Hey I bought the same model last September (?) for the same reason, I went in to purchase the Samsung LN52A650 LCD (had already negotiated a price) and saw this one on display and just had to have it.

I've been told that calibration will extend the life of the plasma but right now it looks so great to me that I haven't changed any settings (plus I’ve been focused on getting the surround sound up to speed). The picture is quite vivid, I'm sure it's not perfectly accurate without calibration, but the one I saw on display had been calibrated and looked just as vivid, I guess I'll get around to it one of these days to protect my investment.

My Wife took my PLASMA !!!!!

True actually, she spent a couple of years as a phlebotomist for Canadian Blood Services. I used to donate plasma on a regular basis. I should really start that habit again, or at least whole blood. That's a lot quicker a procedure.

Hey guys, I got the TV all hooked up!! A couple questions though . I've played Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Radio City and the video quality seems to be grainy and washed out at times. I'm running everything via component video because I don't have HDMI, and I've also calibrated everything as recommended on AVS forum thread for my television.

Is HDMI a giant leap from component video? At future shop I told them to play the Planet Earth DVD which was hooked up via HDMI and the picture was phenomenal, but it didn't have the "dark color" like the aforementioned DVD.

Is it normal to have a subpar picture like this running through my older DVD player? Honestly, the picture wasn't even close to as "washed out" on my old Hitachi connected via S-video.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I have the same unit and use hdmi and the sony 350 blu ray player to play dvds. I believe in voodoo like power conditioners, prior to hooking mine up I was unhappy with normal dvd and normal hd directv (I kept thinking "Where's my blu ray?")

Currently I enjoy all hd content on directv as well as dvds without feeling I am missing anything (e.g., LOTR dvds etc). Of course I can notice the difference and when I plug in a blu ray such as Dark Knight I go "Wow!" perhaps even more so due to the sonic difference, the visuals of course are amazing as well, but I'm definitely not jonesing with standard dvds.

So from what you are saying something to me sounds wrong although from what I have read/experienced I couldn't begin to imagine that it would be the component video connection, perhaps it is the dvd player, haven't played dvds to hdtv except through sony 350.

I still have questions, for example, when the external RAID hard drive unit to my HR21 I purchased from Weaknees failed (?, interference), how come all of the Directv HD content looked fuzzy, not just the intermittent breaking up of the picture? I thought the virtue of digital was that it was either on or off, never fuzzy?

I have my cable hooked up via component and I have not noticed the picture to be grainy on the 460. The HD channels output are outstanding looking through component (1080i), I would have to think it is the dvd player.

Wheelz,a good friend of mine bought the same tv as yours and a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-Ray player.We ran HDMI to his YAMMY and HDMI to the TV,we watched Happy Feet on Blu-Ray.The PQ was just amazing.Then we put in the same movie on DVD to check out the upscaling and well....that lasted for about 1 beer.The difference was night and day.Grainy and washed out is what it was.You may have to spring for a BR player.The whole time I was tring to figure out how to bring that TV home without the wife noticing,still working on that.
Darcy.

Cam, is you DVD an upconverting player? If not, I can see a true 480 image not looking great on a good TV. The TV's internal scaler may not be up to par, or the play may just suck? If it is upconverted, then the problem might be with the player. Do you have access to a Blu-Ray player? If so, try that through the same input. If that looks fine, it is probably not the TV. If that looks bad however, call the store and complain.

Thanks, I'm trying to get my hands on my friends PS3. I called the store and complained and future shop gave me a number to call and they can come out and check it at no charge. My DVD player doesn't do up converting but I checked the manual for it and the only option I have under video settings is to change the aspect ratio. I'm assuming it's set to 4:3 for my old TV so I will check it out and if need be set it to 16:9, hoping that makes a difference.

Thanks for the help Zimm and others.

Standard def on a TV like that will look grainy, time for an upconverting player or Blu Ray.

Well Jay, I did just that. I was holding out for the new Oppo but after getting a response from them this morning in regards to their release date, "We anticipate releasing the BDP-83 in March for a MSRP between $499 and $599" I bought the 980 today. I didn't want to get one of their higher models because I will be getting their Blu-ray player when it comes out so I hope the 980 will suffice and is a good unit.