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Old 31-10-2004, 21:36
andyiwd2
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Hi,
We're looking to buy a plasma TV around the £1700-£2500 region. I'd like a few opinions as to which screen features are going to provide the "best" image (I know it depends on alot of other stuff).

There's HDTV type resolutions at 1024x1024 but with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 or the more standard 854x480 but with higher contrast ratios of 3000:1 or more.

Which is going to give a "better" picture ?

The samsung 42" jobbies like a good option to me although stuff I've read seems to say the Panasonic's good. We want one with a thin edge to it rather than built in speakers - we'd prefer to put external flat speakers with it.

cheers
Andy
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Old 31-10-2004, 22:01
thejabba
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OK, here's what i'd have to say about buying plasma's.....

When you get your plasma and start watching normal TV, ie through a sky box, you most likely will be appauled by the quality at first that digital TV is actually broadcast in. You'll find maybe some channels will provide better quality (sky movies, sports) than other but this is one thing i think you should be aware of at first.

Another thing is you will want to be connecting devices with highest quality leads to get the best, i do notice the difference in picture quality using Gold Plated leads etc, but make sure the devices you will connect your plasma are up to date, ie DVD players with progressive scanning, 12bit etc but don't worry about this too much of yet.



Anyhows, if your gonna pick a screen make sure its got 1024 by 768 resolution at least now they are very affordable, although a 852 by 480 screen will stilll appear good from a correct viewing distance, when HDTV is released in a few years, 1024 by 768 + will give you all the benefits of a more detailed, crisp picture. You should make sure that your Plasma will be HDTV Compatible to benefit from the future, as this tv you would idealy want to last quite a few years.

You should be aware that currently the maximum resolution of DVD Players and Satelite/Cable boxes are 720by576 pixels and consoles 640by480, so not at any time you will experience the complete resolution of your screen till HDTV is released.

The features you wan't your plasma to have at least are

HDTV Compatibility,
Progressive Scanning,
650cm/brightness at least.
1000:1 contrast ratio at least
Most importantly compatibility with multiple high quality connections, look for preferably RGB compatibility on 2 scarts at least for your current devices, but for the future you want to make sure you have either VGA, DVI, Component (YPbPr, YCbCr) or DHMI (or something) connections. I stress the point in making sure the plasma you purchase is ready for HDTV with enough compatible inputs.

For picture quality, the higher the resolution the sharper the picture should be, the brightness and higher contrast ratio's should give a better image as the image doesn't fall back on darker parts of the screen.
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Old 31-10-2004, 22:17
andyiwd2
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Thanks for the response - given a choice of 864x480 with 3000:1 or 1024x1024 with 1000:1 - which is going to give a sharper picture ?

Our current TV is a Sony 32" wega 100hz jobbie, the picture of which is fantastic - now if you've a DVD / Sky box outputting at a max res of 640x480 or 720x576, then if the TV is analogue then fine, but surely you're going to get a mismatch between the resolution of the TV and the output of the device (just like using a PC output with a resolution different to the native resolution of the panel).

Cheers
Andy
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Old 31-10-2004, 22:43
Jarrak
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Go to the Plasma forum over at AVforums , you'll get a much wider range of opinions including some from guys in retail.
They certainly have strong views on the 1024*1024 (ALIS?) panels


Regardless of what Plasma or LCD come to think of it there will always be a need for the panel to scale the video source to match it's native resolution. Depending upon the quality of the source and the performance of the scaler the results can be vastly different. The cheaper panels handle DVD quality quite well but have more issues with UK digital broadcasts and other sources.
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Old 31-10-2004, 22:57
Gizmo 76
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Good advice by Jarrak there, AVForums is a great place to start and you can also get some deals by being a member of the forum.

I got a 42inch Panasonic PW6 a few weeks back, and i'm using it with a Humax 8000T Freeview box. The picture on most channels is great, far better than the on Sky on the downstairs 32inch W/S CRT TV.

AVForums members will go into details about all the different resolutions far better than I could, but a Standard Definition Plasma feed with a High Definition signal looks stunning, and it is said that the Standard Def pictures we all get at the moment look better on a SD display than a HD one. All to do with scaling..............apparently

I don't regret at all getting a SD model, love me plasma to bits

Giz.
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Old 03-11-2004, 20:40
EJP99
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I understand the international HDTV standards are 1080i, 720p or 1080p. And that its 1080i that's currently most used in the USA and Australia.
The 1080i and 1080p standards delivers a resolution of 1922x1080 and 720p a resolution of 1280x720.

In which case should not a TV described as 'HD compatible' be able to achieve 1922x1080?

If the best that current TVs can achieve is about 1024x1024 is this why the EBU prefers the 720p standard?
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Old 03-11-2004, 21:19
digi al
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contrast ratios are a waste of time,as there no set standard to how they are measured.it is possible to have two plasmas with 1000:1 ratio and one is twice as bright as the other because one may be 0.5 to 500 lumens,and one may be 1 to 1000,so you need to look at the actual brightness of the screen,and not the ratio.
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Old 03-11-2004, 21:40
Jarrak
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Originally Posted by EJP99
I understand the international HDTV standards are 1080i, 720p or 1080p. And that its 1080i that's currently most used in the USA and Australia.
The 1080i and 1080p standards delivers a resolution of 1922x1080 and 720p a resolution of 1280x720.

In which case should not a TV described as 'HD compatible' be able to achieve 1922x1080?

If the best that current TVs can achieve is about 1024x1024 is this why the EBU prefers the 720p standard?


HD compatible simply means it can accept a HD source and scale it to fit the screens resolution, be it 850*480, 1280*720, 1024*1024 or the very very scare 1920*1080.
As you have said there are numerous resolutions and all can come under the HD banner, basically if a screen is going to be labelled as HD then it should meet the minimum resolution of 1280*720 and handle progressive video.

The EBU is perhaps going for the easy and cheaper option, progressive is the preferred format but panels and broadcast requirments make 1080p a few years off yet while 720p and 1080i are very much the norm now.
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Old 03-11-2004, 21:47
Quickbeam
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Originally Posted by EJP99
I understand the international HDTV standards are 1080i, 720p or 1080p. And that its 1080i that's currently most used in the USA and Australia.
The 1080i and 1080p standards delivers a resolution of 1922x1080 and 720p a resolution of 1280x720.

In which case should not a TV described as 'HD compatible' be able to achieve 1922x1080?
No. If it has a resolution of 1280 x 720 progressive then it is HD compatible, because 720p is an HD format.

If the best that current TVs can achieve is about 1024x1024 is this why the EBU prefers the 720p standard?
Although most digitial displays are progressive, 1024 x 1024 plasma ALIS panels are an anomaly in that they are interlaced displays. The real resolution is 1024 x 512 (1024i).

There are a few 1080p progressive LCD TVs on the market though, such as Sharp's 45" 1080p LCD.

The EBU recommends 720p because broadcast 1080p at 50 or 60Hz would require too much bandwidth, even if next gen video codecs were used; nor are there any video cameras that can capture it yet.

Since apart from ALIS panels all modern displays are progressive, in the EBU's view it is better to broadcast a progressive signal (720p) than an interlaced one (1080i), because an interlaced signal would have to be deinterlaced by the display, something which is very difficult to do well in cheap consumer equipment.
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