Video Asylum

Posted by Joe S (A) on April 07, 2002 at 09:28:00

In Reply to: HDTV, Flat Panel, Wide Screen, Plasma, - need some help posted by chris on April 02, 2002 at 18:18:00:

...but I'm looking to replace my 10 year old Sony RPTV myself so I've been reading about, studying and investigating this area for a while now. And I've looked at LOTS of sets. The one thing to realize right away is that this is a volaitle time in HT land and being rash could quickly stick you with a 10 year investment in a boat anchor. So here are a few thoughts.

CRT based TVs, either direct view or RPTV. The direct view CRTs dont do true HD, though they can look quite nice. The thing is they are heavy, big in the larger screen sizes and VERY heavy in the big screen sizes. If you buy a 4:3 set it will fit current non HD broadcasting to a T. But if you watch DVDs, put up a UHF bowtie & HD tuner to pull in HD, get HD Direct TV or HD Dish Network or buy in to HD video recorders with prerecorded movies in HD (about to launch as we speak) you will regret the choice as you will have black bands above and below the image until you junk it and buy a 16:9 tv. 16:9 sets fit all those conditions better and will give a much more satisfying viewing experience with those materials. But if you just watch sit coms in non HD then a cheap 4:3 set is still a quite viable way to go. I wont comment on the 4:3s as I dont follow them closely but in the 16:9s 34" is a common large size that has lots of competition and they sell in the $2500 to $4000 range. The Panny CT34WX50 is nice (I bought one for my bedroom) the Sonys in this size are too, but the Toshibas and Sharps I've seen in this size basically suck in terms of sharpness, convergence or color - or all of the above.

RPTVs specifically - yes these can do true HD if you get the larger tube sizes (8 or 9") tubes, but you will ususally only find those in the really large sets - 60" or larger diagonal screen sizes. The other thing about RPTVs is that practically getting them to deliver their full performance capability in the real world can be elusive. They tend to bloom, suffer from focus, convergence and geometry problems and they throw away a lot of resolution in the process. Want to avoid that? You have to crank contrast and brightness levels down to the point they dont have enough punch to be seen as well as a direct view set in a brightly lit room and carefully calibrate the set and constantly keep an eye on convergence adjustments (three picture tubes are firing onto the same screen to produce the image, if they areently perfectly aligned you get fuzzy images). But if you arent very image quality conscious and are budget constrained and dont mind the big box - you can get an awful lot of TV for the money. In this category the Pioneers and especially Pioneer Elites are about as good as it gets IMO. The Mits have their fans but they are invariably too blue with wildly exxagerated contrast levels that require professional recalibration to overcome. The Pioneers look good out of the box. They cost more than other RPTV but if I were going that route they are the only set I'd seriously consider.

The thing about all direct view and rear projection CRT based displays is that they have what I call the "CRT glow". Everything has an exxagerated illuminated from within look. Its all very punchy but not very lifelike or film like for that matter. I never really noticed it until I saw the next type of set. Plasmas.

Plasmas have come a long way very quickly as they are chip based display devices - which means they undergo revolutionary improvementis in resoultion and performance about as often as microprocessors. Yes, plasmas used to cost $15k a year and a half ago. But those sets and their succesors now commonly sell for $5,000 to $7,000 and sometimes even lower. Dell (yep, the PC guys) recently ran a sale on the Panny unit PeteW loves so much for $4,500. A far cry from $15k. The thing about plasmas IMO is that the glass in 80% of them would have been better served making windows instead of TVs. Plasmas are usually very poor at reproducing deep rich blacks and retaining detail in dark scenes compared to even pedestrian direct view and RP CRTs. They also tend to have lots of digitally based image artifacts. Sit too close and you'll literally see the screen squirm as though its covered by thousands of transluscent little worms. Or if you sit too close you'll actually be able to count the pixels. But that has started to change. The seminal product that started the revolution is the Panasonic PeteW bought. Killer blacks, stable, very low artifact image. It still loses a bit of shadow detail in dark scenes, and it is limited to roughly 480p DVD level image resoultion. But dammit if it doesnt look beautiful in person. One big reason is something it has in common with all plasmas - it doesnt have that artificial CRT glow. At their best plasmas look fundamentally more real than the other types of sets to me. On material recorded direct to video its more like looking through a window onto reality, and on film its more like seeing a projected film instead of a tv show. Now, should you buy one? Thats exactly my dilemma. And for now I'm waiting one more generation of development. Why? Well, the Pannys do black but they still dont have the shadow detail that even the cheapest CRTs provide. And in the 42" size they dont do true HD. The NECs are the same kettle of fish as they use the Panny display so picking between them is a features question. The newest Pioneers are moving into true HD resolution, but from what I've seen they do not do the Pannys blacks and have even worse shodow detail performance. And if you get too close to the new Pioneer you'll see lots of traditional "squirmy" plasma image artifacts. I would not consider any other plasma at this point - the Sonys I've seen are literally horrible.

So what to do? Well, personally after seeing the latest plasmas and the progresss in digital front projectors using the Texas Instuments technology (a whole other kettle of fish) I've made one decision already - I will never buy another CRT based viewing device. They are all boat anchors (or are about to become them). The future is a digital display (plasmas, digiatal projectors) that accept a digital signal directly from your DVD or broadcaster or PC without converting it to analog and back again as all current sets do. And believe me, there are losses througout that process. And its probably a plasma set that combines the Pioneers reolution with the Pannys black levels. Given the incredible rate of progress in plasmas that set will almost certainly be introuduced by somebody within the next year. And given the precipitous decline in plasmas it will probably cost less, a lot less, than the sets available now.

So me? I'm waiting just a little longer. Now if you just want a good cheap tv to look at sit coms this is all probably moot.

Hope this helps,

joe