LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[Kotatsu Neko]

Well my Sharp 32" P70 order fell through (PC World ran out of stock and it's a discontinued model anyway) Anyone able to recommend an alternative? My needs are:

- 23-26"
- The best possible image via 480p component (specifically for my Gamecube and later on, Wii)
- Built-in Freeview
- Around ?500... ?600 at stretch

The main reasons why i'd like an LCD are for progressive scan, having a built-in Freeview tuner and being able to regain a lot of space (my CRT is HUGE!). I am not too bothered about HD quality (I have no intentions of getting Sky HD and if this generation is anything to go by, I will be spending far more time on my Wii than on the PS3).

I get the impression that there isn't an LCD that matches my needs!

Do want a non-HD 480p panel? If you do, you're probably out of luck.

If you want HD then I've been recommending Toshibas, as having bought a 42" one I think it's a pretty nice set and ticks all the boxes. Have a look at their 26" one-

http://www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk/consumer/products.nsf/pages/lcdplasma-lcdfreeview-26wlt66?opendocument

[melody]

Do want a non-HD 480p panel? If you do, you're probably out of luck.

If you want HD then I've been recommending Toshibas, as having bought a 42" one I think it's a pretty nice set and ticks all the boxes. Have a look at their 26" one-

http://www.home-entertainment.toshib...6?opendocument

Yep I am out of luck regarding a true 480p panel sadly. If I had ?900 I would buy this because it is supposedly very good at SD and HD but it's way out of budget.

What do you think of the Toshiba's performance with Gamecube games via component? Resident Evil 4 or F-Zero GX would be good stress tests.

[EvilBoris]

Resident Evil 4 or F-Zero GX would be good stress tests.

F-zero GX looks lovely on any display and Resi 4 looks like balls in 480p :P

[Lyris]

F-Zero GX is a great test for me because it looks lovely and is some of the best 480p video I've ever seen. Also if you run it in Interlaced mode it is guaranteed to look like total ****, it's just far too fast for any deinterlacing circuitry.

[melody]

and Resi 4 looks like balls in 480p :P

Looks bad on your TV specifically or bad on all LCDs?

[Lyris]

It usually leaves a little to be desired from my experience, most of all because it's letterboxed and requires you to Zoom it in on a widescreen TV.

[melody]

It usually leaves a little to be desired from my experience, most of all because it's letterboxed and requires you to Zoom it in on a widescreen TV.

What if you leave it as is and don't zoom in?

[sj33]

Looks bad on your TV specifically or bad on all LCDs?

Generally looks **** on LCD's because it's not actually widescreen - it's letterboxed. Which means it's lower than standard resolution.

Contrary to popular belief, this applies to the PS2 game too (it's not 'proper' animorphic).

[EvilBoris]

It looked bad on a CRT in 480p, I'm pretty sure the game was specifically designed to run on an interlaced CRT screen i.e. the screens everyone had 2 years ago.

I can only see the cube version looking even worse on a widescreen LCD .

[Lyris]

What if you leave it as is and don't zoom in?

Then it looks better, but only if you're OK with viewing the game surrounded by borders on all sides. If I ever watch a letterboxed LaserDisc I usually do this because I feel my 32" TV is big enough to still get a large picture.

[melody]

Then it looks better, but only if you're OK with viewing the game surrounded by borders on all sides. If I ever watch a letterboxed LaserDisc I usually do this because I feel my 32" TV is big enough to still get a large picture.

That's on ok compromise I sit fairly close to my TV (less than 6 feet) so it should still be a big enough image on a 26" set.

[Escape-To-88]

Hope this is the right place for this.
But has anyone used www.digital-point.co.uk for their TV purchases before??
Looking at getting an LCD delivered from them?
cheers

[Kotatsu Neko]

Yep I am out of luck regarding a true 480p panel sadly. If I had ?900 I would buy this because it is supposedly very good at SD and HD but it's way out of budget.

What do you think of the Toshiba's performance with Gamecube games via component? Resident Evil 4 or F-Zero GX would be good stress tests.

I haven't tried my Cube on the TV, sorry. I do have my Xbox 1 connected through component though and it looks... passable. Just. It scales up okay, pretty clean, but it's still a 480 line image on a 42" panel, which is just never going to look that good, especially as most games don't have any anti-aliasing. It's not 'help me my eyes are bleeding' bad, which I get with the crappy hyper compressed low-res fluff channels on Freeview... but still, compared to the lovely anti-aliased 720p of the 360, it's nowhere near as good.

I think the Wii will by and large look okay as most of it's games are nice and clean and shouldn't suffer from much aliasing. Except stuff like Call of Duty 3, which I'm sure will look horrific.

[Lyris]

Kotatsu, try the Cube - Super Smash Bros. especially. I'd be curious to hear if you agree with me that the Xbox's video output quality just isnt very good.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Sadly I only every had an S-Video lead for my Cube so there wouldn't be much point. I'll certainly connect my Wii through component though, which should look the same as the Cube given that the hardware is virtually identical.