Video Asylum

Posted by centaurus3200 (A) on July 19, 2011 at 10:25:37

In Reply to: RE: anybody familiar with a Panasonic 42GT25 plasma TV? posted by centaurus3200 on July 11, 2011 at 13:49:19

hi all,

after doing lots of research between LED/LCD, LCD and plasma - i decide to go the plasma route. the image looks less "video-gamey" compared to LCD - more like a CRT. and i still spin laserdiscs from time to time. so, i wanted a display that would be kind to the old format.

WOW! love this TV! got it for $549 on closeout. i didn't need 3D, but they didn't have the G25 and the price was right anyway.

everything works as it should. plus i knew i was rolling the dice with regards to how good modern HDTV's digital comb filters look with analog standard definition formats, like LDs. i mainly use a Pioneer Elite CLD-79 (and a sometimes working CLD-97). now, i've never seen LD through through something like an old Faroudja DVP-1000 or NRS. i've only used either player's internal 3 line comb filter (through S-video) or my old sony wega 27" CRT's comb filter (composite cable). the old TV's comb filter was really mediocre. the players did better on their own.

i hooked the CLD-79's composite out to the GT25, put on the criterion CAV edition of Brahm Stoker's Dracula. IT LOOKED AMAZING! no more smearing, chroma noise knocked down to like 30% of what i was seeing previously. no more streaky blacks. then i put on a fantasia CLV - which has always looked like crap IMHO. BEAUTIFUL! like night and day. i swear there were times when for a split second, you would start to see a highlight smear, and almost immediately, it would disappear. must be some powerful interpolation going on in the TV's processor.

i'm still learning about how to get the best out of the LD format with the panny plasma, but first impression were very favorable. i'm using the THX mode, i've tweaked some of the settings a bit but i supposed i should learn how to do a fully custom setting for LD? as of now, i have DNR off on the player, i have the TV's noise reduction on weak - but i'm using the mosquito NR on the TV as well.

is the TV up-sampling the 425i LD output to 1080p? it looked pretty high-def to me. or was it doing 720? to get 425i to 1080p, is the TV"s processor quadrupling the lines or something insane like that?

how does the panny's video processor compare to the faroudja dcdi chips in other plasmas?

the only thing i saw was that you could sometimes see a fast moving object move a little jerky at times. no big deal, considering how awesome the picture looked compared to before. but wondering if i can smooth it out? or is the TV's processor just working overtime to digitize the rather rudimentary analog signal?

on another note, the USB ports are proving to be a bit restrictive. i couldn't mount my 16GB NTFS formatted flash drive. i could mount my friend's 4GB FAT32. i reformatted to FAT32 via my mac, but it still wouldn't mount. can i not use a flash drive bigger than 4GB? is there anyway to mount an NTFS 16GB drive?

i want to watch a few movies i have on my computer. if not USB, how about a 16GB SD Card? i can grab the one in my wife's phone to try.

lastly, i can't watch any video file other than MPEG2? no MKV, XVID, AVI, MOV. etc? if so, anybody know of a good MPEG2 converter for mac?

that's all for now.

see ya,
Robby