TV: LCD or Plasma?
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What you guys from CP choose? and why?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
Chose LCD -- Sony Bravia strain. Strong tuner and slow to boot, but heck, firmware source is supposedly available (if the GNU license flyer is to be believed) :) Do you have digital signals into your house? Right about now people may be panicing or thinking they'll get benefits if they go digital, but if you have cable and you don't pay for the digital channels, you'll get no benefit other than the larger screen (with the same old 480i signals displayed on it). To pick the TV, go to Best Buy where you can look at a wall of TVs and compare their pictures side by side. Pick the one that looks the best. Pay attention to how bright the whites are, how dark the blacks are, and how much detail you can see in the lightest and darkest areas. Watch them for a long while and look for wierdness in fast changing motion (excessive blockiness, skipped frames, etc.). TVs vary widely, you are picking the best specific model in the size you want, not a technology or brand -- even two brand-X models side-by-side will show marked differences in these areas. BTW, bring the wife and kids if you can -- let them do the aestetic assessment while you examine the specs and interpret them for them (don't be suprised if they couldn't care less about specs.. that what you want them to do). Does it have enoguh inputs of the types you'll need? Are thay all independent or did they combbine some (like the old compositie video and S-video inputs -- you got both connectors, but could only use one or the other per input). Talk to the sales people about their installation and tweaking service -- we chose not because it looked to me like they had dumbed down the gamma, giving everything a gray cast. Probably all that could be done with the demo TVs to get the best tonality range. If you're doing free air, try your existing antenna first before buying anything. A lot of them seem to work fine with the new digital TV signals. Do you have an upconverting DVD player or a blue-ray player yet? If not, you should consider one at some point if you watch many movies. How about the VCR or DVR? Have a digital-tuner one yet? I've been having fun trying to find a DVR recently. Prefer HDMI interconnects over component video if you can afford to -- digital vs. analog through the cable is slightly better picture, and tons more convenient (1 vs. 5 cables to connect) but not enough to compell the expenditure. Will you want a component/HDMI cable for the game console? Wii with component cable is awesome on a 42" widescreen :) Again
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Oh, they are, they are. But I've not seen an LCD or Plasma that gives a better picture. Like DD I'll get a LCD when my CRT dies.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Panasonic are launching broadcast grade plasmas that give a very good colour match to CRT phosphors, I just hope that's what Pioneer are going to be using in using in the new G10s.
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What you guys from CP choose? and why?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
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If CRTs could handle HD I'd much rather have one.
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HD? I only got digital 2 weeks ago.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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I totally agree. Today's Samsung LCD is as good or better than plasma. There may be some people out there that can tell a difference. That's why you should always look at all choices and see what looks best to you. For my $1500 the Samsung LCD wins on all fronts. (I moved up from a 36" HD CRT...the LCD can't touch that picture quality, but plasma can't either). stevev
The Samsung A950 series is hot. No burn in. 120Hz refresh rate. LED backlighting (really cool). 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Very nice. Also very expensive. MAC
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The Samsung A950 series is hot. No burn in. 120Hz refresh rate. LED backlighting (really cool). 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Very nice. Also very expensive. MAC
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The million to one contrast ratio is a bit of a fib, it's based on switching off sections of the backlighting which you can do with LEDs.
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Trollslayer wrote:
The million to one contrast ratio is a bit of a fib
I'd put that much more strongly. Dynamic contrast ratios fall just below vertical viewing angles for TN panels in the Lies, Damn Lies, and LCD Panel Specifications pantheon.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Trollslayer wrote:
The million to one contrast ratio is a bit of a fib
I'd put that much more strongly. Dynamic contrast ratios fall just below vertical viewing angles for TN panels in the Lies, Damn Lies, and LCD Panel Specifications pantheon.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
I don't know about the reality of the numbers but on the A950, black is black, not gray. In a dark room my brother in-laws A650 (50,000:1 ratio) is grey when showing black. The A950 is just black. However, I do wonder how much of a gap there is between say, a 50% gray and black vs. a 50% gray and white. The black is created by turning the backlight off. I believe I read something that the backlight is done in a 16x16 pixel block. It can't turn off individual pixels in the backlight. Anyway, with the backlight on, you still have a maximum light blocking capability of the LCD crystals. So if you want a shade somewhere between the maximum block and backlight off, you are SOL. I wonder how big that gap is? In the end, all I can say is it looks REALLY good. They review very well, too. I didn't mention the price though, did I? 3000USD+ depending upon screen size. MAC
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I don't know about the reality of the numbers but on the A950, black is black, not gray. In a dark room my brother in-laws A650 (50,000:1 ratio) is grey when showing black. The A950 is just black. However, I do wonder how much of a gap there is between say, a 50% gray and black vs. a 50% gray and white. The black is created by turning the backlight off. I believe I read something that the backlight is done in a 16x16 pixel block. It can't turn off individual pixels in the backlight. Anyway, with the backlight on, you still have a maximum light blocking capability of the LCD crystals. So if you want a shade somewhere between the maximum block and backlight off, you are SOL. I wonder how big that gap is? In the end, all I can say is it looks REALLY good. They review very well, too. I didn't mention the price though, did I? 3000USD+ depending upon screen size. MAC
Oh. And my brother in-law is very happy with the A650, too. MAC
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What you guys from CP choose? and why?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
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I don't know about the reality of the numbers but on the A950, black is black, not gray. In a dark room my brother in-laws A650 (50,000:1 ratio) is grey when showing black. The A950 is just black. However, I do wonder how much of a gap there is between say, a 50% gray and black vs. a 50% gray and white. The black is created by turning the backlight off. I believe I read something that the backlight is done in a 16x16 pixel block. It can't turn off individual pixels in the backlight. Anyway, with the backlight on, you still have a maximum light blocking capability of the LCD crystals. So if you want a shade somewhere between the maximum block and backlight off, you are SOL. I wonder how big that gap is? In the end, all I can say is it looks REALLY good. They review very well, too. I didn't mention the price though, did I? 3000USD+ depending upon screen size. MAC
Dunno. If they've got the block down to 16x16 in size it's probably not something you'd be able to spot without close inspection and a test pattern, at the much closer viewing distance of a PC display I'm still rather dubious about it. A mix of black and white lines with varying gaps through a DVI-HDMI adapter would probably work.
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For PQ plasma, as it has much better black levels, and hence a properly high contrast ratio (without needing the annoyingly useless dynamic contrast) However there is a large price premium, and they can be noisy. Also for the majority any decent modern LCD will suite them fine, as they won't notice the difference. For Plasma, the Pioneer Kuro Reference Panel (KRP600A) is probly one of the best displays you can get your hands on at the mo. If your in the states, then the Mitsubishi Laser RPT has had outstanding reviews, but its not super thin like lcd/plasma. Oh and if your going for a decent set, don't bother if your not going to be feeding it a decent HD source like Blu-Ray.
I went with the LCD as they are much better at handling ambient light screen reflection. (Sunlight through the door / windows)The glass on the plasma is much more reflective and would make viewing a real pane.... If i had a darkened "cinema room" - i would have gone the plasma.
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If CRTs could handle HD I'd much rather have one.
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Yep, CRT dont play HD formats. And if you buy a LCD or Plasma. Pay atention if they are Full HD ( 1080p ) to play Blu-Ray quality. There are also HD ( 720p ) out there. :)))))))))) 1 - Buy your full HD tv 2 - Connect your PC HDMI cable on it 3 - Configure your Vista Media Center (optional - to see the tv and play with the PC at the same time) 4 - Buy a Remote Controller to Media Center (optional) 5 - Find some movies to see (Buy it, dont do illegal downloads please) 5 - Enjoi 1080p n 720p! ;)
"Go for it!"