The home theater thread

[X_Lupin]

Impressive stuff, Artemio! As I've said before, I hope you're never robbed or have a fire, my friend. And if you do, at least you have photos so the insurance company will believe you!

With black Friday rolling in, We are going to be buying a very large LCD HDTV to hook the PSTriple to.

I really don't know where to go or what to get, so your guys' advice would be really helpful.

I'm thinking 1080p 47-63"

I really would recommend against impulse TV buying. Try to do as much research as possible before you make a decision. For instance, you could get a better picture from a 720p plasma TV, for less money too! But if you're definitely set on LCD, the Sony XBR4 and XBR5 currently have the best picture, in my opinion. Despite my disparaging its looks in the first post, it's probably what I'm going to get myself in the next month or so.

As for where to go, believe it or not some brick and mortar stores have lower customer satisfaction ratings than some online retailers. If you have the extra money and prefer the ability to exchange something hassle-free if you buy it and don't like it, then I would say go with an electronics store. But if you'd rather save money and know that is definitely the set you want, then go with an online retailer. It just means you'll probably have to deal with the manufacturer instead if there's a problem.

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

[Marc]

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

What's your budget? Is price irrelevant? And how much SD content will you still be watching? Will you keep your old TV for SD?

[X_Lupin]

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

What's your budget? Is price irrelevant? And how much SD content will you still be watching? Will you keep your old TV for SD?

$1-$2K I would say, maybe $3K if its an extremely good deal.

I don't really watch TV, so if SD quality must be sacrificed for the good of PS3 and general HD, so be it.

[Artemio]

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

What's your budget? Is price irrelevant? And how much SD content will you still be watching? Will you keep your old TV for SD?

$1-$2K I would say, maybe $3K if its an extremely good deal.

I don't really watch TV, so if SD quality must be sacrificed for the good of PS3 and general HD, so be it.

SD is not just TV. DVDs, other game systems that are not XBox 360 and PS3 like the Wii, etc

If you intend to go for just the HD part with Blu.ray/HD-DVD and HD systems, just look for a 120 hz set with HDMI 1.3 that you like on the floor. Of course the best idea would be to go to the shop, see what is available in your price range and then do some research on the net. Or ask here, we can help you search and point the shortcomings and strengths of particular models you are targeting.

[Marc]

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

What's your budget? Is price irrelevant? And how much SD content will you still be watching? Will you keep your old TV for SD?

$1-$2K I would say, maybe $3K if its an extremely good deal.

I don't really watch TV, so if SD quality must be sacrificed for the good of PS3 and general HD, so be it.

SD is not just TV. DVDs, other game systems that are not XBox 360 and PS3 like the Wii, etc

If you intend to go for just the HD part with Blu.ray/HD-DVD and HD systems, just look for a 120 hz set with HDMI 1.3 that you like on the floor. Of course the best idea would be to go to the shop, see what is available in your price range and then do some research on the net. Or ask here, we can help you search and point the shortcomings and strengths of particular models you are targeting.

I would echo what Snatcher says, only I would say go for a set that lets you turn off 120Hz (not all do). It can produce a weird artifact that can be annoying with certain content like movies, because it removes the 24fps "look" of movies. My current pick is the XBR5, which is the same as the XBR4 except for a piano black finish a la the PS3 (the XBR4 only offers matte). That's the one I'm probably going to pick up within the next month or so.

[Artemio]

In your honest opinion, Osiris, what is the best possible thing I could buy?

I am looking for a sharp, detailed picture in 42+ inches for use with my PS3, I had heard plasma was bad for that, but from your experience, what can you say?

What's your budget? Is price irrelevant? And how much SD content will you still be watching? Will you keep your old TV for SD?

$1-$2K I would say, maybe $3K if its an extremely good deal.

I don't really watch TV, so if SD quality must be sacrificed for the good of PS3 and general HD, so be it.

SD is not just TV. DVDs, other game systems that are not XBox 360 and PS3 like the Wii, etc

If you intend to go for just the HD part with Blu.ray/HD-DVD and HD systems, just look for a 120 hz set with HDMI 1.3 that you like on the floor. Of course the best idea would be to go to the shop, see what is available in your price range and then do some research on the net. Or ask here, we can help you search and point the shortcomings and strengths of particular models you are targeting.

I would echo what Snatcher says, only I would say go for a set that lets you turn off 120Hz (not all do). It can produce a weird artifact that can be annoying with certain content like movies, because it removes the 24fps "look" of movies. My current pick is the XBR5, which is the same as the XBR4 except for a piano black finish a la the PS3 (the XBR4 only offers matte). That's the one I'm probably going to pick up within the next month or so.

That is strange Osiris. I thought that since 120 hz / 24 fps = 5 it would just be a matter of displaying each frame 5 times if the HD player supports outputting 24 fps. If it doesn't of course it its a problem (as it stands with 60 Hz tvs where the player needs to convert to 1080i @ 60 hz and then to 1080p again in order to get the frame rate right).

I haven't seen or played with one of them, so I am just talking about theory here. It is something else to worry about then when looking for them. Any specific movies where this can be seen in order to take them to the floor when testing?

[Artemio]

I just went to a store 30 minutes agho after seeing they had 42" and 47" 120 Hz Phillips sets. The models I tested were Phillips 42FPL7432D and 47FPL7432D. I took the following discs for testing:

HD HQV benchmark (Blu-ray and DVD Versions) Used for 24 fps 1080i, 1080p 24 fps and 480i processing, deinterlacing and upscaling tests
DVD Test Annex Version 3.0 used for 24 fps/film pattern recognition, refresh rate and speed response
Digital Video Essentials High Definition For color performance and calibration and black level setup (contrast and brightness set to standards).

I must start by saying that although I expected a better performance of these sets, they are way better than the ones I had tried out before (specially better than Bravias and 1 year old sets).

Unfortunately it didn't do good with 24 fps 1080i material. It was a bit better with SD material, but not really acceptable. The car test on the HQV dvd took about 3 seconds to lock on the 2-3 cadence pattern, meaning that film material is not really well processed as always in those sets.

Here are the actual results: (You can read the actual test description and specifics here)

Test: Color Bar/vertical detail: 10
Jagies Pattern 1: 0 (around 20 degrees)
Jagies Pattern 2: 3
Waving Flag: 5
Detail Enhancement: 5
No Noise reduction tests were tried out
3:2 Detection: 5
Cadence was not tested throughly since it didn't perfomed well on the first two tests.

Finally I tested Innocence in Blu ray format. It is a BD50 disc with audio in PCM @7 Mbps and Video in MPEG 2 @40 mbps. The best Blu ray I own in video and audio. It performed well in detail and colors.. but the frame rate was really ugly. Unfortunately this is not conclusive since the Blu ray player they were using was not 24 fps compatible, so I believe that it was the players fault.

Blacks were deeper than 1 year ago, they could be set without very noticeable patches or brown tones. They were not deeply black, but were closer to black than gray or brown.

The color processor was good as well. Blue and Red could be set within 5% and 10% of the standard respectively, but as usual green was off by more than 20%.

I wouldn't recommend this set for any SD or 1080i material, but I believe that with a player taht does support 24 hz display it would be a great one if the HDMI version it has supports it.

[X_Lupin]

Loads of awesome.

Thank you very much for your in-depth review, I will use this information when I go looking for my TV (Which turns out, I might not even be getting :sad: )

[Marc]

Watch your eyes, fellas.







http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... 011&page=2

[87th]

Impressed?