Sony KP53HS30 compared to Sony KP57HW40? (1 Viewer)

[MTrotter]

I saw these side-by-side today. Sadly, since I was really interested in a ws set, the KP53 just had a sharper picture with a little better color on Fox news channel on local cable. No matter how we tweeked the sets, the 53 had better detail and the 57 seemed a little soft. Could it be that the 53 has more "edge enhancement" or SVM than the ws 57"? For the purpose of this comparison, the KP57 was set to the 4:3 setting.

This result surprised me because across the street at another store(that pushes Mits, BTW), they had the KP57HW40 set up next to Sharp and Mitsubishi HDTVs playing the ubiquitous HDTV loop. The Sony 57 by far had the best detail and color rendition there. Could it be that the Sony ws sets are super sharp on HDTV, but soft on an analog cable signal?

I can't explain these results, but I was a little disappointed to see the 4:3 set turn out to be better since I was wanting to get a ws. The KP53HS30 does have a 16:9 mode however, so maybe that is the way to go.

Has anyone else compared these sets?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Were both sets in the same picture mode (ie Vivid, Standard, Movie, Pro?) The same adjustments for sharpness and such will look different in each mode, as there are varying levels of SVM in each mode--none in Pro, mild in Movie, moderate in Standard, and exteme in VIVID. If the widescreen were in Movie or Pro, and the HS-30 in Standard or Vivid, the 2 sets would look very different even with the same settings.
If 4/3 picture quality is of primary importance, the 4/3 set would be the way to go. Since it will do an anamorphic squeeze, no picture quality will be lost for dvd or HD.
With a widescreen set, some compromise is necessary for 4/3 picture, either settling for a smaller picture with gray bars or some stretch mode. With a 4/3, you sacrifice image size for widescreen dvd and HD rather than 4/3.
From my viewing distance, about 13', a 53" 4/3 image is a bit overwhelming while a 48" Widescreen image is a bit small.
I have the 57" HW40 and love the big picture for dvd and HD, and use WideZoom for 4/3 to get the same size image with little funhouse mirror effect. Picture sharpness is quite good on strong signals, a bit soft on weaker channels.

 

[MTrotter]

Steve,

Yes, we made sure the sets were in the same mode.

Marc

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Frankly, this seems to generally be the case. When shrinking a 4:3 image down to the 16:9 frame, the processing (whether analog or digital) degrades the image some.

Which ratio of set to get is totally personal, though.