questions about my TV (1 Viewer)

[mrhtguy]

i have a 56in panasonic 1080i lcd/rear projection tv. or at least that is what it was advertised as. i am guessing it is a hybrid or something.

The questions i have are:


what is the max seating distance from the TV?

what is the recommended seating distance from the TV?

the TV can work in 720p mode but i figure resolution is more important so i use it in 1080i mode. are my assumptions correct?

 

[JeremyErwin]

Depends on the resolution of the LCD. Depends on how good the deinterlacer is.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Chances are your set is 720p, pure and simple. Most rear projection LCD sets don't "do" interlaced pictures and are therfore either 720p or 1080p. Manufacturers like to advertise such sets as "1080i" becaue they can accept a 1080i signal (as call all digital televisions, even non-HD ones), which it then converts to its native resolution anyway. Without the model number it is impossible to say for sure, but I'm a little bit skeptical that it has an actual 1080i "mode". What setting do you adjust to get it to 1080i?

Regards,

Joe

 

[mrhtguy]

joesph,
the resolution is adjusted in the dvd player. i do not believe the tv itself has a resolution adjustment.

jeremy,

how would i find out about the de-interlacer?

the TV is a panasonic PT-56LCX66

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

As it turns out, no. Your TV's native resolution is 720p. That is all it can display. It takes all inputs, regardless of resolution, and scales them to 720p. So by setting your upconverting DVD player to output at 1080i you are having the player scale your 480i standard def DVDs to 1080i, and your TV is scaling them back down to 720p. You're actually adding a conversion step to the process and you aren't gaining any actual resolution.

Try this - set your DVD player to output 480i and watch 30 minutes or so of a familiar DVD. This will show you what kind of job your TV's scaler/deinterlacer does in converting the disc to 720p. Then set the DVD player's output to 720p. Now the DVD player will do the scaling and the TV will simply display the signal it is getting without any further processing. Now watch the same 30 minutes of that DVD.

Can you tell the difference? If you can, pick the sclaer that works best. If not - well, it doesn't matter then. This test is the answer to your question to Jeremy, since it will tell you which scaler/deinterlacer (the one in the player or the one in the TV) is better. Or if they're pretty much the same. (Personally, I can't see a difference between the upscaling my JVC TV does to 720p and the job my Sony upconverting DVD player does. Your mileage may vary.)

NOTE: Before doing any of this, make sure you've calibrated the set using a disc like Avia Guide to Home Theater or Digital Video Essentials or - at a bare minimum - the test patterns in the THX optimode tool included on many THX discs. Do the calibration with the TV doing the scaling, you want to eliminate as much signal processing as possible and the thing you are calibrating is the TV (or the particular input on the TV) not the player, so cut the player's scalerer out of the process when you're doing the calibration.

Regards,

Joe

 

[JeremyErwin]

Play the Outland DVD.

 

[marcIs]

joseph that was one of the best replies i have read from a member. the fact that you had said what way was best, to see the scaling of the two, was dead on.

 

[mrhtguy]

thx peeps