Looking for new Direct-view HDTV, opinions on these please... (1 Viewer)

[Jason Sweet]

Models I'm interested in...
Panasonic CT-34WX50 (34" 16:9)
Sony KV36HS20 (36" 4:3)
Factors:
Have over 800 DVD's, most anamorphic
Play PS2, XBox and Gamecube, many of which will be 4:3
(the Panasonic has vertical black bars rather than the grey of the Toshiba or RCA 16:9, will these cause burn in??)
The Panasonic will have a bigger 16:9 picture but a smaller 4:3 picture (around 30").
The Sony upconverts everything to 960i, which I'm not sure the Panasonic does.
I have just come from a 40" widescreen Samsung set, but a power surge blew out the LCD so I have to buy a new set. I loved the 16:9 aspect on my old set, and it had black vertical bars in 4:3 during games and TV, with no concern of burn in (due to the LCD). It will be hard to go back to 4:3 while everything goes 16:9, even with the Sony's features. Are the Panasonics 4:3 bars susceptible to burn in when I play games??
Please help me out a little, all these factors are making me crazy. I'm looking to buy really soon, so any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks guys,
Jason

 

[Tim Hess]

I recently upgraded from my Direct View Panny CT32HX40due to 'issues'.
Have you looked in the 38" Direct View from Link Removed

 

[nate n]

I just bought the panasonic 34wx50 last week from good guys. I was thinking about getting the sony too, but since widescreen is the future, I went with the panny. I'm glad I did, because i just can't stand 4x3 and more. I would say go with the panasonic since it's widescreen. I watch a lot of dvd's just like you and I also use my xbox and ps2 all the time. From what i've been told, you don't have to worry about burn in from games if you keep you play time down to about 1-2 hours. Also try to keep the brightness and contrast as low as possible. Rear projection tv's are more susceptible to burn in than direct view. I play all my games in panasonic's "auto" mode, which does stretch it out a little, but it's not very bad at all. Gamecube and xbox will be offering hd support so that's gonna be a great plus for you. If you do decide to get the panny, i would suggest checking good guys since they are dropping the line. they're pretty much trying to get rid of all their panasonic stuff, so you'll probably get a great deal. I got mine for 2K with the 5 year warranty and free delivary.

 

[JamesH]

You may want to check out the direct views Zenith makes, I got one and I'm very happy with it. The picture quality on the 53 series is off the charts, and even the lower line 51 series competes pretty nicely with the XBR's and Taus. They also have a pretty ridiculous feature list. Xbox games like Halo and Project Gotham look incredible in HD. The only issues it has are that there are 2 component inputs, 1 for HD ONLY and 1 for SDTV ONLY. It can be a problem because the Xbox menus are SDTV, but the games are HDTV. The way I solved it is with a $30 3 in 2 out AV selector from Radio Shack, so I can switch between my 3 systems and 2 inputs with the press of a button. If you use good(short!) component cables between the AV switch and the TV, there won't be any signal degredation.