I've Been Smitten once again with Direct View Love (1 Viewer)

Ok an odd subject line I admit.

I just last week puchased a Samsung TXM3097WHF Widescreen 30" set. And I've been watching it alot this week as I get it tweaked where I want it in both user controls and Service menu. Then last Wednsday I had comcast drop off another Hi Def box. I already had one on my Mits 65" Wide in my HT. I can't get over the picture the samsung delivers. Hi Def and DVD's are Job dropping. I put in the Technicolor masterpiece the Searchers and I almost had a nasty mess from wetting my Pants over the amazing color and depth of field. Now I love My Mits. It's been calibrated by Gregg and he also did the IC2 fix and that set looks very very good. But I had forgotton how much better a direct view looks when properly set up. Of course I'm aware that the size differential will definately affect the picture. And Perhaps the less than steller Line doubler in the Mits is affecting the Hi Def picture.... but after looking at the Direct View it was tough to look at the Hi Def cable thru the Mits. Of course I viewed the New Harry Potter on the mits tonight and fell in love all over again. But for Hi Def and some DVD's a Direct View can't be beat. Anyone feel this way?

We all want the best of both worlds. I freely admit that DV sets look better to me over RPTV sets.

I've gone from DV to RPTV and if I could, I would go 46-47" DV HDTV and be done with it until some super new tech comes along.

I play video games and watch DVDs, TV viewing is under 4 hours a week, so DV would be 'ideal' in the long run.

I've been tempted to do the 38" Anconda...it just seems so small...Currently looking at DLP or LCD sets...

I think that someday the quality of LCD sets will come very close to Direct View, I'm not sure about Plasma. I've seen some very nice examples of both for $7000-$10000 but still lacking a true defined Black image. I've definately become a 2 TV House 65" WS will get the bulk of the DVD Movie Watching and Hi Def TV and General tv watching will go to the Direct View.

Dave,

re plasmas/direct views 'n stuff...

I really appreciate the qualities you described in the direct-view. This is why I love my Panasonic plasma: it has those qualities you mention of the direct-view (in fact I find the plasma image more natural and believable than a direct view), while presenting a more cinematic size and impact. It's no Front Projector, but with the lights down a 42" 16:9 plasma certainly feels more cinema-like than any CRT direct view. And, while front or rear projected images can be quite film-like, I've yet to see one produce the reach-in-and-touch-it density and palpable images of the emissive technologies (direct view, plasma etc).

It's hard to know if you've seen plasmas in a proper set-up. I've very rarely seen a store display what plasmas are really capable of. As far as LCD vs plasmas, plasmas are quite ahead of the ball game in terms of black reproduction. Panasonic plasmas already produce almost CRT levels of black and contrast, whereas LCD has a lot of hurdles to getting good blacks (right now they blast you with brightness levels to make the weak blacks less apparent). As I value a deep, rich picture, and view lots of sci-fi and horror flicks with dark scenes, I insisted on buying a display that had deep blacks. I've been tremendously happy with the Panny plasma (in fact, old black and white flicks have never looked so rich and alive...it whoops my Panny Tau CRT).

You might want to click on the link below my name, to see screen-shots from a good plasma (mine).

I really like all types of home theater displays. The cinematic envelopment of a good Front Projection, or even the better RPTVs is wonderful. But I find myself thinking "cinematic" in front of a projected image, and "oh-my-God-gorgeous" in front of the best plasmas.

Rich Your Plasma Pictures are pretty Dang Spiffy. What kind of set are you running. Maybe one day I will indeed have a plasma. Wife would kill me right now.

Dave,

Yeah, it took a while for the wife to get on board for the plasma purchase. Her vision of the perfect home theater display is a 12" TV in the corner of a room, hidden by a potted plant. But once we got the plasma home and she saw how it actually enhanced our decor, rather than detracted she was happy. Then, when she saw a DVD play on the thing she was totally won over - as were our skeptical friends
She tells friends she'd never go back to another type of TV now.

I have the Panasonic TH-42PWD4UY 42" ED model (ED = "Enhanced Definition"). The newer version is the TH-42PWD5UY, which is essentially the same display. Here's a link to the specs:

http://www.dtvcity.com/plasma/th42pwd5uy.html

Many have found that this plasma is a "sweet spot" display. It has just about the best black and contrast ratios available, yet is among the lowest priced plasmas you can get (that is, among the quality plasma makers such as NEC, Fujitsu, Pioneer, Panasonic). This plasma has perhaps the smoothest, most rock-solid picture you can get for DVD viewing (I find it smoother than almost any modern direct view displays...many of which do not employ as good digital processing/scaling as this Panny plasma). Many have surmised that, because the display's 852 x 480 pixel resolution is so close to DVD's resolution, you don't get the scaling artifacts found in many HD displays that have to more heavily up-convert to higher resolution. (Or even for that matter from lower-res displays for which the DVD image must be down-res'ed).

Many plasmas still do have black levels that I wouldn't be happy with. I like to turn the lights off for movies, at which point the deficiencies of some plasma's blacks can start to wash outthe image. In contrast the Panny plasma really takes off when you turn the lights down, becoming susbjectively more detailed, dimensional and realistic. (Which is how I took the screen-shots, with the lights out).

FWIW, I've found some of the LCD displays look really promising on HD images. Unfortunately I've yet to see one that didn't display obvious motion artifacts (smearing, latency), poor blacks and a picture that changes with viewing angle. So...there seems to be a lot of work still to do for home theater applications re LCD.

Rich H.

I would jump on the Plasma wagon if it were not for cost (duh) and burn in.

I'm going to upgrade soon and with DLP and LCD making strides, I might hold off a generation.