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Hi folks,For your perusal, a quick diary of someone on the way to being converted....
Some background:
I'm a two channel stereo guy, not a home theater guy. I love listening to music at home, but for movies I much prefer viewing going to the theaters for the scale and the social event of it all.
I have a hard time sitting still at home to watch a video.
However, I recently bought a DVD player and I've been stunned at the picture/sound quality. I frankly didn't think there would be that much difference from my excellent VCR. After buying some of my favorite movies, I've noticed that the richness of the DVD picture allows me to luxuriate in the image, much as I do in the cinema. This is new, and quite welcome. Unfortunately, many letter boxed DVDs appear pretty small on my 27 inch TV, which of course has got me re-investigating the TV market (I've always kept an eye on it, just in case).Why I haven't upgraded from my seven-year-old Panasonic TV:
I've remained unimpressed with the "advances" in picture quality since I bought my Panasonic. Mine's a direct view 27", superb quality. Every time I check out TV's in the local home theater stores they dissapoint me. Mostly, I see bigger screens showing bigger picture artifacts - the lines being more visible, more artifacts around image edges. Why buy a bigger screen if it only makes the picture look worse? (27 inch to 31 inch seemed to be the point of no return, after which artifacts arise, or the technology becomes cumbersome or intrusive to the experience - rear projection screens, ugh!). Plasma screens have always sucked. Crappy, smeary, low-contrast picture to my eyes - all the price just to make the screen flat.
UNTIL... I noticed a plasma screen when in NYC recently. Damn it looked good. Are things changing?
Then last week I saw the Panasonic TV42T3 Plasma (if I remember correctly). Absolutely friggin' amazing. A Plasma tv that was not worse than a direct view, but one that struck me as significantly better than any direct view I've seen. No lines, artifacts, incredible detail and a richness of color that I've never encountered.
It's the very first TV I've lusted after - the first one that would seem to offer a significantly richer experience than my own set.
I don't know that I will actually get around to buying one of those expensive beasts, but...What should I look out for in Plasma TVs? Any particular problems?
Can anyone recommend a great direct-view I should check out, just in case?
Can someone post the names of newsgroups that discuss buying TVs?
Any other advice?Thanks for any wisdom you choose to send my way.
Rich H.
Follow Ups:
You might want to take a look at the new Samsung rear projection lcd monitors which will be available in a few months. I was also looking at the plasma screens until I came across the Samsung models. The new 16:9 43"and 50" tabletop unit upscales everything to 720p. The 40" upsamples to 480p.I already had a demo of the 43" unit. So far the picture is outstanding!!!
http://www.samsungusa.com
Alan Maher
... and check out the SonyKP-53HS10 rear view projection HDTV ready hi-scan hi-res TV. Circuit City and Best Buy (I am NOT endorsing those places, just pointing out where he can readily see this 53" TV) have them, and they are just stunning, especially with DVD's!!! Sony's line doubling technology is awesome, and the resolution of DVD's on this TV is filmlike. I kid you not. And it goes for like $2800, which is a steal. I liked it better than most plasma TV images! Have fun looking!
***What should I look out for in Plasma TVs? Any particular problems?Ah, yes. It is a dying overpriced technology. It doesn't even come close to the quality offered by any number of direct view TV's.
Plasma today is strictly a life style sale - flat display if you must have THAT feature. In all other areas it basically is completely outdated.
> > "Ah, yes. It is a dying overpriced technology. It doesn't even come close to the quality offered by any number of direct view TV's.Plasma today is strictly a life style sale - flat display if you must have THAT feature. In all other areas it basically
is completely outdated." < <It's funny Victor. That was exactly my feeling until recently. I'm not a home theater guy - one reason being that I'm very sensitive to picture artifacts. Whenever I've looked at TVs, no matter what price or technology, I've been disappointed by how bad the images look. Big TVs seemed to be simply blowing up low-resolution images. My loudest laughs were reserved for people dishing out money for the crappy, smeared images on Plasma screens, just to have a cool-looking flat TV. Count me an uninterested cynic.
But last fall I was in a AV store in NYC and the best picture display there was clearly a new Plasma screen playing a DVD (don't know which screen it was). It was, aside from HDTV, the very first time a tv image made me go "WOW!" Then I encounter this Panasonic plasma set in my local AV dealer and, to my eyes, it is clearly a step above everything they have in their very large, high-priced store. It is the single display that, for picture quality alone, makes me absolutely lust after it. (The other plasma screens in the store are disappointing in comparison). I haven't seen a direct view TV yet that didn't display an annoying (to me) presence of lines, blurring, crispies or other artifacts. In comparison, this Plasma screen is like looking through a window.
So, either you and I haven't been looking at the same top-quality plasma screens, or beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Rich H.
***I haven't seen a direct view TV yet that didn't display an annoying (to me) presence of lines, blurring, crispies or other artifacts. In comparison, this Plasma screen is like looking through a window.Rich, this description makes me feel that they didn't show you the progressive scan picture on a good digital-ready tube set.
The things you mention are not present on good digital TV's - I wish I could show you the near film-like smoothness of the Toshiba tube, for example.
However, in that category you will see limilar performance between the plasma and tube. The biggest differences will be in the areas of color purity, brilliance, contrast and three-dimensional depth, where the tube is simply light years ahead.
All that presumes good source material, of course. If you go to the store, request that they connect a reasonable progressive scan DVD to the TV, and bring some good quality demo with you - depending upon your taste you might try things like Run Lola Run, All About My Mother or Lost in Space - all these would push any TV to the limit of its capability.
***So, either you and I haven't been looking at the same top-quality plasma screens,
That IS possible, of course, but I thought I have seen pretty much every display out there. Sure enough, there will be differences between different plasma units, but I was talking about the fundamental issues with that technology that apply to all units.
*** or beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
That of course is true. And plasma units ARE sexy.
Best of luck in your search.
Thanks again. I will take your suggestions to heart in my search.
I'll check out some good tube sets too, with progressive scan. Unfortunately, it's still looking like a plasma or a roll-down projector screen type of thing will fit into our family room.
Rich H.
Plasma's have several problems, not least in the colour rendition and the contrast level, they also have a tendency to smear as the plasma glows for longer than the phospor on a tubed set. The top of the range Sony 36" widescreen, (not sure of the model number in the states) is the best set I have ever seen. Yes sure you can sometimes see artifacts, but that is usually down to the poor source material, or the terible set ups that the shops have for showing sets.In a dealer they can have upwards of thirty sets running off distribution amps! I have also seen dealers demonstrate DVD using single video in leads, not even the s sockets or the RGB that a lot of the top models have.
Plasmas are sexy, but not the match of a really good CRT. Sony's line doubling feature used with a RGB input from a DVD is about as good as the technology gets at the moment. Two years time? Who knows!
Roland
Check out the new RCA 16:9 direct view (can't remember the model #(best buy)) and Philips 34pw9815 (circuit city). Proscan and Loewe too though I would not buy one myself.
Guys, thanks a bunch.As far as suggestions for direct view tvs, it seems we're stuck. Our one area for a tv is the big, built-in bookcase where our current 27" resides. The structure of the bookcase pretty much precludes the addition of a larger direct view tv with their bulky behinds. One reason the plasma screens intrigues - because the book case could
accommodate the slimmer volume. For this reason I also wanted to investigate a front projection system. However, our tv/family room is heavily windowed, with large amounts of ambient light. As I understand it, this would suck for front projection. (Although, I guess we could keep our current tv there for most viewing, and have a pull down screen to watch DVDs at night?).BTW, I visited our local hi-end/home theater center again and watched more DVDs on that Panasonic Plasma tv. I'm tellin' ya guys, it just blew my mind again. I don't think the picture from this set is commensurate with most people's experiences of plasma screens. For instance, all the other plasma screens I saw at the store (Sony, for
one) left me unmoved - pretty good, but still a little blurred, slightly smeary, and a lower level of contrast than the direct view tvs, which washed out the color. But this Panasonic apparently boasts
some impressive contrast technology and holy cow does it seem to work.
For clarity, detail, brilliance, contrast, and richness of image it easily wiped the floor with every high-priced tv of any technology I could find in the store.I...think...I...might...be...hooked.
Again, I appreciate the info.
Cheers,
Rich H.
***For clarity, detail, brilliance, contrast, and richness of image it easily wiped the floor with every high-priced tv of any technology I could find in the store.Makes you wonder how the TV's were set up at that store. As I said, plasma is not even close to the better direct views, but the source matters.
I think the only valid comparisson would be to play the same progressive output DVD into them side by side, then you will see what I mean, I am sure of that.
But I say - careful. I don't say don't do it.
However, every time we are so hotly hooked onto something, we should take cold shower and spend more time looking - I have been there myself. Amazing how different things look sometimes with more study and investigation.
I remember being once to a computer store. They had bunch of setups on display. They only had good quality picture on the most expensive monitor there. All other monitors were intentionally misstuned to get the expensive model sales - I have seen enough monitors to know that what they were getting on those $200 models was NOT what these are capable for.
I am not saying this is what your store did, but..........
Good advice Victor, thanks. I don't intend to make the plunge soon.Rich H
I would go for that Panny Plasma, here's what you do though, forget about the progressive player, that is the hype, not plasma, get a non-progressive DVD player, run it through a Farouja NR scaler into the Plasma, it will be awesome.
Dan & Bob are both correct, quality of the set and signal are both important. HOWEVER, setup of whatever TV you get is VERY important. I am surprised at the change after a proper setup. Use something other than the cheap wires that come with the DVD player and you will also notice the difference.Plasma TVs have improved, but they still don't handle dark images or black very well. Movies (70mm) are still the standard.
Don;t forget that most of our current image problems stem from poor source material. That is why a lot of NTSC looks terrible on bigger screens. If you have seen HD though, you know the future looks bright! DVD's are a differnt story too (though not as amazing as HD).If you have the money to consider plasma, and a decent sized room (15'X12' is a good minimum), why not look at front projection?
For $7k you could get a LCD front projector and video scaler that would knock your socks off- and give you a real "cinematic experience" for those DVD's.
Once you watch your letterboxed DVD on a 7 ft. wide screen, there is no going back to ANY normal TV, and new products now have enough output (2500 lumens for example) to be brighter than a RPTV (and less effected by ambient light)Drop me an e-mail if you want to know more of have specific questions about FPTVm and I will let you know all I can.
Other resources for info on PLasma's / projectorswww.hometheaterforum.com
www.avsforum.com
dg
2 systems that dont cost a million and you will love:a)proton 36" direct view with a dvdo deinterlacer (3/2 pull down)
and any dvd player - $3000b)loewe 36" inch direct view with a panasonic dvd - $2500
both systems are to die for; razor sharp picture, no scan lines,
bright colors, very movie like27" is too small, too tv like! you need at min a 32" screen
also you need a non interlaced tv to make things look like the movies
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