Best HDTVs for STANDARD DEFINITION sources?
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 599 Registered: Mar-04 | for a minute, i gave serious consideration to panasonic HDTVs for their glowing reviews (particularly for their $$$ THX models when the cheaper ones don't offer the same "near perfect" color calibration), but after seeing just how bad those same sets mangle DVD sources at one local shop, it would be a cold day you know where before i EVER bought a TV with the worst picture i've ever seen from a DVD. take a look at this, http://takatomon2000.googlepages.com/videodistortion and tell me if YOU could live with artifacts THAT hideous on virtually EVERYTHING you watch (200+ DVDs and about the same in VHS) don't get me wrong, i love my panasonic SA-XR class D reciever which walks all over my previous NAD & onkyos in every way (OK... NAD has gobs of bass, but that's about it) but i just can't abide by a set that does what vieras do to standard definition. now i know what the reviews meant by "if you're sensitive to noise" meant in regards to panny standard definition conversion. for just a second now, i was giving serious thought to a toshiba DLP set as consumer reports rated them the absolute highest for standard def, but am thinking twice after reading reports of 1 owner changing bulbs 4 times in 9 months. $154+ isn't exactly cheap! anyone know any HDTVs that don't turn low res sources into garbage unfit for youtube? i'm not particularly keen on LCDs either for the way they do the same thing with motion artifacts which are unbearable to me, but the JVC LCD sitting next to the panasonic viera plasma set was 100x better looking to my eyes even if the picture was fuzzier and the colors washed out. pixelation artifacts are like nails dragged across a blackboard to me... totally unbearable whether they be motion induced or simply conversion induced. |
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 600 Registered: Mar-04 | you know what? i'm thinking i'm not going to even bother with HDTV now. every time i research anything HDTV, i see nothing but whizzed off campers that have bought garbage that breaks! i'm thinking i'll do what i always wanted to and just buy a 32" sony trinitron widescreen CRT used! i have absolutely NO LOVE whatsoever for the sony brand, but in my experience, CRTs not only look better with ZERO artifacts of any kind, but it's also a bulletproof technology. my last TV was a sharp 27" that lasted me TWENTY YEARS with one $50 tech call to replace a capacitor and my current set is probably almost that old too. i'm starting to think plasma, LCD and DLP etc. are just bogus scams to just keep you buying and buying the same way PCs do with planned obsolescence. eff that... i think i'll stick with tried and true technology. it'll be tough to find a used trinitron, but i can't do worse than if i bought a new HDTV. the last person i talked with directly bought an LCD which, conveniently, bit it 1 year later (after warranty expiration) and was told that it was some sort of problem that couldn't be fixed! that is just unacceptable for a $3,000 item! i'm not wasting my money on garbage! i'll keep my current TV, flawed as it is, until i can buy a used sony, which i dread a bit because i despise the brand. in the end though... i know i won't have to deal with any kind of artifacts or reliability issues. if you don't abuse them, CRTs really DO last 20 years! not so with plasma, LCD and DLP. i kinda pity suckers who buy that crap and don't nuke the manufacturer when their $2k coaster dies in a year or two. maybe THAT'S the REAL reason why you can't get CRTs anymore... they last too long to be profitable for corporate scum. |
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 601 Registered: Mar-04 | anyone know where the heck i can find a trinitron wega hdtv used? as much as i despise ebay, i checked there and they had 2 sets for pick up only. |
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 602 Registered: Mar-04 | well... i bought a cheap $400 "element" 32" LCD and am more or less happy. it REALLY looks good on DVD. my "immortal (ad vitam)" disc almost looks like HD with minimal artifacts. my DVD player is a pre-upsampling progressive scan sony too, so the set has decent standard def. processing. it doesn't do quite as good on VHS. it compresses colors a bit there and softens things, but i'd say it's almost on par with what the vieras were doing to DVD. it doesn't fare quite so well on HDTV though. i get some pixel blocking on scene transitions as well as on low contrast color gradations like skies and the set likes to push blue tones a bit making skin tones look purplish if oversaturated, but it was the cheapest i could find except for 32" vizios but i didn't like that brand's worse upsampled DVD processing and fugly "split down the middle" styling. for my needs, the element set is pretty good. it looks BEST on DVDs which is where most of my viewing will be anyways and does a great job with digital broadcasts when the signal is strong and has occasional blocking on some channels. on non-upconverted DVD though, it walks all over larger and nearly twice as expensive vieras with their CONSTANT compression artifact snow and if it breaks in a year, it won't be the end of the world. the set actually costs less than just 8 months of cable... good enough.  the feature i'm most psyched about though is VIDEO OUT! i can still use my VCRs. you won't find THAT on many new sets no matter what the price is. |
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Platinum Member Username: GlasswolfRaccoon City, MI USA Post Number: 12237 Registered: Dec-03 | first problem is judging based on a showroom floor demo model which is most likely already burned in badly, in poor store room lighting, andwith "tweaked" visual settings to make everything look warmer to the uneducated viewer. Do some research on the tricks stores like CC and B use to sell televisions, and how different the store demo and an at home purchased model will look. The second problem is with your demo link. "The image you see here is roughly 100% size at 1024 X 728 resolution on a 19" monitor. It's a shot taken of a Panasonic 50" Viera set playing a DVD." 1024x768 is a non native resolution for a 1920x1080 television, and LCD and Plasma do NOT do well at non native resolutions. The DVD should have been upscaled to 1080P before being shown on the television, either by the DVD player, or an AV receiver with upscaling ability, and a good chipset. This is much like the old addage that the better the stereo system gets, the crappier your music sounds. You're a,mplifying an already lousy signal to 50+" in size, on a very high resolution display. This is why you see the artifacts, and not as much due to a poor TV quality. It's your source media as much as anything, especially with a VHS tape, which, while a helical tape head does have good quality, most of the source material isn't that terrific. Another reason a CRT television often looks good with SD material is due to both the non native resolution issue not playing a role, and due to the large pitch of a typical CRT RPTV. Most of them are not 1080 line displays. Many aren't even 960 lines. The reasoning won't really make a difference most times to what you see though, so by all means, base it on observation, but do try to be aware of what causes these problems. Glad you're happy with the entry level LCD you chose. |
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