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Looking to Purchase 1080p set. (1 Viewer)

jedimaster79

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Thad
I currently have an older model Toshiba 42" WS. I am hoping in the next month or two to upgrade to LCD/DLP. For quality and for the luxury of a smaller size tv. I've done some research on both LCD/DLP and have talked with some friends as well. From what I have seen in person I think LCD has a better clarity to it. I use the television on about a 50/50 split of XBOX 360/DVD(TV). I was wondering what kinda of pros and cons you guys have seen between the two different setups.

One big thing to me may be the angle viewing on DLP. I haven't really payed attention to this in the store yet. Is there a extremely noticable loss of quality while viewing DLP sets from certain angles?

What do you guys think based upon my game/tv ratio?

Also, being that I'm upgrading, should I be at all hesitant about going to 1080p? I know that it is fairly new in the market and obviously there is always room for improvement. I just don't care to upgrade my tv with anything less than where the market is eventually going.

Here are a couple of LCD sets that I have just recently started to look at:

Samsung LN-S4095D http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1142298457279

Sony KDL32S2010 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1155069777368

Sony KDL40XBR2 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1152227795761

Thanks for any and all help toward this topic.
 

Arthur S

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Thad

1) Skip anything 32 inches. Just not happening for TV.

2) These kinds of this vs. that technology questions always open a can of worms. For every argument for one tech there is another argument against that tech.

3) Yes, ideally, go 1080P.

4) I understand that LCD has the most difficulty with black levels, but that Sony is probably quite something.

5) If I was in your shoes I would go in a very different direction. You are looking at $3500 plus tax on the Sony. For several hundred dollars more, I would forgo getting the 1080P, and get a Panasonic TH-58PX60U. You know the proverbial "give you 110%", well that 58 inch plasma will give you exactly 110% more screen area than 40 inch screen area.

The impact of that 58 inch screen will blow you away!
 

Cees Alons

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Are they REALLY 1080p, i.e. accept 1080p input?

That would be new, because some months ago when I looked and searched, all TV sets claiming to be 1080p (not many, BTW) had (as they called it) 1080p display but none of them could accept 1080p input signal.

Descriptions like these are suspicious: "- 1080p native video", "- 1080p display provides the highest quality progressive-scan picture possible from a high-definition source". Yes: it's about the display, but not: the input signal.

What they mean (they will tell you when challenged) is, that the display is 1080 lines vertically and the image is produced line-after-line, thus progressive. But the internal logic will first convert the 1080i signal to the proper image-in-memory.

Generally, that's all not too bad yet, because there simply aren't any 1080p signals available (no broadcasts either), but of course in the future we may have the PS3.

Is there any confirmation at all (except those "fuzzy" descriptions tagging the sets as 1080p) confirming that 1080p input is processed correctly?


Cees
 

Arthur Legardo

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Does this count?

I have a Samsung HD960 that upconverts and sends out a 1080p signal via HDMI. It's connected to my new 46" XBR2 (1920x1080 resolution). It works perfectly.
 

Arthur Legardo

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Great! I couldn't understand why the first generation 1080p set could display a 1080p signal but couldn't accept one.
 

Cees Alons

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They simply display an image memory bank that's filled from an incoming interlaced signal. The image bank is read out one line after another (hence: progressive). It's hardly interesting (except for advertising purposes) to call that a progressive image, BTW.
They didn't have logic to fill it one after another (=progressive), because 1080p signals didn't exist in the real world and adding the logic would make the sets more expensive.

There still are no 1080p broadcasts, and only very few other sources.



Cees
 

jedimaster79

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Thanks for the input so far fellas. I'm still basically sitting on the fence with this one. I'm in no rush to go out and drop the money down until I feel completely comfortable with the fact that I'm getting what I pay for.
 

Arthur S

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Thad

That could work to your benefit. The Panasonic 1080P plasmas are just now getting to a few stores. In a couple months, the 1080P plasmas will be more widely available. That suggests that the prices on the current crop of Panasonic plasmas could drop even further. Right now they are the best for the buck, with the TH-50PX60U being a huge favorite at about $2,400-$2,700 depending on where you get it. A 50 inch screen will give you 56% more screen area than a 40 inch screen.
 

Craig

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Today's (Friday's) insert from Fry's Electronics in the Atlanta paper is showing the Mitsubishi 52" 1080P DLP set for $1297, straight price, no rebate involved. The ad doesn't mention anything about the sets being refurbished or floor models, but who knows?
 

Brandon Pop

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My number one recommendation to anyone looking to buy a new tv at this time is to make sure to buy a 1080p set. There are going to be a lot of people tempted by the massive price cuts on all of the 720p sets but unless you are willing to continue the cycle of constantly upgrading every couple years, I'd invest a little more now on a good 1080p set. Personally, I am a big fan of the XBR2.
 

Scott_lb

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Forgive me for asking, but I've been out of the loop for a few years and am a little behind on my technical know how. I understand (in theory) the difference in picture quality between a 720p set and a 1080p set, however, it was my understanding that it can be pretty difficult to tell the difference between the two. I seem to recall someone running some picture quality tests on the Samsung Blu-Ray disc player using both types of settings and they could barely tell the difference. This is important for me to know because I will be purchasing either a Sony SXRD 50" or a Samsung or Panasonic 50" 720p plasma in the next month or so. Your thoughts?
 

Arthur S

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Scott

Do yourself a big favor, skip the Samsung plasma. Panasonic is in its 9th generation of plasma and is top rated among reasonably priced plasmas with the TH-50PX60U, a run-away favorite.
 

greg baker

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CC has the Samsung 50 inch DLP on sale for $1799. This is down from $2499 last week. Looked at it today. They had Blu-Ray hooked up to it. It was incredible.

Greg
 

Scott_lb

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Arthur - ok, so what about choosing between a 50" Panasonic plasma (the least expensive of the bunch) or the 50" Sony SXRD? I saw the first gen 60" SXRD hooked up to Sony's Blu-Ray player at the Sony store at the Metreon in San Francisco and was blown away! However, the sleek look of plasma is very attractive to me. In other words, how important is 1080p? To me, it seems like adding a little extra kick to a Ferrari(i.e., how much better can HD look anyway?). Whatever choice I make, I'll be keeping this unit as my primary monitor for the next seven or eight years (or so) (i.e., it won't become a "bedroom tv" anytime soon).
 

Dan Joy

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After spending too many hours over at AVS forum, I have come to the conclusion that the 1080P will only benefit viewing from less than 6 feet. Is that correct? I am sitting on the 50" fence and feel the silver bezel on all the Panny's are quite ugly. The SamsungS5053 is stunning as well as the Elite's, just can't decide if the extra cash is worth the elite for me. I am still viewing on a 35" Sony Direct tube. I am not sure 1080 is important to me seeing that we don't have mandatory 720P yet! I still have my SACD and DVD-Audio that leaves me wanting to wait!
 

Arthur S

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Scott

I would have to spend a lot of time actually looking at the differences between the 1080P SXRD and the current Panny plasma. I have not been shopping TVs for myself, in person, so I am just a reporter. I would just mention that both CC and BB are pushing Samsung hard. Consumer Reports should have a new report on TVs in a couple weeks. If there are new developments, I will post them. In the mean time, if I were you I would be spending a lot of time looking at the Panny plasma and the SXRD at as many places as possible.
 

Scott_lb

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I agree about the silver bezel on the Panasonic being unattractive. I also like the "shiny black" look of the Samsungs - very much like the Pioneer Elite. While it may sound goofy, that is one of things that attracted me to the Samsung in the first place - it just looks like a classy unit. I don't like that chinsy plastic look.
 

andy wells

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I know through some research, the newest mitusbishi DLP tvs do accept a 1080p input through HDMI and the PC input. I cannot understand for the life of me, why someone would say you can't really tell a difference between 921,600 pixels (720p), and 2,073,600 pixels (1080p).. Thats exactly 1,500,000 MORE pixels. How could that possibly go un-noticed? By comparison, (480p) 337,920 pixels is 583,760 pixels less than 720p..
 

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