new owner of 53wx42 - new questions! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Neth]

Oh man, do I love having a 53 incher in my living room. I might have overpaid but that extra money was the last thing on my mind when I sat in front of that thing to watch Band Of Brothers tonight.

Ok so here are my new owner questions (again it is a panny 53wx42):

1. are those jacked up ridiculously expensive 'home theater' surge protectors worth the money? or can i just run it through a regular old run of the mill surge protector?

2. i have a toshiba sd3800 DVD player - it has component jacks and an s-video jack. Which do i use to connect it to the TV? and what is the difference?

3. monster cables seem to come in three flayors, if i am not a die hard video-phile, but would like goo dbang for my buck, which would work fine for me. 1, 2, or 3?

4. I have ATT cable - runs through their digital cable box - it looks terrible. I dont mind the stretch mode (panny calls it JUST mode) but the quality is off. Grainy, sometimes blurry. The sub 100 channels are hit or miss, but the center ice hockey package i get generally has very poor picture quality. Some games are better than others but over all it is pretty terrible. what gives??

5. the manual has me running the cable source into ANT 1 on the TV, then split out to the cable box, then back into the TV at ANT 2. why not just into the box first then down to the TV at ANT 1?

sorry, very new to all of this. thank you so much for any help at all.

 

[Dave Neth]

also - why doesnt my TV have a contrast control?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Dave,
I'll try answering some of your questions:
1. I don't know about those $$$ HT surge protectors. I just use a computer grade one from APC. Depending on exactly what they do, I guess it can make some difference for the TV's performance, but I have no idea how much. Also, it'll probably depend a lot on how clean your power source runs to the TV.
2. You should use decent quality component cables, instead of s-video, for better color fidelity PLUS deinterlacing (ie. progressive scan playback) from the player, instead of the TV.
3. I don't use Monster Cable, but I suspect the cheapest set from them should be good enough unless you need to run very long lengths and/or have lots of signal interference.
4. I don't do cable (or sat either), but basically, it's just garbage in garbage out. A good, big display will inevitably reveal all the flaws of a bad video source. Also, w/ digital cable (and even sat), I suspect your provider compresses the channels like crazy so they can fit/offer as many channels as possible. So you'll likely see compression artifacts in abundance, especially compounded by the TV's linedoubler. I see this problem all the time at various stores even on smaller HD displays like 32" direct-views. Looks awful to me like watching very bad VCDs. I suggest watching your digital cable from farther away so the artifacts become less noticeable.
5. Can't help you w/ this since I haven't set up the TV for any regular 4x3 TV viewing yet and certainly not cable although I'm tempted to just get Time Warner Cable's HD package for January so I can watch the NFL playoffs in HD and throw a HiDef Super Bowl party. Really wish all the OTA HD broadcasts are back up and running, but alas...
Bonus. The Panny's label contrast as "picture" setting.
Btw, congrats on the new TV! Quite nice, no? I'm loving the DVD movie experience on it, which is why I bought it. Just finally watched Minority Report on it the other night. Excellent flick!
_Man_

 

[Vin]

Really wish all the OTA HD broadcasts are back up and running, but alas...

Man, do you know when this is expected to occur? And which channels ARE UP and broadcasting in HD NOW?
I already have DirecTV (as well as a rooftop antenna), we watch a fair amount of network programming and I'm trying to justify an upgrade to HDTV.
Thanks,
Vin

 

[Jeff Pounds]

Dave,
I'm also a (somewhat) new owner of the 53wx42.
Along with HTF, which is a great resource, I would also make you aware of the panny.tv site.
It's a great resource that includes all the known tweaks on the Pannys.
Note: I typically wouldn't point someone away from HTF, but many people here pointed me to that site several months ago, as it seems to be the definitive site for great information on the 53" and 47" Pannys... so I thought it would be OK in this case.
Good luck!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Jeff,
I agree. I'm a new owner of the Panny 53" also and started frequenting that site, especially the forum, just before I bought the Panny. To me, that site's an excellent complement to this one for a Panny owner. I've pointed a few new owners that way myself.

Man, do you know when this is expected to occur? And which channels ARE UP and broadcasting in HD NOW?
I already have DirecTV (as well as a rooftop antenna), we watch a fair amount of network programming and I'm trying to justify an upgrade to HDTV.

Vin,
From what I understand, only CBS and PBS are up right now for the NYC area. Most/all of the rest are expected sometime around May(!), so if there are no hitches, I plan to buy an OTA STB around that time--maybe a Samsung TIR-ST151. I'm not familiar w/ Clifton, but it might be possible for you to receive some broadcasts from the Philadelphia area if you set up a good outdoor antenna higher up and point it that way. I actually live near downtown Brooklyn and just too far from all the broadcasts from the neighboring markets, so I'm stuck waiting.
For more info about OTA broadcasts, check out www.antennaweb.org. They provide a search engine for locating all the possible broadcasts you can receive w/ categorical ratings for the type of antenna you might need as well as the actual direction to point for each broadcast--the search link is right on the front page. Very nice and helpful.
_Man_

 

[Vin]

Thanks for the info _Man_!

Vin