LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[sj33]

You really think there won't be a significant difference. If so I might aswell buy the JVC 37" I have my eye on.

37" is the maximum size I want- there is no way I would go near a 40". Maybe it is correct when people say 1080P is for massive screens!

More opinions please!

Well I still stand by my stance in saying that there will be a time when 1080p will be more common for smaller sizes, and any notion that we won't 'need' 1080p will be quickly forgotten in our desire for higher resolutions.

That said, I'm talking long term here. Unless your prepared to wait a few years (which I'm not), go for a set now. You can always use your screen as a uber-cool widescreen PC monitor in a few years time when 1080p sets will become more commonplace.

I know when 32" 1080p sets go sub-?1000, I'll be picking one up - it will be no loss, as my current 768p set will become my new PC screen.

[Tankshell]

Hi guys,

I have recently got hold of a 26" Samsung model LE26R41BDX/XEU.

After a couple of weeks viewing I have noticed something strange with the picture....

Basically, it seems to be shifting the entire picture down by 1 row of pixels. So the very bottom row of pixels of the picture is actually showing at the very top of the screen!

Depeding on what programme you are wathcing it is either very noticeable or not at all. Imagine there is someone with a red jumper at the lower end of the picture, this red jumper will "wrap" onto the top most row of pixels on the screen...and if the top of the picture is happens to be darker then it becomes most apparent!

Do you guys know if this is easily fixable via a service menu or something? Ie can i tell the screen to shift up 1 row of pixels entirely?

Cheers.

[recipher]

Well I still stand by my stance in saying that there will be a time when 1080p will be more common for smaller sizes, and any notion that we won't 'need' 1080p will be quickly forgotten in our desire for higher resolutions.

That said, I'm talking long term here. Unless your prepared to wait a few years (which I'm not), go for a set now. You can always use your screen as a uber-cool widescreen PC monitor in a few years time when 1080p sets will become more commonplace.

I know when 32" 1080p sets go sub-?1000, I'll be picking one up - it will be no loss, as my current 768p set will become my new PC screen.

That's my thinking. I think it'll be a while before my income and the price of a 1080p screen meet in the middle.

[Rossco]

The L.G. 26LX2R has me very interested now. I may just pick that up over the Samsung. 8ms and has DVI-I compared to Samsungs 16ms and VGA.

And just a wee bit dearer with also other specs like brightness greater at 600 600cd/m2 and contrast ratio at 1200:1.

I know you cant judge it on the specs but word of mouth seems to say its very good choice...

Does anyone actually have it?

[recipher]

The Samsung is HDMI as well as VGA. You can use a DVI-I to HDMI cable or converter.

Like this.

[PeteJ]

The L.G. 26LX2R has me very interested now. I may just pick that up over the Samsung. 8ms and has DVI-I compared to Samsungs 16ms and VGA.

And just a wee bit dearer with also other specs like brightness greater at 600 600cd/m2 and contrast ratio at 1200:1.

I know you cant judge it on the specs but word of mouth seems to say its very good choice...

Does anyone actually have it?

Shakey_Jake has one.

I'm so very tempted too, partly because the availability is higher than the samsung but also because I'm starting to think it actually looks even nicer. I don't think screenshots do this one justice, it looks fantastic in the flesh.

[Soi]

Right, I've done my research but I still don't think I know what to get.

Basically I'd like to get a 32"+ (no bigger than 42") HD ready telly. I don't want to spend more than ?1,500 ish, but I'd like to know my options.

So, what do people recommend?

[sj33]

Shakey_Jake has one.

I'm so very tempted too, partly because the availability is higher than the samsung but also because I'm starting to think it actually looks even nicer. I don't think screenshots do this one justice, it looks fantastic in the flesh.

I personally love it. Excellent DVI and HDMI, Soul Calibur 2 in 720p is a dream, as is the Dreamcast running through VGA.
I also find it perfectly fine for lower resolution content such as the Saturn. Nights in 16:9 rocks.

As previously mentioned earlier in the topic, my personal set has something wrong with the baseline brightness on the Component, which I've contacted Comet about. I've spoken to other people who own the set and they do not suffer this, so it's gotta be my personal set.

[Rossco]

Hmmmm nice work, I'm now verging towards this because I know I could get it alot easier now. I'll go into Dixons after Uni and half a look to see if its there, which it probably wont be cause the shop is ****.

Then I'll look around some more for the cheapest place online for it, anyone know anywhere? It doesnt offer Freeview does it? But that doesnt really bother me anyway.

[PeteJ]

247electrical are the cheepest online.

[StLuisRey]

Basically I'd like to get a 32"+ (no bigger than 42") HD ready telly. I don't want to spend more than ?1,500 ish, but I'd like to know my options.

After nearly a year of thinking about it I finally decided on the Toshiba 37WLT58 (arrives Wednesday ) . ?1573 from John Lewis as long as you get them to price match their Trafford store.

It comes with free delivery, a floor stand and since its JL you get a 5 year warranty.

[Soi]

I was looking at that model too, and thanks for the tip regarding JL.

Did you just go into the London store and ask for it to be pricemached? Or do I need any proof of it etc?

[amorenod]

Looks like the perfect time to update the review of my LG 32LX2R (the original is in first page of this thread)

Despite the shortcomings of the LCD technology, I don't regret buying it at all, except for awareness of CRT faults, ignorance is bliss. Now I can see very clearly the scanlines, which never bothered me in the pass; even worse, all the mpeg artifacts in digital boxes are no longer unnoticed, as I know what to look for.

This set is at its best with prog scan and HD, but is still watchable for SD and interlaced sources. Mind you, I had a 28" crt before, so adjusting the viewing distance was imperative, specially for interlaced sources. If this bothers you, the 26" one is another option, as you can see, Shakey_Jake33 has nothing but praise for it.

Snes is still connected via RF, and it's not bad, but the graphics were clearly created with scanlines in mind. Think about emulators without any graphic filter and you'll get the idea.

Saturn & digital box/RGB and N64/composite. Saturn and N64, like the snes, would benefit of a scanlines filter (now that's an idea for a new TV), but are still enjoyable. As for the digital box, in my first review I rated it as horrible, but now my opinion is based on a channel by channel basis, there're a few with excellent quality and others which are a mess.

Component, Pal PS2 and Pal GC. Could use RGB for this pair, but the odd ps2 game like RE4 with prog scan support and Freeloader, are the reason I keep this 2 here. Viewing distance is important with interlaced games, specially with PS2; however some games look great even interlaced, like Gradius IV or some bits of God of War (the Hydra looks like hi-res).

DVI, Xbox via transcoder, DC with VGA box, and the PC. The modded Xbox works well with component in all prog scan modes, but 720p looks slightly better this way. The DC picture quality is like crt RGB but without scanlines, ie, stunning. The PC is excellent both in 4:3 (1024x768 ) and 16:9 (1360x768 ), with 1:1 pixel mapping, which should be the norm, but judging the number of threads about it in Avforums, it is not. The PC is connected via VGA, but my new graphics card has DVI output too, should try soon.

HDMI, used by a Samsung HD850 DVD player. This player can upscale to 720p/1080i, but I'm keeping it in 576p, due to some problems with the player set to pal. Anyway, PQ is great.

In the end, would I buy it again? Most definitely yes, but the more expensive Hitachi 32LD7200 is tempting.

Revised score, 8/10

[StLuisRey]

Did you just go into the London store and ask for it to be pricemached? Or do I need any proof of it etc?

Nope. I rang Kingston and asked for the price match, they put me on hold while they rang the other (JL) store. When they came back on they said that they would match it, took my order and that was that.

I believe that if you want them to match a different shop it can take up to 7 days and they have some fairly strict rules. Oh, you don't need proof since it's handled by their under sales department, not the store.

[demon9k]

HDMI, used by a Samsung HD850 DVD player. This player can upscale to 720p/1080i, but I'm keeping it in 576p, due to some problems with the player set to pal. Anyway, PQ is great.

Surely the TV can play PAL 720p?