Any advice when jumping to a 55" to 60" screen on a budget? (1 Viewer)

[Gregg Loewen]

the Panasonic ST50 series is an awesome budget display.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Gregg Loewen /t/324155/any-advice-when-jumping-to-a-55-to-60-screen-on-a-budget#post_3983474
the Panasonic ST50 series is an awesome budget display.

Thanks, Gregg. Don't think I was going to let this process go by without touching base with you!

Do you agree with Sam that based on my budget that's probably the best way to go:

--better than the 60" UT set
--and better than any comparable sized LED/LCD type of set.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

At $1200, get the ST. Avoid LCD / LED at all costs. Consider Mits DLP if you want more bang for the buck.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Gregg.

 

[DaveF]

I've got a plasma from 3 years ago. I like that movies don't look like soap operas, as they do on my brother-law's LCD. But my mid-range LCD in the bedroom for just TV watching is great.

 

[Ric Easton]

Mike! Did you get your new set yet? I'm on hold for a bit. A freelance job didn't happen as fast as I thought it was gonna!

 

[Mike Frezon]

It is on order, Ric (as of last week).

I am hoping to get word that it is being shipped tomorrow (backordered)

Don't worry, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops when I get word that it's on the way.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It has arrived!

Here's my old 36" Vizio on our new cabinet.



And here's the Panasonic TC-P55ST50 in place:


It fits the space much more nicely.

First impressions are what you might expect. I'm loving it. I have entered an amalgam of different settings found on line in the custom picture settings. I have lowered the brightness and am keeping things low-key for the first few days.

The first things I have spun up are the opening sequences of Fellowship of the Ring (the shire, Frodo/Gandalf reunion, and Bilbo's birthday party), scenes from Planet Earth, Toy Story 2, and M:I - Ghost Protocol (along with some TV content).

I know I have a long way to go in terms of tweaking and getting things right where I want them...but, so far...so good.

A great big thanks to all of you who gave me advice in this thread...and in other places.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm happy for you! I'm looking to upgrade my main HT to 3-D in the coming weeks.






Crawdaddy

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Robert.

The 55ST50 is a 3-D TV...but I'm just not interested in the technology. Even with 3-D players affordable and 3-D releases becoming more common, it's just not something that I plan on moving towards. And I'm not sure why...except that I've never really liked the idea of wearing 3-D glasses and it seems like more trouble than it's worth.

But I sure am one happy dude right now!

 

[DaveF]

Huzzah! Have fun!

 

[Ric Easton]

Way to go, Mike! I'm still in the waiting stage!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Ric...and everyone else.

I finally had some time to myself the other day and seized the opportunity to haul out the tripod and microphone to completely readjust the audio parameters (a lot of things got moved around when we moved in the new cabinet for the TV). That helped a LOT.

And I also took out my two Blu calibration discs: DVE and Disney's WOW. I spent a lot of time with the contrast and brightness settings...and tried to get the sharpness right (but that one seemed to be a bit of a mystery to me). But I am really pleased with how nice things look now. Next opportunity, I will delve in to the color settings...although they look terrific to me right now. Flesh tones look perfect and obvious things such as football turf look exactly right.

I just wish I had more time to watch films!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Mucho (belated) Congrats, Mike!!!
Had to switch to the full site to find this thread -- the mobile site doesn't list originator in the threads listing -- and then ended up switching to my PC to actually make a proper post, etc.

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon





It has arrived!
Here's my old 36" Vizio on our new cabinet.

And here's the Panasonic TC-P55ST50 in place:

It fits the space much more nicely.
First impressions are what you might expect. I'm loving it. I have entered an amalgam of different settings found on line in the custom picture settings. I have lowered the brightness and am keeping things low-key for the first few days.
The first things I have spun up are the opening sequences of Fellowship of the Ring (the shire, Frodo/Gandalf reunion, and Bilbo's birthday party), scenes from Planet Earth, Toy Story 2, and M:I - Ghost Protocol (along with some TV content).
I know I have a long way to go in terms of tweaking and getting things right where I want them...but, so far...so good.
A great big thanks to all of you who gave me advice in this thread...and in other places.

Definitely a HUGE diff, no? I made more or less the same jump years ago when I last moved and finally broke down w/ the release of the FotR:EE on DVD -- just couldn't bear watching that again on a 32" 4x3 CRT even though LotR wasn't/isn't exactly a top favorite of mine. Still, I think the first flick on our old 53" Panny RPTV -- it's been passed along to my sister-in-law's brother when we upgraded a few years back -- was Lilo & Stitch and then maybe MiB 2... and still recall being appalled by some of the EE artifacts that I never really noticed on the old 32".
BTW, didn't you used to have the TV on the other side of that entrance way at the other corner(?) of the room? Anyway, looks pretty good there. Did you end up angling it a bit to face more into the rest of the room? What about the speakers arrangement? I avoided the corner room setup in large part because of the speakers setup criteria -- in fact, I've always tried to keep at least the front speakers away from walls as much as possible (though it's also not ideal for them to be side-by-side w/ the display like I have them)...

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
Thanks, Ric...and everyone else.
I finally had some time to myself the other day and seized the opportunity to haul out the tripod and microphone to completely readjust the audio parameters (a lot of things got moved around when we moved in the new cabinet for the TV). That helped a LOT.
And I also took out my two Blu calibration discs: DVE and Disney's WOW. I spent a lot of time with the contrast and brightness settings...and tried to get the sharpness right (but that one seemed to be a bit of a mystery to me). But I am really pleased with how nice things look now. Next opportunity, I will delve in to the color settings...although they look terrific to me right now. Flesh tones look perfect and obvious things such as football turf look exactly right.
I just wish I had more time to watch films!

Hahaha... Well, at least you avoided the CRT RPTV step that I took, which involved waaaay more tweaking, including opening up both the front and back of the set to adjust CRT focus (in 2 different ways that involved some back-and-forth and compromises), multi-point convergence, etc. Talk about time consuming hobby (and I probably didn't even do 30% of all the stuff AVS folks do)...
And yeah, I definitely wish we have more time to watch-and-enjoy stuff too, but it's been tough to find time lately unless I go it alone -- I don't know, but guess I've become too conditioned to best enjoy movies w/ at least one other person... which makes it especially tough to get to the lengthier and/or more artsy-fartsy stuff...
Anyway, mucho congrats again! Couldn't be said for a nicer fellow HT enthusiast me thinks!
Cheers!
_Man_

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Man!
Yeah. Big difference. Definitely.
It has been awesome. And now I've got enough hours on the thing that its probably time for me to go back and readjust some of those settings!
And you are right. So many things I never noticed before (about transfers, etc.) are all now more apparent than they ever used to be...but all for the better, of course.

BTW, didn't you used to have the TV on the other side of that entrance way at the other corner(?) of the room? Anyway, looks pretty good there. Did you end up angling it a bit to face more into the rest of the room? What about the speakers arrangement? I avoided the corner room setup in large part because of the speakers setup criteria -- in fact, I've always tried to keep at least the front speakers away from walls as much as possible (though it's also not ideal for them to be side-by-side w/ the display like I have them)...

GREAT questions! The room is not really conducive to any other place for the set...so the old one was in the same corner.
Here's my old 26" 16:9 Samsung CRT (in its "barn") in the same corner. The 32" Vizio was in the same structure.

To the right is a big archway into my front hall. To the left is another big archway into my dining room. So two walls are pretty much gone right there. The third wall (clockwise from the front hall arch) is entirely taken up with front windows and hot water radiators...leaving the fourth wall (behind the camera POV) as the only non-interrupted wall--so that is where my wife and I have our chairs etc. As it is, I've got the sofa blocking the radiators. So, yes, I angle the set into the room rather sharply so that it catches as much of the opposite corner as needs be.
And then there's the speaker set-up. I have run into a bit of WAF problems here. Where as you can see my one Polk Tower as my left front in the above shot of the "barn," it has actually been moved to the other side of the 55" Panny at my wife's "request." That means that both front towers are now to the right of the center channel. This is disorienting to say the least (although not as egregious as I thought it was going to be). Negotiations to restore proper things to their proper place are ongoing. And due to the delicate nature of the talks, I am not at liberty to say more right now.
One last comment on the TV placement. In the picture of the 55" Panny in the post before this one, you will note the thermostat on the wall. One positive side-effect of having the Plasma in such close proximity to the thermostat is that I think it might actually be pushing my heating bills lower than it otherwise should!
Finding the "right" new cabinet was another amazing exercise all in itself.

 

[schan1269]

"Perfect" speaker candidate...and satisfies WAF(luckily I don't deal with that as the GF is a an audiophile like I am....and plays music...so instruments are laying around...) http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Speakers-QP-15-15-Driver/dp/B002OB49KK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357242725&sr=1-1&keywords=qp15 Yeah, yeah...I used to wholesale Pinnacle...but. That thing actually does sound pretty darn good. It isn't completely inept. It will do(not great) 80hz, so you can set your crossovers right.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Aaah... Didn't realize you had another entrance way to the left there in the new photos -- thought maybe that was just a mirror or something on top of a cabinet in the upper-left of those pics whereas I remember the entrance way for the old setup in the old pic w/ the "barn". Anyway, maybe your preferred old speakers arrangement would get more WAF if you keep the same tilt/slant/angle into the room for the new cabinet stand as you had it for the old "barn" setup? Then the left tower speaker wouldn't stick out into the room away from the cabinet stand as much as it does where you had it. Might be worth a try... _Man_