Some reactions from a Best Buy visit (1 Viewer)

[David Yon]

As a tandem to my other post, I just returned from a quick visit at Best Buy.

I was mostly there to check out what DLP vs LCD vs D-ILA look like. The good news is that I don't seem to be susceptable to the "rainbow effect" (nor was my wife). But while LCD has gotten better, it just didn't have the same contrast and punch that the other display technologies do.

DLP and D-ILA were very sharp and bright. The RP-CRTs also held their own pretty well I thought, but to my eyes they definitely have a somewhat softer image. Not to mention being huge beasts.

One goal was to check out the Toshiba 52HM84 as a replacement candidate for my current 40" Toshiba. It definitely suffered from green-shift, but of us noticed that right away. Anyone have any experience with this set? Can the green be corrected with adjustments? I was otherwise happy with the picture.

I was pretty impressed overall with the JVC 52" D-ILA HD52Z575. As good a picture as the Toshiba but without the green problem. Any thoughts there? What's the downside to D-ILA beyond being an unproven technology in the long haul?

The other set I really liked was the Samsung DLP that stood on the pedestal stand (don't know the model number). The only problem there is that while the stand might be stylish, it'ts not very practical for my purposes. One of my goals with moving away from CRT is to reclaim the space under the screen to use for the other gear (amp, DVD, ReplayTV, etc). Seems like that would be pretty difficult with that center-post stand.

 

[Brae]

Attempting to determine contrast in a brightly lit BB environment is not going to get you anywhere. First, the lighting is going to be completely different than the lighting in your home, right? Not just in your home's color light, but also in intensity.

Secondly, the last time I checked LCoS (of which D-ILA is JVC's brand name for LCoS) has similar contrast performance as LCD. If you could not determine this from in-store visual auditions (which would be difficult), then I certainly couldn't draw the same conclusions between LCD and LCoS the way you did.

It is good, though, that your brain's saccadic masking prevents you from consciously discerning the DLP rainbow effect. As screen-door effect can be a deal-killer for some with LCD products, rainbow effect can be a deal-killer for some with DLP products.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Furthermore, I've never seen a TV at best buy properly calibrated. Maybe somewhere there's a chain store with someone calibrating them, but I sincerely doubt it.

Comparing displays that are not calibrated well is a waste of time, IMO.

 

[Brae]

Hey, Chris, I've been to several boutique HT shops and asked the question about calibrated displays and not once in 3-4 years has any of them stated the display was calibrated, but in every instance it was no, they were in the process of having it done. LOL