LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[Lyris]

I've had the experience, yes. It was the last large value item I ever bought from a high street retailer (John Lewis being the only exception).

[sj33]

If only it were that simple. As anyone who's had the misfortune to deal with Comet's alleged 'customer services' will know, they will do all they can to delay the inevitable replacement / refund for as long as legally possible.

You could be in for a long ride, and might be better going via Samsung directly.

Last year I was having problems with my LG HDTV, still within the first year of warranty. First they send a bloke over to inspect, then he'll arrange to have it picked up and taken to Comet to repair (who will then send it off to the manufacturer).

That took 8 weeks for me, until they actually dropped the TV on it's return back! So I got money towards another telly, my lovely Bravia. Thank you Comet.

My experience with them says you should go direct to Samsung. They will not offer a straight replacement within the first year of warranty (but will in the 2nd/3rd years of a 3 year warranty if you paid for that).

[EvilBoris]

I got mine repaired direct with samsung, they were pretty efficient at sorting it. Apart from promising me a loan set then not giving me one

[Kotatsu Neko]

How are the current range of 1080p 50" Panasonic plasmas? The prices seem incredibly low, especially as I had been looking at the Pioneer Kuros which come in at around the £4000-5000 mark.

I'm rather tired of LCD's complete failure to create the colour black, so am tempted to go plasma.

[andrewfee]

How are the current range of 1080p 50" Panasonic plasmas? The prices seem incredibly low, especially as I had been looking at the Pioneer Kuros which come in at around the ?4000-5000 mark.

I'm rather tired of LCD's complete failure to create the colour black, so am tempted to go plasma.

Even the Kuros (which are noticeably darker than the Panasonics) are still quite far off a CRT's black in a dark room though. Once you've got the CRT set up to show the same level of shadow detail the difference is smaller, but still there.

Panasonic sets have a history of posterisation and being plasmas, they still suffer from PWM noise ("fizzing pixels") buzzing that changes with picture brightness (due to the high voltages involved) and image retention/burn-in, especially if you're getting a 1:1 mapped image. (where there is no orbiter in use) For me, those are deal-breakers, other people don't mind so much. I've never been too impressed with their image processing either, but they are very good value for money right now, when compared to other plasmas.

Something you might be interested in is a comparison I did a while back between LCD/Plasma/CRT black levels. All the televisions were properly calibrated, and these photos were 15 second exposures at ISO 100 using a Fuji F30. I got Lyris to take the photo of his 40W, but he has the same camera as I do (well, the F31 which has the same internals with face detection added) and knows how to properly calibrate a TV, so I assume the results will be comparable. I have a 40W3000 arriving next week, so I'll add that once I've got it set up properly.

Sony KDL-40W2000:


Pioneer 5080XD:


Daewoo 14" CRT:

[Lyris]

I should point out, my KDL-40W2000 in Andrew's picture up there is actually one of the better ones. The cloudiness in the corners isn't visible in real life when watching, and others would show much more scattered over the whole surface, not near in the corners.

[oracle]

Just picked up the Toshiba 37X3030D 1080p 37inch LCD Tv

Enjoying it so far, need to fiddle with the colours and gets myself an upscaling dvd player

[Kotatsu Neko]

I'm going to try and get some demos of some sets sometime over the next month. I'm thinking of the Pioneer PDP LX5080D KURO, the Panasonic TH-50PZ700, and the Samsung P96 50".

It's interesting Andrew to read your thoughts on Panasonic problems. They do seem to be incredibly cheap for 50" 1080p sets. Do you know anything about the current Samsung plasmas? Also, do you know if the Panasonic and Samsung accept 24fps input?

The Kuro seems like a no brainer as it's received rave reviews everywhere, but as it's so much more expensive than the competition I'll have to see just how much better it is to make up my mind.

Also, anyone know of good AV stores which will demo these type of sets properly? (ie. in a darkened room). Preferably somewhere easy to get to in the middle of the country, say Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester... maybe London at a push.

[andrewfee]

I'm going to try and get some demos of some sets sometime over the next month. I'm thinking of the Pioneer PDP LX5080D KURO, the Panasonic TH-50PZ700, and the Samsung P96 50".

It's interesting Andrew to read your thoughts on Panasonic problems. They do seem to be incredibly cheap for 50" 1080p sets. Do you know anything about the current Samsung plasmas? Also, do you know if the Panasonic and Samsung accept 24fps input?

I would avoid Samsung, their processing is absolutely terrible, and their build quality / reliability is very poor from my experience.

The Panasonics accept a 24Hz signal, but don't treat it properly so you might as well not be sending it 24Hz. You want the PZ70 and not the 700, as they apparently have double the contrast.

The Pioneers are one of the few displays out there that actually accept a 24Hz signal and process it properly without using interpolation or running it at the wrong framerate.

If I were buying a TV now I'd probably go for a PZ70 to be honest. They have issues, like not doing 24Hz properly or offering proper film deinterlacing, but you're getting a very good deal. The Kuros are excellent if you can afford them, but at those sizes I'd want a 1080p native screen and they cost a ridiculous amount of money.

[TheBlackLodge]

Quick question, probably a no-brainer, but out of curiosity, 360 through VGA or HDMI ? I'm running my Elite through HDMI and it's lovely on my Sammy, but am curious as once long ago (in a galaxy far, far away etc) I had a Premium via VGA and it too was lovely. Sadly no longer have the VGA cable to do a little test hence the question. What say you guys ?

[EvilBoris]

What model of Samsung have you got?

Have a flick through the settings and see if you can find an option called Just Scan , if your TV has that then HDMI will serve you better than VGA.

[TheBlackLodge]

One of those Sammys that MS use in their demo pods. An R51B something or another. Think Andrew here had one but thankfully I haven't experienced any of his problems (Touch wood).

I've flicked through various settings but there's nothing like that though.

[EvilBoris]

If it is one of the older ones then I'd say VGA all the way, I had one of those too and they do nasty things to all sources except VGA.

[TheBlackLodge]

Cheers

Guess I might need to take a trip to the shops on the way home then.

Thanks for the quick response btw.

[Lyris]

Yeah, those are the LE__R41Bs. I had one ... for two days...