chose the Bravia over other screens was the fact it accepted native res over VGA. 90% of the time I use this screen for PC, as my PC is my main media device - I use it for region free DVD, HD-DVD, and I have a good 300GB of media on my PC, much of which is HD... in fact, I use my PC for all media except Blu-Ray (which I use PS3 for), so native res from PC was essential. It's quite shocking how so many TV's still cannot accept native res, and display it 1:1.

Yeah, I continually switch between the PC and 360 via VGA and Component and use mine as a multi-purpose monitor. I don't know how anyone who owns a small HDTV for other than film/game material can hack non 1:1 material. I remember the stores around where I live hooked up to advertise their HDTV features in XP, and the resolutions being either all screwed up or painfully non-1:1.

XP can look really grotty when the resolution doesn't fit the native res of the screen.