Another one of those "Best 65 RPTV?" threads! (1 Viewer)

[Jim Carr]

Wife and I are moving into our new home in November and are looking for a 65" widescreen tv as a house warming gift to ourselves! I'm looking for the a great picture with good stretch modes (I watch alot of satelite 4:3 material). What do you guys thing? Just looking for your opinions... what do you like and why? I was going to get a Mitsu 65611 but I'm now starting to read that Hitachi's are great too. Now i'm stuck!

I'm looking to spend about 3200 or so?

thanks guys!

Jim

 

[greg_t]

Go to costco and check out the 64" Pioneer SD643. Neither the Mits or Hitachi are known for having great stretch modes. The best stretch modes go to Pioneer then Toshiba.

 

[Jim Carr]

Thanks Greg! I will do that this weekend. How are the pioneer's as far as image quality? Is that a better over all TV then mitsu. Most of what I read is that mitsu makes great RPTVs... not sure on what grounds though.

thanks guys!

Jim

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Hey Jim, funny seeing you here

I would 2nd the recommendation on the Pioneer, and also check out the Toshibas.

 

[Jim Carr]

Mike, that is hilarious! Small world I guess.

I'm going to check out those pioneers this weekend. I have no idea about tosiba's... I'll start doing some reseach there as well.

thanks guys,

Jim

 

[greg_t]

Toshibas stretch modes are second to Pioneer,who has the best in the business, and the toshiba line doubler is not as good as the Pioneer. The only real downside to the SD643 is that there are no DVI inputs, which may not be a big deal. It also will not accept a 720p signal. Other than that, they're awesome.

 

[Jim Carr]

Greg, if it does not accept a 720p signal, what do you see when you watch OTA HDTV which is usually broadcast in 720p?

thanks!

Jim

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Jim, what source do you have for HD?
A lot will convert to 1080i before sending out the signal, or have an option to do this.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Pioneers tend to have annoying edge enhancement that is very hard if not impossible to get rid of. Over and above the SVM portion of the image.

While the line doubler in the Pioneer is better than the Toshiba, it is not THAT much better. Think of it like comparing something at 80% and something at 85% ... A measurable difference, but generally observed only on test patterns.

Regards

 

[Jim Carr]

In some of my research, I've been reading alot of BAD things about toshiba's as well. many many problems I'm reading about... flickering... red gun problems... I'm now back to hitachi or Mitsubishi. I'm so confused! LOL

 

[george kaplan]

Does the pioneer 64 inch have lock in full mode? I love my pioneer 58 inch, but it locks in full, and I really want to upgrade to something that doesn't.

 

[TommyL]

The mitsu rocks...but a bigger room has led me to a different option...FP...now to sell my mitsu 55"..and cheap!

 

[Dustin B]

I know you never asked, but do you have a reason for eliminating a digital front projection unit?

For $3200 you can get a very nice LCD or DLP FPTV and an over 90" diagonal 16x9 screen from Da-Lite. Or you could just buy the fabric from AVScience and build your own frame, or there are some other completely DIY screen options. Each one goes down in cost, from ~$600 for low cost fully commercial screen to less than $30 for some DIY options.

Note with an LCD or DLP FPTV unit, stretch modes area a non issue because burn in is a non issue. Also for reference, on a 98" diagonal screen, the size of a 16x9 letterboxed image being displayed with a 4:3 window on your 16x9 screen (in other words the size of the image on a letterboxed show on a standard definition channel on cable or satellite) would measure 73" in diagonal.

Also the projector will weigh less than 10lbs and the screen should be no more than 50lbs (likely less than 20lbs if you buy a full commercial model).

There are many threads of people going from various highly reguarded ISF calibrated RPTV units to these ~$2K digital FPTV units and have no regrets what so ever.

Right now the big favorites that are well within your price range are the Sanyo Z1, Panasonic PT-L300U, Sony HS10 and Infocus X1. In the next couple months the Sanyo Z2, Panny 500U and Sony HS20 will all be available as well (probably worth waiting for at this point in time). There are also a number of other units in the $4-5K range that are getting good praise as well.

 

[Jim Carr]

Thanks Dustin. I never realized they were so cheap these days. I did entertain the idea for a bit... but I'm not sure how I would make it work in my room. the house we're building has a 2 story ceiling in the family room (slanted... I think that is called cathedral)... it's 19x19 more or less. could I mount this projector on the very back wall... 10 feet off the ground or so? I really have no idea how to even start researching this.

Also... even though I don't have windows on the back wall (where the projector might go) I do have windows on the side.. would that present a problem for a front projector?

thanks again for all the help!

Jim

 

[Dustin B]

Hmm, windows usually don't present a problem as long as you have some decent curtains or blinds on them. Picture will get slightly washed out during the day if the blinds don't do a great job of lowering the light level though.

My curtains do a decent job. I just finished watching a movie where there was enough light in my room to clearly see everything in the room and the picture still looked great.

The ceiling could be a problem though. It varies a bit from projector to projector but the distance from the screen to the projector determines the size of the image. And to avoid keystone correction (correcting for a trapezoid screen shape when the projector is used at an angle) the projector has to be mounted at a particular height. The image can be inverted though so the projector can be placed on a table or suspended from the ceiling.

My guess is you won't want try and ceiling mount as that would result in a mount much too long. The back wall will be too far to project a reasonable screen size. At 19' to the screen most of these inexpensive projectors will be throwing images approaching or over 300" in diagonal that will look aweful. So unless you can place it on or in something like a coffee table at the right height and distance I guess a projector will be out for you.

 

[greg_t]

Pioneers tend to have annoying edge enhancement that is very hard if not impossible to get rid of. Over and above the SVM portion of the image.

Michael, Can you describe this statment a little more clearly? What input sources are you talking about? I have an Elite 530 with a Panasonic XP30, and I don't see the set adding any edge enchancment. All I get is a gorgeous picture. Even with lesser sources such as LD.

 

[Joe Valha]

My Mitsu WS65-711 is absolutely amazing. Check one out.

 

[Craig Dulany]

I have the Toshiba 65hdx82 and love it! I have had no problems whatsoever, the stretch modes are excellent and the picture looks very good even with standard cable. I have recommended Toshiba to 2 friends that have purchased the same set and are extremely pleased. The price I paid was also much less than Pioneer and Hitachi models.