Recent content by Dean McManis

I agree with Rich about the "noise" on the Pioneers. I agree that the Pioneers are among the best looking Plasma displays, but closer up you can see what appears to be scaling artifacts, even with HD source material. Granted that this is seen only looking at the displays too closely (6' away)...

I really like the Panasonic plasma TVs best (TH-50PHD3U is the newest). The black levels and contrast are the best that I've seen in a plasma display, especially considering the $7K street price. I also like all of the 50" Pioneer plasma displays that I've seen, and the Pioneer PDP-503CMX...

The other point is that HDCP/DVI is NOT a standard because there are other digital connection technologies out there equally likely to come out on top (Firewire/5C, DFAST), or maybe none of the current planned digital technologies will be the winner. As mentioned, the worldwide accepted DTV...

Ken, I agree. And cars should cost $3500, and new houses should be $50K tops! But in the perspective of current products, I think that the TV manufacturers would have a tough time trying to sell tube TVs for $500 if you could buy a nice three pound XGA FPTV that would project a 120"+ image...

The native resolution of DVDs are 720 X 480, and when viewed through S-video or Y-PbPr connections is 640 X 480, so as I mentioned, for NTSC-only viewing the SVGA FPTVs do a decent job. But there are XGA FPTVs out for under $2K as well, and if you are considering using a home theater PC for...

LaMarcus, Well the brightness is good, as is the contrast, and the bulb life is decent, and the purchase price is good. The only issue that catches my eye is the resolution. 800 X 600 native resolution is fine if you are only going to play NTSC video, and have no future plans for HDTV or...

Harold, I have a Stewart Grayhawk screen 180" 16:9 with the microperf holes. My main projector is a D-ILA, and I don't have any moire problems with it viewing full screen. But I do also have a NEC LT-150 DLP FPTV (which is great) and at certain image sizes I can clearly see moire...

I remember when calculators were the size of TVs. Thank goodness for miniaturization. ;)

I'll put another vote in for the NEC LT150. Just make sure you watch it for some time 30 minutes+ to see if you are bothered by rainbows. I'm not bothered at all and I love the picture quality, good color and contrast. I have mine as my portable home theater that teams up with a PC a sheet...

I have had two preforated screens DaLite audiovision, and my current perforated Stewart Grayhawk screen, both were the same 16:9 180" diag size. The Dalite was very inexpensive, and I found that the sound attentuation was minimal. The perforations were visible within 10 feet on a white lit...

Dave, Basically, the light that comes into any room reduces how good blacks and contrast is. With a projector that has higher light output, it won't make the blacks any darker, but it raises the overall picture brightness, which causes your eyes to "see" better blacks. I wouldn't be overly...

I own the Sony KL-W9000 50", which is the LCD predecessor to the 60" Grand Wega. I love this display. When it was first released, it was sold as a presentation display, and at $17K it was destined for only corporate/event use. But the price dropped, and I watched it go down over a few...

Jesse, I have the RCA DirectTV Reciever (DTC-100) and it allows black bar selection within the control/setup menus. My understanding is that the RCA 38" DTV tube display has the DTC-100 tuner built-in. So it would make sense that it would also have that capability. BUt because RCA...

Jesse, The 40" Panasonic LCD RPTV with 1280 X 720p resolution is selling for under $3K. Link Removed And I bought my XGA DLP FPTV for under $2K a while ago, so there are some great deals out there if you look around. But I don't know what your budget is, so I would be way off if you are...

Many non-CRT displays support black bars because they don't have any burn-in problems. There will be some nice LCOS and H2 DLP RPTVs coming out with good black level and contrast, along with high resolution, good colors, and PC input. And almost all of them display side black bars when...