Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Another asking for help on HDTV choice

I'm thinking about buying a 50" Plasma TV to replace my 42" inch Toshiba I have in my living room. since the kids long ago wrecked their 32" inch LCD screen by putting stickers on it. I'll give them the Toshiba, my wife wants me to haul an old SDTV up from the guest room, I just have a problem with going back to standard TV in our main rooms.
I'm planning on staying with Plasma for the above reason and because I like them.
I'm really not up with the new technology on TVs in the past couple years.
Are there certain things I should be looking for?
Should I go with 720p or 1080p (I sit around 10' from the TV)
A couple sets I have done some looking into are the Pioneer PDP-5080HD 50" and the Panasonic TH-50PZ700U, both seem pretty good.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Michael,

You will undoubtedly get the usual responses with regards to resolution that will include charts, studies and links telling you what resolution you really need. They will most likely show you that you will not “notice” an improvement beyond 720P with your viewing distance and display size.

I tend to disagree with those recommendations, but not because of distance / size and eagle like vision reasons.

I will always suggest folks getting a display that supports 1080P/24 if they view, or will view HD and BR movies.

So one more time why……

BR and HD disks have a native resolution of 1080P/24 (frames per second) stored on the disks. (There is a very small percentage that are video based, and an even smaller percentage that are 1080i.) Planet earth on HD for example is video based, but again, that’s not the norm.

Here’s the crux. If your display will not support 1080P/24, the player will default to a different output resolution that the display supports. Even if your display is 1080P/60 compatible, and will not support 24 fps, the player will default to the display’s supported resolution and data will ultimately be lost during this process. All players that I am aware of go through a convoluted process to achieve a resolution other than 1080P/24. First, they pull the interlaced 1080i resolution off the disk, then they post process that data to achieve the display’s resolution (if it is not 1080/24) and then they de-interlace that data to a progressive output. With the exception of Reon equipped players, they all do an “OK” to poor job of post processing. No matter what or how they do it, your display will never see the full resolution that is stored on the disks.

This net loss of resolution may be marginally inferior to the native 1080P/24, but we are all active Video/Audio addicts, are we not? If we were not, I doubt we’d be wasting time BS’ing about it here. You’ll always be wondering “what if” if you compromise. I’ve done numerous tests with all my HD and BR players, with my DVDO VP50pro in the chain, and without. I’ve tried different resolutions, different deinterlacing processes and on and on. 1080P/24 straight off the disk is the clear winner every time. Obviously, my screen size and viewing distance amplify any discernable differences, but the point being, is there is a “real” difference.

Regarding your choice of TV, I'd suggest you go on a walkabout and see for yourself. Just make sure you pull up the brightness / contrast of the displays that draw your attention. The sales folks may have them tweaked to ridiculous levels. You want CONTRAST. Look for a large gap between brightness and contrast. This in itself is a very lengthy topic and I won't bore you with it..... If you are really interested in learning more, I'll email you a calibration manual I have that details grey scale, primary and secondary calibration and why white, really isn't white... and black, really isn't black.

Thanks Mike,
Good information, I'll have a walkaround this weekend to see what strikes me the most. The 1080/24 fps will be a big influence, I'm trying to future proof,at least for a few months That darn Pioneer is getting such great reviews though on its picture quality and black levels but the 1080p version is 3600.00 which is more than I want to spend.

I know there seams to be a huge LCD fan base, but I am always drawn to Plasmas when I wander through the TV display areas. The Samsungs in general draw me to them… I think, but not certain, that the colors and contrast of plasmas must be what I find attractive. Some of those rear projection DLP units look pretty good to me as well. They are getting to be pretty skinny nowadays too. You might want to give them a second chance….. they’re fairly inexpensive in comparison.

Or, is a projector a completely ludicrous proposition?

Hey Michael,

Congrats on the impending upgrade. I liked the part about the stickers.

Personally, I'd just buy the 1080 Panny and be happy. Even though you might not seen the difference from 720 in your current configuration, 1080 is the new standard, and I think it's going to be around for quite a while. I doubt I'd notice any difference in PQ compared to the Pioneer, but I'd sure as heck notice the ~$1,000.

Hope you have a great evening.

Thanks guys,
A projector may be a possibility somewhere down the line, I have about 1000 sq ft of garage space that one day I would like to turn part of it into a home theatre, but after doing a major remodel of our master bedroom that has taken me 3 months I don't see that happening for a couple years. I've never cared for the DLPs and after my kids were able to damage a portion of my LCD screen I'm not sold on their durability, I still feel the plasmas edge the Lcds in PQ.
Tom I think you're right, for 1,000 bucks more the change in picture should be like going from SD to HD.
I've got my eye on this right now Panasonic TH-50PZ77U I'll take a run down the hill this weekend if the snow lets up and try a have a look at this and some other models.
Tom I hope you and your family are enjoying that new set.
Thanks again guys.

I've been quietly looking for a reason to upgrade my Panny 42" ED 6UY. Love this set but I do have a PS3 and HD Tivo, so the move from 480p to at least 720p would be nice. If it were me, I'd just do the jump to 1080p and be done w/ it. Years ago, I made the decision to stick w/ 480p, thinking I'd never be interested in HDTV. Not a smart decision...

My 42" ED looks great at 8', so there's never been a real need for a 1080p 50", except sheer gadget lust... I've helped my inlaws with 4 displays so far. 2 26" Samsung LCDs, 1 Pioneer Pro FHD1 50" and 1 65" Panny PZ750U. The Samsungs are good bedroom/kitchen TVs, good value. But for main viewing, I'm partial to plasma. I've read good things about that Pioneer you mention. The Panny you mentioned is very similar to the 65", which is stunning IMHO.

I still have to take pix but we have the 65" installed in my in laws pool room. In that room we have Hsu VTF3, 2 W22's, 1 W150, 2 QS8's, Denon 2808, Tivo HD with 500GB external space, and a Harmony 880. He bought an antique pool table (over 100 years old) and had it refinished for the room. I'm not a billiards guy but it is a nice table. Can't play too often though, my 2.5 year old likes to throw the balls around. We almost had one go through the plasma...

I love these posts. It usually can be subtitled..."tell me what kind of HDTV you have and convince me why I should buy the same".

Heh... heck, that could apply to a lot of posts around here. Stop pointing out the emperor's clothing.

Here is a good link to a Gary Merson article where he tests 74 HDTV's and tests a few things, including the ability to convert 24fps to the HDTV's display rate without losing detail.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/1107hook2/

Click on the chart at the bottom of the article for the list and its results. The panny is there, but not the Pioneer you mention.

Good luck.