well again from what i read here the 30 inch is better than the 32 inch....

so its your choice

Why is that?

Why not just mount it to a piece of 1/2" plywood using the four threaded holes on the back. Then figure a way to mount the plywood to the wall. Hell, you could hang it like a heavy picture. Tilt it by inserting a small wooden block at top or bottom. Too low tech for guys here at the techiest tech forum????? :)

That's one good DIY idea. Thanks!

Fury asked:

I actually skipped the DVI input when it kept defaulting to 640X480, although the audio was the least effected by overlay buzzing. How do you get a higher rez on the DVI. For that matter, how do you get 3 HDMI inputs?

When I scroll through the same input button on the remote, the DVI selection at startup gives half screen, then feull screen, but 1/8 or so of image, then finally unsatisfying 640X480 full screen. All the above fed by Zenith HD STB at 1080i

Thank you very much

Fury


I have the same problem with the DVI inout and my Zenith Tuner. Anyone here have a clue as to why we are having this problem with the DVI input?

JHellow

Got mine today...

First impressions (more detailed review later today):

Screen: Huge! 0 dead pixels (R-G-B-W-B). Decent angle of view horizontally (but nowhere near 178 like they advertise), but vertically, you need to be at eye level, as you lose some contrast and black level at a vertical angle (I think that's expected for LCD technology).

Stand: Has to go. Needs something more solid. Probably a wall mount...

Noise: Totally silent. I don't even hear a fan. My unit doesn't seem to run too hot either.

NTSC Tuner: Below par, very grainy. I tweaked the setting to "soften" the image a little and it now looks passable (I have bad analog cable reception in that room).

ATSC Tuner: Doesn't support QAM + can't test OTA since I don't have line of sight of the towers here. That's a big disapointment for me as I was hoping for QAM.

Color Response: I'll have more information regarding this later tonight, but the color output in User mode seems decent. I think that with some basic calibration, the colors are going to look pretty good.

Brightness + Contrast ratio: Very bright and decent CR. The latter actually gets to a point where I forget I'm looking at a LCD unit. I will also confirm that even with the backlight turned down to 0, the unit is too bright.

Speakers: Just like everybody else said: REALLY REALLY bad. I thought people were picky, but those speakers are not worth being put on a recent television.

Menus: Again, I thought people were exagerating... but boy, those guys at Sceptre didn't do their homework! I'm not going to elaborate right now (I'm planning to offer a full tree of the menu tonight), but it's pretty bad.

DVI 1080p: I can also confirm that 1:1 pixel ratio at 1080p is obtained. Unfortunately, my ATI 9200 (which I'm in the process of exchanging for a 6600) is one of those cards that if I switch from the DVI input to something else, I have to reboot my machine to see the PC image again. HD footage looks amazing, SD from my tuner card looks really bad (but I have bad analog cable connection to that room). Watching slideshows of 6MP photos is really nice too.

Best viewing distance in my eyes feels like it would be 4-5 feet away. >5 would be nice too, but you would lose the 1080p sharpness. I don't know how anybody would want to be at <3 feet... The pixel structure becomes apparent and the screen is too late to see as a whole.

If it weren't for the last thing I'm going to point out, I would probably still keep the unit as a nice PC monitor... but right now, I'm getting ready to potentially return it this weekend.

The unit may have gotten damaged during transport or something, but I'm seeing a pretty annoying "blotch" (undefined darker area) in the middle of the screen. Maybe it's the ambiant light in my room or something like that, but when I put a dark uniform color as the background color of my desktop (example: default dark blue of MCE2005, or grey), I clearly see that the background isn't uniform. Note that it not the case with bright colors or white. The weird thing is that the blotch is not at a specific place: if I move left and right, I can see that "blotch" moving. I owned over 4 LCD monitors/TVs at home, and I've never seen this before. A friend of mine that is knowledgeable came earlier and looked at it and confirm that something's wrong. He suggested that it might be the finish of the screen that does that. Also note that I'm not talking about banding here and that it's almost impossible to see if you watch video content (it needs to be a uniform color). I'll try to take a picture of what I'm talking about, but does anybody that got their TV experienced this problem?

That last issue is a deal breaker for me unless I find a solution for it, as I was planning to use this screen as a PC monitor.

More to come later....

-eric

Here's the "blotch" effect I'm seeing (see 3 pictures attached).

I put the Dell 2001 as an example of what I would expect from the Sceptre.

Please note that while I didn't fixup the pictures, I feel the "dark blue" image is actually looking worse than in real life. Maybe it's a limitation of my digital camera with deep blue like that.

Sorry about the quality of the photos... (I don't know what I'm doing...)

Anybody else seeing this?

-eric

Here's the "blotch" effect I'm seeing (see 3 pictures attached).

I put the Dell 2001 as an example of what I would expect from the Sceptre.

Please note that while I didn't fixup the pictures, I feel the "dark blue" image is actually looking worse than in real life. Maybe it's a limitation of my digital camera with deep blue like that.

Sorry about the quality of the photos... (I don't know what I'm doing...)

Anybody else seeing this?

-eric


That is horrible.

Thanks for the photos, Eric. I am really on the fence about this set. Does the blotch move as you move your head? This blotch is not a good thing. But, perhaps you got the "bad set". (?)

I'm about 30 miles from Seattle (as the crow flies) deep in the boonies on the Olympic Peninsula. I've been able to get lots of OTA HD here. Too bad you can't put up an antenna as we do have a lot of HD stations here.

Perhaps if the set is left-on the blotch will disappear. Or is it different with different input?

Anyway - good luck and thanks for sharing.

Cyrano,

I'm unfortunately living on the eastside of Seattle and I have a hill right between me and Queen-Ann. An installer told me that I would need to have a 100' pole for my antenna to get reception. So, until they add antennas, OTA is pretty much out of the question for me. Due to the immense amount of trees surrounding my house, I can't really do Sat either. So Cable is my only choice for HD.

And as far as the blotch goes: yes, it does move when moving around (aka not really the panel, more like the finish). I'll try the unit for the whole weekend and see if it gets better... I will also try multiple inputs. But I'm not holding my hopes too high...

Hopefully, I'm the only one that will have this experience.

-eric

Yeah, a hill would be a problem. But you might try an antenna just for the heck of it. I receive SD from Canada. (A rotor helps a lot.) Tacoma has a PBS, a WB and a UPN. I only had the HD receiver for a day so I can't remember what stations were HD but it might be worth a try.
You might get a lucky signal bounce off something. ;)

I hope your anomaly is solvable as to the blotch.

Very impressed with the video, especially playing from a DVHS at 1080I.PB of Over America is STUNNING!!.

HOWEVER , very loud buss in the audio when using it as a PC monitor at 1980x1040. Buss is there even with the audio cable unplugged!
Video is great though, playing a MS HD DVD, The Reef
It is bad enough to the point that I have to return the unit and get a replacement. BUMMER.


Should I return it now or wait a few weeks.
Gene

Did some color calibration with the Spyder2 Pro on the DVI input using my PC.
I used the TV presets:
Contrast: 133
Black Level: 0 (default. That doesn't seem to change anything on the DVI btw).
Color Temp: High (default)
Lamp: 0


Here's what I found:

Luminance:
White: ~54fL / 16.4 candelas
Black: ~0.127fL / 0.04 candelas

Which means that the effective CR between 410:1-425:1.

Now, before you complain about the CR, you have to know that effective 425:1 is actually pretty good, and is definitely very high for an LCD. The CR that are advertised in specs can't really be obtained (they're calculated with crazy settings).

I also attached the color correction charts that was needed for each channel in the automatic calibration. The correction needed was pretty small compared to all the other LCDs I've played with (including the Dell 2001). One interesting tidbit is the fact that the blue channel is the one that needs to most correction, and at the same time, it's the one that I have the most problems with the "blotch" problem. :) Just FYI about the graphs: those are gamma lines. The colored lines are what would a perfect TV color response would be, while the black lines are what my unit color response was (before calibration). The nearer those two curves are, the better.


Also worthy of note: the CR and luminance didn't change between before and after calibration.

For people that didn't understand any of what I wrote above, the conclusion is that color output seems pretty good and the CR are indeed very high for LCD technology on this TV.

-eric

Well I just got my Set, i'll post some pictures after, but stupid UPS left it at the door so I had to leave work early to make sure nobody stole it -_-......... Thanks UPS for leaving a 2000 TV in the hallway... anyway..................

The initial TV setup getting it out of the box I noticed there's no handles at the top... cheap crappy design, I guess I took them for granted on my 24" CRT and the 42" Vizio.... So I had to get somone else to help me lift it out of the box for safety.

And onto the installation. First the most semi amusing thing that happened was my Coax cable is kind of rough so when I was twisting I actually pulled out the RF connector from the back of the TV (I have a picture) apparently it's connected via adapter 0_o??!?!

The Addition of VGA cables, component cable, and HDMI --> DVI cable was a nice touch but I wish the DVI end was Dual Link instead of Single Link for future use. As a monitor so far this thing is great, some colors seem a bit off out of the box and i'm not very good at calibrating so if somone could post calibrations for the inputs That'd be awesome :D.

In comparing this to my 42" Vizio plasma my divx files seem to be more pixelated (due to the higher res panel?) but yeah oh well. So far TV has been pretty decent :D

For those interested in longer HDMI/DVI/VGA cables, I have previously purchased decent cables from http://www.monoprice.com at good prices.

Does anyone know the thread size for the VESA Mounting Bracket holes on the back?

I'm guessing it's a Metric.

I stayed up last night and watched "Late Night" on NBC OTA DTV... Wow what a picture. I may be convinced that this unit indeed does do ATSC 1080i correctly.

Can anyone with a discerning eye for 1080i please check out some 1080i native OTA DTV content and post whether it looks correct or not?



Don't have OTA up where I am, but I'm watching 1080i from Dish Network satellite via an 811 HD receiver. HD 1080i channels look right on, comparable to my other HDTV, a new Thompson 34" CRT 1080i which has an excellent picture. I notice slight pixillation in darker areas occasionally. Lowering the brightness level on the Sceptre seems to help this.

Much appreciate your thorough review and comments earlier, Dan.

Well I just got my Set, i'll post some pictures after, but stupid UPS left it at the door so I had to leave work early to make sure nobody stole it -_-......... Thanks UPS for leaving a 2000 TV in the hallway... anyway..................

....... so when I was twisting I actually pulled out the RF connector from the back of the TV (I have a picture) apparently it's connected via adapter 0_o??!?!



UPS left mine in my hallway too. Sat there for 5 hours. Guess no one could tell what it was with the generic box that covers the Sceptre box :)

I also pulled the RF connector off. I thought I'd broken it, until I found the adapter on the floor below, and slid it back into the hole. I tightened it a bit so it wouldn't fall off as easily next time. :confused:

Woot! I just took the plunge and ordered this TV/monitor. It's going to serve as my TV hooked up to my dish 811 reciever and as an HTPC through my x800xl. I'm just curious how long it will take for it to arive in my hands? I just ordered it today august 27th so I'm guess by the beginning of september?

Here's the "blotch" effect I'm seeing (see 3 pictures attached).

I put the Dell 2001 as an example of what I would expect from the Sceptre.

Please note that while I didn't fixup the pictures, I feel the "dark blue" image is actually looking worse than in real life. Maybe it's a limitation of my digital camera with deep blue like that.

Sorry about the quality of the photos... (I don't know what I'm doing...)

Anybody else seeing this?

-eric

No, sorry to hear that you are :( It looks like the backlights are doing something funny... I forget how many there are on this set, I read it somewhere but theres a bunch... maybe the set got dropped and the backlight has a loose wire in it? or ? Does it fluctaute when you change the Lamp level?

I wonder if that has anything to do with viewing angle as well? I see no image drop off from any angle... I get some glare at extreme angles but it doesn't look any different to me than a flat CRT. We all have different eyes though, as I also have no probs sitting 25" from the screen... well only when doing PC stuff :)

I also have huge hills and urban canyons between myself and any HD stations but I still can pull in a few... have you tried any ole antenna on the ATSC input?

Dan K

Did some color calibration with the Spyder2 Pro on the DVI input using my PC.


Wow, didnt' even know those things were available affordably. It's good to know that my eyes are somewhat normalized in the color department as well :) Would the perfect display have a straight line from bottom left to top right in that graph?

Dan K

Here's the "blotch" effect I'm seeing (see 3 pictures attached).

I put the Dell 2001 as an example of what I would expect from the Sceptre.

Please note that while I didn't fixup the pictures, I feel the "dark blue" image is actually looking worse than in real life. Maybe it's a limitation of my digital camera with deep blue like that.

Sorry about the quality of the photos... (I don't know what I'm doing...)

Anybody else seeing this?

-eric

I too don't have this blotch problem. Perhaps you did get a bum set. Color is consistent throughout, with it slightly more bright on the fringe edges. After spending more time tweaking the unit, it's even on par with my old CRT HDTV. There are some minor annoyances with the menu/options, but the fact that I have only those things to complain about is a good thing. I am blown away by the quality of this set, which to me is the most important thing. It's very apparent to me that Sceptre provided us with the best LCD HDTV that you can get, and cut corners else where to keep it very affordable. I couldn't me more pleased with my purchase.

Guys, does this unit have ANY energy saving graces at all??? Booklet says 320 watts. Has anyone been able to get it to go into standby other than by pushing the power button on the bottom of the unit?
Would be nice if Costco required Green units. They wield a lot of power.

Wow, didnt' even know those things were available affordably. It's good to know that my eyes are somewhat normalized in the color department as well :) Would the perfect display have a straight line from bottom left to top right in that graph?

Dan K

I guess I should have put that information in my post, but those are gamma lines, and NTSC/ATSC standards aren't using linear gamma lines. Long story short, the colored lines are what would a perfect TV color response would be, while the black lines are what my unit color response was (before calibration). The nearer those two curves are, the better.

-eric

Got mine last night but I am having trouble connecting it to my PC via DVI, even though VGA connection is fine. I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 video card in my PC. The DVI works fine with my old LCD but not this monster. Do I have to purchase a new video card in order to use this monitor? :confused:

Got my set delivered today as well! Yay! For the guys who mentioned that UPS left it at their door, the same thing happened to me. I was absolutely shocked. But I think it's probably more an error on Costco's part rather than UPS. No signature required?

Anyway, I haven't played around with it too much yet. But I hooked up a DVD player via component connects. I'm sort of disappointed with the quality of the picture. It is somewhat grainy. Has anyone else experienced this or primarily hooking up HD and/or computer?

I'm sure the HD will look much better, but will take me a little while to get that hooked up. I'll try hooking up my computer and see how that goes.

Regarding the 1080i de-interlacing...I just realized, that just because the display is 1080p doesn't mean that a 1080i signal must be interlaced to display it... I am hoping that when displaying a 1080i signal, the pixels are simply drawn first on the even, then on the odd lines, as they are received in the input signal. This would mean that there's no conversion happening at all on the 1080i signal.

Can someone with a better background comment? I just can't imagine again scaling down/de-interlacing to 720p, losing resolution, then scaling back up. It would make having those 1080 lines useless.

- guys..

- can anyone post the pictures of their TV? I want to see how it looks. Picture on website it not great.
- Is the audio deal-breaker. I currently have the vizio 32''. not great sound either but seems small for my bedroom and thinking of upgrading due to size and atsc tuner
- how is the atsc tuner. picks up channels well? does it have an option to just look for digital channels so that I can skip all analogs? philips does not have it!! but my Sony XBR does
- since this is going to be in my bedroom..I want decent sound...u think I should buy or not...
- is the remote universal?
- finally, i hope this company releases firmwares to update glitches found. Philips does that..which is awesome

thanks in advanced for replying to my so-many Qs! I need to make the decision by tomorrow afternoon since I am out the rest of the weekend..thanks.

UPS left mine in my hallway too. Sat there for 5 hours. Guess no one could tell what it was with the generic box that covers the Sceptre box :)

I also pulled the RF connector off. I thought I'd broken it, until I found the adapter on the floor below, and slid it back into the hole. I tightened it a bit so it wouldn't fall off as easily next time. :confused:


yeah, it totally freaked me out lol, well I just played like 2 hours of halo coop on the TV, the dark levels are actually better in some areas than my plasma tho I did have blotches of dark areas that suddenly went dark or bright. Not sure if it's the game or the TV.

I was planning on posting the final pics of my setup now, but since my friend came over I didn't have time so maybe tomorrow when i'm less tired. the DTV Tuner picture is a bit grainy (watching conan now), I'm not too sure if it's the tuner or the TV itself. I'm gonna try to use my ATI HDTV wonder with it and see how the picture is.

I didn't thinka bout this ahead of time but this Unit really should have had a coax or Optical out so that I wouldnt have to use the crappyu speakers with thier tuner.

Oh yeah another hint to make sure to set it on DVI and not HDMI when you connect it to a video card on a PC. When you use HDMI you get some weird color rainbow artifacts. It totally freaked me out when I first saw it.

But yeah I didn't even bother to check the manual since it seems most people say it's crap anyway, you'd get better info from this thread anyway :D.

In terms of bezel quality this set is much cheaper than my Vizio was. My vizio was metal in the back and plastic in the front. This TV is plastic all round with a really ghetto stand I actually dont mind the loss in space realestate from my 42" plasma and as a monitor this thing rocks =). I am very happy with my setup. Oh yeah the OSD Is really ghetto too lol. The ICONS they use are incredibly low res and ghetto icons which is kind of dissapointing but not that big a deal.

Ok looks like I actually cleaned some of my room so I can share some pics


Shipping box (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1706.jpg)
Internal Box (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1707.jpg)
Freaked me out when this happened (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1708.jpg)
1080p wmv footage from the right (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1709.jpg)
same from right (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1710.jpg)
Beatmania IIDX Setup (yay no more burn in :D) (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1714.jpg)
same from left (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1715.jpg)
and of course as monitor (http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/IMG_1717.jpg)

If you guys want more pics of any specific footage let me know, I got a Xbox/Gamecube (SD only), PS2. When I get unlazy i'm gonna swap the coax cable to the PC and see if I the HDTV footage from that is less grainy than the included tuner.

Have any of you problems with a buzz in the audio when using computer input, in my case the VGA input at 1920x1080 ?

The audio is unusable when turning the volume up. Disconnecting the audio input makes no difference.

Video looks best with DVHS pb at 1080I , pb Over America, second best MS HD DVD, The Reef.
Both are best HD I have ever seen.

I posted this before but no response, apparently audio in PC mode must be ok in other units.

Eugene

I didn't thinka bout this ahead of time but this Unit really should have had a coax or Optical out so that I wouldnt have to use the crappyu speakers with thier tuner.

So the yellow output labeld "AV OUT" on the back panel isn't a digital coax output?

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/View_x37sv-Naga.htm

Yep....I'll be back there switching DVI cables all day long. :) You'd really think they'd give us more HDMI ports, and less S-Video/composites. Why would anyone buy a true HD panel, and use S-Video or worse composite?

Wonder what a DVI switcher costs? Obviously much more than a Component switcher. How do you like your HDD500? I'm thinking of the 250.

I bought a Zebra 5x1 DVI switch from digital connection a while ago for $375 or something like that. One of AVS' power buys. Hopefully it will work with this sceptre.

Hey Zoglog, great pics!

Mind taking more pictures? I'd love to see the .avi movie quality on these things.

Also, I always wanted to know how GAMECUBE games look like on LCDs, since I'm also planning on getting a GC with Resident evil, Pikmin2, Mario Tennis along with an LCD.

If you have any of those games, take a pic for me please. Thanks! :D

Also, how does this compare to your plasma?

[QUOTE=NickS]So the yellow output labeld "AV OUT" on the back panel isn't a digital coax output?

That looks like a composite video output.

Have any of you problems with a buzz in the audio when using computer input, in my case the VGA input at 1920x1080 ?

The audio is unusable when turning the volume up. Disconnecting the audio input makes no difference.

Video looks best with DVHS pb at 1080I , pb Over America, second best MS HD DVD, The Reef.
Both are best HD I have ever seen.

I posted this before but no response, apparently audio in PC mode must be ok in other units.

Eugene

I too have this "buzz" in the audio when using the computer. I don't have anything connected to it either, which requires that I mute the TV for it to stop. Sounds like good old 60Hz. hum from the power line. Considering nothing's even connected, and that the problem doesn't exist with other inputs, sounds like the noise is being injected into the PC audio lines internal to the Sceptre. Certainly something to ask Sceptre about. For me it's not such a big deal, since I don't intend on using the Sceptre speakers anyways. And the display is simply too nice to me to lose out on having it as a TV/Monitor because I can't live with the hum on the PC input.

Have any of you problems with a buzz in the audio when using computer input, in my case the VGA input at 1920x1080 ?

The audio is unusable when turning the volume up. Disconnecting the audio input makes no difference.

Video looks best with DVHS pb at 1080I , pb Over America, second best MS HD DVD, The Reef.
Both are best HD I have ever seen.

I posted this before but no response, apparently audio in PC mode must be ok in other units.

Eugene

A lot of times, buzz or hum comes from external causes, not from the TV itself. Try disconnecting EVERYTHING, and see if you hear the buzz. If you do, make sure everything around the TV is turned off, especially a computer. If you still hear a buzz, it may be in the set. Make sure the speaker connections are plugged in tight. If your buzz goes away with just the TV on, try turning on the computer first, then connecting just the computer audio. Then connect the computer video (turn TV and computer off first!). See when the buzz comes back connecting things one at a time.

Good luck!

Guys, does this unit have ANY energy saving graces at all??? Booklet says 320 watts. Has anyone been able to get it to go into standby other than by pushing the power button on the bottom of the unit?
Would be nice if Costco required Green units. They wield a lot of power.

That's odd, their site says 180W. Of course, these numbers are typically worst case numbers. Considering must of us find the lowest Lamp setting of 0 to be plenty bright enough, I'm sure typically power consumption is quite low. I have a Kill-A-Watt measurer that I can use on the unit tomorrow. I'll report back.

I too have this "buzz" in the audio when using the computer. I don't have anything connected to it either, which requires that I mute the TV for it to stop. Sounds like good old 60Hz. hum from the power line. Considering nothing's even connected, and that the problem doesn't exist with other inputs, sounds like the noise is being injected into the PC audio lines internal to the Sceptre. Certainly something to ask Sceptre about. For me it's not such a big deal, since I don't intend on using the Sceptre speakers anyways. And the display is simply too nice to me to lose out on having it as a TV/Monitor because I can't live with the hum on the PC input.

It does sound like they saved some money on the TV audio and spent it on good video. That makes sense to me, since most people buying an HDTV will probably want to use a good digital audio amplifier for the sound. Home theater audio systems are only a few hundred dollars, and they will sound better than anything you could do inside a TV set.

I received my set yesterday and I've spent a few hours evaluating/tweaking the thing.

My biggest fear is that the ATSC tuner is down-scaling and then scaling back up like others have suggested, or it's just not very good. I have a Sony KDF-60XBR950 LCD rear projection set and the picture quality for HD seems better on that and the SD picture quality is way better.

Like others have mentioned, when watching HD broadcasts, the picture seems grainy (noisy). If I use the sharpness control to hide the noise, the picture is too soft. It's difficult to say what's happening or if I'm just incredibly picky, which is entirely possible. The real test would be to compare the built-in tuner to the picture from an HD tuner in a PC, but I don't have one of those yet.

Regarding the blotchiness issue. I tend to think we all have the problem and it just isn't that noticeable. Try the following and see what you think:


Using a PC, set your desktop to a solid dark blue color.

Right-click on the desktop > Properties > Desktop
For the Background, select (None) at the top of the list.
In the same dialog, click the button labeled Color: and select Other... from the dropdown list.
Select the color as shown in the attached GIF file and click OK.

Move your head so it is directly in front of the left side of the screen. (Does the right side look brighter?)
Move your head so it's in front of the right side of the screen. (Does the left side look brighter?)

When I do this, it appears a dark area is always directly in front of me. I've taken some photos available as of 8/27/05 HERE (http://home.comcast.net/~traig), but I'll only keep them there for a short time.

I originally took the photos where the monitor was the only light source and the camera ended up using less-than-ideal settings and as a result I believe the blotch was exaggerated. I tried to light the room to get the camera aperture to shut-down a bit more and repeated the photos.

It's impossible to say if the blotchiness I see is less than what ericjut sees. What I do see is not a problem and wouldn't affect my decision to purchase the set, although I am still questioning the unit as a stand-alone TV.

I agree with everyone so far that the picture quality on this set when used as a PC monitor is perfect. Not a single dead pixel for me, which is pretty good considering there's a couple million of 'em. :)

On a side-note, thanks to phussary for providing us with the link to the site that sells cables. That site should come in handy.

Regarding the 1080i de-interlacing...I just realized, that just because the display is 1080p doesn't mean that a 1080i signal must be interlaced to display it... I am hoping that when displaying a 1080i signal, the pixels are simply drawn first on the even, then on the odd lines, as they are received in the input signal. This would mean that there's no conversion happening at all on the 1080i signal.

Can someone with a better background comment? I just can't imagine again scaling down/de-interlacing to 720p, losing resolution, then scaling back up. It would make having those 1080 lines useless.

Deinterlacing Info (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html)
Try the above link for all you ever wanted to know about deinterlacing.

What you describe would work fine for still pictures, but getting smooth motion pictures is more complicated. The basic problem is that most movies are shot at 24 frames per second, and NTSC video is based on 60 fields per second. 720p has 1 frame per field, so it is 60 frames per second. 1080i is 1 frame per 2 fields, so it is 30 frames per second. So 720p has a higher frame rate, and thus smoother motion. 1080i has higher resolution still pictures but more motion artifacts.

1080p is 60 frames per second compared to 30 for 1080i, so it requires twice the bandwidth, and can't be broadcast. Right now, the only source for 1080p video is from a computer video card. This TV is one of the first to be able to receive the 1080p protocol, so that makes it quite a deal for us computer video geeks!

1080i, 720p etc. are just serial data protocols for communication from another device into your TV set. The computer inside the TV converts this data stream into an array of pixels stored in its computer memory, to show on the screen. This TV apparently may incorrectly show that it is receiving 720p when actually receiving 1080i from the built in HDTV tuner.

Once the signal is deinterlaced (if necessary) and stored as an array of pixels, it must be reformatted for screen display with a "scaler". This just enlarges the picture to fit the screen. An array of pixels received as 1080i or 1080p is the same size as this TV screen, so they don't need scaling. All others must be enlarged, which creates new artifacts. Enlarging requires the generation of new pixels. Simple algorithms for enlarging tend to make diagonal lines jagged. Other more time consuming methods smooth out these jagged lines, but enlarged pictures are inevitably more blurred than full size original pictures. Since most video sources are 480i at the moment, the enlarger (scaler) is one of the most important subroutines in the TV internal computer program. Apparently, this TV displays good enlarged 480i video.

Hope this helps!

I too have this "buzz" in the audio when using the computer. I don't have anything connected to it either, which requires that I mute the TV for it to stop. Sounds like good old 60Hz. hum from the power line. Considering nothing's even connected, and that the problem doesn't exist with other inputs, sounds like the noise is being injected into the PC audio lines internal to the Sceptre. Certainly something to ask Sceptre about. For me it's not such a big deal, since I don't intend on using the Sceptre speakers anyways. And the display is simply too nice to me to lose out on having it as a TV/Monitor because I can't live with the hum on the PC input.

Hi Benny,

I found that I had this buzz also, but once I plugged TV Audio into PC, buzz dissapeared.


Worth a try...

Dan K

Like others have mentioned, when watching HD broadcasts, the picture seems grainy (noisy). If I use the sharpness control to hide the noise, the picture is too soft. It's difficult to say what's happening or if I'm just incredibly picky, which is entirely possible. The real test would be to compare the built-in tuner to the picture from an HD tuner in a PC, but I don't have one of those yet.

You are not incredibly picky... I have the new 32" and it has the same issue. The 32" is connected to an external HD tuner. The external HD tuner is clean on my other monitors and front projection monitor, but not clean on the Sceptre. I'm still on the fence about it being acceptable to me or not. Considering the 32" is under $1,000, I guess I can't expect more from it.

What is the width of the spreakers? I want to find something narrow that I can substitute in place of the removable speakers that everyone seems to agree are lousy. I have a very limited amount of horizontal space for the TV and its speakers (or substitutes).

Is anybody using this set with an HD Tivo (Directv)? I was considering a setup like that and was wondering about the picture quality. How does it look with SD recordings? HD recordings? High compression vs. low compression recordings? Also, any tips about the setup? Should the Tivo be set to always output 1080i (I don't have an HD Tivo yet, so I'm just speculating here -- I'm not sure that's even an option, or if it depends on the resolution of the original broadcast)? Is there any difference between the quality of the HDMI and component outputs?

Thanks for any info,
Michael

So OTA HDTV content on this thing is fuzzy? That sucks.. I mainly wanted to use this thing as a HTPC and sports watching...

Is it better than the westinghouse 37 at least?

So the yellow output labeld "AV OUT" on the back panel isn't a digital coax output?

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/View_x37sv-Naga.htm

as far as I know it isn,t but I may be wrong, I havent tested it.

AVI divx or anything compressed does not show as well because of the resolution difference. They looked better on my 42" plasma. But of course there may be some smoothing techniques and filters that may fix this, I dont know too much about how to use em tho. I'll post some pics of SD from gamecube when I get a chance.

another thing I must mention is that the viewing angles on this thing is damn awesome

I was curious about the speakers in the enclosure so I removed the 16 screws holding the enclosure together and took a couple pictures. They actually looked better than I was expecting. Two are 3" in diameter and the tweeter is 2". It shouldn't be too difficult to find better quality replacements.

I was curious about the speakers in the enclosure so I removed the 16 screws holding the enclosure together and took a couple pictures. They actually looked better than I was expecting. Two are 3" in diameter and the tweeter is 2". It shouldn't be too difficult to find better quality replacements.

Guess the crossovers must be buildt into one of those cylinders on the back of one of the speakers?

Anyway, I haven't played around with it too much yet. But I hooked up a DVD player via component connects. I'm sort of disappointed with the quality of the picture. It is somewhat grainy. Has anyone else experienced this or primarily hooking up HD and/or computer?

I'm sure the HD will look much better, but will take me a little while to get that hooked up. I'll try hooking up my computer and see how that goes.

HD does look better. Much better. A DVD is basically good SD, and with an LCD, that shows everything, you see all the imperfections, including all the imperfections with MPEG2. I've played copied DVD's, that look great on a CRT, but on the Sceptre you see the compression artifacts even more. Of course it depends on the quality of the DVD too. I watched Sin City today, and it looked very good.

Hi Benny,

I found that I had this buzz also, but once I plugged TV Audio into PC, buzz dissapeared.


Worth a try...

Dan K


I don't have a PC to plug back into. I wonder why that solves the problem in your case? I'm connecting audio from a digital satellite receiver with an RCA to miniplug into PC audio in, to match HD 1080i video input with the DVI/HDMI cable.

I just tested the L/R audio output and the buzz is in that signal, too.

I also tried the subwoofer out with a powered KLH subwoofer, but it just magnifies the buzz, so it's unusable.

Mike G

I'm curious about the AV Out jack -- it looks like an RCA video out, but I can't see any video on it when I test it, and I can't get any audio from it with a regular RCA cable. Does anyone know what it is?

[QUOTE=NickS]So the yellow output labeld "AV OUT" on the back panel isn't a digital coax output?

That looks like a composite video output.

It 'is' composite out, which is nice in that you can record to a DVD burner....problem is...it looks terrible compared to other ATSC tuners I've tried.

I didn't thinka bout this ahead of time but this Unit really should have had a coax or Optical out so that I wouldnt have to use the crappyu speakers with thier tuner.

Oh yeah another hint to make sure to set it on DVI and not HDMI when you connect it to a video card on a PC. When you use HDMI you get some weird color rainbow artifacts. It totally freaked me out when I first saw it.


It may have an optical out. The Zinwell tuner, that people have speculated that it contains, has a S/PDIF output on the board. We'd have to open it to find out though.

Yep, DVI is best. The other settings seem to overscan, and you lose the direct pixel to pixel mapping.

Guess the crossovers must be buildt into one of those cylinders on the back of one of the speakers?
Oops... I already put the speaker back together. I don't recall seeing any sort of crossover though - just 3 speakers hooked up in parallel. I suppose there might be something other than magnets under those cylinders.

The two big ones are 4 ohm, 5 watt. The tweeter is 8 ohm, 10 watt. (I think)

Have any of you problems with a buzz in the audio when using computer input, in my case the VGA input at 1920x1080 ?

The audio is unusable when turning the volume up. Disconnecting the audio input makes no difference.

I posted this before but no response, apparently audio in PC mode must be ok in other units.

Eugene

Not so much the computer input, but most ATSC TV channels have buzz...that typical cheap TV buzz... I haven't tried the audio output RCAs to my stereo yet.
Again....we need a digital output, either coax or optical.

Not so much the computer input, but most ATSC TV channels have buzz...that typical cheap TV buzz... I haven't tried the audio output RCAs to my stereo yet.
Again....we need a digital output, either coax or optical.

It is indeed disappointing. I'm thinking of refusing shipment.

Not so much the computer input, but most ATSC TV channels have buzz...that typical cheap TV buzz... I haven't tried the audio output RCAs to my stereo yet.
Again....we need a digital output, either coax or optical.

What do you expect for a cheap 1080p panel.. These companies must cut cost somewhere.. Not saying it's right, but a lot of ppl expect too much out of a budget display..

It may have an optical out. The Zinwell tuner, that people have speculated that it contains, has a S/PDIF output on the board. We'd have to open it to find out though.

Yep, DVI is best. The other settings seem to overscan, and you lose the direct pixel to pixel mapping.

I find it hard to believe that if it does indeed have optical out that they would not have that output showing. But maybe the adapter shows that =/.

What do you expect for a cheap 1080p panel.. These companies must cut cost somewhere.. Not saying it's right, but a lot of ppl expect too much out of a budget display..

Well, when you can pick up the Sharp LC 37D5U for a little more ($2038.79 online) you have to wonder.

The Sharp has the real TV Guide grid (much more flexible)
More inputs;
DVI, HDMI, 2 Component, S Vid, etc...
A better menu system from what I've read
I'd bet it has better sound....and has Optical Output,
and Cable Card.

It has S-video output too.
I can tell you our Sceptre composite output looks very bad. The video is basically too hot...at least on mine.

BUT, of course it's only 1366 x 768...but then if the Sceptre scales the ATSC TV to and from 720p....there may not be much difference????

Anyone have an Aquos?

Decisions decisions... :confused: :cool:

Fatwallet forum says that Costco will have Sharp LC-37D5U for $2000 in Sep. IF they are correct???? Safer than buying online.


http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=511705&highlight_key=y&keyword1=Sharp

I was curious about the speakers in the enclosure so I removed the 16 screws holding the enclosure together and took a couple pictures. They actually looked better than I was expecting. Two are 3" in diameter and the tweeter is 2". It shouldn't be too difficult to find better quality replacements.
How about just filling the speaker enclosures with some dampening material; might make enough difference to avoid replacing the speakers?

I continue to be amazed at the comments related to the Sceptre monitor/TV. Would it have been better if it had digital audio out? You bet. Would I have liked multiple inputs for every device I could conceive of plugging into it? No question.

What is the advantage of 2 DVI inputs if one of them is used to make up for the lack of an on-board tuner?

I purchased this because of the 1920 x 1080 native resolution LCD that forms the backbone of the set. I wanted a HDTV set that was really HDTV and would compliment my HTPC setup. You can talk about the lovely picture from your plasma / projection set that most likely has a 1366 x 768 (or lower) resolution all day but one fact remains. Unless a monitor displays at 1920 x 1080 it will never be a true HDTV set will it? I would rather take my chances with a set that strives for a true 1080 HDTV picture and skips all of the frills. They have targeted the more knowledgable customer that is looking for an affordable high end monitor and it sounds as if they've done a pretty good job delivering it at under $2000.00. I will be listening to my Logitech 5500 5.1's with this set and have every intention of removing the on-board speakers anyway. Any source originating from my PC will be coming from my 24 bit Audigy 2 EX soundcard and if the output of the set doesn't sound good through the Logitech's I will deal with that then.

I look forward to hooking this screen up to my HTPC system this week and if there are any problems with it Costco will take it back no questions asked. How can you possibly go wrong with this purchase?

[Anyway, I haven't played around with it too much yet. But I hooked up a DVD player via component connects. I'm sort of disappointed with the quality of the picture. It is somewhat grainy. Has anyone else experienced this or primarily hooking up HD and/or computer?

I'm sure the HD will look much better, but will take me a little while to get that hooked up. I'll try hooking up my computer and see how that goes.[/QUOTE]


I hooked up my panny xp50 first and was disappointed with the picture also.
I then hooked up my htpc(x700 pro ati). And was shocked at how good the dvd playback is,but does anybody know how to adjust contrast and brightness in
media player 10.The controls won't take the adjustment.

Well...I've had my Sceptre for 2 days now. I am definitely keeping this set! I immediately fell in love with the 1920x1080 resolution! This thing is just absolutely stunning as a pc monitor. I have two Dell 2001fp's in a dual monitor setup and I like the PQ of the Sceptre better. I have played some games on the monitor (Half Life 2, Far Cry, etc.) and it is superb. Better refresh than my Dell 2001fp's and the colors are great. Here is my mini-review:

PC use: Absolutely wonderful...I'm half tempted to keep this bad boy in my office! Important to use the DVI mode of the HDMI port. I also tried the vga port and it looked on par with the DVI/HDMI input from my PC.

HTPC use: again...see above. This display will go perfectly with a HTPC (which I will be doing sometime soon)

Audio: Haven't even hooked the speakers up yet...but according to many others the sound sucks.

Analog Tuner: Not so great...in fact I was quite dissapointed with the quality of the picture when watching analog channels from Comcast cable. The noise in the picture is terrible.

Digital Tuner: Luckily I can get almost all of the "free" stations here OTA Digital/HD. SD Digital feeds look great using the tuner. I was quite happy with the picture quality of just standard definition (digital) stuff.

HD Tuner: I think the HD tuner does a pretty decent job. I watched Leno and it looked VERY good to my eyes.

Photoviewer: All of my digital pics look amazing on this display. I keep all my digital pics on computer and like to show them to people on the TV.

TV build quality: Mixed feelings here. I think the panel is amazing. I have zero dead/stuck pixels out of the 2 million+ pixels...which I find quite amazing for a "budget" tv. However...the audio could supposedly be much better. The TV menus are cheasy and low res.

Refresh: This panel seems to have a great refresh rate. Compared to my Dell 2001fp's...this TV has a much better refresh rate. First Person Shooters look amazing on the TV...

Contrast Ratio: I can't comment too much here...but from what other people are saying...this TV actually has quite a good CR compared to other LCD's. Some people have even claimed the CR to be comparable with some Plasma's.

I was debating between the Sharp 37" (many more inputs, plus possibly better audio) available from costco now/soon and this Sceptre. But after seeing the Sceptre's display...there's no question in my mind. This TV is going in my living room...but I'll have my computer hooked to it as well. And after seeing the Sceptre as a PC monitor...I can't even consider the lower res 1366x768 anymore.

I think they best question to ask yourself when considering this TV is if you'll use it AT ALL with a PC. If the answer is yes to that question...then I think this is an awesome TV. However...if you are planning on using this TV with no intention of EVER hooking a PC to it...well the Sharp 37" might be a decent route to take as well. But for mixed use of TV/PC/HTPC, this Sceptre is definitely the way to go IMO.

I'm also curious about the possibility of the HD (Zinwell??) tuner card having some sort of digital output that could be accessed. I may try to pull the back cover off the TV tomorrow and see what is in there.

This monitor is indeed awesome for pc gaming. However I really need a better video card now since this tv supports such high resolutions lol. I mean trying to run doom 3/battlefield 2/halflife2 in 1920x1080 on a Geforce 6800 ?! yeah right.... Looks like i'm gonna have to buy a 7800 GTX lol.....

I'm not used to having a panel with such high res O.o;;;

Can someone comment more on the HD quality of OTA channels? Is it really grainy or not?

Also, no digital output.. does this just mean you have to get a digital reciever? Or can the tv never produce digital sound? I am sorry I am a newbie at this.

I have a basic Dell notebook ( 1150 ). Do I need a better video card to get this resolution ?
Thanks.

Thank you all for your excellent reviews!!! I've been lurking these threads for a couple of weeks and today is D-day (decision-day) since the sale goes off tonight.

Can anyone comment on PQ of SD satellite feeds? I have Dish Network and the majority of our viewing would be SD broadcast. I'm concerned about horrible PQ with this setup. I would also like to drive it with an HTPC for OTA networks, which sounds like the PQ would be excellent.

Any other known 1920x1080 LCDs on their way to market? The BenQ is too wide (and vaporware), The Westinghouse and Sceptre are possibilities.

FWIW, I'm typing this on my 19" Sceptre LCD on my office PC. I've had the monitor for a year and it is VERY clear. The only issues are one dead pixel and audio humm on the speakers (interesting, huh). The audio humm is less noticable if I turn the volume on the monitor down to about 10 (out of 30), then drive it up from the PC.

Thank you all for your excellent reviews!!! I've been lurking these threads for a couple of weeks and today is D-day (decision-day) since the sale goes off tonight.

Can anyone comment on PQ of SD satellite feeds? I have Dish Network and the majority of our viewing would be SD broadcast. I'm concerned about horrible PQ with this setup. I would also like to drive it with an HTPC for OTA networks, which sounds like the PQ would be excellent.

Any other known 1920x1080 LCDs on their way to market? The BenQ is too wide (and vaporware), The Westinghouse and Sceptre are possibilities.

FWIW, I'm typing this on my 19" Sceptre LCD on my office PC. I've had the monitor for a year and it is VERY clear. The only issues are one dead pixel and audio humm on the speakers (interesting, huh). The audio humm is less noticable if I turn the volume on the monitor down to about 10 (out of 30), then drive it up from the PC.


It is amazing that out of 11 pages... there's no real review on regular cable or SAT.

How about just filling the speaker enclosures with some dampening material; might make enough difference to avoid replacing the speakers?
From what I understand, dampening material results in the speakers sounding like they are in larger enclosures. I don't see how that would help here. For any improvement, you'd need to replace the speakers.

I finally hooked up my speakers and for watching plain-ol'-broadcasts, they're good enough for my ears, but they aren't adequate for anything fancy.

I have heard the buzzing that others have mentioned. It comes and goes. When I play Half-Life 2, which is mind-blowing by the way, the buzzing was apparent, but hitting mute on the TV remote stopped it (the game sound was through PC speakers). Other PC use doesn't seem to cause the buzzing.

It is amazing that out of 11 pages... there's no real review on regular cable or SAT.

I mentioned it in my mini-review just a couple posts above yours. I hooked it up to the cheapo 10 dollar analog cable from Comcast and the quality wasn't very good. There was way too much noise. However...someone might want to verify this because my coax connector in this room is complete crap...so a better pic quality from analog cable might be possible with proper connections.

However...I can't comment on on the PQ of digital cable...although I imagine it would be quite good because the Standard Definition digital channels I am getting OTA are really quite good IMO.

I also have tested the s-video input...which wasn't too bad either. I watched a DVD via s-video (I know, I know...but my dvd player is old and I'm converting to HTPC, so I didn't want to spend money on a better upconverting dvd player with component out).

I don't feel like the HD OTA feeds are too grainy. They are no grainier than any other LCDTV (or even plasma) that I've seen in stores running HD feeds. You have to get fairly close to see any grain at all.

Regarding all of my comments...I'm not a huge videophile that I'm sure we have a bunch of hanging out here in the forums. However...I'm also not an average joe-smoe that doesn't know much about anything...you know...the type of guys that go into BestBuy and actually listen to the salesmen thinking they "know what they are talking about". Anyways...I just wanted to let people know a little background of where my comments are coming from...not a complete videophile perfectionist, but definitely more informed than the average guy.

Looks like i'm gonna have to buy a 7800 GTX lol.....


Don't laugh. You need that card. It is the only card out there right now that can do true deinterlacing of 1080i sources. I have not seen it with the Sceptre or the Westinghouse, but I bet it would make 1080i to 1080p sing!

As mentioned by others picture quality with DVHS at 1080I is best here, very closely followed by 1920x1080 MS HD DVD and slides from my 3 MP still camera look very good too, problem is the PC has to scale them down a bit, they look best w/o scaling.
Wonder if I should get a 2MP camera? Any thoughts?

I have some test patterns on a CD, played from the computer VGA input I get a good 800 lines horz resolution. Limiting factor is likely the motherboard integral video output using intel chips. However it supports 1920x1080 and higher formats.
Cable video looks pretty bad compared to an analog 20" TV but that is expected.
BOBN4BURTON and SACTOWNMAN hit the nail on the head with their comments, I could not agree more. This set will stay but with an external audio system.

And for the first time I was able to play PAL DVDs w/o using the lousy standard converter that is part of the Philips DVD player.

Eugene

Thank you all for your excellent reviews!!! I've been lurking these threads for a couple of weeks and today is D-day (decision-day) since the sale goes off tonight.

Can anyone comment on PQ of SD satellite feeds? I have Dish Network and the majority of our viewing would be SD broadcast. I'm concerned about horrible PQ with this setup. I would also like to drive it with an HTPC for OTA networks, which sounds like the PQ would be excellent.

.

Can't comment on the satellite PQ on this set, but others have reported that SD OTA is pretty good. I've got the 30" Sceptre and Dish via a 501. I think the Dish SD PQ, which is source dependent, is outstanding on good satellite channels. It is easily as good as the 34" Panny CRT downstairs. I was pleasantly surprised, since the Panny cost lots of money in 01. I picked the Sceptre up as a temporary replacement for a 20" 4x3 CRT bedroom set. I'm satisfied with satellite PQ on fixed pixel displays.

De-interlacing was mentioned a couple of times.
I see absolutely NO difference between DVHS at 1080I or MS HD DVD at 1920x1080p other than the program material.
Gene

I continue to be amazed at the comments related to the Sceptre monitor/TV. Would it have been better if it had digital audio out? You bet. Would I have liked multiple inputs for every device I could conceive of plugging into it? No question.

What is the advantage of 2 DVI inputs if one of them is used to make up for the lack of an on-board tuner?

I purchased this because of the 1920 x 1080 native resolution LCD that forms the backbone of the set. I wanted a HDTV set that was really HDTV and would compliment my HTPC setup. You can talk about the lovely picture from your plasma / projection set that most likely has a 1366 x 768 (or lower) resolution all day but one fact remains. Unless a monitor displays at 1920 x 1080 it will never be a true HDTV set will it? I would rather take my chances with a set that strives for a true 1080 HDTV picture and skips all of the frills. They have targeted the more knowledgable customer that is looking for an affordable high end monitor and it sounds as if they've done a pretty good job delivering it at under $2000.00. I will be listening to my Logitech 5500 5.1's with this set and have every intention of removing the on-board speakers anyway. Any source originating from my PC will be coming from my 24 bit Audigy 2 EX soundcard and if the output of the set doesn't sound good through the Logitech's I will deal with that then.

I look forward to hooking this screen up to my HTPC system this week and if there are any problems with it Costco will take it back no questions asked. How can you possibly go wrong with this purchase?


There is a huge plus having 2 Digital inputs as I am allready using both of mine for the PC and a Sony HD recorder.

Don't laugh. You need that card. It is the only card out there right now that can do true deinterlacing of 1080i sources. I have not seen it with the Sceptre or the Westinghouse, but I bet it would make 1080i to 1080p sing!


don't make me cry tommy =(..... That card is like 460 at cheapest that i've seen..... And in addition to that I'd have to upgrade a considerable portion of my PC to get the PCI-Express compatability. But oh man... I'd fly through battleifled 2 with High Quality. I just remembered that I can now play guildwars on this TV now and at prob high resolutions. This wasn't possible with my plasma cuz the damn map and Health Bars kept on burning in lol. Halflife2 and Battlefield2 were more burnin friendly.

[QUOTE=YNOS] "From what I understand, dampening material results in the speakers sounding like they are in larger enclosures. "

YNOS, You may have read that somewhere (there's all sorts of bad info online) but that's not at all what damping material is for.

Regardless, as you correctly suggest, replacing the speakers is the only sensible option. No-one whould consider modifying the stock speakers for two reasons:

1: The problem could well be the audio electronics, not the speakers themselves. Note the many complaints about buzzing. That implies shoddy electronics. A garbage audio reciever or amp is not going to sound much better with an "improved" speaker.

2: Speaker components need to be matched to the enclosure they are put in. Swapping-out drivers is a losing proposition. You might make a small improvement, but the sound will never be optimal and the money will not have been well-spent.

Bottom Line: I tink Sceptre made a smart decision using junk speakers and audio electronics to keep the cost down. Anyone who really cares about the audio is going to use a separate system anyway, as you should. Plan on replacing the audio amp as well, not just the speakers.

I was curious about the speakers in the enclosure so I removed the 16 screws holding the enclosure together and took a couple pictures. They actually looked better than I was expecting. Two are 3" in diameter and the tweeter is 2". It shouldn't be too difficult to find better quality replacements.

I was on the same track as you, however i hooked up some sweet JVC speakers to the TV out, and found that there is so much hiss/whine present that is masked by the built in crappy speakers that the thought of hooking up improved speakers to the TV's built in amp is not an option for me anymore.

However I have some thoughts about picking up a small (physical) stereo amp and plugging it into the headphone output on the back, mounting it via velcro to the back of the set, then routing it to the built in speakers... at that point i could replace the physical speakers inside the built in enclosures... argh that's alot of work. Right now thats the only viable solution I can think of to get good sound out of this thing using the built in volume control with the look of built in speakers.

Having said all that I havn't really given the headphone out jack a good run through for sound quality yet anyways, and there may be some hiss there.

Dan k

Anyone know the mounting hole thread size? Maybe M4?

I don't have a PC to plug back into. I wonder why that solves the problem in your case? I'm connecting audio from a digital satellite receiver with an RCA to miniplug into PC audio in, to match HD 1080i video input with the DVI/HDMI cable.

I just tested the L/R audio output and the buzz is in that signal, too.

I also tried the subwoofer out with a powered KLH subwoofer, but it just magnifies the buzz, so it's unusable.

Mike G

I'm thinking there's a floating ground somewhere in the unit that may be partially contained by hooking to the PC... when I plugged high quality speakers into the tv's speaker outputs, the hiss / noise returned somewhat, although much quieter it was annoying enough not to make an option for me.

It's real disconcerting to hear that the L/R outputs are buzzed too :(

Dan K

I continue to be amazed at the comments related to the Sceptre monitor/TV. Would it have been better if it had digital audio out? You bet. Would I have liked multiple inputs for every device I could conceive of plugging into it? No question.

What is the advantage of 2 DVI inputs if one of them is used to make up for the lack of an on-board tuner?

I purchased this because of the 1920 x 1080 native resolution LCD that forms the backbone of the set. I wanted a HDTV set that was really HDTV and would compliment my HTPC setup. You can talk about the lovely picture from your plasma / projection set that most likely has a 1366 x 768 (or lower) resolution all day but one fact remains. Unless a monitor displays at 1920 x 1080 it will never be a true HDTV set will it? I would rather take my chances with a set that strives for a true 1080 HDTV picture and skips all of the frills. They have targeted the more knowledgable customer that is looking for an affordable high end monitor and it sounds as if they've done a pretty good job delivering it at under $2000.00. I will be listening to my Logitech 5500 5.1's with this set and have every intention of removing the on-board speakers anyway. Any source originating from my PC will be coming from my 24 bit Audigy 2 EX soundcard and if the output of the set doesn't sound good through the Logitech's I will deal with that then.

I look forward to hooking this screen up to my HTPC system this week and if there are any problems with it Costco will take it back no questions asked. How can you possibly go wrong with this purchase?


When evaluating an item, such as this, you really need to look at everything in its totality. The world is not black and white, and these are color images we are dealing in. At the end of the day, if a lower resolution display looks sharper and more detailed than the true native 1920 x 1080, well, you need to consider this. I evaluate with the most picky eyes available (I'm the guy that always spots a satellite in the sky near dusk). And I use my extreme pickiness and snobbbiness (if you will) to nit pick things apart. I want to be knocked over the head and blown away by my monitor. I want to do a double take because it looks too real to be true. I want to be filled up inside with a breath of fresh air, like I really was in nature. I need that type of revitalization – that refreshment of the soul. Things have to look as exactly close to real life as they can, down to the finest detail. I know this seems, in some ways, inconsistent with having a lower native resolution display v/s a higher, but sometimes better display technology and better display firmware algos and implementation (across diverse input signal formats res) can make for a much better picture, and even at the cost of some native resolution.

AS AN ANALOGY, look at some 300 DPI dye sub pictures in comparison to some Epson 2000 DPI bubble jet, and you will see how the dye sub can blow away the bubble jet.

So my suggestion, and what I go with myself - if you have to keep asking yourself do you like this display….but if the image picks you up, and tells you it is boss. If it sends chills down your spine because of the amazingly real and rich rich, life like detail and crispness, well then. I want my display to floor me and leave me gasping. The display needs to be able to hit me emotionally in unexpected ways.

Hope I made some sense, and helped to evaluate your criteria for valuing your display.

OK guys...I just found something that might interest a few of you!!!!!

I'm trying not to get my hopes too high...however.

I just took off a few screws from the back cover (enough to pull the cover away 3-4 inches) and found a sweet little sight! The HD tuner board they use is mounted up towards to top of the TV and there is a nice little unconnected optical SPDIF connector! I haven't had time to take the whole back panel off yet...nor test the optical connection to see if it is even active. But I was quite happy just to see the connection in there.

I'm really really really hoping that the connection is active and I can just pull a fiber optic cable out the back of the TV for nice digital sound.

Of course this wouldn't solve all the audio problems (just the ATSC tuner based problems...all other inputs would still be stuck with analog audio out that isn't so hot...but this wouldn't be too big a deal because all other AV sources are external except the NTSC tuner).

Anyways...here's hoping that the optical output is active and working...!! I hope to be able to find some time to test it soon. If anyone else has some spare time...feel free to test as well.

I have a picture for you all...and I am spamming an extra post right now so I can post a link (SORRY...but it says I need 5 posts to post a link or image).

Here is a picture for all you doubting ones out there!

Internal SPDIF Optical Connector (http://blaserpc.com/pics/Sceptre37.jpg )

Now that's an optical SPDIF connector if I ever saw one!

Wow... crazy find!

well... is it active??

Wow... crazy find!

well... is it active??


Thats AWESOME :)


Why the hell would they hide that ? :)

OH SWEET MOMMA OF ALL THAT'S GOOD!!!

I just hooked it up to my reciever...and she WORKS perfectly. Getting Dolby Digital watching NBC right now!!!

WOW...Now I'm am VERY VERY excited about this TV. Why on earth would they not pull this output to the backplane? Oh well...its an easy fix for me.

Audio sounds GREAT by the way...say good bye to your buzzing problems!!!!

I am so stoked right now...this was the ONLY downfall to this TV in my mind...not having a digital output with a built in ATSC tuner. Of course there are things that could be improved like having MORE outputs (HDMI, compenent, etc.) but having no digital audio out was the only real FLAW that bugged me about this set.

Now I'm a happy camper for sure.

P.S. Haha...I claim no responsibility for anyone messing up their set trying to open it up. But I will say it is about as easy to get to as you could hope for. Just pull the plastic cover off the back and the optical connection is just sitting right there waiting for you to plug a cable into!!

Hmmmmmm........Guess they perhaps just threw a tuner into the mix at the last minute to comply with certain FCC regulations???? This just defies explanation. Especially considering how awful the sound issue is.

Hey Capy I don't wanna sleep with the thing! That whole refreshment of the soul, chills down my spine and leaving me gasping concept sounds really scary when I picture you with your TV man. Talk about hitting me emotionally in unexpected ways!

My point about "True" HDTV needing 1920 x 1080 resolution is right on. My understanding was the networks were supposed to provide 1080 HD content when the FCC handed over the free bandwidth to them a few years ago. But they realized that they could squeeze extra lower quality channels (i.e. 480 & 720) in the same bandwidth as a 1080 channel. What has resulted has been a rash of wanna be HDTV screens costing much more than this model that will never be capable of displaying what was promised.

I have no doubt that many of these screens using a lower resolution look great. We have all seen them and your point is valid. They have lots of bells and whistles but despite all of that they aren't, nor will they ever be, "True" HDTV and they certainly won't bring out the best from a Top of the Line HTPC setup like this monitor/TV will.

OH SWEET MOMMA OF ALL THAT'S GOOD!!!

I just hooked it up to my reciever...and she WORKS perfectly. Getting Dolby Digital watching NBC right now!!!

WOW...Now I'm am VERY VERY excited about this TV. Why on earth would they not pull this output to the backplane? Oh well...its an easy fix for me.

Audio sounds GREAT by the way...say good bye to your buzzing problems!!!!

I am so stoked right now...this was the ONLY downfall to this TV in my mind...not having a digital output with a built in ATSC tuner. Of course there are things that could be improved like having MORE outputs (HDMI, compenent, etc.) but having no digital audio out was the only real FLAW that bugged me about this set.

Now I'm a happy camper for sure.

P.S. Haha...I claim no responsibility for anyone messing up their set trying to open it up. But I will say it is about as easy to get to as you could hope for. Just pull the plastic cover off the back and the optical connection is just sitting right there waiting for you to plug a cable into!!

Question: If you plug in an HDMI source that passes DD5.1 audio along with video can you output the audio via the TV's SPDIF output? Or does the TV's optical output only send out audio from the ATSC tuner?

Can you post a picture of your TV with the optical cable plugged into the port, how easy is it to route the cable out of the case?Thanks!

DMFN

Hey Capy I don't wanna sleep with the thing! That whole refreshment of the soul, chills down my spine and leaving me gasping concept sounds really scary when I picture you with your TV man. Talk about hitting me emotionally in unexpected ways!

My point about "True" HDTV needing 1920 x 1080 resolution is right on. My understanding was the networks were supposed to provide 1080 HD content when the FCC handed over the free bandwidth to them a few years ago. But they realized that they could squeeze extra lower quality channels (i.e. 480 & 720) in the same bandwidth as a 1080 channel. What has resulted has been a rash of wanna be HDTV screens costing much more than this model that will never be capable of displaying what was promised.

I have no doubt that many of these screens using a lower resolution look great. We have all seen them and your point is valid. They have lots of bells and whistles but despite all of that they aren't, nor will they ever be, "True" HDTV and they certainly won't bring out the best from a Top of the Line HTPC setup like this monitor/TV will.


I dont think ur right.

1080i and 720p was always considered HDTV.

And bandwidth wise 720 uses more then 1080i

I'm almost positive that it is an audio output for the ATSC tuner ONLY. I switched the tv to a channel on the NTSC tuner and the audio was still output from the ATSC tuner through the optical output. So it looks like the digital audio out is for ATSC tuner only...which makes sense because the optical connector is on the ATSC tuner module board.

I grabbed a quick picture of an optical cable plugged into the connector. I have not permanently routed it out of the back panel...but this will be easy I'm sure. If nothing else just drill a hole big enough to feed your cable through. If you wanted to get fancy you could probably make an "extension" cable and mount a port by all the other ports...but you'd have to find the right connectors and things.

I think I'll just feed my cable into the back of the TV by either finding a suitable hole somewhere or making my own.

Here is the requested picture of my optical cable hooked up to the connector inside the TV:

Cable plugged into optical connector (http://blaserpc.com/pics/Sceptre37_2.jpg )

I'm almost positive that it is an audio output for the ATSC tuner ONLY. I switched the tv to a channel on the NTSC tuner and the audio was still output from the ATSC tuner through the optical output. So it looks like the digital audio out is for ATSC tuner only...which makes sense because the optical connector is on the ATSC tuner module board.

I grabbed a quick picture of an optical cable plugged into the connector. I have not permanently routed it out of the back panel...but this will be easy I'm sure. If nothing else just drill a hole big enough to feed your cable through. If you wanted to get fancy you could probably make an "extension" cable and mount a port by all the other ports...but you'd have to find the right connectors and things.

I think I'll just feed my cable into the back of the TV by either finding a suitable hole somewhere or making my own.

Here is the requested picture of my optical cable hooked up to the connector inside the TV:

Cable plugged into optical connector (http://blaserpc.com/pics/Sceptre37_2.jpg )


Awesome! Thanks for the info!

When evaluating an item, such as this, you really need to look at everything in its totality. The world is not black and white, and these are color images we are dealing in. At the end of the day, if a lower resolution display looks sharper and more detailed than the true native 1920 x 1080, well, you need to consider this. I evaluate with the most picky eyes available (I'm the guy that always spots a satellite in the sky near dusk). And I use my extreme pickiness and snobbbiness (if you will) to nit pick things apart. I want to be knocked over the head and blown away by my monitor. I want to do a double take because it looks too real to be true. I want to be filled up inside with a breath of fresh air, like I really was in nature. I need that type of revitalization – that refreshment of the soul. Things have to look as exactly close to real life as they can, down to the finest detail. I know this seems, in some ways, inconsistent with having a lower native resolution display v/s a higher, but sometimes better display technology and better display firmware algos and implementation (across diverse input signal formats res) can make for a much better picture, and even at the cost of some native resolution.

AS AN ANALOGY, look at some 300 DPI dye sub pictures in comparison to some Epson 2000 DPI bubble jet, and you will see how the dye sub can blow away the bubble jet.

So my suggestion, and what I go with myself - if you have to keep asking yourself do you like this display….but if the image picks you up, and tells you it is boss. If it sends chills down your spine because of the amazingly real and rich rich, life like detail and crispness, well then. I want my display to floor me and leave me gasping. The display needs to be able to hit me emotionally in unexpected ways.

Hope I made some sense, and helped to evaluate your criteria for valuing your display.

Everything you said would be true if everyone is operating on a unlimited budget. Hell why look at a 37" monitor when you can get the Sharp 45" or Samsung 46" 1080 sets for a bargain price of $5000 and change and while you are at it maybe your whole A/V room needs a makeover so let dump another $40K to get it fixed up. I have no problem burning money when I need to but everyone would have their own price/peformance point. I didn't buy a Sharp or Samsung not because of budget but that I do not believe paying that amount for a a 45"-46" set. Same as when I was totally blown away by some of the $10K+ sets at CES but would I pay $10K+ for them ? No.

Can someone tell me how is this TV for action? I watched movie on 32" Olevia Syntax and it couldn't handle action very well.

And bandwidth wise 720 uses more then 1080i


How did you come to that conclusion?

How did you come to that conclusion?


1080i = 1920x540 = 1036800
720p = 1280x720 = 921600

Both per 1/60

considering the second frame will give in the 720p complete new frame.

I must think that 720 will give you better picture overall.


Also the 720 doesnt need to be deinterlaced... removing any chance of algorithms messing things up.

But thats the big debate :-p


But you know what ... it seems that bandwidth wise they are about the same.

I thought that 1080i is only 30 FPS vs 720p's 60 FPS so maybe that is where the bandwidth comes in. I was under the impression that the reason that ESPN and others used 720p was that live action motion was supposed to be smoother than that of 1080i. (60 FPS vs 30)

Lowspeed is probably right about my bandwidth statement and I certainly didn't want to pretend to have all of the answers to the reasons behind all of HDTV standards (I think there are 6 HDTV and something like 18 different digital standards for ATSC). Still with film shot at 24 FPS I would rather see the increased resolution of 1080i at 30 FPS. I just happen to think that the one HDTV standard to shoot for is 1080i as it comes the closest to the original film content.

Way to hack into that tuner Bobn. It was an optical out right?

I'm almost positive that it is an audio output for the ATSC tuner ONLY. I switched the tv to a channel on the NTSC tuner and the audio was still output from the ATSC tuner through the optical output. So it looks like the digital audio out is for ATSC tuner only...which makes sense because the optical connector is on the ATSC tuner module board.


Can you see a model number on the tuner, by any chance? Maybe it's one of these?

http://www.zinwelldigital.com/products-ATSC-HDTV_Receiver.htm

I don't quite understand the two tuner thing on this TV. If you only connect the antenna to the ATSC input, do you only get HD channels, or can you still receive SD channels (with digital audio output)?

Fatwallet forum says that Costco will have Sharp LC-37D5U for $2000 in Sep. IF they are correct???? Safer than buying online.

Our Costco guy seems to know his stuff and confirmed this as well. Supply will be very limited though. Better make friends with the staff there if you want one. I will be going with the Sceptre.

so is this a keeper as a regular TV?

I have a basic Dell notebook ( 1150 ). Do I need a better video card to get this resolution ?
Thanks.

Your color and resolution choices on the 1150 would be poor. Also, it would be a shame to not use DVI after spending $2000 for this monitor. DVI notebook choices are a bit limited...

some Dell Inspiron 6000, 9000, 9200 and 9300 models
Acer Travelmate 8100 series and Acer Ferrari 4005
HP Compaq NC series
newer Medion notebooks

If you are willing to use a docking station your choices go up dramatically.

Can someone tell me how is this TV for action? I watched movie on 32" Olevia Syntax and it couldn't handle action very well.

The panel is excellent for action. DVDs I've watched on other sets seem so much more snappy on this panel... the 8-12ms timings seem to be correct. I'm finding that this adds a certain sense of depth to some scenes.

Dan K

Okay, I just pulled the trigger. I looked at the Vizio 50" plasma as well but felt this unit will have a better HD picture with no glare, better PC abilities and lower cost, allowing me to save $1000 over the Vizio and look at another purchase later this year. I am a big fan of LCD panels and they always appear brighter and sharper when viewed side by side with plasma displays, even though plasmas tend to have a higher cd/m rating (1000 vizio plasma vs 600 sceptre lcd). Go figure.

so is this a keeper as a regular TV?

If any of my friends asked if they should buy it, and all they were going to do was watch TV, I'd have to say no.

This set is first and formost a great LCD Monitor, but then again Sceptre is primarily a monitor manufacturer.

Reasons it makes a poor TV:

* Awefull sound.
* Awefull Menus / UI.
* Questionable whether it displays DTV 1080i content in 1080i without resampling to 720p.
* Crummy remote design.

Dan K

I spent quite some time last night messing around trying to get decent sound from this thing... The best solution I came up with was to take the included mini-din cord, and plug it into the sceptres headphone out jack, then take the other end and plug it into my sound card's line in jack. Of course I have the sound card hooked up to a nice JVC sound system. It actually sounds really good, definitely better than anything else I've tried with this set.

Its real convenient because I don't have to switch anything when I go from watching DiVX to watching TV, just change from DVI to DTV on the TV... now that I have that TV remote in my hand changing channels, I can adjust volume from there as well. I don't hear any hiss at all either. Perhaps theres better shielding or filtering on the headphone out jack.

Interesting that the Optical SPDIF was discovered... I gotta figure out how to get that into my PC... because really I'll never watch SD on this set, although I may play xbox... herm, maybe optical is more than I need anyhow.

If someone can confirm or deny that the set only does DTV through the optical?

Dan K

If any of my friends asked if they should buy it, and all they were going to do was watch TV, I'd have to say no.

This set is first and formost a great LCD Monitor, but then again Sceptre is primarily a monitor manufacturer.

Reasons it makes a poor TV:

* Awefull sound.
* Awefull Menus / UI.
* Questionable whether it displays DTV 1080i content in 1080i without resampling to 720p.
* Crummy remote design.

Dan K
What about the quality of the HD broadcasts. I could really care less about SD content, but I am hoping that HD content will be at least on par with a plasma. Am I getting my hopes too high??? I have a vizio 30" LCD and it has a "decent" HD picture, but not nearly as nice as the Vizio 50" plasma.

I spent quite some time last night messing around trying to get decent sound from this thing... The best solution I came up with was to take the included mini-din cord, and plug it into the sceptres headphone out jack, then take the other end and plug it into my sound card's line in jack. Of course I have the sound card hooked up to a nice JVC sound system. It actually sounds really good, definitely better than anything else I've tried with this set.

Its real convenient because I don't have to switch anything when I go from watching DiVX to watching TV, just change from DVI to DTV on the TV... now that I have that TV remote in my hand changing channels, I can adjust volume from there as well. I don't hear any hiss at all either. Perhaps theres better shielding or filtering on the headphone out jack.

Interesting that the Optical SPDIF was discovered... I gotta figure out how to get that into my PC... because really I'll never watch SD on this set, although I may play xbox... herm, maybe optical is more than I need anyhow.

If someone can confirm or deny that the set only does DTV through the optical?

Dan K


I'm not sure if I want to break open this $2000 set just yet though... For me I think it'd just be safer to use my ATI HDTV Wonder? Unless you think there is a reason that the ATSC tuner it comes with is better? I still havent tested the HDTV wonder on it. I noticed that you had one too? is it any better (blackout bug aside O.o)

And in case anyone wanted to test some really pretty lookin game on this monitor, Myst V Demo fits the bill very well :D. Though it doesnt seem to have widescreen resolutions.

Reasons it makes a poor TV:

* Awefull sound.
* Awefull Menus / UI.
* Questionable whether it displays DTV 1080i content in 1080i without resampling to 720p.
* Crummy remote design.

Dan K

The only downsides to me are: ugly stand and so-so design. As long as analog tv is ok to watch I will be happy with it.

btw my sig too Dan K :D

I'm not sure if I want to break open this $2000 set just yet though... For me I think it'd just be safer to use my ATI HDTV Wonder? Unless you think there is a reason that the ATSC tuner it comes with is better? I still havent tested the HDTV wonder on it. I noticed that you had one too? is it any better (blackout bug aside O.o)

No, I agree completely. The built in TV had some appeal in that I wouldn't have to mess with my PC to watch TV, but now that I'm pumping the sound through my PC... that's not happening. Right now I have Windows server 2003 Enterprise on the box that's hooked up to it... I gotta reformat and put MCE on it so I can test out the HDTV wonder... actually I picked up that DIVCO Fusion5 card for $99 and I'll probably be using that. (or maybe both for dual tuners if I can get it to work). Yeah the TV's PIP cant touch MCE for flexability.

At first I thought the TV had great DTV reception but it seemed to get worse after a few hours use. Someone else reported similar results. I wonder if heat is having a negative impact on the ATSC receiver? Perhaps a fan should have been put in this unit? It does generate quite a bit of heat, and after seeing that pic of the inside, it looks like all that heat is rising right through the ATSC Tuner. Who knows...

On a side note, I think the Logitech Z5500s I have hooked to my projector have really spoiled me. My JVC speakers that for years I thought sounded perfect now are not all that great sounding to me. I might have to get a set for the bedroom. It seems like this hobby has the capability of extracting huge sums of money from your wallet. (especially when coupled with HTPCs)

Dan K

OH SWEET MOMMA OF ALL THAT'S GOOD!!!

I just hooked it up to my reciever...and she WORKS perfectly. Getting Dolby Digital watching NBC right now!!!

WOW...Now I'm am VERY VERY excited about this TV. Why on earth would they not pull this output to the backplane? Oh well...its an easy fix for me.

Audio sounds GREAT by the way...say good bye to your buzzing problems!!!!

I am so stoked right now...this was the ONLY downfall to this TV in my mind...not having a digital output with a built in ATSC tuner. Of course there are things that could be improved like having MORE outputs (HDMI, compenent, etc.) but having no digital audio out was the only real FLAW that bugged me about this set.

Now I'm a happy camper for sure.

P.S. Haha...I claim no responsibility for anyone messing up their set trying to open it up. But I will say it is about as easy to get to as you could hope for. Just pull the plastic cover off the back and the optical connection is just sitting right there waiting for you to plug a cable into!!

Thank you!! very much. ;)

I'm almost positive that it is an audio output for the ATSC tuner ONLY. I switched the tv to a channel on the NTSC tuner and the audio was still output from the ATSC tuner through the optical output. So it looks like the digital audio out is for ATSC tuner only...which makes sense because the optical connector is on the ATSC tuner module board.

I grabbed a quick picture of an optical cable plugged into the connector. I have not permanently routed it out of the back panel...but this will be easy I'm sure. If nothing else just drill a hole big enough to feed your cable through. If you wanted to get fancy you could probably make an "extension" cable and mount a port by all the other ports...but you'd have to find the right connectors and things.

I think I'll just feed my cable into the back of the TV by either finding a suitable hole somewhere or making my own.

Here is the requested picture of my optical cable hooked up to the connector inside the TV:

Cable plugged into optical connector (http://blaserpc.com/pics/Sceptre37_2.jpg )

Say, if you do completely remove the back panel, could you please take a few snaps of the inside of various components? I've got a few ideas I'm working on that would be better off mounted inside.

TIA,

Dan K

no need for optical connector though if you are running PC with one

To qualify for Costco's coupon does someone have to be a member, or do you have to pay more?

To qualify for Costco's coupon does someone have to be a member, or do you have to pay more?Yes you have to be a member and I believe the non-member surcharge is around 5%.

Can anyone who owns this TV, please answers my Qs below:

- guys..

- can anyone post the pictures of their TV? I want to see how it looks. Picture on website it not great.
- Is the audio deal-breaker. I currently have the vizio 32''. not great sound either but seems small for my bedroom and thinking of upgrading due to size and atsc tuner
- how is the atsc tuner. picks up channels well? does it have an option to just look for digital channels so that I can skip all analogs? philips does not have it!! but my Sony XBR does
- since this is going to be in my bedroom..I want decent sound...u think I should buy or not...
- is the remote universal?
- finally, i hope this company releases firmwares to update glitches found. Philips does that..which is awesome

thanks in advanced for replying to my so-many Qs! I need to make the decision by tomorrow afternoon since I am out the rest of the weekend..thanks.

Yes you have to be a member and I believe the non-member surcharge is around 5%.

It's cheaper to actually sign up as a member then to actually pay the 5%. That's what I did. 45$ vs like 80 something.

Dont think that TV has an ATSC tuner, right? If no, that would be a negative. Also, did your Costco contact provide an ITEM # for the sharp TV. You can PM me that info as well. Thanks

Our Costco guy seems to know his stuff and confirmed this as well. Supply will be very limited though. Better make friends with the staff there if you want one. I will be going with the Sceptre.

I just bought the TV before the deal goes away. Lets see how it performs when I get it home. Will surely keep an eye out for Sharp as well now.

how is that possible they have a deal before it's even out... something smells fishy... anyway if Sharp model costs 2k and this one 1700 that sounds about right, no way I would pay 2k for this tv... it lease Sharp tvs are pleasing to look at

No, I agree completely. The built in TV had some appeal in that I wouldn't have to mess with my PC to watch TV, but now that I'm pumping the sound through my PC... that's not happening. Right now I have Windows server 2003 Enterprise on the box that's hooked up to it... I gotta reformat and put MCE on it so I can test out the HDTV wonder... actually I picked up that DIVCO Fusion5 card for $99 and I'll probably be using that. (or maybe both for dual tuners if I can get it to work). Yeah the TV's PIP cant touch MCE for flexability.

At first I thought the TV had great DTV reception but it seemed to get worse after a few hours use. Someone else reported similar results. I wonder if heat is having a negative impact on the ATSC receiver? Perhaps a fan should have been put in this unit? It does generate quite a bit of heat, and after seeing that pic of the inside, it looks like all that heat is rising right through the ATSC Tuner. Who knows...

On a side note, I think the Logitech Z5500s I have hooked to my projector have really spoiled me. My JVC speakers that for years I thought sounded perfect now are not all that great sounding to me. I might have to get a set for the bedroom. It seems like this hobby has the capability of extracting huge sums of money from your wallet. (especially when coupled with HTPCs)

Dan K

ah ok cool =), If you get a chance to test out the fusion could you tell me if it's any better than the ATI HDTV wonder. The wonder is good except for the crappy blackout bug =(. Also does anyone know for DTV if I can use one antenna and split the coax into two seperate cables so that I can have my pc's HDTV wonder and the ATSC tuner in the TV plugged in all at once or will I have to get a seperate antenna for each?

by the way I just tested this set with my HDTV wonder Via PC and the picture quality is much better than the intergrated NTSC tuner. much less artifacting.

I spent quite some time last night messing around trying to get decent sound from this thing... The best solution I came up with was to take the included mini-din cord, and plug it into the sceptres headphone out jack, then take the other end and plug it into my sound card's line in jack. Of course I have the sound card hooked up to a nice JVC sound system. It actually sounds really good, definitely better than anything else I've tried with this set.

Here's what I did on my side.

I took the output of my sound card and plugged it into the TV mini-din input. On the TV side, I got rid of the crappy speakers and when to Costco (again) to grab a nice little 2.1 speaker system from Harmon Kardon and I hooked it up to the headphones output of the TV.

Advantages to do this: just like yours, I don't have to switch anything to get the sound from any of my inputs, I can also fully control all the audio inputs directly from the remote, and of course, I got rid of those awful speakers that came with the TV. But there's the added advantage that I don't need to have my PC running to actually get sound off of the TV. :)

-eric

Found a few bugs with my unit and I would like others to confirm they see it also.

Bug #1: On HDMI-DVI input, "Black Level" in the first menu doesn't do anything. The slider goes from 0-12 and absolutely nothing changes between 0-12.

Bug #2: Again on HDMI-DVI input (other inputs don't seem to have this problem), If you put anything else than 7 on the "Lamp" option, which is the backlight, the setting will always be put back to 7 (max) the next time you turn on the TV. Note that the menu "shows" your last selection, but the backlight is fully lit (at 7). To reproduce, just put your "Lamp" setting to "0", turn off the TV, and turn it on again.

Bug #3: (Somebody wrote this already) The PIP is always stretch with no way to control the aspect ratio. For somebody like me that can't use the ATSC tuner (cause it doesn't support QAM), PIP becomes utterly useless since there's nothing I can watch that will show WS. At the bare minimum, a 4:3/16:9 toggle would have been nice.

Bug #4: Trying to delete channels I didn't want on my list of channel for NTSC was extremely annoying. I had to get to the channel I wanted to delete, go through multiple menus to finally delete the channel. If I wanted to delete the next one, I had to be extremely quick (aka ~1 second) or else the menu would get dismissed and I would have to start the menu navigation all over again. This way of deleting channels is the worst I've ever seen.

Are all of you able to reproduce those issues?

Thank you.

-eric

I can confirm #1, which is a bummer since the black level is too high and I had to kludge for it on my PC.

----

Has anyone solved the buzzing when using the pc audio input?

If any of my friends asked if they should buy it, and all they were going to do was watch TV, I'd have to say no.

This set is first and formost a great LCD Monitor, but then again Sceptre is primarily a monitor manufacturer.

Reasons it makes a poor TV:

* Awefull sound.
* Awefull Menus / UI.
* Questionable whether it displays DTV 1080i content in 1080i without resampling to 720p.
* Crummy remote design.

Dan K

Well, non of your problem have to do with pciture quality except the last. As to the sound quality. I wouldn't really depend on built-in sound anyway except for watching the news. I would surely hope that most people would have a surround sound system hooked up around this set anyway. Especailly now that we have found the internal optical port to be active.

As to the menu system, other than switching between the varies input source, how often would you access a TV menu once you have it set to you liking. I would say that I have not touch my current TV's setting for at least 3-4 years except for degaussing it once in a while.

As to weither it display 1080i without re-sampling. I hope to have an answer by tomorrow night once mine gets here. I have a OTA antenna that pulls in great signal from both 1080i and 720p stations. I also have a HD Tivo unit and can try both OTA ATSC and DTV HD and I also have a LG standalone HDTV tuner. We'll see what it shows with the varies hookups vs the built-in ATSC tuner.

If any of my friends asked if they should buy it, and all they were going to do was watch TV, I'd have to say no.

This set is first and formost a great LCD Monitor, but then again Sceptre is primarily a monitor manufacturer.

Reasons it makes a poor TV:

* Awefull sound.
* Awefull Menus / UI.
* Questionable whether it displays DTV 1080i content in 1080i without resampling to 720p.
* Crummy remote design.

Dan K

Well, non of your problem have to do with pciture quality except the last. As to the sound quality. I wouldn't really depend on built-in sound anyway except for watching the news. I would surely hope that most people would have a surround sound system hooked up around this set anyway. Especailly now that we have found the internal optical port to be active.

As to the menu system, other than switching between the varies input source, how often would you access a TV menu once you have it set to you liking. I would say that I have not touch my current TV's setting for at least 3-4 years except for degaussing it once in a while.

As to weither it display 1080i without re-sampling. I hope to have an answer by tomorrow night once mine gets here. I have a OTA antenna that pulls in great solid from both 1080i and 720p stations. I also have a HD Tivo unit and can try both OTA ATSC and DTV HD and I also have a LG standalone HDTV tuner. We'll see what it shows with the varies hookups vs the built-in ATSC tuner.

I would say weither this set makes a good TV depends more on the picture quality in varies mode like SD, HD, DVD playbacks vs it's audio quality and menu ease of use or the design of the remote.

i think I will be very disappointed by the time I get it in 2 days... :(

I can confirm #1, which is a bummer since the black level is too high and I had to kludge for it on my PC.

----

Has anyone solved the buzzing when using the pc audio input?

This is common on a lot of PC LCD panel as the DVI signal is pipe directly from the PC to the panel bypassing most of the interface and you have to make all the adjustment on the PC. This is the case for the Dell 2405 when using DVI mode,

Wiz33,

Not having "Brightness" control over an LCD (DVI input or not) is not common. I agree with you that Hue and Color controls are often disabled on DVI inputs. But Contrast and Brightness are most of the time available. Actually, this is the first time I experience not having access to brightness on a digital output of an LCD.

In any case, it's pretty clear that their "Black Level" control was put there for a reason, since the 0-12 range is unique for DVI and that the color controls are hidden on that menu. If it weren't meant to do anything, they would have hid it just like the color and hue settings.

-eric

Anybody can confirm or deny if they can reproduce the other bugs please? I'm planning to send an email to Sceptre asking answers to those issues. But I would like to make sure that they're general issues and not something that only my unit reproduce...

Thank you.

-eric

Wiz33,

Not having "Brightness" control over an LCD (DVI input or not) is not common. I agree with you that Hue and Color controls are often disabled on DVI inputs. But Contrast and Brightness are most of the time available. Actually, this is the first time I experience not having access to brightness on a digital output of an LCD.



-eric


I have 3 lcd monitors. NONE of them allow you to adjust the contrast from the monitor when displaying the DVI input.

I have 3 lcd monitors. NONE of them allow you to adjust the contrast from the monitor when displaying the DVI input.

Well, the 7 I currently own, including 3 different Dell models, all do (note that those Dell models also let you change color, hue, and even the three planes independently, so there's technically no reason for LCD's not to support this).

In any case, since contrast IS adjustable on the Sceptre and there's an entry in the Picture menu in DVI mode for "Black Level" that can be modified, but results in no changes, and since it seems to be the only slider that is unresponsible in all their menus, I would like to ask them why. :)

-eric

i think I will be very disappointed by the time I get it in 2 days... :(

why? I'm enjoying this TV very much. from the reviews i've seen the Sharp 37" that they're offering for 2k isn't that great either.

Is it me or some of the reviews so far on PQ sound half-heartedly positive?
Maybe this one has all the limitations of the current LCD technology, simply not as sharp and vibrant as a plasma?

why? I'm enjoying this TV very much. from the reviews i've seen the Sharp 37" that they're offering for 2k isn't that great either.

Curious to know what the reviews are because I ran the Sceptre through the paces of the DVE 1080i DVHS tape from my JVC4k via component cables this evening and determined that:

1. Not only is pluge not passed, but even then next level up in the black ramp is missing (crushed blacks on 1080i component input) and

2. The resolution appeared to be topping out around 600 lines on static test patterns that I would assume should have more resolution.

Admittedly, this is not dire if one is going to be using all digital sources. But it's not ideal. These and the audio buzzing are annoying me.

SAD TO SAY, however, almost everything piped into it, from PS2 games to OTA HDTV, to 1080p sources from my HTPC actually look QUITE stunning. So on all available program material, it looks good. I'm just beginning to wonder whether I am okay with the limitations -- knowing full well that any set, at any price, will always fall short of perfect.

geez mrscintilla and others......everybody's said the same thing: DVI from an HTPC looks stunning but the built-in ATSC tuner is suspect......people have such wack expectations.....

This is common on a lot of PC LCD panel as the DVI signal is pipe directly from the PC to the panel bypassing most of the interface and you have to make all the adjustment on the PC. This is the case for the Dell 2405 when using DVI mode,

Alright, bug #1 could be a potential deal breaker. How does the panel behave via the HDMI port from a true HDMI AV source (e.g. DVD player, cable STB)? Does it have the same limitations as with the HDMI->DVI cable ->PC? That could be a major problem, as you have virtually no control over picture quality from those devices. Also how about the VGA input, how do PCs perform via the VGA input, does it have the same bugs?

Wiz33,

Not having "Brightness" control over an LCD (DVI input or not) is not common. I agree with you that Hue and Color controls are often disabled on DVI inputs. But Contrast and Brightness are most of the time available. Actually, this is the first time I experience not having access to brightness on a digital output of an LCD.

In any case, it's pretty clear that their "Black Level" control was put there for a reason, since the 0-12 range is unique for DVI and that the color controls are hidden on that menu. If it weren't meant to do anything, they would have hid it just like the color and hue settings.

-eric

I can confirm that the Dell 2005fpw doesnt have control of either the brightness or contrast through DVI. Cant remember at the moment which one is grayed out.

I can confirm that the Dell 2005fpw doesnt have control of either the brightness or contrast through DVI. Cant remember at the moment which one is grayed out.

How does your Westy perform via the DVI iputs regarding backlight/brightness/contrast settings? Does it have similar issues?

Is anyone useing this set with their own universal remote? I have 1 remote that controls my dvi switch and sat. Another one controls my A/V system. I want to use my sat remote to control my sat/tv and dvi switch.

FYI...Costco has stopped selling the 37" Sceptre (not on website anymore):)

How does your Westy perform via the DVI iputs regarding backlight/brightness/contrast settings? Does it have similar issues?

You know, I didnt much think about it but yes you can change the Brightness and contrast through the DVI on the Westy.

FYI...Costco has stopped selling the 37" Sceptre (not on website anymore):)

Yeah, that's not a good sign at all!

Yeah, that's not a good sign at all!

Not to worry mate...

I suspect that this was a promotional sale to help expand market share and awareness for Sceptre's new higher end product. As such, it's not surprising that it has been removed from the Costco site.

Remember, this item was an "ONLINE ONLY" discount deal for a fixed period. From all indications, it sold like hotcakes and has received on par, pretty decent reviews for a budget priced 1080p LCD set from a second tier (being nice here) manufacturer. In addition, it's possible that Costco will at some point in the near future place this or another of their sets either back on-line or even possibly into their B&M stores.

Just my assessment mind you, I don't have any inside info on this (just 20+ years in consumer marketing and advertising). :D

Cheers!

http://www.cavecreations.com/tv2.cgi

Since TV sizes are all specified in diagonal measurements, it's hard to know what the real rectangular size is. Try the above link to calculate what your real screen size is. For example, a 37" widescreen TV showing standard 4:3 signals is equivalent to a 30.2" standard TV. This web site will give you a good idea of what to expect when buying a "larger" HDTV to replace a standard size TV.

That site is great, divtune. I spent an afternoon computing all that crap myself when I was trying to figure out what size to buy. Not an easy task for someone who's as horrible at math as me.

You know, I didnt much think about it but yes you can change the Brightness and contrast through the DVI on the Westy.

Actually, on the Westinghouse through DVI you can adjust Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Color Temp, Aspect Ratio and Backlight (1-100). The only control that is disabled is Sharpness.

Not to worry mate...

I suspect that this was a promotional sale to help expand market share and awareness for Sceptre's new higher end product. As such, it's not surprising that it has been removed from the Costco site.

Remember, this item was an "ONLINE ONLY" discount deal for a fixed period. From all indications, it sold like hotcakes and has received on par, pretty decent reviews for a budget priced 1080p LCD set from a second tier (being nice here) manufacturer. In addition, it's possible that Costco will at some point in the near future place this or another of their sets either back on-line or even possibly into their B&M stores.

Just my assessment mind you, I don't have any inside info on this (just 20+ years in consumer marketing and advertising). :D

Cheers!


I agree with you there. I'm pretty sure Costco sold plenty of these babies and some are probably even on backorder so there's no point for them to leave the item on the site. And even assuming the panels die out next month u got the 1 year sceptre warranty and that awesome costco satisfaction gaurentee ;)

As for me? I'm sittin back and letting the good times roll with this monitor.

Yeah, not offering them anymore is their typical "quick special" tactic. Try finding the 37 inch Sharp LCD at a Bay Area Costco now.... or the Proview 32inch. Neither are in stock at any of the stores. It doesn't mean anything related to quality, reliability, etc., it's just that they buy in lots and/or for specific periods of time, depending on their deal with a particular manufacturer.

When I picked up the 30" sceptre, I noticed that both the 27 and the 30 inch Sceptre models would come and go from the web page and that both models had a prix de jour.

Here's what I did on my side.

I took the output of my sound card and plugged it into the TV mini-din input. On the TV side, I got rid of the crappy speakers and when to Costco (again) to grab a nice little 2.1 speaker system from Harmon Kardon and I hooked it up to the headphones output of the TV.

Advantages to do this: just like yours, I don't have to switch anything to get the sound from any of my inputs, I can also fully control all the audio inputs directly from the remote, and of course, I got rid of those awful speakers that came with the TV. But there's the added advantage that I don't need to have my PC running to actually get sound off of the TV. :)

-eric

Excellent. Yes that's what I'll do as well.

Glad to hear that the headphone out is static free for you as well. It actually sounded about as good as it could get from analog for me.

Dan K

Found a few bugs with my unit and I would like others to confirm they see it also.

Bug #1: On HDMI-DVI input, "Black Level" in the first menu doesn't do anything. The slider goes from 0-12 and absolutely nothing changes between 0-12.

Bug #2: Again on HDMI-DVI input (other inputs don't seem to have this problem), If you put anything else than 7 on the "Lamp" option, which is the backlight, the setting will always be put back to 7 (max) the next time you turn on the TV. Note that the menu "shows" your last selection, but the backlight is fully lit (at 7). To reproduce, just put your "Lamp" setting to "0", turn off the TV, and turn it on again.

Bug #3: (Somebody wrote this already) The PIP is always stretch with no way to control the aspect ratio. For somebody like me that can't use the ATSC tuner (cause it doesn't support QAM), PIP becomes utterly useless since there's nothing I can watch that will show WS. At the bare minimum, a 4:3/16:9 toggle would have been nice.

Bug #4: Trying to delete channels I didn't want on my list of channel for NTSC was extremely annoying. I had to get to the channel I wanted to delete, go through multiple menus to finally delete the channel. If I wanted to delete the next one, I had to be extremely quick (aka ~1 second) or else the menu would get dismissed and I would have to start the menu navigation all over again. This way of deleting channels is the worst I've ever seen.

Are all of you able to reproduce those issues?

Thank you.

-eric

Ive noticed the black level one, but not the backlight one (will try to reproduce though). I've also noticed that in ATSC mode, some channels (PBS comes to mind) it incorrectly thinks that the display should be squished vertically; the only way to correct this is to swtich aspect manually to 4:3... in which case theres a border on all 4 sides. it should be full screen to start out with. When I use full screen zoom it clips on all sides. The aspect modes needs to have a vertical only zoom to correct this.

I agree with you though, it's obvious that the color/picture controls are customized per input source so why put a control on the DVI input that has no effect.

Havn't tried to delete any channels yet.

Make sure you poke sceptre about the DTV:720p bug as well.

And ask them for the code to the diagnostic menu while you're at it :)

Dan K

Well, Mine made it into my office around lunch. I grabbed a couple guys from the office and headed for home (great to have some help in moving my 35" CRT out of the way). Unboxed the Sceptre and got it hooked up with power and HDMI to my HD Tivo. played a recorded Discovery HD program thru it and it looks great, a little too much red on the face so will probably have to play with it later. Also try OTA channels thru the HD Tivo's ATSC tuner and thing also looks good. Have not have a chance to try the onboard ATSC, Component or any PC inputs as we have to get back to work. Will try more stuff when I get home.

Dkelly,

First, thanks for all the info on this thread.

2nd, I see you also have the Logitech Z-5500. I received those last Wed. and this Wed. will get the Sceptre.

Tried the Z-5500 out upstairs and had no complaints. Put them downstairs in newly finished room, family room. It is not real big approx. 17' x 12' with hardwood floors. Very clear for audio, probably could hear a pin drop late at night.

Now, last night, I noticed what I would consider fairly significant amp hum. I had no PC in the room and could only hear it when Air Conditioning was not running, but then I could hear it across the room.

It is present when muted or volume all the way down out of the sub/amp unit. I was using a minidisc as source but that is not a factor because the hum is present even with no sources connected.

Need your advice not sure I will keep as I don't really want to hear it when pausing TV in Media Center. Not sure if I have a defective unit? Also didn't really what a full blown tuner (i.e. Pioneer), but want to get something fairly good.

Everbody has given very good reviews, but I tried to post a review on Newegg to ask these questions and Newegg must have refused to post it. E-mailed Logitech and no response yet.

I would try another Logitech amp/subbox from Newegg but not if it is the same as the first (what would be the point)?

After reading up on amp hum on the internet, I see it can affect all amps, but not usually from 10-15 feet away. What is your experience with this?

I plan on trying different plug-ins and back upstairs to see if it may be power related in my house.

Ive noticed the black level one, but not the backlight one (will try to reproduce though). I've also noticed that in ATSC mode, some channels (PBS comes to mind) it incorrectly thinks that the display should be squished vertically; the only way to correct this is to swtich aspect manually to 4:3... in which case theres a border on all 4 sides. it should be full screen to start out with. When I use full screen zoom it clips on all sides. The aspect modes needs to have a vertical only zoom to correct this.

Havn't tried to delete any channels yet.

Thanks for your answer Dan.

For the backlight bug (#2), just a little more information: the backlight slider will show the value you put last, but the backlight setting will be at max (7) the next time you turn the TV on.

Repro steps:
1. Select HDMI->DVI
2. Put something white on your screen (open your browser fullscreen).
3. Go into the menu -> Lamp and put the slider to "0" (notice the light output to be a lot less than "7").
5. Turn off the TV
6. Turn on the TV (notice that the light output is back to very bright).
7. Go into the menu -> Lamp and notice that the slider is still at "0" even with the current max brightness.
8. Play with the backlight setting by going to "1" and then back to "0". Notice that the second you change the value, it corrects itself.

I'm very curious to know if I'm the only one having this problem. The fact that nobody even mentioned anything on this thread about this is scaring me a little.

-eric

Dkelly,

First, thanks for all the info on this thread.

2nd, I see you also have the Logitech Z-5500. I received those last Wed. and this Wed. will get the Sceptre.

Tried the Z-5500 out upstairs and had no complaints. Put them downstairs in newly finished room, family room. It is not real big approx. 17' x 12' with hardwood floors. Very clear for audio, probably could hear a pin drop late at night.

Now, last night, I noticed what I would consider fairly significant amp hum. I had no PC in the room and could only hear it when Air Conditioning was not running, but then I could hear it across the room.

It is present when muted or volume all the way down out of the sub/amp unit. I was using a minidisc as source but that is not a factor because the hum is present even with no sources connected.

Need your advice not sure I will keep as I don't really want to hear it when pausing TV in Media Center. Not sure if I have a defective unit? Also didn't really what a full blown tuner (i.e. Pioneer), but want to get something fairly good.

Everbody has given very good reviews, but I tried to post a review on Newegg to ask these questions and Newegg must have refused to post it. E-mailed Logitech and no response yet.

I would try another Logitech amp/subbox from Newegg but not if it is the same as the first (what would be the point)?

After reading up on amp hum on the internet, I see it can affect all amps, but not usually from 10-15 feet away. What is your experience with this?

I plan on trying different plug-ins and back upstairs to see if it may be power related in my house.

I have really no ideas. I dont have any hum at all. In the past I've found that I can get rid of hum by making sure the amp is plugged into the same power strip as the source (eliminates grounding differences) but that sounds like it's not your problem. Maybe also make sure that the power cord isnt' near or wrapped around the cord from the sub to the control head or the speaker wires.

Good luck :)

Dan K

Thanks for your answer Dan.

For the backlight bug (#2), just a little more information: the backlight slider will show the value you put last, but the backlight setting will be at max (7) the next time you turn the TV on.

Repro steps:
1. Select HDMI->DVI
2. Put something white on your screen (open your browser fullscreen).
3. Go into the menu -> Lamp and put the slider to "0" (notice the light output to be a lot less than "7").
5. Turn off the TV
6. Turn on the TV (notice that the light output is back to very bright).
7. Go into the menu -> Lamp and notice that the slider is still at "0" even with the current max brightness.
8. Play with the backlight setting by going to "1" and then back to "0". Notice that the second you change the value, it corrects itself.

I'm very curious to know if I'm the only one having this problem. The fact that nobody even mentioned anything on this thread about this is scaring me a little.

-eric

Yes I've confirmed that that is a bug in my system as well, works just like you say. Nice find.

Maybe sceptre will iron out some of these issues... if they can't upgrade us at least mabye when costco starts having this set in stores we could take it in and exchange.

Dan K

I am expecting delivery of my Sceptre X37SV on 8/31, and several days ago (on Page 7 of this thread) I had asked of those who were reporting on the performance of their own units what their impressions were of PQ when playing conventional 480p DVDs. I do not have an HTPC system and did not know they have advanced DVD playback capabilities. So I was surprised when some of you guys who are into HTPCs suggested that to watch DVD movies sourced from a typical player (we have a Panasonic DMR-E55) would be to squander the image quality potential of the Scepter.

HUH? I assumed the Sceptre would do a good job of scaling up the 480p image for its much higher res screen – given that this is a whoppin’ amount of interpolation, much more than my (soon to be returned ) Proview 32" has to do in taking 480 to 720 . . . or is it 768?

Anyway, for the three years since we got our first HD set, a Mitsu WS-55819, an RP CRT, I have always left the scaling to the TV and thought that was as good a way to go as any. And suddenly, I’m now hearing that there other routes to even better picture quality, an attribute I place great value on, even if I’ve been in the dark.

So please enlighten me. I need to be able to show my wife’s images (she’s a professional photographer) on this display and I bought the Sceptre based on the early reviews on this site of the unit’s stellar images from a PC source. So having heard what I’m missing from DVD movies, I want to upgrade the PC I’ll be using for photography presentations to an HTPC.

I need to buy components at Fry’s tomorrow anyway, so I hope some of you gurus will be kind enough to advise me on an appropriate OS and Video Card. Specifically:

1. Do I need Windows XP Media Center Edition, or will the plain old Home Edition work fine?

2. What is a good choice in moderately priced video cards (not the hard core overkill gamer models) with DVI out that will generate a 1920x1080 image at 75Hz (or whatever the appropriate sync rate is for this display) and will work well for PC-based DVD movie watching? I’m hoping to be able to stay in the $75-$125 range.

Feel free to recommend any card or comment on the appropriateness of these two possible candidates:

ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB AGP
ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP

I’m really looking forward to making this display sing and, with your help, I’m hoping to buy the right components to do that with no expensive wrong turns along the way.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge with me.

Ken Flick

I am expecting delivery of my Sceptre X37SV on 8/31, and several days ago (on Page 7 of this thread) I had asked of those who were reporting on the performance of their own units what their impressions were of PQ when playing conventional 480p DVDs. I do not have an HTPC system and did not know they have advanced DVD playback capabilities. So I was surprised when some of you guys who are into HTPCs suggested that to watch DVD movies sourced from a typical player (we have a Panasonic DMR-E55) would be to squander the image quality potential of the Scepter.

HUH? I assumed the Sceptre would do a good job of scaling up the 480p image for its much higher res screen – given that this is a whoppin’ amount of interpolation, much more than my (soon to be returned ) Proview 32" has to do in taking 480 to 720 . . . or is it 768?

Anyway, for the three years since we got our first HD set, a Mitsu WS-55819, an RP CRT, I have always left the scaling to the TV and thought that was as good a way to go as any. And suddenly, I’m now hearing that there other routes to even better picture quality, an attribute I place great value on, even if I’ve been in the dark.

So please enlighten me. I need to be able to show my wife’s images (she’s a professional photographer) on this display and I bought the Sceptre based on the early reviews on this site of the unit’s stellar images from a PC source. So having heard what I’m missing from DVD movies, I want to upgrade the PC I’ll be using for photography presentations to an HTPC.

I need to buy components at Fry’s tomorrow anyway, so I hope some of you gurus will be kind enough to advise me on an appropriate OS and Video Card. Specifically:

1. Do I need Windows XP Media Center Edition, or will the plain old Home Edition work fine?

2. What is a good choice in moderately priced video cards (not the hard core overkill gamer models) with DVI out that will generate a 1920x1080 image at 75Hz (or whatever the appropriate sync rate is for this display) and will work well for PC-based DVD movie watching? I’m hoping to be able to stay in the $75-$125 range.

Feel free to recommend any card or comment on the appropriateness of these two possible candidates:

ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB AGP
ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP

I’m really looking forward to making this display sing and, with your help, I’m hoping to buy the right components to do that with no expensive wrong turns along the way.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge with me.

Ken Flick

For an excellent beginners guide with pictures of what kind of quality improvements you might expect from DVDs, check out:

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1

Hover the mouse over the pics to see before and after.

I'll warn you though, it takes one heck of a processor to do this, especially if you want to lancosz to 1920x1080. Might as well resign yourself to buying the most expensive rig u can find. Don't stop short of A64 4000+.

Any newer ATI card will work. I have an old ati 7500 that works mostly (doesnt display any image in bootup) and a newer x800xl that works perfectly. There is some variance between ati cards and newer ones don't necissarily mean better compatibility. I think it can be a crap shoot at times, but I think ATI cards are better suited to doing Video. That has been their niche for a long time although the latest Nvidia drivers are much better in that regards.

As for MCE vs non MCE? I'd buy MCE if I was already going to buy XP just because you may want to put an HD tuner in it at some point, and all the bundled non mce HDTV software pretty much is awefull. You don't have to have MCE though, I've got it running pretty well with Server 2003 and XP for DVD and DiVX playback. but I'm about to reinstall MCE on the system it's hooked up to now so I can plug in my tuners.

Dan K

Dkelly,

First, thanks for all the info on this thread.

2nd, I see you also have the Logitech Z-5500. I received those last Wed. and this Wed. will get the Sceptre.

Tried the Z-5500 out upstairs and had no complaints. Put them downstairs in newly finished room, family room. It is not real big approx. 17' x 12' with hardwood floors. Very clear for audio, probably could hear a pin drop late at night.

Now, last night, I noticed what I would consider fairly significant amp hum. I had no PC in the room and could only hear it when Air Conditioning was not running, but then I could hear it across the room.

It is present when muted or volume all the way down out of the sub/amp unit. I was using a minidisc as source but that is not a factor because the hum is present even with no sources connected.

Need your advice not sure I will keep as I don't really want to hear it when pausing TV in Media Center. Not sure if I have a defective unit? Also didn't really what a full blown tuner (i.e. Pioneer), but want to get something fairly good.

Everbody has given very good reviews, but I tried to post a review on Newegg to ask these questions and Newegg must have refused to post it. E-mailed Logitech and no response yet.

I would try another Logitech amp/subbox from Newegg but not if it is the same as the first (what would be the point)?

After reading up on amp hum on the internet, I see it can affect all amps, but not usually from 10-15 feet away. What is your experience with this?

I plan on trying different plug-ins and back upstairs to see if it may be power related in my house.

I too have the 5500's in my family room and 2 sets of the 680's in my garage and bedroom. I have not experienced any humming or amp noise with them. Prior to that I also had the 680's (5.1) and 540's (4.1) in different rooms. I remember having a similar buzz issue with the 540's but I seem to recall Logitech suggesting to check all of the connections and keep the speaker wires away from the power cable and it went away.

The 680's were constantly the top pick in every major PC publication for a couple of years and have now been replaced by the 5500's as the preferred 5.1 PC speaker setup. The sub is bigger ( 8" vs 10") and the control module is easier to read from a distance. Either of the speakers will easily fill an average sized room with good, clean and "loud" sound. It is simply amazing how much bass the 10" sub kicks out from the 5500's.

If you use the optical out that was identified on the internal tuner and plug it into the 5500's (or 680's) optical in you should easily be able to listen to incredible 5.1 sound and you would not need to have the PC powered up. By using the remote for the 5500's you could turn the volume up or down and adjust the sub, surround and center levels also. The PC uses the direct 6 channel connection on the 5500's and you still have a coax in and a mini-phono (2 channel) in. The 2 channel connection should also work if you want to connect the RCA out from the TV and be able to adjust the volume with the TV remote. (although I haven't had a chance to test it as my TV shows up tomorrow). Good luck!

I e-mailed Sceptre re; The Thread Size for mounting yourself, and got this back.

4M

Johnnie Green
Sr. Retail Specialist/Project Executive
800-788-2878x1114
Fax: 626-369-3488
www.sceptre.com

Also....anyone heard back from them on the ATSC 720p issue? :rolleyes:

Has anyone tried to see if this follows the VESA standard for wall mounting yet, or will we have to buy a custom Sceptre kit?

Has anyone tried to see if this follows the VESA standard for wall mounting yet, or will we have to buy a custom Sceptre kit?

Hmm when I called sceptre a while back they said it was a standard 200mm x 100mm VESA. The guy was rather rude when I asked him if he was sure.

me: So if I were to use a 100mm x 100mm VESA wall mount it wont work?
tech: Didn't I just tell you that it's 200mm x 100mm VESA standard...
me. I'm just checking...

Anybody can confirm or deny if they can reproduce the other bugs please? I'm planning to send an email to Sceptre asking answers to those issues. But I would like to make sure that they're general issues and not something that only my unit reproduce...

Thank you.

-eric

I have the same problems #1,#2 and #3. As far #4 is concerned, haven't tried to delete a channel yet.

I am expecting delivery of my Sceptre X37SV on 8/31, and several days ago (on Page 7 of this thread) I had asked of those who were reporting on the performance of their own units what their impressions were of PQ when playing conventional 480p DVDs. I do not have an HTPC system and did not know they have advanced DVD playback capabilities. So I was surprised when some of you guys who are into HTPCs suggested that to watch DVD movies sourced from a typical player (we have a Panasonic DMR-E55) would be to squander the image quality potential of the Scepter.

HUH? I assumed the Sceptre would do a good job of scaling up the 480p image for its much higher res screen – given that this is a whoppin’ amount of interpolation, much more than my (soon to be returned ) Proview 32" has to do in taking 480 to 720 . . . or is it 768?

Anyway, for the three years since we got our first HD set, a Mitsu WS-55819, an RP CRT, I have always left the scaling to the TV and thought that was as good a way to go as any. And suddenly, I’m now hearing that there other routes to even better picture quality, an attribute I place great value on, even if I’ve been in the dark.

So please enlighten me. I need to be able to show my wife’s images (she’s a professional photographer) on this display and I bought the Sceptre based on the early reviews on this site of the unit’s stellar images from a PC source. So having heard what I’m missing from DVD movies, I want to upgrade the PC I’ll be using for photography presentations to an HTPC.

I need to buy components at Fry’s tomorrow anyway, so I hope some of you gurus will be kind enough to advise me on an appropriate OS and Video Card. Specifically:

1. Do I need Windows XP Media Center Edition, or will the plain old Home Edition work fine?

2. What is a good choice in moderately priced video cards (not the hard core overkill gamer models) with DVI out that will generate a 1920x1080 image at 75Hz (or whatever the appropriate sync rate is for this display) and will work well for PC-based DVD movie watching? I’m hoping to be able to stay in the $75-$125 range.

Feel free to recommend any card or comment on the appropriateness of these two possible candidates:

ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB AGP
ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP

I’m really looking forward to making this display sing and, with your help, I’m hoping to buy the right components to do that with no expensive wrong turns along the way.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge with me.

Ken Flick

I bought the ATI x700pro(256mb) because I wanted to stay under $150 also. For Dvd playback it is awsome.You can adjust contrast,hue...etc with catalyst 5.8(ati drivers also get the mce extension).I have never seen better dvd playback. I wonder what a Nvidia 7800 might be able to do?

Hmm when I called sceptre a while back they said it was a standard 200mm x 100mm VESA. The guy was rather rude when I asked him if he was sure.

me: So if I were to use a 100mm x 100mm VESA wall mount it wont work?
tech: Didn't I just tell you that it's 200mm x 100mm VESA standard...
me. I'm just checking...

According to the Sceptre and Costco web sites, it's 440mm X 200mm

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/spec_X37SV-Naga.htm

I haven't seen a VESA standard for large screens. All of the large wall mounts I've seen are adjustable. The one Costco sells has 2 vertical arms with holes at various distances, and the arms slide horizontally on a bar, so they'll fit any horizontal distance including 440mm. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a mount for this tv.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070514&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4277&hierPath=79*4277*

Someone said the screw size is M4.

According to the Sceptre and Costco web sites, it's 440mm X 200mm

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/spec_X37SV-Naga.htm

I haven't seen a VESA standard for large screens. All of the large wall mounts I've seen are adjustable. The one Costco sells has 2 vertical arms with holes at various distances, and the arms slide horizontally on a bar, so they'll fit any horizontal distance including 440mm. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a mount for this tv.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070514&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4277&hierPath=79*4277*

Someone said the screw size is M4.

I bought the http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?ec=BC-EC3768-ProdID11042448&pos=1&whse=&topnav=&prodid=11006977 that was advertised with this tv. I hope it fits. I wanted to ask through, am I gonna have to get special screws/nails if I am gonna be using this thing on a drywall with studs?

Will I need to get anything special that's not gonan come in the package I mean.

According to the Sceptre and Costco web sites, it's 440mm X 200mm

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/spec_X37SV-Naga.htm

I haven't seen a VESA standard for large screens. All of the large wall mounts I've seen are adjustable. The one Costco sells has 2 vertical arms with holes at various distances, and the arms slide horizontally on a bar, so they'll fit any horizontal distance including 440mm. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a mount for this tv.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070514&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4277&hierPath=79*4277*

Someone said the screw size is M4.

Ahh now I get what he means by 200mm VESA.

dkelly
Any newer ATI card will work. I have an old ati 7500 that works mostly (doesnt display any image in bootup) and a newer x800xl that works perfectly. There is some variance between ati cards and newer ones don't necissarily mean better compatibility. I think it can be a crap shoot at times, but I think ATI cards are better suited to doing Video. That has been their niche for a long time although the latest Nvidia drivers are much better in that regards.

mantamet
I bought the ATI x700pro(256mb) because I wanted to stay under $150 also. For Dvd playback it is awsome.You can adjust contrast,hue...etc with catalyst 5.8(ati drivers also get the mce extension).I have never seen better dvd playback. I wonder what a Nvidia 7800 might be able to do?

Thanks, Guys, for your advice on video cards. It's much appreciated.

According to the Sceptre and Costco web sites, it's 440mm X 200mm

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/spec_X37SV-Naga.htm

I haven't seen a VESA standard for large screens. All of the large wall mounts I've seen are adjustable. The one Costco sells has 2 vertical arms with holes at various distances, and the arms slide horizontally on a bar, so they'll fit any horizontal distance including 440mm. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a mount for this tv.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070514&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4277&hierPath=79*4277*

Someone said the screw size is M4.

That won't help though for articulating mounts, those have std size plates right??? (1x1 or 2x2)... I'm trying to see how I can mount articularly.

I had a similar 60 cycle hum issue when moving my HTPC, Tuner... into my new rack. I needed a longer sub cable to connect the powered sub to my Harman Kardon receiver. I used an equivalent (but longer) low end cable and there was enough noise even when the amp was off for the sub to think there was a signal, turn the sub amp on and hum like a mother. Oh crap I thought. What the heck, I'll buy a high end sub cable with ferrites on both ends. Much to my surprise, there is now no hint of hum. Something for all you hummers to think about. ;)

I have a Radeon 9600 AGP 128MB (DVI+VGA). A non ATI version made by Rainbow. It's a couple of years old now and probably real cheap. I think it's specifically listed as compatible with MCE which I use in My HTPC. I drive both a 15.4" wide screen (VGA) widescreen projector with it at 720p. It should display 1080 just fine.

Can you actually buy MCE without buying a whole MCE PC? I have it through an MSDN subscription.

Reading the threads, the Sceptre isn’t a standard 100x100, 100x200, or 200x200 mount layout. Big deal? perhaps to some. Me, not so big a deal. I ordered the articulating Peerless mount form the Costco website for $109, which is a standard mount. I'll make an adapter to mount it.

I ordered my Sceptre on Friday, or so I thought. Order went through, received confirmation email, then on Saturday I received an email stating the order was canceled! They provided a laundry list of possible reasons but nothing specific. Guess what, there's no one to talk to at their website over the weekend to see what happened. I checked with my credit card company and they saw an inquiry, but no valid reason for Costco to cancel my order. They suggested I place the order again. So I did, on Saturday. While the order still says pending and I've not received a cancellation notice again, I don't exactly have a warm fuzzy that my order will still go through. Fingers crossed. Anyone else experience this? If you ordered 8/26 or 8/27, please let me know when you get a ship confirmation.

Can you actually buy MCE without buying a whole MCE PC? I have it through an MSDN subscription.

Yes, if you buy it as an OEM, along with other appropriate hardware for building an MCE HTPC "to sell". Newegg is a popular place.

---

The Costco near the San Jose Airport, in Santa Clara, California, will have an open box Sceptre for sale in the next 10 days, when I take mine back there.

Thanks for your answer Dan.

For the backlight bug (#2), just a little more information: the backlight slider will show the value you put last, but the backlight setting will be at max (7) the next time you turn the TV on.

Repro steps:
1. Select HDMI->DVI
2. Put something white on your screen (open your browser fullscreen).
3. Go into the menu -> Lamp and put the slider to "0" (notice the light output to be a lot less than "7").
5. Turn off the TV
6. Turn on the TV (notice that the light output is back to very bright).
7. Go into the menu -> Lamp and notice that the slider is still at "0" even with the current max brightness.
8. Play with the backlight setting by going to "1" and then back to "0". Notice that the second you change the value, it corrects itself.

I'm very curious to know if I'm the only one having this problem. The fact that nobody even mentioned anything on this thread about this is scaring me a little.

-eric
I've discovered a twist in the backlight bug (where it resets from 0 back to 7). The bug does not occur when you are in DTV mode then switch off then back on the set. Also, if you switch the set off and on when DVI is selected, the bulb is back to 7, but as soon as you toggle to DTV, it resets back to 0 (or where ever it was set before turning off the set).

Anyone watch Prison Break today on fox? I noticed that I got some clayface (redness in faces) with my ATI HDTV wonder. It's wierd because only some faces in certain positions show a good amount of red. Lowering the saturation and increasing the brightness worked pretty well.

Reading the threads, the Sceptre isn’t a standard 100x100, 100x200, or 200x200 mount layout. Big deal? perhaps to some. Me, not so big a deal. I ordered the articulating Peerless mount form the Costco website for $109, which is a standard mount. I'll make an adapter to mount it.

Anyone else experience this? If you ordered 8/26 or 8/27, please let me know when you get a ship confirmation.

I'd love to hear how you mount on the Peerless as I'll have the same problem (I'm not much of a metal worker though).

I ordered on 8/28 and the status says "in process" so far.

Has anyone tried any HDMI sources to see if it scales properly to fullscreen? I'm just bringing this up because of the earlier mention of the three different HDMI/dvi modes and how it wasn't scaling properly with computer DVI sources 1:1 without a certain mode enabled. And what about the red push and clay face that some people have reported on; is there a way to fix it on non HTPC applications like consoles?

I haven't found a way to get audio to the Sceptre and out its speakers when the video source is coming from a dish 811 through the digital hdmi/dvi connections without going though an outboard amp. Any thoughts on this.

I got my unit yesterday and everyone previous comments where right on the mark. I'm getting a dish 811 reciever and have a ota antenna. Do I connet the ota antenna to the ATSC imput to get local HD ? How do you change which tuner is begining used?

I got my unit yesterday and everyone previous comments where right on the mark. I'm getting a dish 811 reciever and have a ota antenna. Do I connet the ota antenna to the ATSC imput to get local HD ? How do you change which tuner is begining used?

Well you can just connect to the 811's built in tunner and let it process it like it would normal sat. You wouldn't have to do anything on the tv.

I just recieved my TV yesterday and plugged it into my HTPC via VGA last night. I could not get 1920x1080 to stick, it always dropped to 640x480. It seems to work fine at 1600x1200. Do I need DVI? Or is it my lowly ATI 9600 NP?

Any pointers would be great, thanks.

I haven't found a way to get audio to the Sceptre and out its speakers when the video source is coming from a dish 811 through the digital hdmi/dvi connections without going though an outboard amp. Any thoughts on this.

There is an 8th inch minijack next to the HDMI input for "computer sound in". Note that there is also a headphone mini jack there. Don't confuse the two.

Warning: I get a bad hum from the TV when using the HDMI input jack.

I just recieved my TV yesterday and plugged it into my HTPC via VGA last night. I could not get 1920x1080 to stick, it always dropped to 640x480. It seems to work fine at 1600x1200. Do I need DVI? Or is it my lowly ATI 9600 NP?

Any pointers would be great, thanks.

I am not an expert on the ATI 9600. If you can go DVI with this set at 1920*1080 then do it. You spent almost 2k on the set, spend $50 on a DVI card to truly enjoy the picture, especially if you have a crappy VGA cable that doesn't have decent shielding.

I haven't found a way to get audio to the Sceptre and out its speakers when the video source is coming from a dish 811 through the digital hdmi/dvi connections without going though an outboard amp. Any thoughts on this.
I'm interest in hearing from you regarding the image quality of the HD dish output when viewed with a HD 37" screen. I recently bought the 37" LCD Sharp at Costco. I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the image coming from the SD dish, which was much worst than that of my 15 year-old sony tv. Since a lot of the dish programming is still in SD, I would like to know if the 480p output is upconverted when it is sent through a HD port and, more importantly, if the resulting image quality is tolerable. (According to the DVR 942 spec-sheet, the HD output resolutions are 480p, 720p, 1080i and the 480i content is up-converted).

I am not an expert on the ATI 9600. If you can go DVI with this set at 1920*1080 then do it. You spent almost 2k on the set, spend $50 on a DVI card to truly enjoy the picture, especially if you have a crappy VGA cable that doesn't have decent shielding.

I do have a DVI cable, but I was hoping to use the DVI for another component (Xbox360?). Is there any reason the VGA cable could not do 1920x1080? Maybe maybe the 9600 cannot?

I'm using VGA port and it looks great. No problem running 1920x 1080 can't imagine it looking any better on DVI. Plus I'm running it on a 30 foot cable still looks great no ghosting very clear. 30 DVI would be a fortune.

Jay

I'm using VGA port and it looks great. No problem running 1920x 1080 can't imagine it looking any better on DVI. Plus I'm running it on a 30 foot cable still looks great no ghosting very clear. 30 DVI would be a fortune.

Jay


Well, I guess the only way to tell about digital versus analog is to see both at once. I think my VGA looks great at full res, but there is a noticeable difference for DVI. If you like it, then you are golden. If you want to go platinum, then consider comparing the two??? That's the only way I could decide

I do have a DVI cable, but I was hoping to use the DVI for another component (Xbox360?). Is there any reason the VGA cable could not do 1920x1080? Maybe maybe the 9600 cannot?

There is no reason the VGA cable can't do 1920*1080. Mine does. If you bought the 1080P to be used by an XBOX, you are using outside what many people are buying these 1080p sets for. You can always get a DVI KVM switch too! If you want both on DVI. If you are planning on using the set as an HTPC, which is what I consider it best for and most people might think that too. Then consider DVI for both. It looks like your video card may not handle 1920 (could be the driver too?), if you have to replace it you can get a dual output DVI/VGA card for cheap right?

Well, I guess the only way to tell about digital versus analog is to see both at once. I think my VGA looks great at full res, but there is a noticeable difference for DVI. If you like it, then you are golden. If you want to go platinum, then consider comparing the two??? That's the only way I could decide

I tried both in a real QUICK test and thought the VGA looked just as good as DVI. However...I didn't spend a lot of time scrutinizing the two different inputs. So you tested both VGA and DVI? If so...what types of things did you see that made you decide that DVI had the edge over VGA?

Just wondering so if I compare the two again...I'll know what to look for.

Thanks Bobn4 You just saved me some $$

Theoretically, utilizing the DVI input should look better since it's a straight digital to digital signal from your video card to the panel. By using the VGA, you are in essence doing several Digital to Analog conversions, that may not immediately be noticeable. YMMV

Here's a short of Myst V demo running at 1600x1200 on the set

http://zoglog.clearlyseen.net/photos/sceptretv/sceptretvmyst5.jpg

Thanks for the replys on the Z-5500 hum, I tried moving cables and different outlets. Took it back upstairs and could hear it until refridgerator kicked on (open living room/kitchen area). It is not a real loud hum by any means.

I may return it waiting to hear what Logitech says. Sound quality is very good however.

My TV is in Kansas City should be here tomorrow, right on schedule.

I am considering the Vantage AX2AWL01-S mounting arm from Best Buy. I would imagine I will have to work on an adapter.

For those considering an MCE machine, I would not hesitate to recommend an Emachine. I purchased one with AMD 64 3200+ T6212 (and put on OEM MCE) and they now have two with MCE already included T6520, T6522. Fairly impressive specs. considering the price. But notice that I believe there is a significant difference. Both use a OEM version of an MSI board, but one is socket 754 and I think the 6522 is socket 939. The 754 board has 2 DIMM slots, the 939 board has 4 DIMM slots. Mine T6512 is socket 939 but had only 512 ram installed.

Another item, I think both are only 1600MHz FSB, even though mine was advertised as 2000MHz. Something to do with the OEM board. They also lost the digital audio out on the OEM board.

I think neither come with tuners, but Avermedia or others are easy to put in and set-up in MCE.

I would opt for the 6522 (AMD 64 3500+), 1GB ram - 4 slots/2 used), also 939 pin board. It is at Circuit City and it does include a tuner card (not sure of brand).

Both are are also PCI express boards, so you can add any PCI-x card. They use ATI chipset and ATI integrated graphics.

You can't beat the $750 - $50 mail-in for a MCE machine with these specs. and included SD tuner card. Mine is fairly quiet, much quieter than my Shuttle.

Not only does the 6522 come with a tuner, I have read it is a tuner based on ATi theater chip. And it also includes an MCE remote control. Very good deal all of this for $750, $700 after rebate.

I bought the http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?ec=BC-EC3768-ProdID11042448&pos=1&whse=&topnav=&prodid=11006977 that was advertised with this tv. I hope it fits. I wanted to ask through, am I gonna have to get special screws/nails if I am gonna be using this thing on a drywall with studs?

Will I need to get anything special that's not gonan come in the package I mean.

I'm pretty sure this is the same mount that Costco was selling:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/profile.cfm?ut=H&id=640ST&sg=FPSS

If you click the installation tab on the page, there are 3 installation sheets listed.
Here's the first one:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/product_docs/INSTR%20SHEET-201-9338-1-2.PDF

It looks like it has all the screws to mount it on a single stud, or concrete.

I was totally freaked out when I got home from work and turned on the panel and a bluescreen message"this unit have been shutdown due to overheating" was staring at me. Then I thought the message looked familiar (i have seen it once when the fan died on one of my older DirecTivo. So I took a closer look and it actually came from the HD Tivo (not good but not as bad as having you brand new panel die on you). Check the HD Tivo and the temp is actually not even warm. So I searched the Tivo forum for overheating problem and found that my current software version have a problem with false temp reporting while using the HDMI port with HDCP active. Luckily, all I need to do is to update to the latest software and I should be fine. What a scare.

So with all these (plus my niece decided to do a sleepover). I didn't get much done. The few things that I did notice is as follow:

As Dan said. OTA signal thru the onboard ATSC tuner are all 720P at least on the info display. I did not have a chance to really compare station that is broadcasting in 1080i and those that was doing 720P. Will try to do that tonight to see if it's just a display bug or a limitation of the onboard tuner.

The menu structure of the unit does s**ks and the remote is not the most responsive but as I said in another message. Those are not dealbreaker for me. It'll just take some time to get used to.

As for the picture quality, I'm impressed. My brother in law have a slightly older Runco 42" plasma with an offboard signal processor and I think I have better image quality than he does.

For me, this unit is a keeper already since 75% of my use will be thru the HD Tivo so the onboard ATSC tuner will not be used most of the time (maybe if I already have 2 program recording and want to watch a 3rd). The only thing left that I have to try is the PC input (which by all accounts seems to be great) and component input for my DVD and game consoles (PS2, xbox and GC). I think I'll have to get a 3-4 port component switcher for now and a 4x1 HDMI switcher later when the Xbox260 and PS3 comes out. So baring any unforseen problem on component or PC. I'll be really happy with this set.

There is no reason the VGA cable can't do 1920*1080. Mine does. If you bought the 1080P to be used by an XBOX, you are using outside what many people are buying these 1080p sets for. You can always get a DVI KVM switch too! If you want both on DVI. If you are planning on using the set as an HTPC, which is what I consider it best for and most people might think that too. Then consider DVI for both. It looks like your video card may not handle 1920 (could be the driver too?), if you have to replace it you can get a dual output DVI/VGA card for cheap right?

I don't plan on driving it with a 9600 for long, I have a X800XT AIW I can put in, but I'm probably rebuilding my HTPC with a X2 and 7800GT soon. I just wanted to test the TV to make sure it will do 1920x1080, it must be the driver or card, I'll try my laptop or the DVI cable.

The only thing left that I have to try is the PC input (which by all accounts seems to be great) and component input for my DVD and game consoles (PS2, xbox and GC).

Please report back with results from your component testing. I am already pretty confident that you'll be impressed with the PC input. But I don't have any component sources at the moment and I'd like to know how the TV performs with component input...

Depending on what type of sources you have for component...I'm interested to see what the highest resolution you get to display well with the component input. I assume 1080i would be about the highest you could go? I'm hoping/assuming the component input will accept 720p and 1080i signals...but I'd like to hear some real world experience since I don't have anyway to test this myself...

I haven't found a way to get audio to the Sceptre and out its speakers when the video source is coming from a dish 811 through the digital hdmi/dvi connections without going though an outboard amp. Any thoughts on this.

I assume your dish 811 has RCA audio output? You just need to get a $6 RCA->1/8" Mini Jack adaptor (like this one from radioshack: Catalog #: 42-2550, 3' Gold Series Stereo Cable), and plug it into the PC Audio In jack on TV.

Also, try to use HDCP mode (not HDMI), because in HDMI mode, I can't get the audio this way. I guess since HDMI transfers the video and audio signal, in this mode, the set just ignores the audio signal coming from PC In jack.

There is an 8th inch minijack next to the HDMI input for "computer sound in". Note that there is also a headphone mini jack there. Don't confuse the two.

Warning: I get a bad hum from the TV when using the HDMI input jack.

To minimize the hum, what I did was to turn down the volumn on TV and use my cable set top box (in your case, dish box) to control audio volumn. That seems to help quite a bit.

By reading the previous posts, we all know by now the audio on this set is quite cheap. But as long as the video is good, I am happy with it (for its price). There are million easy options out there for dealing with this audio issues.

[QUOTE=Wiz33]be fine. What a scare.


As Dan said. OTA signal thru the onboard ATSC tuner are all 720P at least on the info display. I did not have a chance to really compare station that is broadcasting in 1080i and those that was doing 720P. Will try to do that tonight to see if it's just a display bug or a limitation of the onboard tuner.

So if I have a OTA, I connect to the ATSC tuner to get the local HD? Any other programing that needs to take place?

I'd love to hear how you mount on the Peerless as I'll have the same problem (I'm not much of a metal worker though).

I ordered on 8/28 and the status says "in process" so far.

Given the mount is a 200x200mm and the TV is 200mm vertical by 440mm horizontal mounting, we can probably get two pieces of flat metal (steel or thicker aluminum) abbout 18" long and mount them to the TV horizontally. This will allow us to connect them to the mount. I'd probably connect two vertical pieces of metal to the horizontal ones to add rigidity and to help keep the unit stable. Another option would be to use square tubing for the needed rigidity. You could also use a solid plate, but that will likely block some of the TV's vents as well as add weight to the unit.

A couple of the other items (not the TV) from my order shipped yesterday, so it looks like they didn't cancel my order this time.

Please report back with results from your component testing. I am already pretty confident that you'll be impressed with the PC input. But I don't have any component sources at the moment and I'd like to know how the TV performs with component input...

Depending on what type of sources you have for component...I'm interested to see what the highest resolution you get to display well with the component input. I assume 1080i would be about the highest you could go? I'm hoping/assuming the component input will accept 720p and 1080i signals...but I'd like to hear some real world experience since I don't have anyway to test this myself...

Should be able to do it tonight. The HD Tivo can be manually switched between 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. I'll give that a try and also try the Component in with my progressive scan DVD. Console gaming will have to wait till the weekend as I don't have the component cable for my PS2 yet and my Xbox and GC is out on loan. PC testing will have to be done with my Laptop but it should be ok since I have used it with the Dell 2405 before and it can do 1920x1080 from both the VGA and DVI ports but I don't think even the X700 in my laptop can drive HL2 at native so will have to drop to a lower res and give it a try. I'll probably take one of the Shuttle boxes I have at my office home over the weekend and that will let me try gaming at the higher res and it also have a ATI HDTV wonder so that would be fun.

Thanks for the replys on the Z-5500 hum, I tried moving cables and different outlets. Took it back upstairs and could hear it until refridgerator kicked on (open living room/kitchen area). It is not a real loud hum by any means.



Has anyone with hum problems tried using a UPS to connect the TV and/or other AV equipment too? I have a big 2200 APC I connect the HTPC, tuner, projector... too. I also run all the power on one side of the rack and everything else on the other. It's smart to strive for separation of power and everything AV as best you can.

Another thought, is everything (all equipment) boded well to ground? I've not noticed a big benefit here, but it's supposed to be a smart thing to do. Just a thought...

Just got mine and set it up. It's a much better TV comparing to my 32" Olevia LT32HV, except I don't care much for stand. Yeah the menus suck and the stand is just ok, but the picture quality and the blacks are amazing. Haven’t checked out for any deadpixels, but I don’t care. Will be hooked up to my z552 MCE PC 24x7

[QUOTE=Wiz33]be fine. What a scare.


As Dan said. OTA signal thru the onboard ATSC tuner are all 720P at least on the info display. I did not have a chance to really compare station that is broadcasting in 1080i and those that was doing 720P. Will try to do that tonight to see if it's just a display bug or a limitation of the onboard tuner.

So if I have a OTA, I connect to the ATSC tuner to get the local HD? Any other programing that needs to take place?

Yes and no. THe connection is the easy part so just get a splitter for your OTA antenna and connect one to the ATSC tuner and one to the NTSC tuner. The confusing part is to get the channel scan to work. For the NTSC tuner, it pretty straight forwar, select the tuner using the AV source button then hit menu and find the auto scan. It's a bit more complicated for the ATSC. Use the PC source button to get to DTV (this maybe confusing for DirecTV user but in this case DTV refers to Digital TV or ATSC tuner), then push menu, then you have to select "Channel" and input the 4 digit code "0000" to access the channel function then you can do the auto scan.

Great!!! Thanks for the information The instruction manual is written by a third grader for this monitor and not much help. I can't wait to watch some HD to night.

I do have a DVI cable, but I was hoping to use the DVI for another component (Xbox360?). Is there any reason the VGA cable could not do 1920x1080? Maybe maybe the 9600 cannot?

FWIW the Xbox360 doesn't have a DVI or HDMI output, from all reports. In addition to component, though, it does have a VGA output. The PS3, OTOH, has (2) HDMI ports.

Does anyone have recommended calibrations for this set for the DVI and Component ports =)?

FWIW the Xbox360 doesn't have a DVI or HDMI output, from all reports. In addition to component, though, it does have a VGA output. The PS3, OTOH, has (2) HDMI ports.

Cool, thanks. I will just use the DVI and hope something can use the VGA. This TV has soo few inputs, I hate to waste one. I guess all console have the ability to use 3rd party VGA adaptors.

Right not I will use DVI for the HTPC.
Component to my Reciever (100Mhz switch) for the DVD player and maybe the PS2 or something else.
Save VGA for later.

I think I will send back my Comcast HD box, I never watch it and I'd love to get rid of things to simplify. I'm too used to watching things on SageTV, even if it's not HD.

Does anyone have recommended calibrations for this set for the DVI and Component ports =)?

That would be amazing, since I, too, will be primarily using DVI and component. Big thanks in advance for anyone who might be able to help out.. Biting my nails till Thurs at this point, I hate cross-country ground shipments; it's been since Aug 26 without any updates since the sucker left Calif.

Well From what I tested playing Halo 2 + forza on my Xbox at 480p and Soul Calibur 2 at 720p the component works just fine.

and I'm so so so so so so so so Very happy I dont get those STUPID BANDING Lines that I got with my 42" Vizio Plasma in 480p. Those annoyed the hell out of me and even Vizio's replacement set did that.

I'm pretty sure this is the same mount that Costco was selling:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/profile.cfm?ut=H&id=640ST&sg=FPSS

If you click the installation tab on the page, there are 3 installation sheets listed.
Here's the first one:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/product_docs/INSTR%20SHEET-201-9338-1-2.PDF

It looks like it has all the screws to mount it on a single stud, or concrete.

Woah, thanks, I've been tryign to find out more info on this thing using costco's model number, but Peerless didn't show any models that I could find easily and matched. I then went by looks, and I picked some that looked like the ones you linked, and the % tilt were the same and everything, I thought those were newer models of the same.. Anyyyways.. thanks :)

And I am kidna bum to find out it's 1 studded one, will that be enough? I don't want it to fall on me. And what I was asking was if there are any extra things I can buy to strenghten this mount and such. Like I was just scanning some wall mount posts, and theres stuff about toggles(no idea) and all this extraneous stuff. So you don't think I'l need any extra help for this mount to hold?

But on to the TV itself, I am kinda confused reading some of these posts. Does this thing have an hdmi AND a DVI input, seperately? Or is it the same input, you can just use either connection? From what I gather, DVI and HDMI are basicly the same thing except an extra point thing or 2.

Woah, thanks, I've been tryign to find out more info on this thing using costco's model number, but Peerless didn't show any models that I could find easily and matched. I then went by looks, and I picked some that looked like the ones you linked, and the % tilt were the same and everything, I thought those were newer models of the same.. Anyyyways.. thanks :)

And I am kidna bum to find out it's 1 studded one, will that be enough? I don't want it to fall on me. And what I was asking was if there are any extra things I can buy to strenghten this mount and such. Like I was just scanning some wall mount posts, and theres stuff about toggles(no idea) and all this extraneous stuff. So you don't think I'l need any extra help for this mount to hold?

But on to the TV itself, I am kinda confused reading some of these posts. Does this thing have an hdmi AND a DVI input, seperately? Or is it the same input, you can just use either connection? From what I gather, DVI and HDMI are basicly the same thing except an extra point thing or 2.

Same Input, Different modes

Ok here's my review :-p


Appearance wise the set looks nice.

The scalier/deinterlacer is not per my standard.

Cable TV is grainy ... which i didn't have in neither my Panasonic 50'' lcd nor 32'' CRT

I connected the same KISS dvd that i used with my 50'' pana. And the picture is noticeably worse.

There is no Panoramic wide screen for 4:3 material.... unless i didn't notice.

It's not a keeper for me because i really won't connect it to a PC.


I'm also noticing some ghosting... am i hallucinating??

Mine was delivered yesterday afternoon. It could be that I am brain damaged, but it also might be the God-awful instruction book. In any case, it took me a long time to even figure out how to get the thing to scan for both analog and digital channels.

My first takes:

Even though I have a good solid signal from all of the local channels, The picture quality on the analog OTA channels is really lousy. On the other hand, the OTA digital stuff in SD is not bad at all. And the SD feeds from my ancient Dish Network Model 5000 receiver are very good. Bascially, they all look about the same as they looked on my Toshiba 26" tube.

I will have to wait and see what the Dish HD stuff looks like when I have my new 921 receiver / DVR up and running tomorrow. I am also looking forward to seeing how the OTA HDTV pictures later on this evening.

It is going to take days before I feel comfortable with this set. Without a decent instruction manual, learning the commands and interactions is going to be a big cut-and-try exercise.

As for the sound quality, I have to say that I am not as bent out of shape about it as others in this thread seem to be. There are four or five equalization curves, including a 'user' designated one. To me, the 'Cinema' curve seemed pretty good. Perhaps some of the others have not stumbled upon this adjustment.

And I am kidna bum to find out it's 1 studded one, will that be enough? I don't want it to fall on me. And what I was asking was if there are any extra things I can buy to strenghten this mount and such. Like I was just scanning some wall mount posts, and theres stuff about toggles(no idea) and all this extraneous stuff. So you don't think I'l need any extra help for this mount to hold?

This TV only weighs 54 pounds without the stand, maybe even less without the speakers. The mount is rated at 80 pounds, so you should be fine on one stud. Be sure the screws are as close to the center of the stud as possible.

The main problem will be if the stud isn't in the right position where you want the TV. The horizontal mounting bars are only 474 mm wide, and the TV mounting holes are 425mm apart, so you won't have any room to slide the TV left or right on the mount.

I kind of like the "French cleat" idea for a wall mount between 2 studs, although it wouldn't tilt.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/frenchcleat.html

Ok here's my review :-p


Appearance wise the set looks nice.

The scalier/deinterlacer is not per my standard.

Cable TV is grainy ... which i didn't have in neither my Panasonic 50'' lcd nor 32'' CRT

I connected the same KISS dvd that i used with my 50'' pana. And the picture is noticeably worse.

There is no Panoramic wide screen for 4:3 material.... unless i didn't notice.

It's not a keeper for me because i really won't connect it to a PC.


Appearance wise was the only thing that's a let down IMHO, especially the stand. Isn't regular cable TV going to be always grainy?

I connected it to DVI (it has a weird plug, had to use their cable). I can get it to 1920x1980 30Hz, at 60Hz my screen is going nuts. I assume my lowly 9600NP can't handle that high a res. Sound right?

Appearance wise was the only thing that's a let down IMHO, especially the stand. Isn't regular cable TV going to be always grainy?


No ... the picture quality is better when i play it through my replaytv.

Which means the tuner isn't really the best of the bunch.


I think the ghosting is due to the scaler video proccessor because in 1920x1080 HTPC mode .. there's no ghosting or so it seems.

...As for the sound quality, I have to say that I am not as bent out of shape about it as others in this thread seem to be. There are four or five equalization curves, including a 'user' designated one. To me, the 'Cinema' curve seemed pretty good. Perhaps some of the others have not stumbled upon this adjustment.
Could you give me some pointers where to find these audio settings? I thought I had discovered every setup screen but apparently I'm missing one.

how many of you guys returning or keeping it?

Given the mount is a 200x200mm and the TV is 200mm vertical by 440mm horizontal mounting, we can probably get two pieces of flat metal (steel or thicker aluminum) abbout 18" long and mount them to the TV horizontally. This will allow us to connect them to the mount. I'd probably connect two vertical pieces of metal to the horizontal ones to add rigidity and to help keep the unit stable. Another option would be to use square tubing for the needed rigidity. You could also use a solid plate, but that will likely block some of the TV's vents as well as add weight to the unit.

A couple of the other items (not the TV) from my order shipped yesterday, so it looks like they didn't cancel my order this time.

Makes sense, as I started thinking about it I came to the same conclusion - figure out how to use that plate with a trip to the hardware store. Would certainly be cheaper than trying to find a plate. I should be able to handle that much metal work.

Thanks...

Well, I am now typing on my laptop running at 1920x1080 @60hz. at a distance of about 7-8 feet and the font is a bit small in the reply window to see clearly but the forum messages are fine when I set the desktop to 120 dpi fonts. I also have some video noise on a dark backbround but it may be the DVI to HDMI cable that comes with the HD Tivo. Will try with the one that comes with the unit next otherwise may have to invest in some good shield cables (just change to the DVI to HDMI that came with the panel and the noise is gone). The one concern I have is that the next lower supported widescreen resolution is 1280x720 (which I don't have on my laptop) so I have to see if I can come up with a hacked driver that let me customize my res.

Ok, onto the PC performance. Once I have the good cable hooked up. Things were as great as what others have said. I played a bunch of WMV HD samples both in 1080p and 720p and they are all stunning. I didn't have a chance to try HL2 yet but I ran City of Heroes in full screen and windowed mode and things works great. I did have a bit of clipping on fast movement but that's probably my laptop GPU hitting it's limit. It should be a lot of fun when I get the shuttle box home from the office with it's more powerful graphics card.

On to Component input, I switched my HD Tivo from HDMI to Component since I have that HDMI output problem with the HD Tivo (hopefully will update software later tonight). Since I mentioned in my earlier post that I won't be depending on the built-in ATSC tuner much. My observation is going to be mostly by playing recorded SD and HD programs, SD and HD Broadcast and switching the HD Tivo output format between 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i using the component input.

1st up, we got recorded SD shows in 4:3 mode:

480i looks preety good, not the quality of my 35" JVC tube but acceptable. 480p gives about the same detail but the color seems richer. 720p is about the same as 480p with a bit better detail and 1080i offers the most detail but the color is not as rich as with progressive scan. The difference is so fine that unless I freeze the picture (which does induce a bit of noise). You will have a hard time telling the difference. At 1080i it's very close to my CRT.

One problem that you will have with SD broadcast in widescreen format. You either leave it in 4:3 mode and get a reduce size image with black bar on top and bottom like on standard 4:3 set or you use one of the zoom function. Unfortunately none of them will give you a perfect stretch. The closest you'll probably get is the full zoom option but you'll lose a bit at top and bottom during the program and a lot when commercials are playing.

For HD recording, I selected a variety of programs. I got Discovery HD from DTV and OTA broadcast of network TV series like NCIS, Lost (which I was told most were upscan to 1080i from a lower source) to The Tonight Show (which is suppose to be true 1080i).

One thing for sure, I can definately tell the difference between the series type show and the live shows. Switching between the varies output mode produce about the same results on the color richness and the difference between each resolution jump is more dramatic.

This is getting a lot longer than I intended so I'll be brief on the live TV experience. I guess the HD Tivo deserve the credit as there is very little if any difference between the recording and live version of the same show. The easiest way I tried was to tune to a program live and hit pause, wait a few secong and hit play and watch from the buffer. I don't really notice any difference between the two.

Bottomline. switching betwen the varies output mode on component will produce pictures of different detail and color saturation but they all look very good and while the 480i image is not quite up to the standard of a CRT. The difference in not large enough at a distance of 7-8 feet for me to feel it's a problem.

This is also taking a lot longer than I thought, I started this message about 2 hours ago and have been writing as I tried thing out. I;m going to take a break and actually watch something on this thing for fun. I'll get to the DVD performance over component later (maybe when I get my xbox back this weekend)

how many of you guys returning or keeping it?

I'm definately keeping mine unless I ran into some big problem in the next few days. It works well enough for my purpose (part PC, part monitor and a small part TV).

I'm still waiting for shipment of my 8/23/05 order.

But I did take a look at the Sharp 37D5U which just appeared at my local Costco for $2000. It's hard to tell much at a glance, but the screen image didn't seem quite as good as the other models (which cost $1,000 more). It has an impressive feature set, but no PIP compared with the Sceptre. The screen pixel size is only 1366X768, not as good as the Sceptre. The speakers aren't detachable, which is a problem for me because I don't have the width available for speakers on the side in my setup. All the screen specs on the Sceptre are better than the Sharp, including resolution, contrast, brightness and response time. It looks like Sceptre has a much better screen, but lower quality everything else.

The Sharp web site sure is nicer than the Sceptre. It even has a PDF file of the full manual.

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelDetailedSpecs/0,1161,1494-,00.html

So I'll keep waiting for the Sceptre for now. But the new Sharp does seem like a good option for people not happy with the alleged OTA TV clunkiness of the Sceptre.

<<<snip>>> This is also taking a lot longer than I thought, I started this message about 2 hours ago and have been writing as I tried thing out. I;m going to take a break and actually watch something on this thing for fun. I'll get to the DVD performance over component later (maybe when I get my xbox back this weekend)

Thanks a million for an excellent review!

Just a word of caution regarding the Sharp, Philips or any other 37" TV sets from consummer companies.

I can't actually talk about the Sharp, but I tried to get the Philips 32" last weekend as a potential replacement for the Sceptre since I'm getting so many issues with mine. And while I was thoroughly pleased with the TV capabilities of the Philips, I was horrified by the total lack of computer capabilities:

1. It didn't support 1:1 pixel ratio via the HDMI inputs (so I couldn't get 1366X768).
2. While their documentation listed 1280X768 as a valid computer resolution, it didn't support it on either of my video cards.
3. The only two resolutions I was able to "see" something was 1280X720 and 1024X768. But 720 has a monstruous crop of about 20 pixels on all sides, and the 1024X768 was stretched with no apparent way to do pillar boxing.
4. As weird as it may seem, both my video card outputs looked like they were sending an analog signal on the DVI-HDMI cable (I was seeing some weird ghosting effect that I was used to see on analog VGA cable).

After a couple of hours testing with it, I gave up and got my money back and decided to keep the Sceptre for now.

All of this to warn you if you're looking for a substitute for the Sceptre and you're planning to also use it as a PC monitor, make sure to do a some research regarding it PC capabilities. I don't know about the Sharp... but the Philips models that Costco is selling right now are NOT PC friendly. :/

-eric

how many of you guys returning or keeping it?

Just unpacked mine tonite...10 minutes after getting OTA pictures (setup is really non-trivial!) the warden (wife) grabbed the remote & spent the entire evening transfixed watching PBS (boring TV) in 1080i. If I were to return the set, I'd be spending quality time with the dog...we're very pleased with the image quality/cost.

Based on earlier posts, I never even bothered to unwrap the Sceptre speakers--I temporarily connected some KLH (el cheapos) bookshelf speakers & sound seems to be fine.

A big thanks to all the great posters about the pros/cons of this unit and the details for setup. Whoever said the manual was crap clearly was understating the case. (I'm nominating it for the worst owner manual Hall of Shame.) I still have a few questions, but until I get the remote out off my wife's sweaty paw, I can't finish setting it up properly.

A few quick questions--is there any UL certification on your unit? (not on mine...)
Also, it'd be interesting to see roughly how many units have been shipped. I think we can estimate based on the serial numbers. Mine's 531A1001SC2201.

Thanks again for all the collective wisdom!

but the Philips models that Costco is selling right now are NOT PC friendly. :/

-eric

why? I was looking to get the one for 2.5k

why? I was looking to get the one for 2.5k

Did you read my post at all? :) Both 32" and 37" have the same circuitry, and thus the same PC connection problems. Consider yourself warned.

-eric

why? I was looking to get the one for 2.5k

1366x768 is just not a friendly PC resolution, you'll most likely have to hack you driver to get it. Also, most HDMI input (unless they have a native option) overscan the input and then crop to fit the screen that mean even if you can get 1366x768 out of your videocard. unless the unit have a true native option under HDMI or DVI input. you still will not get a native 1:1 image.

1366x768 is just not a friendly PC resolution, you'll most likely have to hack you driver to get it. Also, most HDMI input (unless they have a native option) overscan the input and then crop to fit the screen that mean even if you can get 1366x768 out of your videocard. unless the unit have a true native option under HDMI or DVI input. you still will not get a native 1:1 image.

Yep...I had snagged the Proview 32" earlier and was amazed to find the utter lack of "acceptable" pc onnectivity with it. After doing some more research I found that many of the LCDTV's have the same lack of pc connectivity.

Another reason I'm so happy with the Sceptre. I was almost hopeful when I saw the Sharp 37" that costco is just getting in because it says it has a dot-by-dot mode for pc use. I assumed this would mean a 1:1 pixel mapping. But when looking through the manual it lists 1280x768 as the highest supported resolution from a pc. So I'd be interested to know if you could actually 1:1 pixel map the TV to 1366x768 and the manual just doesn't state it as a supported resolution...or if the dot-by-dot mode is not really 1:1 pixel mapping. But I digress...

Bottom line...its seems hard to find GOOD (good meaning 1:1 pixel mapping) pc connectivity options on many LCDTV's out there...so I'm glad the Sceptre has good, no amazing, support for pc use!

Returned the Spectre today and picked up the Sharp. I thought I could deal with not watching cable tv but was wrong. (I finally realized after all this I am about 50/50 TV/PC guy). Spectre is great as a monitor, horrible as a TV. Picked the Sharp over the Phillips 37 because the Phillips doesn't have as wide viewing angle and didn't seem as computer friendly. Phillips seemed slightly less pixelated. Must say Phillips 37 look awesome on display at Costco with Zoom, but also saw it with regular tv and I had a hard telling if the sharp or phillips looked better. Powerstrip'ed the Sharp to native 1366x768 and looks great to me. Surely not 1920x1080, but colors look better, Spectre colors seemed washed out in comparison or could just be that I didn't properly calibrate it. HD OTA did look nice and clear on the Spectre, but again colors not always super brilliant. As a test I ran media center live tv through both the sharp and the spectre in pc mode and the spectre still looked awful for tv and the sharp looked good (I was hoping to just watch tv on pc media center and keep the spectre). If you never will watch TV or cable anyone would be happy with the Spectre. I wanted the flexibility to watch TV or play on my pc equally and am now very happy with the sharp, especially for the price. I had both set up side by side and took a few pics but I don't know how to post pics on this forum.

I, for one, am quite satisfied with SD on this monitor from my Zenith HDSat520, set @ 1080i output. Good SD is quite good and bad SD is quite bad. There is a modicum of bad SD in what I warch, so, for me, a keeper. Could someone please explain why the monitor's display is at 1792X1008, however?

Thank you very much

Fury

Srgtfury,

Looks like exactly a 3.3333% overscan cut-off on each side (64 pixels left and right, 36 pixels up and down). I wouldn't be alarmed by it though, as you probably don't want to see that data anyway, as most of the time, that data is black on broadcast and sometimes, there is analog CC information at the top of the image that looks like random white lines.

That's yet another option that's missing from the Sceptre (to be able to turn that on and off). At the least, they have it turned off on the DVI "option" so that there's no cropping on a computer.

I'm curious, which input did you put it into? Component?

-eric

Hi Eric,

I am using the DVI input.

Also, I am having trouble getting the VGA input to dsiplay more than 166X1200 from my Laptop, with 2nd monitor set at 1920X1080. I see proper image, at low res) on bootup and then the desktop, with the central XP image on blue bacjground, but no taskbar or icons and, while the laptop functions fine, I don't get any change on the Sceptre's image. When I 1st tried the same laptop, everything worked fine. Currently have the SCeptre as 2nd monitor in settings.

Any help appreciated.

Thank you very much

Fury

Just a word of caution regarding the Sharp, Philips or any other 37" TV sets from consummer companies.

I can't actually talk about the Sharp, but I tried to get the Philips 32" last weekend as a potential replacement for the Sceptre since I'm getting so many issues with mine. And while I was thoroughly pleased with the TV capabilities of the Philips, I was horrified by the total lack of computer capabilities:

1. It didn't support 1:1 pixel ratio via the HDMI inputs (so I couldn't get 1366X768).
2. While their documentation listed 1280X768 as a valid computer resolution, it didn't support it on either of my video cards.
3. The only two resolutions I was able to "see" something was 1280X720 and 1024X768. But 720 has a monstruous crop of about 20 pixels on all sides, and the 1024X768 was stretched with no apparent way to do pillar boxing.
4. As weird as it may seem, both my video card outputs looked like they were sending an analog signal on the DVI-HDMI cable (I was seeing some weird ghosting effect that I was used to see on analog VGA cable).

After a couple of hours testing with it, I gave up and got my money back and decided to keep the Sceptre for now.

All of this to warn you if you're looking for a substitute for the Sceptre and you're planning to also use it as a PC monitor, make sure to do a some research regarding it PC capabilities. I don't know about the Sharp... but the Philips models that Costco is selling right now are NOT PC friendly. :/

-eric

Thanks for the info. The new Sharp does seem to have good PC connectivity according to the manual. That is, it has a "Normal" and a "Dot by Dot" view mode for PC as well as TV signals. Normal zooms to fit the vertical, with sidebars if needed, while Dot by Dot is just that. Dot by Dot sounds useful for really telling a 1080i signal from a 720p or 480 signal. Presumably, the 1080i would be overscanned a little.

But still, the picture didn't look that great to me on the Sharp, and the screen pixel size is smaller. My ATI 9800 card does have 1360x768 (not 1366x768), which is "close enough for government work."

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelDetailedSpecs/0,1161,1494-,00.html

I'm still waiting for shipment of my 8/23/05 order.

But I did take a look at the Sharp 37D5U which just appeared at my local Costco for $2000. It's hard to tell much at a glance, but the screen image didn't seem quite as good as the other models (which cost $1,000 more). It has an impressive feature set, but no PIP compared with the Sceptre. The screen pixel size is only 1366X768, not as good as the Sceptre. The speakers aren't detachable, which is a problem for me because I don't have the width available for speakers on the side in my setup. All the screen specs on the Sceptre are better than the Sharp, including resolution, contrast, brightness and response time. It looks like Sceptre has a much better screen, but lower quality everything else.

The Sharp web site sure is nicer than the Sceptre. It even has a PDF file of the full manual.





Sharp use to be one of the best, but they don't seem to be keeping up with others as far as performance goes. They've added cable card, ATSC..., but. I ordered the Sceptre. Hope it was a good choice.

So I'll keep waiting for the Sceptre for now. But the new Sharp does seem like a good option for people not happy with the alleged OTA TV clunkiness of the Sceptre.

Has anyone tried to see if this follows the VESA standard for wall mounting yet, or will we have to buy a custom Sceptre kit?

Hmm when I called sceptre a while back they said it was a standard 200mm x 100mm VESA. The guy was rather rude when I asked him if he was sure.

me: So if I were to use a 100mm x 100mm VESA wall mount it wont work?
tech: Didn't I just tell you that it's 200mm x 100mm VESA standard...
me. I'm just checking...

I e-mailed Sceptre re; The Thread Size for mounting yourself, and got this back.

4M

Johnnie Green
Sr. Retail Specialist/Project Executive
800-788-2878x1114
Fax: 626-369-3488
www.sceptre.com



According to the Sceptre and Costco web sites, it's 440mm X 200mm

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Specifications/spec_X37SV-Naga.htm

I haven't seen a VESA standard for large screens. All of the large wall mounts I've seen are adjustable. The one Costco sells has 2 vertical arms with holes at various distances, and the arms slide horizontally on a bar, so they'll fit any horizontal distance including 440mm. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a mount for this tv.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070514&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4277&hierPath=79*4277*





I'm pretty sure this is the same mount that Costco was selling:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/profile.cfm?ut=H&id=640ST&sg=FPSS

If you click the installation tab on the page, there are 3 installation sheets listed.
Here's the first one:

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/product_docs/INSTR%20SHEET-201-9338-1-2.PDF

It looks like it has all the screws to mount it on a single stud, or concrete.


As an update, and as (unfortunately) a confirmation of my pessimism re: using the Peerless/Costco wall mounts, they will likely NOT work with the Sceptre 37" without adapter plates. As I posted earlier, the Peerless mounts do not appear to be wide enough to accomodate the 440mm (17.3") width of the Sceptre mounting screws.


The SF640 (flat) is 19.25" max width, and the ST640 is 18.65" max width. I do not know that the Sceptre 440mm (17.32") mounting screw placement allows enough clearance for either bracket to fit when accounting for centering the screws in the adapter brackets and the lips that keep the unit from sliding off the ends of the wall plates.


The Costco unit (the Peerless FPT-220) and the Peerless ST640 are very similiar but the ST640 is rated for 22-49" screens and 150lbs, while the FPT-220 is only rated for 22-37" screens and 80lbs. The only other apparent difference is that the FPT-220 uses a latch to secure the mounting brackets to the wall plate while the ST640 uses a set screw. But most importantly, they are both only 18.65" (474mm) wide.

I just received my ST640 and as I feared, the construction only allows a maximum 16.75" (425mm) distance between the center of the bracket mounting holes when the brackets are extended to their maximum width (let alone not allowing any of the intended left/right adjustment). As the Sceptre reports to have a 440mm (17.3") hole spacing, these two Peerless models do not appear as if they will fit the Sceptre without adapters (do you think anyone at Costco actually checked before posting the link on the Sceptre 37" sale page?).

The Peerless SF640 (flat - no tilt) may work without an adapter plate as it is listed as 19.25" max width, but it also has metal tabs to keep the brackets on the wall mount wich may result in a similiar 16.75 (425mm) max hole width.

I have looked into a number of wall mounting brackets, and it appears that to accomodate the extra-wide Sceptre 37" 440mm mounting width, you may need to move up to the much larger brackets such as those for > 50" plasmas etc.

Just a word of caution regarding the Sharp, Philips or any other 37" TV sets from consummer companies.

I can't actually talk about the Sharp, but I tried to get the Philips 32" last weekend as a potential replacement for the Sceptre since I'm getting so many issues with mine. And while I was thoroughly pleased with the TV capabilities of the Philips, I was horrified by the total lack of computer capabilities:

1. It didn't support 1:1 pixel ratio via the HDMI inputs (so I couldn't get 1366X768).
2. While their documentation listed 1280X768 as a valid computer resolution, it didn't support it on either of my video cards.
3. The only two resolutions I was able to "see" something was 1280X720 and 1024X768. But 720 has a monstruous crop of about 20 pixels on all sides, and the 1024X768 was stretched with no apparent way to do pillar boxing.
4. As weird as it may seem, both my video card outputs looked like they were sending an analog signal on the DVI-HDMI cable (I was seeing some weird ghosting effect that I was used to see on analog VGA cable).

After a couple of hours testing with it, I gave up and got my money back and decided to keep the Sceptre for now.

All of this to warn you if you're looking for a substitute for the Sceptre and you're planning to also use it as a PC monitor, make sure to do a some research regarding it PC capabilities. I don't know about the Sharp... but the Philips models that Costco is selling right now are NOT PC friendly. :/

-eric

Thanks. Glad I didn't buy one, It was tempting after seeing the $1500 32" Philips.

[QUOTE=Wiz33]The one concern I have is that the next lower supported widescreen resolution is 1280x720 (which I don't have on my laptop) so I have to see if I can come up with a hacked driver that let me customize my res.QUOTE]

Many people (including me) use Powerstrip to screate custom resolutions. You can find it here: http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm
Support depends on the video chipset you use.

So, are you keeping the sharp or is it still up in the air for you. I haven't got the delivery of my scepture but I do plan to buy sharp and bring it home tonite..just to test it out.
For me, its going to be 75% TV and 25% PC usage.

Returned the Spectre today and picked up the Sharp. I thought I could deal with not watching cable tv but was wrong. (I finally realized after all this I am about 50/50 TV/PC guy). Spectre is great as a monitor, horrible as a TV. Picked the Sharp over the Phillips 37 because the Phillips doesn't have as wide viewing angle and didn't seem as computer friendly. Phillips seemed slightly less pixelated. Must say Phillips 37 look awesome on display at Costco with Zoom, but also saw it with regular tv and I had a hard telling if the sharp or phillips looked better. Powerstrip'ed the Sharp to native 1366x768 and looks great to me. Surely not 1920x1080, but colors look better, Spectre colors seemed washed out in comparison or could just be that I didn't properly calibrate it. HD OTA did look nice and clear on the Spectre, but again colors not always super brilliant. As a test I ran media center live tv through both the sharp and the spectre in pc mode and the spectre still looked awful for tv and the sharp looked good (I was hoping to just watch tv on pc media center and keep the spectre). If you never will watch TV or cable anyone would be happy with the Spectre. I wanted the flexibility to watch TV or play on my pc equally and am now very happy with the sharp, especially for the price. I had both set up side by side and took a few pics but I don't know how to post pics on this forum.

Guys:

This might be the most stupid Q, but how are you all connectiong your PC/Laptop to this TV? I keep hearing about resolutions and 1:1 mapping but have no clue how to correctly send picture from laptop to TV. Would appreciate your educating me on this topic

Hey all,
I got my Sceptre 37" last night and ran it through the paces. VGA at 1920x1080 is awesome, but my HDMI -> DVI picture is total crap. I see green ghosting on black letters and red, blue and green vertical lines when playing back DVDs and recorded HD content.

Any ideas on what could be going on? I used the DVI port on my Radeon 9800 pro first, then switched to the 9800 mobility on my laptop.

Both computers show perfect images when using the vga cable.

I tried out the component and it was fine as well.

Is there a way to test whether it's the monitor or the cable that's hosed (or both?)

Thanks,

-n00b

Sceptre X37SV Naga vs. Sharp Aquos LC-37D5U

We have both panels here now…side by side, and I must say that I’m far more pleased with the Sharp. Costco (Torrance CA) did get them in, and they disappeared as fast as they got them in yesterday. My very quick juxtaposition between the two:

The packaging of each was superb, although the Sharp, with its attached speakers was just that much easier to set up.

The Sharp manual is probably 2 pounds. 8.5 x 11 and a good ¾” thick, compared to the tiny manual that comes with the Sceptre. The Sharp is infinitely easier to read and more detailed.

The Sharp menus are infinitely better than the Sceptre. Smaller, finer graphics, and offer more options, with it’s built in TV Guide.

The Sceptre has PIP….I haven’t found it on the Sharp, and am assuming it doesn’t have it, although the Sceptre’s wasn’t exactly great, with it’s limited contrasting inputs.

Remote Control on the Sharp is wonderful, and has 4 buttons for ‘sets’ of favorite channels, and illuminates. The Sceptre’s was just ok.

The Sharp has more inputs, an extra Component, and separate DVI and HDMI inputs.

The Sceptre certainly has more resolution with its true HD 1920x1080….and as a PC monitor obviously takes the cake over the Sharp’s 1366 x 768, but considering that the Sceptre may be downresing 1080i broadcast content to 720p and then upresing again, as a television, they’d be tied in that respect.

The colors are perfect on the Sharp, and most A/V modes are, unlike the Sceptre, adjustable. I’m not happy with any preset on the Sceptre, other than the USER which I was able to adjust. The blacks are handled much better on the Sharp, and DVD and SD TV content looks better. Those A/V presets on the Sceptre are separate, where the Sharp combines audio and video into one preset….Cinema…Standard…etc.

The Sharp’s input selection is on a quick menu, unlike the Sceptre’s two different cycling input selections.

The Sharp has Cable Card, and 3 RF inputs. One additional over the Sceptre used for digital cable.

The Sharp changes channels much faster, and combines the Analog and Digital channels into one selection method. Basically, you go from Channel 4 (analog) right to 4.1 and 4.2, then onto 5.0 and 5.1 etc. If you wanted to skip the analog, you’d just not add them to your favorites.

The Sceptre is MUCH brighter….almost too bright in a dark room, but in daylight, easier to see.

The Sharp goes black when selecting an unused input, unlike the Sceptre that goes full blue. It also has a video off mode, where the sound stays on, but the lamps seem to shut down.

The Sharp has S-Video output, with aspect options, although I haven’t tried it yet. The Sceptre has composite output, which I did try, but it looked pretty bad.

Speaking of Aspect (screen format)…The Sharp, unlike the Sceptre, works well in Auto mode, and after fiddling, each of the Analog and Digital channels formatted correctly by themselves. On the Sceptre, I was constantly manually adjusting.

The TV Guide has a remote blaster (LED) so with its TV Guide, you can have your DVD or VHS recorder record content automatically. My TV Guide hasn’t filled itself with data yet, but from what I’ve read, it’s very good. It’ll turn the TV on or switch channels automatically too if you select that option. I do wonder what will happen to the TV Guide when the Analog channels go black after next year. It seems, and maybe I’m wrong, to use the Analog tuner to get its info.

The Scepter came with lots of cables…including a HDMI to DVI. The Sharp has none, other than a power cord.

Finally for the sound. There is a world of difference between the two. The Sharp is very good for a TV. The speakers are part of the cabinet giving them more enclosure area, and thus the bass, with its little ports as well, sounds much better, and the highs cleaner. As we all know, the Sceptre is horrible in this department. The Sharp’s digital optical output is accessible too, although I haven’t hooked it up yet. To get to the Sceptre's optical output, you have to open the case.

To summarize; the Sceptre, as a PC monitor (with higher res and specs), and a monitor that would be used with some other digital input, is great. But as far as their use as a television goes, the Sharp wins hands down. I’ll be keeping the Sharp, even at $2000 (Costco), a bit more money.

Again, this is a very quick evaluation….just to get some additional info out. From what I’ve read, the Sharp is being replaced by the LC-37D4U, with quicker response time, but to be honest, I had no problem with its response time. There is a Quick Shot mode that they say quickens it.

So I too am curious what is the better set Sharp or Sceptre. I love my Sceptre but I have always heard the Sharp has a better picture.

thanks for the review it popped up just before I sent my post. I'm going to check it out today Sharp that is.

As an update, and as (unfortunately) a confirmation of my pessimism re: using the Peerless/Costco wall mounts, they will likely NOT work with the Sceptre 37" without adapter plates. As I posted earlier, the Peerless mounts do not appear to be wide enough to accomodate the 440mm (17.3") width of the Sceptre mounting screws.

The Costco unit (the Peerless FPT-220) and the Peerless ST640 are very similiar but the ST640 is rated for 22-49" screens and 150lbs, while the FPT-220 is only rated for 22-37" screens and 80lbs. The only other apparent difference is that the FPT-220 uses a latch to secure the mounting brackets to the wall plate while the ST640 uses a set screw. But most importantly, they are both only 18.65" (474mm) wide.

I just received my ST640 and as I feared, the construction only allows a maximum 16.75" (425mm) distance between the center of the bracket mounting holes when the brackets are extended to their maximum width (let alone not allowing any of the intended left/right adjustment). As the Sceptre reports to have a 440mm (17.3") hole spacing, these two Peerless models do not appear as if they will fit the Sceptre without adapters (do you think anyone at Costco actually checked before posting the link on the Sceptre 37" sale page?).

The Peerless SF640 (flat - no tilt) may work without an adapter plate as it is listed as 19.25" max width, but it also has metal tabs to keep the brackets on the wall mount wich may result in a similiar 16.75 (425mm) max hole width.

I have looked into a number of wall mounting brackets, and it appears that to accomodate the extra-wide Sceptre 37" 440mm mounting width, you may need to move up to the much larger brackets such as those for > 50" plasmas etc.

Hmm, that's depressing. The spec sheet here says 80 pound capacity, and a bracket width of 474 mm. There may be some model number confusion, but this looks like the Costco one that was on sale before.

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/product_docs/TD%20SHEET-201-9672-1-1.PDF

Did you try putting the mounting bars on the bracket and sliding them as far apart as possible? It seems like the holes might make it out to 440mm if the total width is 474mm.

Guys:

This might be the most stupid Q, but how are you all connectiong your PC/Laptop to this TV? I keep hearing about resolutions and 1:1 mapping but have no clue how to correctly send picture from laptop to TV. Would appreciate your educating me on this topic

Have you ever hooked up an external monitor to your laptop? it about the same but you better hope your laptop can support 1920x1080.

You have two options. If your laptop does not have a DVI out, You can go with the VGA port which just work like any VGA port on a computer monitor. Depending on your laptop vidoecard and a good quality cable, it can be as good or very close to what you will get thru the DVI.

If your laptop have a DVI out and you don't need the DVI/HGMI port for some other input (Cable/sat receiver, etc) then use the included DVI to HDMI cable and select DVI under PC source.

Hmm, that's depressing. The spec sheet here says 80 pound capacity, and a bracket width of 474 mm. There may be some model number confusion, but this looks like the Costco one that was on sale before.

http://www.peerlessindustries.com/product_docs/TD%20SHEET-201-9672-1-1.PDF

Did you try putting the mounting bars on the bracket and sliding them as far apart as possible? It seems like the holes might make it out to 440mm if the total width is 474mm.


It is depressing since I thought I had finally found a mounting bracket that would support current (30") and future (maybe 37") models AND allow for left/right adjustment out of the box.

Yes, the Costco model is identical to the Peerless FPT-220 (Costco lists it as the D-FPT-220) and is the same width (475mm~474mm) as the ST640 that I just received. The 425mm (16.75") is the max. distance between the hole centers of the vertical support brackets (they then hit the welds of the cross supports). Remember, the vertical support bracket itself is 1.25" wide - so centering the support hole loses 5/8 each side for a total of 1 1/4" before even hitting the support welds.

Unless there is an unforseen difference between the construction of the 3 (slightly) different model numbers, I don't see how the Peerless models can fit the Sceptre 37". (Again, except for perhaps the SF640 version - anyone care to purchase one and report back your findings?)

It should be relatively easy to make an adapter, basically a sheet of metal with holes to accomodate the Sceptre 440mmx200mm mounts and screws welded in place for say a std. VESA 200mmx200mm mount...

Sceptre X37SV Naga vs. Sharp Aquos LC-37D5U


To summarize; the Sceptre, as a PC monitor (with higher res and specs), and a monitor that would be used with some other digital input, is great. But as far as their use as a television goes, the Sharp wins hands down. I’ll be keeping the Sharp, even at $2000 (Costco), a bit more money.



Have you hooked a pc up to the Sharp? I'm wondering if the sharp will 1:1 pixel map like the Sceptre does. The Sharp's manual says the highest resolution supported with a pc is 1280x768...is this true or can you get 1366x768 to display correctly?