Plasma TV, what brand...

I bought my Plasma about 3 years ago. It is an LG 42" When shopping for one it had the best picture to me when compared to about 5 other brands side by side.
 
comsnark said:
Ain't that the truth. I went shopping the other week with a friend. After looking at all the TV's. . the best looking one was a two year old open box with not even 1/3 the contrast ratio of the "current" models next to it. Clearly. . the TV's were not set up properly.
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That's why I suggested to have the set calibrated once you have it home.
It does help to get your hands on the remotes to change settings and try to make apples apples comparison.
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Pirate said:
..... There is so much competition for the primary items in the A/V industry (TV's, Sources, etc.), that the profit is gone. That Monster HDMI costs your dealer 15% of what he charges retail. The mark up is INSANE. Wonderful for the dealer, but bad for you.......
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Matt is correct.

There are several issues working against the retail stores.

First, you need to have one on display and others in inventory to sell them. Deflation is the norm. This means a TV the store buys today will be less expensive down the road.

Second, items quickly become out of date. State of the art today will soon be obsolete.

SG&A costs are comparatively high on TV’s.

The best case for a retail store, after all expenses, is to break even on the TV sale. The profit comes from financing, extended warranties, accessories like HDMI cables, home set-up and in some cases repair but that one (repair) is not as easy as it may sound.
 
Just bought a 42 Panasonic plasma 1080 "Viera" from Best Buy. $1150 that included tax, one HDMI cable, surge protector. I refused the in-home setup which was $200. Picture is fantastic with HD cable and way above above average with standard (non-blueray) DVD. My limit was $1000 for the TV so I had to stay around 40-42inch. I researched them as well before buying and found the plasma best suited to meet my needs.
 
Kurt said:
Just bought a 42 Panasonic plasma 1080 "Viera" from Best Buy. $1150 that included tax, one HDMI cable, surge protector. I refused the in-home setup which was $200. Picture is fantastic with HD cable and way above above average with standard (non-blueray) DVD. My limit was $1000 for the TV so I had to stay around 40-42inch. I researched them as well before buying and found the plasma best suited to meet my needs.
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If you don't have your set professionally calibrated, the next best things is to go to avsforum, punch in your model and search for posts where people discussed their best settings. You will see a huge difference in the picture from what the factory defaults are.

Doug
 
Many scams out there...like the HDMI cable scam. Listen to any slippery salesman explain to some unsuspecting buyer.."When they start broadcasting "more" channels in 1080p, blah blah blah...you'll see how much better it is..."
Is there even 1 channel broadcasting in 1080p? will there be in the next 5 years?? Ever???
 
In addition to using an a/v forum - purchase a dvd setup disc which walks you through both audio and video setup to ensure you are getting the most out of your configuration. I bought Digital Video Essentials and found it was really good at getting the sound and picture quality to where I wanted it to be. The color filters really make a difference and allow you to fine tune all of your settings in your viewing environment.
 
First Born said:
So spend $2,000 - $3,000 on a TV and make sure you get the best but only spend $6 on the cable that is going to get that picture from the box to the TV.
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(Caution the below is my attempt of a humorous reply)

Connect your Monster HDMI cable, get yourself a bowl of soylent green, sit back and take it all in, just like Sol Roth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQNjJZFdLU&NR=1

Hey, notice how the sound is not in sync with the video? Guess we will still not have that problem fixed by the year 2022.
 
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jg300da said:
Many scams out there...like the HDMI cable scam. Listen to any slippery salesman explain to some unsuspecting buyer.."When they start broadcasting "more" channels in 1080p, blah blah blah...you'll see how much better it is..."
Is there even 1 channel broadcasting in 1080p? will there be in the next 5 years?? Ever???
Click to expand...

I was down at the boat this weekend and the DirecTV receivers fetched a software update and put a message up on the screen that I was now ready to receive their new lineup in full 1080p... I have not really looked into it but that's what it said. I've read a couple places where the on-demand movies are actually downloaded and stored on the DirecTV receiver and then played in 1080p... however, they do advertise they have about 30 channels in 1080p... so the answer to your question is "yes".

I go back and forth on the cable issue. If a signal is digital, it either works or it doesn't. However, I have a couple of HD video distribution systems (one on the boat) that use cat 5 to distribute sources to remote TV's. The system only supports component video (YPbPr) and I have had problems with cheap cables. I actually went and started hooking up the system with cheap component video cables I bought at Target (Belkin I believe) and I had a horrible problem with scanning lines on the TVs. I put a cheap ferritte choke on some of the cables and it helped a little but I ended up going and buying some better quality cables from Impact Acoustics that had shielded wires and a built in ferrite chokes on each end and that solved the scanning line problems. These are analog cables though... My point is that when you hook up sources with some analog stuff for HD and you have a bunch of wires all crammed into a small space (120v AC in the mix), you probably want to get a better shielded cable.

DVI/HDMI are digital so aren't going to suffer as bad... but some things you may hook up won't have DVI/HDMI outputs and you'll end up using component video.

That's my "real world" experience.
 
Currently, there is only one source of 1080P video content. Bluray. Broadcasters transmit either 720p or 1080i, both use about the same bandwidth. Cable HD broadcasts, including interactive "on demand" type offerings are also either 720p or 1080i with high degrees of compression. Data streams typically run about 19 mbps. Double that for 1080p. I have an HD movie on this systems drive that I pulled off the Motorola DCT6412's firewire port. It's 9.5 GB in size. Double that for 1080P. Don't know about satellite, but pushing out 40ish mbps of data is a lot of bandwidth. Don't expect hundreds of 1080p channels.

Considering that many say that BluRay isn't going to make it and that the market is going to digital downloads, I don't see where 1080P content is going to become the standard media format in the near or even pretty near future. Other than BluRay, there's nothing on the horizon for 1080p. Considering that music distribution high definition peaked in the 1982 with introduction of the compact disc. Since then, people have flocked to lower audio quality compressed audio media. Doesn't bode well, IMHO, for higher quality video. Lots of people have HD TVs and find standard definition DVDs (SD is 640x480 in the U.S.) perfectly acceptable.

Best regards,
Frank
 
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=P4800004

DIRECTV Remains Clear HD Leader With 130 HD channels on Tap For Mid-August

DIRECTV Adding More Than 30 New HD Channels and is First To Offer All HD Programming in MPEG-4 AVC and Dolby Digital; Will offer HD Movies in 1080p Later This Year
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 28, 2008 - DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, continues to dominate the HD landscape by delivering significantly more quality national HD channels than any other television provider in the nation via the most advanced technology. Beginning August 14, DIRECTV will launch more than 30 additional HD channels, bringing the total HD channel lineup to 130.

DIRECTV will also transmit all of its HD programming in the MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding standard, by the end of this month - the first to do so in the industry. All HD programming will also be available in the Dolby Digital audio format, and later this year, DIRECTV will begin offering movies in 1080p, the highest resolution format available for HD video enthusiasts and the same format used by Blu-Ray HD DVDs.

Among the new HD channels that DIRECTV will launch next month are Showtime Extreme HD, Showtime Showcase HD, Planet Green HD, ABC Family HD, additional DIRECTV HD pay per view channels and an additional 12 Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) in HD 24 hours a day.

"Despite all the sound and fury of confusing HD claims from our competitors, our customers understand that DIRECTV is the destination for the most compelling and complete lineup of HD content," said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Strategy and Development, DIRECTV, Inc. "Our message is clear - DIRECTV is the content leader, and our delivery of the best quality HD via the most advanced technology is one way we continue to dominate this category and offer our more than 17 million customers nationwide an unparalleled entertainment experience."

In addition to its full lineup of linear HD channels, DIRECTV continues to lead the industry with the most sports HD programming available, by broadcasting exclusive, interactive sports packages like NFL SUNDAY TICKET™, NCAA® MEGA MARCH MADNESS™ and NASCAR HOTPASS™ all in crystal-clear HD. DIRECTV will also continue to add HD content to its newly launched DIRECTV on Demand platform.

The full DIRECTV HD programming lineup, including the new channels, and details on receiving equipment needed for the new DIRECTV HD services, are available by calling 1-800-DIRECTV or visiting directv.com/hd.

With the DIRECTV 11 satellite now part of the fleet and the launch of the DIRECTV 12 satellite next year, DIRECTV will have the capacity to deliver 200 national HD channels and 1,500 local HD and digital channels in addition to new advanced programming services for customers nationwide.
 
I e-mailed a geek acquaintence about the possibility of future 1080p broadcasts and here is his reply;

Possible, but it's all about the bandwidth. For 1080/60p, though, you're going to have issues. Current US broadcast is limited to 19.4Mb/s... if you want 1080/60p, you're going to in short need twice the bandwidth, or accept half the quality, or change something. But in fact, 1080/60p isn't a legal ATSC format, so anything here is really post-ATSC, far as terrestrial broadcast goes.

For cable/satellite, it's possible essentially "whenever they feel like it", which also probably means not anytime soon. Satellite has already moved most HD content to H.264 rather than MPEG-2, and they're using modulation schemes that deliver 30-60Mb/s per analog channel, rather than 19.4MB/s. But satellite "real estate" is expensive, and even with the far greater coding efficiency of H.264, most HD content is likely downsampled, more likely 1440x1080 or 1280x1080 than the full 1920x1080, all at 60i. Don't expect any dramatic changes here.

Cable systems have more bandwidth, and FIOS TV more still, but they're also a competition where something just barely HD is often considered acceptable, and quantity wins over quality, after a point. As well, unless there's a big 1080/60p infrastructure, there's little point in paying for the ability to deliver it. If TV is primarily 1080/60i, and film primarily 1080/24p, where are you going to find enough 1080/60p content to push the demand onto any service provider?

Not sure I get all the technical points but I get the feeling this is a long way off.
 
Probably a dumb question, but why the fuss about cable quality? My comcast signal comes into the house on cable that's in the walls and probably 20 years old. How does connecting a good quality HD cable to those outlets improve anything? Isn't the old line the weak link in the system?
 
fc3 said:
Regarding rear projection, I'd go with DLP over LCD. Better color, brightness, and responsiveness than LCD. DLP beat the rainbow effect sometime around 2003, putting the last nail into LCD's coffin. You should be able to get into a 60 or so inch 1080p DSP for about a grand. Sammysung makes some decent units.

The downside with rear projection is bulb replacements. We're on our fourth efing bulb on my wife's Toshiba DLP set. The claimed life for the bulbs was greatly exaggerated. Or, in other words, the lying scum sucking rat bastards claimed three+ year life rather than one year life from the $200+ bulbs.


Back to digital electronics 101, son. If a cable can pass a 340 MHz digital signal within the attenuation and
inter-signal crosstalk specification to earn the label "High Speed HDMI Cable," then it's good enough. Any more is FUD. On the other hand, if you want to have gold plated fuel tanks installed on your Sea Ray, go ahead. It's not going to hurt anything... other than your wallet.

Best regards,
Frank
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First Born said:
Thanks old wise one
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Ok, I'll moderate this one. You two play nice.
I think gold fuel tanks would weigh too much and cause the boat to have less performance.

Doug,
I think I will consider a Visio for my next one. I have a Panasonic 42" plasma now. I've had it for a year and a half or so. It has a great picture. It is the 1080i so a newe 1080P is suppose to be even better.
The Visio's that I have seen at Costco also have a nice picture and in my opinion are really competing with the big boys. I think since Costco gave them their platform to sell it has really given Visio a solid backing and improved reputation.

I'd buy another Panasonic or consider a Visio

We don't watch too many movies on DVD, so I haven't purchased the Blu-Ray yet. Those are amazing. We do watch Movies on DirectTv and they come through nice.

Don't forget to upgrade your DirectTv to HD. You'll be amazed.
 
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fc3 said:
Lots of people have HD TVs and find standard definition DVDs (SD is 640x480 in the U.S.) perfectly acceptable.
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Well, you can count me as one that does not fit into the "lots of people" category. An upconverted 480 SD DVD looks
much better on a good flat screen than the same DVD played on a SD DVD player. Close to BD on the Toshiba XDE-500 upconverting player I have. Blue Ray will not go the way of HD discs. It's here to stay for some time, and I am glad it is.

Plasma TV. Best is Pioneer Kuro, next is Panasonic.
 
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fc3 said:
Considering that many say that BluRay isn't going to make it and that the market is going to digital downloads, I don't see where 1080P content is going to become the standard media format in the near or even pretty near future. Other than BluRay, there's nothing on the horizon for 1080p. Considering that music distribution high definition peaked in the 1982 with introduction of the compact disc. Since then, people have flocked to lower audio quality compressed audio media. Doesn't bode well, IMHO, for higher quality video. Lots of people have HD TVs and find standard definition DVDs (SD is 640x480 in the U.S.) perfectly acceptable.

Best regards,
Frank
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Not exactly true. High Rez audio peaked much later with the introduction of DVD-A and SACD. Unfortunately for the music industry, they couldn't get their act together and the DVD-A format lingered for years while they tried to figure out how they were going to copy protect the format. During that period, the mp3 took off, the ipod packaged it, music sucked for many years, the compact disc continued to rise in price, video games took center stage for teen $$, Sony doing what they do best (come out with their own competing format). These are the things that killed high rez audio.

While video suffers many of the same problems, it has many things going for it. HD tv's are going into homes by the truck loads, Sony finally won a format war, HD content can't keep up with demand. Forcing everything to digital next year will get the late adopters onto the bandwagin.
 
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