For mounting problems, I recommend the French Cleat idea mentioned in the thread--cheap and fast, but not very "tiltable".

Thanks for this tip, Richard. I think the French Cleat approach is simple, cheap, easy to fab, easy to hang and super reliable. I have two weighty wall lamps that are hung this way. I had just forgotten this option. But it's absolutely the way to go for flat, parallel mounting. And it's the way I'm gonna go.

I'm appalled at what these bracket MFgrs get for a little low-tech hardware, and they're not gonna get it from me!

MY FINAL REVIEW: For HDTV, DVD movies and especially use as a honkin' PC monitor, this Sceptre is a keeper. I terms of it's internal ATSC tuner and its scaling circuitry and its curious lack of a digital audio out port (an external one anyway) and anemic manual, this set may be fairly thought of as a bit half-baked. But for those who can forgive its shortcomings and are willing to noodle out some workarounds or supplementary outboard electronics, it's still a deal.

Based on my experience with this set and Costco's Proview RX-326 deal before it, I would say that these initial offerings of a new model, not yet available anywhere else, are not unlike beta versions of software releases. Maybe these manufacturers are counting on us to discover and report the bugs, so they can get it right before putting it out there in traditional stores.

Or not.

1-800-Remotes has remote control units for the Sceptre X30SV-Naga. Does anyone know if these will work with the X37? They appear to be fairly different remotes but might generate the same IR codes.

Also, does anyone think that a universal remote compatible with the Phillips Pronto might be able to work with the X37?

You know I am thinking the same thing.. In the early reviews some people were saying the blacks were really good on this tv, but I think it's tempered down. I don't know of any difference outside of the hdmi input between the two now.. Anyone else give me a difference?

How you get the westinghouse for the same price through? I remember when this thing was on sale for 400 less, wish I pulled the trigger then.

Well best buy is selling the unit for 1,898.99, with tax I got it for 1,993.94. I payed 1984.21 including shipping and tax for the x37. Bestbuy does free shipping. So I don't minde a 9 dollar difference. Now I have a week to wait instead of 1-2 months. The week doesn't matter anyway since I'll be at work and school all week so I wont have time to fool around with the TV until Friday night (Sci-fi friday baby!) and the weekend (dvd movie time). When I ordered it this weekend bestbuy scheduled a special delivery date for friday.

Hi Ynos,

I thought that if your Pronto learned each command and the file were saved, it could then be available for edit/further manipulation. At least, that is what worked previously. Each command(function) would then have the discrete code represented in the Pronto's ir file.

Thank you very much

Fury
Maybe I'm not clear on this. I don't have a lot of experience working with the Pronto. If I understand you correctly, all you would be getting if I were to do what you say is the code for each button already included on the remote. That wouldn't be very useful for anyone that already owns the Sceptre and a programmable remote (except possibly for those who were missing the remote).

What I would like are the hidden codes, if any, that aren't included on the remote. For example, a code that will only turn on the set and another that will only turn off the set instead of the current code that toggles the set on and off. (There are hidden codes for Sonys that will do this.) Even better would be a code that switches the input to DTV directly (with one press) and another that switches it to DVI.

Maybe I'm not clear on this. I don't have a lot of experience working with the Pronto. If I understand you correctly, all you would be getting if I were to do what you say is the code for each button already included on the remote. That wouldn't be very useful for anyone that already owns the Sceptre and a programmable remote (except possibly for those who were missing the remote).

Those codes, learned by a Pronto are exactly what I would like to have. Since I don't have a Pronto or a Crestron learner at my disposal,, I cannot obtain Pronto format code or Crestron format code. Crestron code can be derived from the Pronto code in most circumstances through analysis and manipulation. The result can then be incorporated into Crestron software so that Crestron touchpanels/logic can drive the Septre.

What I would like are the hidden codes, if any, that aren't included on the remote. For example, a code that will only turn on the set and another that will only turn off the set instead of the current code that toggles the set on and off. (There are hidden codes for Sonys that will do this.) Even better would be a code that switches the input to DTV directly (with one press) and another that switches it to DVI.

These "service" type codes would be a bonus-please share if you find them.

Thank you very much

Fury

(sorry if this has been asked before, I searched and couldnt find it mentioned)

I only have standard analog composite and S-video inputs to try out my Sceptre right now. When I go to the menu I can not find any way to change any of the colors, tint, contrast etc. is there a way to do this?

On another note I have seen that this is possible on the Sharp 37".

Thanks in advance for any help.

[QUOTE=uc35]


Sceptre will not work with a standard 200,200 mount. The holes are more like 440,200. I had a universal Peerless 200,200 tilt mount and I got it to work with the Sceptre. What I did was, to purchase a steel bar with holes in it (48 inches long, ~1.5in wide, 1/8in thick, holes every 1 inch) at the hardware store. Cut that in two and then attach the two 24 inch long bar to the Peerless mount at the 200 holes with small bolts and nuts. The mount with extension bars then attach to the holes in the Sceptre with M5 screws. Works perfectly and the bars don't block the ventilation holes in the back of the TV.

Good idea for a hand-made adapter but I have a quick question. How do you keep the bolt heads that attach the extension bars to the Peerless mount from contacting/scraping the back of the Sceptre set? Did you use standoffs to clear the bolt heads? Did you bend the steel bars slightly?

I don't have the Sceptre 37" unit yet, but from the pictures it looked as if the back of the unit was relatively flat which I thought would cause the bolt heads of any adapter to hit the back of the unit when attaching the mounting screws.

Hi. I didn't find the Sceptre at my local Best Buy or on their website. Is this THE Best Buy or Best Buy Plasma you ordered it from? Thanks. Matt

(sorry if this has been asked before, I searched and couldnt find it mentioned)

I only have standard analog composite and S-video inputs to try out my Sceptre right now. When I go to the menu I can not find any way to change any of the colors, tint, contrast etc. is there a way to do this?

On another note I have seen that this is possible on the Sharp 37".

Thanks in advance for any help.

Use the picture button to change to user mode, then you can adjust them

Not working with universal remotes would be a deal breaker for me.
Can ANYONE with this unit verify if you can get a universal remote to work with it? At least by learning the codes from the remote.

If I where you, I would INSIST that they send me a comprehensive IR code list so you can use it with a universal remote untill they get you the actual remote. If you get the list, please post it here.

I can confirm that the remote works with learning remotes. I did have a problem programming the aspect button though. Not sure if this is related to running out of memory in my learning remote the fact that it's code isn't learnable. I was able to learn all the other funtions successfully though.

Hi. I didn't find the Sceptre at my local Best Buy or on their website. Is this THE Best Buy or Best Buy Plasma you ordered it from? Thanks. Matt

If your talking to me, I ordered the Westinghouse 37" not the sceptre. It looks like the Sceptre is complete sold out.

Anyone notice this problem with their Sceptre? Mine seems to lock up on me sometimes when viewing Channel 7 (ABC in Chicago) from the ATSC antenna. I haven't seen this problem with any other channel so I'm hoping it is something with their signal, but on the other hand I can't imagine HD sets locking up all over Chicago from their signal. Only the power button on the remote works once this happens, but it starts with the sound disappearing and then the set seems to hickup and then it comes back to the channel, but I still can't hear anything or change the channel or bring up any menus or anything. Turning the set off and then back on seems to solve the problem temporarily.

Not convinced I'm keeping this set unless they can get us firmware upgrades to address these issues.

Do they even sell these any more at costco? Can't find it on their website. Found the link to the TV on costco page but it says product is not available. Too bad. Sounds great. Might have to get the Westinghouse from Best Buy. Nothing down and two years interest free.

I ordered the 37" Sceptre on 8/25. The status on the costco web site has been "in progress" for the last two weeks. Today, I called customer service and was told that they have a delay with its supplier and will not be available until mid-October. I ask the rep why they did not notify me. She apologized and said that she will bring this matter to her supervisor's attention. I then asked her whether or not there is a subsitute item (I was hoping that they will let me take the Sharp at the same price). Her response was no, but they may reduce the price or give me a credit to compensate for the extra time that I waited, but it will be done only after it is shipped.
If a number of us, who have not received our order, call them, complain and ask for compensation or subsitution, may be they will make a decision on how to compensate us sooner. Let us know what the outcomes are. Thanks.

I ordered on 8/27 (they canceled my 8/26 order for no reason).
I just called Costco at 1-800-774-2678, waited about 20 min for a human to answer. Well, one answered, but the call didn't go very well. She didn't know the status of them getting new inventory. I asked if they could ship me the Sharp for the same price if there's no reasonable projection for getting the Sceptre's in. She gave me some bull about my order is such that I'm dealing directly with the supplier, that they can't make substitutions... I told her, I'm doing business with you, I ordered from Costco, not the supplier. She started getting short with me. She said something like "Well, do you want me to get status and call you back" or not. "or not" added by me but implied in her voice/attitude. She effectively told me that I can cancel and order something else on line... DUH! Hell, I could have picked up the Sharp 2 weeks ago in the store, without the $200 shipping.

There was no indication of a discount or credit as you indicate above. Do you know who you spoke with? I didn't get this gal's name, but I will if and when she calls me back. I'll likely request to speak with here supervisor when she does.

I'll keep you all informed on this. It probably wouldn't hurt for the rest of you waiting for your order to call in as well.

I’m one unhappy executive member!

Cheers :mad:

Anyone notice this problem with their Sceptre? Mine seems to lock up on me sometimes when viewing Channel 7 (ABC in Chicago) from the ATSC antenna. I haven't seen this problem with any other channel so I'm hoping it is something with their signal, but on the other hand I can't imagine HD sets locking up all over Chicago from their signal. Only the power button on the remote works once this happens, but it starts with the sound disappearing and then the set seems to hickup and then it comes back to the channel, but I still can't hear anything or change the channel or bring up any menus or anything. Turning the set off and then back on seems to solve the problem temporarily.

Not convinced I'm keeping this set unless they can get us firmware upgrades to address these issues.


No lockup on any of my local HD channel so far.

Do they even sell these any more at costco? Can't find it on their website. Found the link to the TV on costco page but it says product is not available. Too bad. Sounds great. Might have to get the Westinghouse from Best Buy. Nothing down and two years interest free.


Costco ran out of the initial shipment, next shipment is due Oct according to some.

I'll keep you all informed on this. It probably wouldn't hurt for the rest of you waiting for your order to call in as well.

I’m one unhappy executive member!

Cheers :mad:

Yeah I just canceled my order. I called and they said another month probably before they get any more. A better deal will come before then, and I am keeping an eye out on that westinghouse. The price at Best Buy is fuctuating up and down to just about the same range as the spectre. And I don't want to miss 1/5th of the NFL season already.. gonna see about that westinhouse before sunday..

I ordered on 8/27 (they canceled my 8/26 order for no reason).
I just called Costco at 1-800-774-2678, waited about 20 min for a human to answer. Well, one answered, but the call didn't go very well. She didn't know the status of them getting new inventory. I asked if they could ship me the Sharp for the same price if there's no reasonable projection for getting the Sceptre's in. She gave me some bull about my order is such that I'm dealing directly with the supplier, that they can't make substitutions... I told her, I'm doing business with you, I ordered from Costco, not the supplier. She started getting short with me. She said something like "Well, do you want me to get status and call you back" or not. "or not" added by me but implied in her voice/attitude. She effectively told me that I can cancel and order something else on line... DUH! Hell, I could have picked up the Sharp 2 weeks ago in the store, without the $200 shipping.

There was no indication of a discount or credit as you indicate above. Do you know who you spoke with? I didn't get this gal's name, but I will if and when she calls me back. I'll likely request to speak with here supervisor when she does.

I'll keep you all informed on this. It probably wouldn't hurt for the rest of you waiting for your order to call in as well.

I’m one unhappy executive member!

Cheers :mad:


I didn't get the name of the person that I spoke to. She put me on hold to talk to a supervisor. May be the supplier delay and discount/credit comes from the supervisor. If anyone need to call them again, after you enter the order number, press 3 to change order. You should be able to talk to a live person very quickly.
Why is your shipping so much? I live in NYC and the shipping is only $77.
I saw a 37" Polaroid LCD HDTV at Circuit City for $1800. May be I will go there this weekend to check it out.

I didn't get the name of the person that I spoke to. She put me on hold to talk to a supervisor. May be the supplier delay and discount/credit comes from the supervisor. If anyone need to call them again, after you enter the order number, press 3 to change order. You should be able to talk to a live person very quickly.
Why is your shipping so much? I live in NYC and the shipping is only $77.
I saw a 37" Polaroid LCD HDTV at Circuit City for $1800. May be I will go there this weekend to check it out.

My shipping for the Sceptre was only ~$75. The $200 I refered too was what they show for shipping of the Sharp. I wonder why it's still white glove.

I'll likely wait a while. I could make good use of the Westinghouse as all my sources are external. I liked the idea of built in tuners in the event of a large scale power outage/ Earthquake... So I could get some OTA coverage with my UPS powering just the TV.

is it normal for black areas to show up as green sometimes? Is this a crappy encode problem? a problem how the tv handles blacks?

Methinks I should buy Avia or something.

I'm a bit of a rookie with this HD stuff. Plus I am not using this set with a PC. I am attempting to use the Sceptre with a new (DIRECTV HR10-250 HDTV TiVo DVR). I am trying to get the HDMI link from the DVR to feed the Sceptre (HDMI to HDMI). I was also hoping to feed the Sceptre via component links from a Denon DVD2200. The problem I have is that the HDMI link brings up nothing. The only way the DVR works on the Sceptre is via component links. The picture is less than stellar. My 5 year old Sony Trinitron (CRT) looks better! I have not yet progressed to see how the DVD player looks. If I can't get better results using the HDMI input from the DVR I will take the Sceptre back. I have seen lots of descriptions in these posts of success with DVI to HDMI feeds (PC), but nothing describing HDMI to HDMI. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers!

I've got my new Toshiba progressive DVD hooked up with HDMI cable (using an adapter at one end). It works great. You need to input the HDMI signal using the PC source button. It should work fine. You might have to setup the TIVO for HDMI output.

Amazingly, my missing remote control arrived by priority mail from Sceptre yesterday only four days after I emailed and called their Customer Service. We recommend that if your set didn't arrive with the remote that you call and email Sceptre with cc to customerservice at Costco which is what we did.

After working our way through the not-so-intuitively-obvious manual and on-screen menus, I connected our rabbit ears to the ATSC input and scanned for local HD channels. To our amazement, our local NBC channel was broadcasting in HD. The quality is excellent and far superior than our usual SD reception which is snowy. We are in a fringe area so we didn't expect to get anything over the ATSC receiver.

All in all, we are very satisfied with this Sceptre despite our initial frustrations over not having a remote. We have no dead pixels and the quality is comparable to the best we have seen at our local electronics stores.

Thanks to all of you for your help with set-up specs, etc.

Since many people here also bought the Sharp LC-37D5U, I am asking this question here.
has anyone been able to get the TV Guide listings to download like they say they should? I am using just OTA content, no cable or satellite.

For wall mounting, I picked up the Vantage Point rotating mount at Best Buy for $136. Then a flat bar stock of aluminum at Lowes (Home Depot has as well), Get the thick stuff so it doesn't flex. 48" length cut into two 20" lengths and mark holes on mount and holes on TV, then mount them horizontally. Vantage point hardware has several metric sizes, I think it was the 5mm size that fit, but with the included spacers you will need longer screws. I went with 30mm length, 25mm may work. You also need some nuts and washers to mount the bar stock to the mount, I used the largest metric screws, but some bolts to allow access with wrench would have been better.

It takes two people to get the TV and mount up and onto the wall bracket (which uses only 1 stud), 4 large screws. Make sure you find the center of the stud.

It was not too difficult.

While at Best Buy, saw the westinghouse had been dropped to 1799. Clerk asked if I needed help and I mentioned the drop in price but that I got one from Costco, he asked to sell me DirectTV tuner/or DVR and I said I was using Media Center. He asked "What is that", oh well, he was still friendly, unlike some.

By the way I have heard of DirectTV HD DVRs basically for free. People call Customer Retention and get them for $299 less $99 instant, and $99 mail-in, also some free programming. Don't pay the $600 or whatever it is. Supposedly, change to MPEG-4 will not cost consumers, I think I'll wait at least until locals are also offered. If I can get ATSC antenna working, may stay with that.

Also if you want some sort of movie to play, the T2 Extreme at Best Buy is only $9.99. Has the HD WMV files on it, but they require DRM validation over internet. Still looks as good as you can get for movies.

I'm a bit of a rookie with this HD stuff. Plus I am not using this set with a PC. I am attempting to use the Sceptre with a new (DIRECTV HR10-250 HDTV TiVo DVR). I am trying to get the HDMI link from the DVR to feed the Sceptre (HDMI to HDMI). I was also hoping to feed the Sceptre via component links from a Denon DVD2200. The problem I have is that the HDMI link brings up nothing. The only way the DVR works on the Sceptre is via component links. The picture is less than stellar. My 5 year old Sony Trinitron (CRT) looks better! I have not yet progressed to see how the DVD player looks. If I can't get better results using the HDMI input from the DVR I will take the Sceptre back. I have seen lots of descriptions in these posts of success with DVI to HDMI feeds (PC), but nothing describing HDMI to HDMI. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers!

Ok. The HDMI on the HD Tivo may be bad (check the Tivoforum and you'll see tons of post to that effect). you can just use a PC for a test just to make sure that the HDMI on the Sceptre is working.

There is however another problem that you may face if you got your HDMI working on the Tivo. The problem is that the Tivo software has a bug that if it loses sync on HDMI (when you turn off the Sceptre), It locks up with a overheat warning message. Be sure to get the f version of the software (force a daily call if necessary) as it's suppose to help with the problem. I did the update but have not have time to switch the Tivo back to HDMI from component yet.

The problem lies with Tivo and not the Sceptre but the HDMI lockup doesn't happen with all HDMI device either so it's a mystery. For the latest problem and potential fixes, check the Tivo forum.

Amazingly, my missing remote control arrived by priority mail from Sceptre yesterday only four days after I emailed and called their Customer Service. We recommend that if your set didn't arrive with the remote that you call and email Sceptre with cc to customerservice at Costco which is what we did.

After working our way through the not-so-intuitively-obvious manual and on-screen menus, I connected our rabbit ears to the ATSC input and scanned for local HD channels. To our amazement, our local NBC channel was broadcasting in HD. The quality is excellent and far superior than our usual SD reception which is snowy. We are in a fringe area so we didn't expect to get anything over the ATSC receiver.

All in all, we are very satisfied with this Sceptre despite our initial frustrations over not having a remote. We have no dead pixels and the quality is comparable to the best we have seen at our local electronics stores.

Thanks to all of you for your help with set-up specs, etc.

IF you can get ATSC signal with the rabbit ears, it may be worth it to invest in a set of external antenna. Use "www.antennaweb.org" to see what you need for your area.

I was trying thru all the codes in this website and found that a gateway code works with the Sceptre TV in channel and volume functions. The code is 1756. Have fun people.

Just as I was thinking of cancelling my order it shipped on 9/12 monday.
I ordered mine on 8/24

Just as I was thinking of cancelling my order it shipped on 9/12 monday.
I ordered mine on 8/24

Interesting... Perhaps they've (Sceptre) recieved a new shipment, given you've gotten a shipment confermation and the gentleman missing a remote recieved it recently. Of course it could be one of those that shipment was refused.

I ordered on 8/27 and would be interested if others get shipping confermations.

Interesting... Perhaps they've (Sceptre) recieved a new shipment, given you've gotten a shipment confermation and the gentleman missing a remote recieved it recently. Of course it could be one of those that shipment was refused.

I ordered on 8/27 and would be interested if others get shipping confermations.
I ordered 8/28 at the last minute. At last some somewhat good news, I was starting to worry that I wouldn't get it till Halloween for a moment there.

Interesting... Perhaps they've (Sceptre) recieved a new shipment, given you've gotten a shipment confermation and the gentleman missing a remote recieved it recently. Of course it could be one of those that shipment was refused.

I ordered on 8/27 and would be interested if others get shipping confermations.


Ordered mine on 8/24, recieved confirmation of shipping today.

Interesting... Perhaps they've (Sceptre) recieved a new shipment, given you've gotten a shipment confermation and the gentleman missing a remote recieved it recently. Of course it could be one of those that shipment was refused.

I ordered on 8/27 and would be interested if others get shipping confermations.

Ordered on 8/26. Will update when I get a shipping confirmation. Hopefully this week.

For those of you looking for shipments, I ordered on 8/25 and the status just changed from "in process" to shipped on 9/13.

I'm a bit of a rookie with this HD stuff. Plus I am not using this set with a PC. I am attempting to use the Sceptre with a new (DIRECTV HR10-250 HDTV TiVo DVR). I am trying to get the HDMI link from the DVR to feed the Sceptre (HDMI to HDMI). I was also hoping to feed the Sceptre via component links from a Denon DVD2200. The problem I have is that the HDMI link brings up nothing. The only way the DVR works on the Sceptre is via component links. The picture is less than stellar. My 5 year old Sony Trinitron (CRT) looks better! I have not yet progressed to see how the DVD player looks. If I can't get better results using the HDMI input from the DVR I will take the Sceptre back. I have seen lots of descriptions in these posts of success with DVI to HDMI feeds (PC), but nothing describing HDMI to HDMI. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers!


Just as a sata point I have been using my sceptre with mt SA8300HD cable HD STB via HDMI/HDCP -> HDMI/HDCP without a single problem. Cable was purcahsed via monoprice.com In fact I am pretty supprised at how well it works the only quirk is that when I power down my system I no longer need to send an off IR signal to my STB, when I turn off the TV it automatically turns off the STB. I get some wierd behaviour if I turn off the STB first (likely related to some wierd HDCP sync issue).

Since many people here also bought the Sharp LC-37D5U, I am asking this question here.
has anyone been able to get the TV Guide listings to download like they say they should? I am using just OTA content, no cable or satellite.

Nojo,

Suggest you check the official 37D5U thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=577901&page=4&pp=30

There is much discussion re: TVGOS there.

I will be posting my latest fun with it later tonight.

Dave

When I hook my 37" Sceptre up to my Mac Mini using DVI at 1920x1080, the display looks fine until I try scrolling a window or moving a window on the screen. Then the Sceptre appears to lose lock and immediately turns blue. Sometimes is comes back, but sometime it won't lock back up. Any ideas here?

Friends, has anyone gotten the Sceptre to go into sleep mode when their computer does? I just get the bright blue screen--hardly conserving energy.

I ordered on the 26th, shipment must have went out yesterday it's due here Friday, two days before my Birthday. Now maybe I can convince my wife that it's my Birthday present. It would have been hard if I had to wait until the middle of Oct.

I ordered on 8/26 but still have "in process". Maybe they're shipping batches to different regions? Any east coasters order 8/26 or later and get confirmation?

Rahul

Friends, has anyone gotten the Sceptre to go into sleep mode when their computer does? I just get the bright blue screen--hardly conserving energy.
Unfortunately, there is no sleep mode. Maybe the sets shipping now will include that.

Ordered mine on 8/24, recieved confirmation of shipping today.

updated: will recieve it today, per UPS (out for delivery). I should have some assessments and impressions as compared to my Westy 37" equivalent.

[QUOTE=xradman]

Good idea for a hand-made adapter but I have a quick question. How do you keep the bolt heads that attach the extension bars to the Peerless mount from contacting/scraping the back of the Sceptre set? Did you use standoffs to clear the bolt heads? Did you bend the steel bars slightly?

I don't have the Sceptre 37" unit yet, but from the pictures it looked as if the back of the unit was relatively flat which I thought would cause the bolt heads of any adapter to hit the back of the unit when attaching the mounting screws.

You could do either. The 1/8" thick bars are quite flexible and will bend slightly on their own when you screw them down to the set. I secured the bar to the TV using the M5 bolts that came with the Peerless set.

Interesting... Perhaps they've (Sceptre) recieved a new shipment, given you've gotten a shipment confermation and the gentleman missing a remote recieved it recently. Of course it could be one of those that shipment was refused.

I ordered on 8/27 and would be interested if others get shipping confermations.

Well, I played with mine for a few hours and pretty much mirror everyone's elses comments:

Pros:
Ultrafine resolution with no noticeable dead pixels so far

A fine computer monitor (DVI only)

Price


Cons:
Buzzing noise from noisy sound amplifier

Not very TV friendly

Thick borders around screen

Onscreen Menus

Not enough DVI ports

No CableCard slot



I'm still working on getting the colors to appear right. There's a little uneveness about the lighting in a very small section but acceptable, otherwise screen is perfect. I'm still worried about how to use it with my Tivo remote. I may still return it because of all the small annoyances listed and get the newer 1080p DLP TV so if there's anyone in L.A, Calif. thats interested and didn't get a chance to order, let me know before i return to costco.

After using mine for about a month I am thinking of returning it and getting 37” 1080i. I really don't understand why would someone need 37" 1080p LCD. If you sit on the couch a few feet away you can barely see what's on the screen when browsing internet, but if you are too close it’s too bright and huge. Also I don’t like the ugly stand, large bezel, 2 dead pixels, ugly menus and now I wish it had standby mode.

My local Costco has the 37" Sceptre sitting next to the 37" Sharp Aqous. With both remotes in hand and HD Net feeding both monitors I had an opprtunity for A/B comparison. With both remotes in hand, The Sharp Aqous just had a sharper and more accurate color. Both pictures were VERY good, however, the Sharp was the best buy of the 2 priced in store at $1999.00. The Sceptre was priced in store at $1750.00.
So much for having a 1920 X 1080P monitor for Hi Def TV.....great for the computer though!
john

My local Costco has the 37" Sceptre sitting next to the 37" Sharp Aqous. With both remotes in hand and HD Net feeding both monitors I had an opprtunity for A/B comparison. With both remotes in hand, The Sharp Aqous just had a sharper and more accurate color. Both pictures were VERY good, however, the Sharp was the best buy of the 2 priced in store at $1999.00. The Sceptre was priced in store at $1750.00.
So much for having a 1920 X 1080P monitor for Hi Def TV.....great for the computer though!
john

Compared them side by side in my living room for about 10 days now. I just repacked the Sceptre for return, mostly because of the poor human interface (lousy remote, menus, user manual and lack of tuner integration. The Sharp alows you to "flashback" among the various inputs and put all the tuners in a single channel scan.)

I will probably miss the PIP, though, as crude as it is. But the TvGOS, built in QAM tuner and other features more than make up for it, IMHO.

Dave

After watching quite a few shows in HDTV via DVI from my ATI HDTV wonder I'm thinking I need to do some tweaking with colors. I needed to turn down saturation to get rid of the bright reds which worked pretty well. I'm convinced I need to buy AVIA or something to calibrate this set cuz I'm just not good at it. I think I may just be expecting too much from HDTV at times =). But yeah then again I am sitting rather close to the screen. As a monitor this thing has just been wonderful. The high resolution definetly shows how low res some of the DIVX and Xvid encodes I have are but it's just been an awesome set all around for me. Definetly a more pleasing experience than with my old plasma. I'm suprised to see many people returning it, but I'm guessing they bought it for the wrong reasons. Personally This tv was pretty much what i'd expect from a company like sceptre which is a chinese/taiwanese company (who usually are mostly concerned with bottom line costs). They are still very behind in marketing and other more "luxury" finishing touches (as you can see from the manual, menu, and thier website). However I am impressed at the overall quality experience this set has given us and at a good price for what it is. But sometimes I think I could make a career by going over there and teaching them how to properly market and advertise thier products better for the US market since I'm chinese anyway heh. But yeah, I was half expecting to have to return this set right away, so unless it explodes I think i'm good for now.

Compared them side by side in my living room for about 10 days now. I just repacked the Sceptre for return, mostly because of the poor human interface (lousy remote, menus, user manual and lack of tuner integration. The Sharp alows you to "flashback" among the various inputs and put all the tuners in a single channel scan.)

I will probably miss the PIP, though, as crude as it is. But the TvGOS, built in QAM tuner and other features more than make up for it, IMHO.

Dave

Yesterday i returned the spectre....

How do u rate the Sharp in the SD category ?

Compared them side by side in my living room for about 10 days now. I just repacked the Sceptre for return, mostly because of the poor human interface (lousy remote, menus, user manual and lack of tuner integration. The Sharp alows you to "flashback" among the various inputs and put all the tuners in a single channel scan.)

I will probably miss the PIP, though, as crude as it is. But the TvGOS, built in QAM tuner and other features more than make up for it, IMHO.

Dave

I just canceled my Sceptre order yesterday and am keeping the Sharp. It is perfect.

Perfect? I too chose the Sharp over the Sceptre but don't find the Sharp perfect, just better in most ways.

What I miss from the Sceptre: 1080i programming had less line twitter in the fine details. Better for use with a computer.

What I like better about the Sharp: speakers, connections, backlight adjustments (though it still doesn't let me go as dark as a darkened room warrants), iLink/Firewire, QAM tuner, user interface, better upconversion of SD content, more adjustments available for grayscale/color temp fine tuning.

My local Costco has the 37" Sceptre sitting next to the 37" Sharp Aqous. With both remotes in hand and HD Net feeding both monitors I had an opprtunity for A/B comparison. With both remotes in hand, The Sharp Aqous just had a sharper and more accurate color. Both pictures were VERY good, however, the Sharp was the best buy of the 2 priced in store at $1999.00. The Sceptre was priced in store at $1750.00.
So much for having a 1920 X 1080P monitor for Hi Def TV.....great for the computer though!
john

Which Costco has the Sceptre and Sharp in stock?

Has anyone else received a shipping confermation lately? Say, from an 8/27+ order?

After watching quite a few shows in HDTV via DVI from my ATI HDTV wonder I'm thinking I need to do some tweaking with colors. I needed to turn down saturation to get rid of the bright reds which worked pretty well. I'm convinced I need to buy AVIA or something to calibrate this set cuz I'm just not good at it. I think I may just be expecting too much from HDTV at times =). But yeah then again I am sitting rather close to the screen. As a monitor this thing has just been wonderful. The high resolution definetly shows how low res some of the DIVX and Xvid encodes I have are but it's just been an awesome set all around for me. Definetly a more pleasing experience than with my old plasma. I'm suprised to see many people returning it, but I'm guessing they bought it for the wrong reasons. Personally This tv was pretty much what i'd expect from a company like sceptre which is a chinese/taiwanese company (who usually are mostly concerned with bottom line costs). They are still very behind in marketing and other more "luxury" finishing touches (as you can see from the manual, menu, and thier website). However I am impressed at the overall quality experience this set has given us and at a good price for what it is. But sometimes I think I could make a career by going over there and teaching them how to properly market and advertise thier products better for the US market since I'm chinese anyway heh. But yeah, I was half expecting to have to return this set right away, so unless it explodes I think i'm good for now.

The panel is NOT CMO. It's AUO.
They're an american company that's got a lot of asians working there.

General Summery : I think generally if you're a cheap person who wants a kick ass performance out of your LCD/TV, Sceptre and Westinghouse are both excellent choices. Once again they have "DIFFERENT" panels. CMO vs AUO. If you have extra money and only use the LCD/TV for it's TV functions then Sharp is your best bet. If you want it more for the PC side with those showcases from http://www.wmvhd.com that those 1366x768 low res monitors can't play as well, and you watch some TV but you can't care if one's missing some tv tuners, and the other has a bunch of horrible design problems, then Sceptre and Westinghouse is your choice.

The panel is NOT CMO. It's AUO.
They're an american company that's got a lot of asians working there.

I didn't know that, I was pretty sure the forum found out it was CMO but that's cool. However Sceptre is still a taiwanese company and that's prob led to much of the side skimping. It doesnt affect me too much tho it would be nice to have a better interface and a nice remote and a manual that isnt pure crap =)

"As Taiwan's largest and the world's third largest manufacturer of large-size thin film transistor liquid crystal display panels (TFT-LCD), AU Optronics aims to revolutionize the way you view the world. "

AUO is Taiwanese too lol... silly guy

The one thing I am worried about this set is that most people are saying sceptre has bad/rude customer service. so I guess in the case the set suddenly dies I'd prob just end up returning it to costco.

Has anyone figured out how to get the Lamp to **stay** at a particular brightness setting, "2" for example? Every time I turn the Sceptre off and on, it is back at "7" when I check (even tho it says "2"). I am using the Sceptre as a DVI monitor only. ---Richard

The panel is NOT CMO. It's AUO.
They're an american company that's got a lot of asians working there.

I'm pretty sure the panel is CMO, since it based on SMVS tech...anyhow, I've had it for several days now; here are some snipets of it:

- HDTV is cool to have even if you have an HTPC. Seems the electronics converts 1080i to 720p.

- As many eluded to, the menus suck. There is insufficient control to set user levels of contrast, brightness, etc.

- Which leads me to my main quirk with it. ALthough Black levels are good, the greys are almost impossible to work with on this unit, since there is no appropriate Black Level adjustment. Brightness in fact can change the black levels, as wintess during AVE calibration!!!! Furthermore, there is no hue/color control, only seperate r/g/b (dvi input) which will take a pro calibration to get it down.

All in all, compared to the Westy 37" (which i also owned), black levels are a little better, BUT there is not sufficient manipulation of the picture in the menus. ALso in terms of industrial design, the Westy easily beats this set. The Sceptre is soooooo primitive in it's look and menus, but i guess thats what an extra $200 buys you.

Compared them side by side in my living room for about 10 days now. I just repacked the Sceptre for return, mostly because of the poor human interface (lousy remote, menus, user manual and lack of tuner integration. The Sharp alows you to "flashback" among the various inputs and put all the tuners in a single channel scan.)

I will probably miss the PIP, though, as crude as it is. But the TvGOS, built in QAM tuner and other features more than make up for it, IMHO.

Dave

Dave,

If you don't mind, could you give a more detailed comparison of the picture quality of the Sharp vs Sceptre. In other words, aside from the U.I. issues, would you have kept the Sceptre over the Sharp? Did you find the SD/HD PQ to be comparable? Did you mainly use the internal tuners or did you use external tuners/cable boxes and/or HTPC?

Thanks for the feedback.

Dave,

If you don't mind, could you give a more detailed comparison of the picture quality of the Sharp vs Sceptre. In other words, aside from the U.I. issues, would you have kept the Sceptre over the Sharp? Did you find the SD/HD PQ to be comparable? Did you mainly use the internal tuners or did you use external tuners/cable boxes and/or HTPC?

Thanks for the feedback.

donsev,

For the Sharp, I used mainly the internal tuners. For the Sceptre I used both internal tuners and a STB via component input.

For the SD I was unable to pin down the best choice - some shows the Sharp seemed better, for others it was the Sceptre. For OTA HD the I found the PQ to be about the same (great!) but the Sceptre tuner couldn't find as many channels here.

With the STB the Sceptre HD was as good as the Sharp. For analog channels, however, the Sceptre often showed more background noise than the Sharp.

My decision to keep the Sharp was really not because of PQ issues, but primarily due to the primitive integration and controls of the Sceptre.

Dave

I would agree that the remote and onscreen menu sucks on the Sceptre but now that I got the set adjusted to where I like it. The only thing that I use the remote for is the on-off button and switching between the varies inputs (as least till I find my manual for my AV remote or someone comes up with the IR code to use with the Tivo remote). So I don't really see that as a dealbreaker.

I would agree that the remote and onscreen menu sucks on the Sceptre but now that I got the set adjusted to where I like it. The only thing that I use the remote for is the on-off button and switching between the varies inputs (as least till I find my manual for my AV remote or someone comes up with the IR code to use with the Tivo remote). So I don't really see that as a dealbreaker.

My thoughts exactly.

My thoughts exactly.


I really need something bigger. Thats one of the reason i returned it. I used to have a 50'' Pana LCD.

Other then that when tweaked the set puts out a really nice picture. Even in SD. Unless the SD had noise, then it just kills the picture.

I didn't know that, I was pretty sure the forum found out it was CMO but that's cool. However Sceptre is still a taiwanese company and that's prob led to much of the side skimping. It doesnt affect me too much tho it would be nice to have a better interface and a nice remote and a manual that isnt pure crap =)

"As Taiwan's largest and the world's third largest manufacturer of large-size thin film transistor liquid crystal display panels (TFT-LCD), AU Optronics aims to revolutionize the way you view the world. "

AUO is Taiwanese too lol... silly guy

The one thing I am worried about this set is that most people are saying sceptre has bad/rude customer service. so I guess in the case the set suddenly dies I'd prob just end up returning it to costco.
I'm putting my money on Tiberium and betting the Sceptre indeed uses an AUO display mainly because he claims to know someone that works at Sceptre well enough to where he got to try out the set weeks before anyone else here did.

Regarding rude customer support, I don't get the impression "most" people are saying that. I only recall one person saying that, in this thread anyway. I contacted them once and got a prompt response, which wasn't rude.

I really need something bigger. Thats one of the reason i returned it. I used to have a 50'' Pana LCD.

Other then that when tweaked the set puts out a really nice picture. Even in SD. Unless the SD had noise, then it just kills the picture.

So would I, It's just that I'm not prepare to pay $4000 more to get a 46". I'll probably do it once the 46"er are in the $4K range and put this in my office with my PC.

I didn't know that, I was pretty sure the forum found out it was CMO but that's cool. However Sceptre is still a taiwanese company and that's prob led to much of the side skimping. It doesnt affect me too much tho it would be nice to have a better interface and a nice remote and a manual that isnt pure crap =)

"As Taiwan's largest and the world's third largest manufacturer of large-size thin film transistor liquid crystal display panels (TFT-LCD), AU Optronics aims to revolutionize the way you view the world. "

AUO is Taiwanese too lol... silly guy

The one thing I am worried about this set is that most people are saying sceptre has bad/rude customer service. so I guess in the case the set suddenly dies I'd prob just end up returning it to costco.

I think this would depend on your logic of determination. Do you consider Nvidia Corporation a taiwanese / chinese company? Nvidia was started by taiwanese people living in Silicon Valley. Nvidia's chip maker is TSMC the largest silicon manufacturer in Taiwan. Because they're started by taiwanese people and they contract TSMC does that make the company Taiwanese/Chinese? If that is the case then Sceptre is as well. But if you think Nvidia should be an American corporation then Sceptre is as well. Since Sceptre was started by a bunch of taiwanese living in LA. Sceptre's TV maker are in Taiwan and China.

I'm pretty sure the panel is CMO, since it based on SMVS tech...anyhow, I've had it for several days now; here are some snipets of it:

- HDTV is cool to have even if you have an HTPC. Seems the electronics converts 1080i to 720p.

- As many eluded to, the menus suck. There is insufficient control to set user levels of contrast, brightness, etc.

- Which leads me to my main quirk with it. ALthough Black levels are good, the greys are almost impossible to work with on this unit, since there is no appropriate Black Level adjustment. Brightness in fact can change the black levels, as wintess during AVE calibration!!!! Furthermore, there is no hue/color control, only seperate r/g/b (dvi input) which will take a pro calibration to get it down.

All in all, compared to the Westy 37" (which i also owned), black levels are a little better, BUT there is not sufficient manipulation of the picture in the menus. ALso in terms of industrial design, the Westy easily beats this set. The Sceptre is soooooo primitive in it's look and menus, but i guess thats what an extra $200 buys you.

super mvs is just a technological term where you can view the LCDs from the side just as clearly as from the front. every panel maker has that technology. I got to go inside the company and watch the thing get assembled 'cuz the sample unit from china had some problems, the panel is labeled AUO so unless AUO means CMO, you're outta luck. Personally I can really careless about looks and robust manuals and menus, all I care about is if it is cheap, and is the performance / quality there. So far, I love that TV. I wish I can mooch one off my friend.

Sceptre vs. Sharp: At Least it's Not Cheesy Silver
In many respects, The Sceptre is not ready for prime time. In fact, in most of the comparisons that have been made -- tuners, scaling circuitry, remotes, menus, control capabilities, manuals, etc. -- the Sharp is a buttoned down, well executed piece of work, while the Sceptre is a more of a work in progress. It's a great screen at a great price with kind of a "finish-it-yourself or get-over-it" approach to the design details.

But, for all its loose ends and rough edges, at least it has a clean, inoffensive black (actually charcoal gray) bezel and detachable speakers, such that when I look at the set, my eye is drawn to the very nice picture of the screen and not distracted by the cabinet surrounding it.

Not so the Sharp. I can't even look at that big silver eyesore without seeing an offensively garish slab of bling. And, want 'em or not, you're stuck with those ugly speakers permanently fixed to both sides, each with that useless vertical crease in its grille doing dubious duty as a "design element." Please.

Admittedly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if I've got to look at something this big in my house, day after day, I'd rather work around the Sceptre's little shortcomings and put up with some of its petty aggravations than put up with the cheesy look of the silver Sharp.

And judging by the appearance of the newest Sharp models, with their tasteful gunmetal gray cabinets and bottom mounted speakers, the product designers at Sharp have come to the same conclusion. But, hey, to each his own.

I got my monitor hooked up last night, and after using it for a few hours then and now, I'm quite happy, even with just SD signal and DVDs (waiting on HD Tivo install). Yes, SD can look pretty cruddy -- garbage-in, garbage-out and all -- but it's actually not as bad as I had feared. At 8-10 feet away, it's quite passable. DVDs look great. I noticed some artifacts/banding in some scenes (presumably due to the DVD's lower res, and possibly poor compression), but overall, they look amazingly better than my decade-old, non-HD, non-widescreen 30" CRT.

However, there are two problems that I was wondering if people could confirm and/or suggest fixes to.

1) The "auto" aspect setting doesn't seem to recognize that my DVD (on the component input) is set to output 16:9. I have to set the monitor aspect manually to 16:9, which is kind of a pain if I want to switch back and forth between DVD and 4:3 SD TV. I think I recall other posts about "auto" not always doing the right thing, but I was just wondering if this happens to everybody, or if I might have something setup wrong.

2) When watching a DVD, if the scene lighting changes a lot, particularly when it gets very dark, it appears that the monitor tries to auto-adjust the brightness or something. Is this just me? If it is the monitor, is there a way to turn that off? I find it quite distracting.

Thanks,
Michael

For the Sharp, I used mainly the internal tuners. For the Sceptre I used both internal tuners and a STB via component input.

For the SD I was unable to pin down the best choice - some shows the Sharp seemed better, for others it was the Sceptre. For OTA HD the I found the PQ to be about the same (great!) but the Sceptre tuner couldn't find as many channels here.

With the STB the Sceptre HD was as good as the Sharp. For analog channels, however, the Sceptre often showed more background noise than the Sharp.

My decision to keep the Sharp was really not because of PQ issues, but primarily due to the primitive integration and controls of the Sceptre.

Dave


Sceptre vs. Sharp: At Least it's Not Cheesy Silver
In many respects, The Sceptre is not ready for prime time. In fact, in most of the comparisons that have been made -- tuners, scaling circuitry, remotes, menus, control capabilities, manuals, etc. -- the Sharp is a buttoned down, well executed piece of work, while the Sceptre is a more of a work in progress. It's a great screen at a great price with kind of a "finish-it-yourself or get-over-it" approach to the design details.

But, for all its loose ends and rough edges, at least it has a clean, inoffensive black (actually charcoal gray) bezel and detachable speakers, such that when I look at the set, my eye is drawn to the very nice picture of the screen and not distracted by the cabinet surrounding it.



Thanks for the feedback Dave and Ken. These two perspectives solidify my determination that the Sceptre 37" *would* make a very good basis for an integrated solution (i.e. using outboard STB/DVR/HTPC) but would likely not be best for a standalone solution (.e.g for a bedroom). Since my setup involves a Comcast STB an HTPC and 5.1 stereo system and wall mounting sans speakers, the Sceptre seems like a good fit (YMMV).

I think this would depend on your logic of determination. Do you consider Nvidia Corporation a taiwanese / chinese company? Nvidia was started by taiwanese people living in Silicon Valley. Nvidia's chip maker is TSMC the largest silicon manufacturer in Taiwan. Because they're started by taiwanese people and they contract TSMC does that make the company Taiwanese/Chinese? If that is the case then Sceptre is as well. But if you think Nvidia should be an American corporation then Sceptre is as well. Since Sceptre was started by a bunch of taiwanese living in LA. Sceptre's TV maker are in Taiwan and China.

Well that all depends on what mindset the company is typically formed with. Nvidia is primarily composed and is HQed in USA while Sceptre is more based in Taiwan. Granted there are companies in the USA which cut corners, it is just more common to see the Chinese and Taiwanese companies to do so. For them it's all about the bottom line. For example, you can see this on many of Nvidia's 3rd party manufs. for example Gigabyte has a horrid site and Asus (even though they have updated it) often has missing pictures and downtime. The packaging of thier products simply don't compare to BFG technologies. However there are changes occuring in some of these companies, though many (like Acer especially) could use some help ;). My father also founded a DVD/set top box company back in 1998 or so with a taiwanese mentality so I kind of know how that worked heh. But either way this is why i'm not suprised why the Sceptre has shoddy interface/instruction manual/ and cost cutting features compared to the Sharp. Here's to hoping for a nice firmware update (though I doubt it)

This is the first HDTV set and the first satellite receiver that I've owned, so I need a little help.

As all of you owners know, the Spectre remote has five options for aspect: AUTO, 16:9, 4:3, Zoom Full, and Zoom Subtitle. When I feed the set via its HDCP port from my Dish Network 921 receiver (also with ATSC tuner), the Dish receiver's remote control has a format button that gives me three additional options: NORMAL, STRETCH, and ZOOM.

Most of the time, I just fiddle with the two remote controls until I get the 'correct' display on my display; which I have to change depending on whether I am trying to watch a channel providing wide screen HDTV or a channel providing something in the 4:3 aspect ratio. One would think that "AUTO" means exactly that. Not so.

There must be a better way!

The instruction books for the receiver and the set are no help at all.

Any suggestions as to a logical way to handle these controls would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I am definitely keeping this set. I have experienced no problems with the lamp setting and I think that the sound quality is certainly no worse than any other standalone TV, but you do have to adjust the equalization for the audio to sound decent. And once I got the tint, color, contrast and brightness set properly, I think that the set's picture quality on both HD and SD is excellent.

...Asus...

Huh? These guys have the best, easiest to use, most reliable motherboards in the world.

I love ASUS parts as well but he's right about the website having occassional downtime.

side bys are st Clearwater Florida Costco

Hey all,

I've been following this thread all along and really want to purchase one of these units. I know Costco's website are 'sold out' but on the strength of some reports here of the units being in-stock at Costco stores I went to two of them here in the Minneapolis area last Friday but found none. Bummer. Does anyone have any intel on when they will become available again?

2nd question:
Why do some people in this thread continue to (repeatedly--as in NOT as a typo) call it 'Spectre' instead of 'Sceptre'? ;)

Huh? These guys have the best, easiest to use, most reliable motherboards in the world.

I never said thier motherboards were bad, I was refering to thier marketing and website.

2nd question:
Why do some people in this thread continue to (repeatedly--as in NOT as a typo) call it 'Spectre' instead of 'Sceptre'? ;)

Answer to your 2nd question:

It's called "lysdexia," Carey.

Answer to your 2nd question:

It's called "lysdexia," Carey.


Ha! You guys know I'm just yankin yer chain right?

More about my intended use:

Home office, where I edit video and sometimes watch TV while I work. I've got CRT Broadcast monitors for critical monitoring (still best for grading color correction anyway), but more and more am working at 24P in both SD and HD. I intend to feed this monitor from an additional graphics card in my edit machine...G5 running Fincal Cut Pro with the 'Cinema Desktop' Preview mode for a client monitor.

When not in use for that purpose, it will be used as a TV connected to a Comcast HD digital cable box by either Component or DVI (my box does both...although I may need to go with an HDMI switchbox if I go DVI.

When I want to have a little fun: I'll hook up my Athlon X2/NVidia 7800GTX-based gaming PC for a little gaming action at 1920x1080.

Primary use is editing video/client monitor though, and I'll likely never use the built-in tuners. I suppose that also makes me a candidate for the Westinghouse. I like black better than silver though. What do you guys think based on my description of intended use?

Carey

For example, you can see this on many of Nvidia's 3rd party manufs. for example Gigabyte has a horrid site and Asus (even though they have updated it) often has missing pictures and downtime. The packaging of thier products simply don't compare to BFG technologies.

?!??!?!! Have you seen the packaging of the Asus 7800GTX vs. an BFG 7800GTX? There is no comparison, Asus wins hands down in manuals, box design, etc. BFG is barebones box with minimal graphics, display, etc.

Anyhow, I've still been tweaking with the User settings on DVI input and I can't dial it in right; still too much red push. Has anyone got their sets calibrated be willing to share their settings?

It looks like Sceptre has very slow production rate on this display. I called today to ask them when it will be available again, and they answered me "It will not be out before the end of October" Well, anyone know a better display that's equivalent price with 1090P signal? (will be mostly used for computer monitor)

It looks like Sceptre has very slow production rate on this display. I called today to ask them when it will be available again, and they answered me "It will not be out before the end of October" Well, anyone know a better display that's equivalent price with 1090P signal? (will be mostly used for computer monitor)

The Westinghouse is certainly a good alternative and can be had for about the same price with a bit of bargaining.

The Westinghouse is certainly a good alternative and can be had for about the same price with a bit of bargaining.


IT doesnt have any tuners though. if i'm not mistaken.

IT doesnt have any tuners though. if i'm not mistaken.

But he's mostly using it as a computer monitor. In that case, it's easy to add in a HD tuner card.

Hi,

I just received my Sceptre today and I'm loving it!!! However, at the risk of spoiling my joy, I couldn't resist running the Dead Pixel Buddy software to find if I'm missing any pixels.

Here are the results:
Black: I can see a blue pixel to the left center of the screen
White: All good
Red: All good
Green: Dead pixel to the right center of the screen
Blue: Two dead pixels towards the left center, about one inch apart

So here are my questions:
- All seem to be on the same line, is this usual?
- With this amount of dead pixels, should I seek for a replacement or do I just sound funny?
- Should I at all be concerned about them? Afterall I won't notice them at all while watching TV or even when using the computer. My concern is, does having a few of them right now mean that I'll have more in the future or is this only a manufacturing defect and future ones are irrelevant?

Thanks!

Where'd you get it??? I've been looking for it for 2 weeks!! Need to know where to get it! PLEASE!

Ha! You guys know I'm just yankin yer chain right?

More about my intended use:

Home office, where I edit video and sometimes watch TV while I work. I've got CRT Broadcast monitors for critical monitoring (still best for grading color correction anyway), but more and more am working at 24P in both SD and HD. I intend to feed this monitor from an additional graphics card in my edit machine...G5 running Fincal Cut Pro with the 'Cinema Desktop' Preview mode for a client monitor....Carey

I'd vote for the Sceptre for several reasons...some of them non-technical.

1st: Buying via Costco is a GREAT way to own a electronic item whose technology seems to be changing weekly (weakly?)...if you see a better unit in 2 or 3 months, you can return the Sceptre to Costco & get not only all your dinero back, but the shipping charges too. Also, there seems to be a serious price war starting---so you may see a better deal which may incent you to return the set in a few months.

2nd: The unit works great-plug & play- with my G-5 Mac (Radeon 9600 PRO Power Mac G-5 video card), with 1920 x 1080 @ 72 Hz support.

3rd: Based on my experience, the experiences of several others on this thread, and none other than the Sceptre packing box graphics ("Grade A LCD Guarantee"), there is a high probability you will get a "pixel perfect" display panel. (BTW, does anyone have any clue as to what this "guarantee" means ??)

As mentioned by others, the included ATSC tuner has several annoying "undocumented firmware features", the manual is absolute crap, the included speakers sound like hail in a tin funnel and there seems to be an interesting and very clever "hack" in order to bypass the noisy audio amp.

But bottom line, at the highest resolutions, with a little tweaking, the picture is stunning. Judging from some of the recent posts, availability of the unit may be a problem...but the price may drop even further. Good luck!

A little off Topic:

I did a little calculation and i found the following pretty amazing:

A jump from 37'' to 40'' TV will give you 17% more screen

A jump from 40'' to 50'' TV will give you 56% more screen.



Hopefully i did the calcs currectly :-p

?!??!?!! Have you seen the packaging of the Asus 7800GTX vs. an BFG 7800GTX? There is no comparison, Asus wins hands down in manuals, box design, etc. BFG is barebones box with minimal graphics, display, etc.

Anyhow, I've still been tweaking with the User settings on DVI input and I can't dial it in right; still too much red push. Has anyone got their sets calibrated be willing to share their settings?

asus = 1 year warranty

BFG = Lifetime Warranty

nuff said ;), and BFG cards are packaged much nicer, 24 hour tech support, and they encourage you not to return the card before contacting them. With companies like Asus they just tell you to return the card.

Well, how's the gaming experience on it? I'm sorry if it had mentioned before, but... is there like ghostings or other bothersome stuff? I'm really deciding between this and a Sony XBR LCD.... It's really hard to decide, because it's quite known that the new Sony is excellent choice for a computer hook up and Sceptre... there're is not enough sources for me to find out... Can anyone please give me an advise? Anything would be appreciated...

Another thing is that Sony does not support 1:1 for 1090... but just because that Scepter does, I'm trying to find it out :cool:

My set finally shipped. Ordered on 8/26 and it shipped on 9/19. It should be here on 9/26, so exactly on month from order to delivery.

Gaming experience is great, I played Fable the lost chapters in 1920x1080 and it looks great, Also played Guildwars at that res too. Too bad I dont have a 7800GTX, I would love to try doom 3 at those resolutions.

It looks like Sceptre has very slow production rate on this display. I called today to ask them when it will be available again, and they answered me "It will not be out before the end of October" Well, anyone know a better display that's equivalent price with 1090P signal? (will be mostly used for computer monitor)

I think I'm giving up on the Sceptre. My order was placed on 8/27. I've seen some people report shipments, but I suspect they're only from returned or refused shipments.

I'm also not sure I want to deal with some of the odd quirkes this unit has. I also only really need a monitor. So I just ordered a Westinghouse 37". I ordered it from etronics for about $150 less than the Costco price for the Sceptre, considering the shipping and tax. Does anyone have any favorable or unfavorable experience in ordering the Westinghouse from them?

I haven't canceled my Sceptre order yet, but will when I get a ship confirmation on the Westinghouse.

I think I'm giving up on the Sceptre. My order was placed on 8/27. I've seen some people report shipments, but I suspect they're only from returned or refused shipments.

I'm also not sure I want to deal with some of the odd quirkes this unit has. I also only really need a monitor. So I just ordered a Westinghouse 37". I ordered it from etronics for about $150 less than the Costco price for the Sceptre, considering the shipping and tax. Does anyone have any favorable or unfavorable experience in ordering the Westinghouse from them?

I haven't canceled my Sceptre order yet, but will when I get a ship confirmation on the Westinghouse.


Nope,
Thats where I bought mine and they are now $160 cheaper then when I bought it, Everything went smooth with them, Of coarse I didnt have any problems with mine so didnt have to try customer support.

Nope,
Thats where I bought mine and they are now $160 cheaper then when I bought it, Everything went smooth with them, Of coarse I didnt have any problems with mine so didnt have to try customer support.

Nice to hear. Thanks :)
Now I can use the 150 clams for an HDTV wonder for my HTPC and the articulating mount I bought with out having to adapt it to the Sceptre.

Nice to hear. Thanks :)
Now I can use the 150 clams for an HDTV wonder for my HTPC and the articulating mount I bought with out having to adapt it to the Sceptre.

Be careful with the HDTV wonder, Not that its a bad card but the software that comes with it is just plain out bad, I am now using it with MCE with the hacked kram drivers and am now very happy with it. But ATI's mmc software is the biggest problem I have dealt with in years.

Be careful with the HDTV wonder, Not that its a bad card but the software that comes with it is just plain out bad, I am now using it with MCE with the hacked kram drivers and am now very happy with it. But ATI's mmc software is the biggest problem I have dealt with in years.

Oh, sorry, I didn't say I'd be using MCE. I read about that somwhere. The hacked drivers, are they to get past the need for another tuner card? I already have a Hauppage (SP?) card in there. MCE 2005 is supposed to work with multiple cards isn't it? My thought was to have both so I could record off of cable channels as well as OTA HD.

I have a question about connecting the Sceptre using HDMI. I have a Dish 942 and have been unable to get any signal using the Dish-supplied cable (which is HDMI on the 942 side with a DVI connector to which is attached a small DVI to HDMI adaptor into the Sceptre). I see nothing but "blue screen" when I tested all the 3 digital "source PC" ports. I also tried my Zenith 318 upconverting DVD player using a DVI-DVI cable and the same DVI-HDMI adaptor, but did not get a signal on this either. I can get a signal using my Dell laptop through DVI using the DVI-DVI cable with the DVI to HDMI adaptor. Any ideas on what could be my problem with getting digital sources to work? Do I need to try a straight HDMI-HDMI cable? Has anyone else tried these sources with the digital connections? By the way, component works fine with both the upconverted/1080i DVD player and the 942. HDTV source looks great (particularly the over-the-air ones) on this TV/monitor and SD looks alright depending on the quality of the source material.

Update - I purchased an HDMI to HDMI cable and now get a signal from the 942. I still didn't get the DVI from the Zenith 318 to work, but upconverted component looks pretty good. I watched the DVD "Lost" tonight and it was pretty close to HD quality. If you have the 318 and the Sceptre and plan to use the component signal from the DVD player, I recommend 720 P output. For some reason it looks better than 1080i on this TV. When I have the 318 hooked up to my PT-L300U projector 1080i looks best, but that could be the panel on the 300 . . .

I think I'm giving up on the Sceptre. My order was placed on 8/27. I've seen some people report shipments, but I suspect they're only from returned or refused shipments.

I'm also not sure I want to deal with some of the odd quirkes this unit has. I also only really need a monitor. So I just ordered a Westinghouse 37". I ordered it from etronics for about $150 less than the Costco price for the Sceptre, considering the shipping and tax. Does anyone have any favorable or unfavorable experience in ordering the Westinghouse from them?

I haven't canceled my Sceptre order yet, but will when I get a ship confirmation on the Westinghouse.

I'm sorry, but I might wrong on this thing.... I've heard Westinghouse 37' not actually a TV??? It is indicated as a LCD Video Monitor on there web site... can you verify that? I'm new to this whole TV and monitor things so... I need some good advises.... Thanks!

I'm sorry, but I might wrong on this thing.... I've heard Westinghouse 37' not actually a TV??? It is indicated as a LCD Video Monitor on there web site... can you verify that? I'm new to this whole TV and monitor things so... I need some good advises.... Thanks!

You are correct. The Westinghouse 37" does not have a tuner, not even an NTSC tuner. It is strictly a monitor. So, if you'll be driving it strictly from exernal sources, it should be a good selection. If however, you need it to be a stand alone TV, it won't work for you. It should be good for me because I only use my 15 year old 27" CRT as a monitor (not the internal tuner) through svideo anyway, and my projector (no tuner) via DVI for HTPC or component from the cable box which serves up HDTV.

You are correct. The Westinghouse 37" does not have a tuner, not even an NTSC tuner. It is strictly a monitor. So, if you'll be driving it strictly from exernal sources, it should be a good selection. If however, you need it to be a stand alone TV, it won't work for you. It should be good for me because I only use my 15 year old 27" CRT as a monitor (not the internal tuner) through svideo anyway, and my projector (no tuner) via DVI for HTPC or component from the cable box which serves up HDTV.

So If you have a Cable Box, it will work as a TV? I mean ANY cable box, including satellite or just regular coax...?

Oh, sorry, I didn't say I'd be using MCE. I read about that somwhere. The hacked drivers, are they to get past the need for another tuner card? I already have a Hauppage (SP?) card in there. MCE 2005 is supposed to work with multiple cards isn't it? My thought was to have both so I could record off of cable channels as well as OTA HD.


Im guessing it will, If I seem to recall I thought the extra TV tuner card had to have a Hardware decorder and not a sotware decoder, I dont remember off hand, You can go look at the HTPC forum here under the ATI HDTV wonder thread to find out all the good and bad. Very Very long thread though. :D

I have trouble getting the Sceptre to work of my PCs DVI port.
- I am using the included DVI/HDMI cable
- I have a working PC with windows XP SP2
- I tried two different AGP cards with DVI (Nvidia FX5200 and ATI Radeon 7500)
- I tried the DVI, HDMI, HDPC inputs on the Sceptre and I only get blue screen - no signal

It works fine with the VGA side of the cards or from the VGA on MyHD-130 (don't have the DVI board)

Any suggestions? The DVI on the cards works fine with other monitors.

So If you have a Cable Box, it will work as a TV? I mean ANY cable box, including satellite or just regular coax...?

Yes. We're starting to get in to a discusion that should perhaps be in a different thread. So, I'll just say if you where going to be driving a TV without using it's internal tuner (Sceptre for example) or to drive a monitor that doesn't have one... You would want to drive it with the best signal available. They are, in order of preferece:
-HDMI/DVI-digital (whether from a cable box or home theater PC)
-DVI-analog/VGA from a PC (the PC could contain a tuner, even an HD tuner)
-Component
-SVideo
-Composite
-RF

Note: If it doesn't have a tuner it won't have an RF input (remember the West... doesn't have a tuner, but you wouldn't want to drive it with an RF signal anyway as this is the worst option possible)

I think I'm giving up on the Sceptre. My order was placed on 8/27. I've seen some people report shipments, but I suspect they're only from returned or refused shipments.

I'm also not sure I want to deal with some of the odd quirkes this unit has. I also only really need a monitor. So I just ordered a Westinghouse 37". I ordered it from etronics for about $150 less than the Costco price for the Sceptre, considering the shipping and tax. Does anyone have any favorable or unfavorable experience in ordering the Westinghouse from them?

I haven't canceled my Sceptre order yet, but will when I get a ship confirmation on the Westinghouse.

Guess What?
Now that I ordered a West... 37", I just received a shipping confirmation from Costco on my Sceptre order. Too funny. My order date was 8/27, ship date is today, 9/21. I'm in the LA area and should have it at least by tomorrow.

Assuming I get the Westinghouse sometime soon, I'll do my own AB comparison and post the results. I may end up posting the sceptre on ebay and see what I can get. Worst case, I'll take it back for a full refund.

I have trouble getting the Sceptre to work of my PCs DVI port.
- I am using the included DVI/HDMI cable
- I have a working PC with windows XP SP2
- I tried two different AGP cards with DVI (Nvidia FX5200 and ATI Radeon 7500)
- I tried the DVI, HDMI, HDPC inputs on the Sceptre and I only get blue screen - no signal

It works fine with the VGA side of the cards or from the VGA on MyHD-130 (don't have the DVI board)

Any suggestions? The DVI on the cards works fine with other monitors.


What refresh rate are you set at? Make sure it's set at 60hz.

What refresh rate are you set at? Make sure it's set at 60hz.
It is set at 60Hz on VGA.
It does not show any picture on DVI even when it boots up (low res and refresh rates)

Ordered 8/28 shipped 9/21. It'll be here tomorrow!!!!

It is set at 60Hz on VGA.
It does not show any picture on DVI even when it boots up (low res and refresh rates)

You may not normally see bootup over DVI.

I've noticed blotches of Green where grey should be in HDTV, I'm guessing my calibrations are off? Or does this have to just do with crappy black levels?

I've tried everything to get the dvi to hdmi to work and haven't got anything but a blue screen. I have an ATI 800xl and the VGA works fine, but nothing on the DVI side. I noticed a few others having the same problem maybe there is something with the second wave of shipments.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I got my Naga yesterday and had it delivered to our display lab at work. One thing I noticed fairly early on is that gray scale tracking is not correct (shows false colors) if you use anything other than "High" for a color temperature setting. On the other hand, gray scale tracking is excellent when you do use the "High" setting. This is with a DVI connection. Haven't spent much time looking at other interfaces so can't comment yet.

I got my Naga yesterday and had it delivered to our display lab at work....

BSteely: "Display Lab"... Bro...is that a hint you're going to do a detailed analysis of this puppy? Right on! BTW, does your unit have an UL approval code? What's your serial number?

Thx & rgdz

I've tried everything to get the dvi to hdmi to work and haven't got anything but a blue screen. I have an ATI 800xl and the VGA works fine, but nothing on the DVI side. I noticed a few others having the same problem maybe there is something with the second wave of shipments.

Anyone have any suggestions?

These may be dumb questions as I think you said it works with other displays over DVI:
-Do you see the display in the ATI settings?
-Have you told the ATI driver to output to the flat panel over DVI?
-Have you rebooted your PC? while the display is:
-On (prior to rebooting the PC)
-The DVI input is selected as the input on the TV (prior to rebooting the PC)
-Check the first two items after doing this.

I have an ATI 9600 connected via DVI to a projector and had to do a lot of this experimentation to figure out how to make it work. I don't yet know if any of the newer drivers have corrected these problems.

Also, I should have my set tonight and will let you know if I have any issues/success.

-Do you see the display in the ATI settings?
-Have you told the ATI driver to output to the flat panel over DVI?

The ATI only recognizes it as an analoge monitor maybe because its hooked up via the VGA, as I can't view anything while it is only hooked up to the DVI-HDMI. Kind of a catch 22. I've tried every combination I can think of. I was able to hook it up through the ATI's DVI port with a DVI-VGA adaptor and it worked.

I don't know how to tell the driver to output to the flat panel via DVI I haven't seen an option anywhere in the ATI Catalyst Control Center. Can you elaborate?

Thanks again

I've tried everything to get the dvi to hdmi to work and haven't got anything but a blue screen. I have an ATI 800xl and the VGA works fine, but nothing on the DVI side. I noticed a few others having the same problem maybe there is something with the second wave of shipments.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Any Luck yet?

I recieved my Sceptre last night.
DVI works to the set, both from my HTPC (ATI 9600) & the Adelphia Motorola HD box.

What version of Catalyst are you using?
I installed 5.9 the night before. It's quite different and I'm liking it so far.
Something to note however; If you switch from the DVI input to another input on the TV then back to the DVI... the ATI card/drivers will no longer be outputting to the DVI. I had to set it to another resolution and hit apply to get it to output to the TV over DVI. Then back to the resolution I wanted, 1080p. And do this all over again each time I switched from and back to DVI. What a pain. The Motorola box doesn't have the same problem.

Oh, by the way. The new version of Catalyst has some Adaptive Deinterlacing options available amoung several others. I haven't done much of an evaluation yet, but I will.

-Do you see the display in the ATI settings?
-Have you told the ATI driver to output to the flat panel over DVI?

The ATI only recognizes it as an analoge monitor maybe because its hooked up via the VGA, as I can't view anything while it is only hooked up to the DVI-HDMI. Kind of a catch 22. I've tried every combination I can think of. I was able to hook it up through the ATI's DVI port with a DVI-VGA adaptor and it worked.

I don't know how to tell the driver to output to the flat panel via DVI I haven't seen an option anywhere in the ATI Catalyst Control Center. Can you elaborate?

Thanks again

OOps, sorry, didn't see this post.
Try to disconnect the VGA, hook it up to DVI only, select the DVI as the input source at the TV... See my previous post for what I had to do. This may vary depending on the version of Catalyst you use.

Oh, my setup is an HDMI cable plugged into the TV with a DVI adapter at the PC/STB end. This shouldn't be any different of a setup unless you have a bad DVI to HDMI adapter.

I got my cables from monoprice.com and they apear to be of good quality.

Any Luck yet?

I recieved my Sceptre last night.
DVI works to the set, both from my HTPC (ATI 9600) & the Adelphia Motorola HD box.

What version of Catalyst are you using?
I installed 5.9 the night before. It's quite different and I'm liking it so far.
Something to note however; If you switch from the DVI input to another input on the TV then back to the DVI... the ATI card/drivers will no longer be outputting to the DVI. I had to set it to another resolution and hit apply to get it to output to the TV over DVI. Then back to the resolution I wanted, 1080p. And do this all over again each time I switched from and back to DVI. What a pain. The Motorola box doesn't have the same problem.

Oh, by the way. The new version of Catalyst has some Adaptive Deinterlacing options available amoung several others. I haven't done much of an evaluation yet, but I will.

The losing DVI after switching input is a card problem on some of the older ATI cards, if updating the driver did not fix it for you, you need a newer card ;-(

Well that all depends on what mindset the company is typically formed with. Nvidia is primarily composed and is HQed in USA while Sceptre is more based in Taiwan. Granted there are companies in the USA which cut corners, it is just more common to see the Chinese and Taiwanese companies to do so. For them it's all about the bottom line. For example, you can see this on many of Nvidia's 3rd party manufs. for example Gigabyte has a horrid site and Asus (even though they have updated it) often has missing pictures and downtime. The packaging of thier products simply don't compare to BFG technologies. However there are changes occuring in some of these companies, though many (like Acer especially) could use some help ;). My father also founded a DVD/set top box company back in 1998 or so with a taiwanese mentality so I kind of know how that worked heh. But either way this is why i'm not suprised why the Sceptre has shoddy interface/instruction manual/ and cost cutting features compared to the Sharp. Here's to hoping for a nice firmware update (though I doubt it)

Where did you get Sceptre is more based in Taiwan? Just like Nvidia Sceptre is ALL composed and HQed in USA. How does that make them Taiwanese? The business ethics for Sceptre might be similar to some cut corner Taiwanese / Chinese company but that still does not make them a Taiwanese company. I don't think it's fair to judge how a company does it's business and then say oh that's a Taiwanese company, but rather where the company was formed and HQ'ed to determine what country the company is from. If your father formed the company in USA but with the mentality of Taiwanese, it will still be considered a US company since it's formed in US.

Anyways, for companies like Sceptre, it's all about the price. Which is what most people care about the most nowadays. Personally I can careless about the design or manual. All I want is a product that does what it says and has good quality base product in Sceptre's case AUO A grade 37" 1080P panels. If you want to pay extra 2-3 grand for a design which after couple months you'll really care less about, or a manual which for technical savvy people is scratch paper than more power to ya.

As for firmware I saw the case opened up, you need to have a ROM chip updater to even update anything, no serial port on the outside so people who have the initial 37" might have to send it back to Sceptre for update. As for others hopefully Sceptre is smart enough to make a port on the outside eventually for firmware updates.

It is a company based in Taiwan, but it also has an American HQ. They also have the factory in California so I said it does not quite make them a Taiwanese company. Am I wrong? I've also heard the engineers are Taiwanese. :cool:

Well I'm new to the forum and since I found information here helpful before purchasing I've decided to post some of my observations and thoughts on the Sceptre set so far.

Just for time frame reference, I ordered on 08/26, received notice of shipment on 09/19 and received the set on 09/20. I was following the shipping progress, short as it was, so I would know when it was delivered. After seeing that it was delivered a little after 11:00 AM I called home to verify. Well to make a long story short it was raining on Tuesday, UPS left the box infront of my garage (upside down). My driveway is covered so it did not get wet. Apparently UPS thought the box latches made better handles if on the top.

After getting home from work I unpacked everything and inspected it not knowing what to expect since it was delivered upside down. The foam packaging kept everything in place and there was no damage.

Next was plug it in and see how it looked. Because this is my first venture into HDTV I plugged it into a Monster HTS 1000 MKII PowerCenter™ with Clean Power™ Stage 2 v.2.0 that I purchased for this venture. I didn't want to worry about poor power quality spoiling the picture. However, because I didn't have the necessary patch cables the cable connections were not run through the Monster.

This set is replacing a 32" Panasonic so I simply unplugged my connections from it and plugged them into the Sceptre. It took me a couple of tries before I had the plugs and cables all plugged into the right places; straight cable into NTSC, cable box (digital not HD) into V1 via component, DVD into V2 via S-video.

Like others have already pointed out many times, the manual was of very little help in explaining what you can and can not do with the set. For this reason I would not suggest this set for anyone who does not have patience and the will to experiment and learn on their own because that is what is required. Last night I finally hooked up an OTA HD indoor antena to the ATSC tuner. I have done this for 2 reasons; 1) I wanted to see a true HD picture on the set which I couldn't get from my current cable box. 2) I can use it to evaluate the HD picture quality once I have the cable company (Charter) to deliver their HD box. One of the reasons I didn't have it delivered before getting the set is I fould out when I talked to them that they connect to the set with component cables not HDMI or DVI, so I was told at least.

Like others I never even unwrapped the speakers because that job will be handled by my receiver and speakers. Even though they are old and aging with Simulated Surround and Dolby ProLogic only they should be head and shoulders about what was shipped with the set. While on this subject I did learn that if you want to use the volume control on the set you need to use the earplug jack with adapter instead of using the Line Out jacks.

Well after three evening sessions checking out the set here is what I think:
(Viewing distance is roughly 8' - 9' from my normal couch positions of sitting and reclined. I have also not made any adjustments to the levels of the set outside what is available from the Sound and Picture buttons on the remote. I have not had enough time to dedicate to doing it right so I have chosen to leave it alone for the moment.)

* Picture quality direct from cable is as good or better than my old set. This means that I will not religate it to being a Jumbo PC monitor. It seems that when Aspect Ration is set to Auto it is displaying whatever signal it is sent. I am still not decided as to whether I will watch the 4:3 shows at their default level or at 16:9. I do like the larger display area and only notice minor stretching. I do prefer the 16:9 vs Full Zoom because Full Zoom cuts off part of the image.

* Picture quality from my progressive scan DVD player is very good. Some have pointed out that skin tones seem to red but in watching the DVD it appears that this may be coming from the source and not the set. The reason I say this is because in some scenes I notice more redish skin tones but in other better lit scenes the skin tones looked fine. Once I get a chance to calibrate the set I may see the difference better.

* ATSC tuner picked up 44 signals from various local stations. The Trek amplified indoor antena seems to work very well. It may also be that I'm only 10 - 12 miles from Mount Wilson where the signals originate from. The pictures did seem to match the information displayed on the channel guide. I did get a little freeze frame from time to time but picture quality was OUTSTANDING! in HD.

Someone posted about how to tune directly to the HD channels like 2.1, 4.1, 4.2 etc. and I figured it out. What you need to do is look at the channel guide which will give you the assigned frequency. Enter that number into the remote and it will take you to the main channel at X.1. To get to any of the sub-channels like X.2 or X.3 you need to bring up the channel guide and navagate to the one you want and hit select (center button).

I also seemed to notice that instead of watching the set from a totally dark room, that if I left a lamp or two on but set to low I liked the viewing better.

I still haven't tested this with the HDMI/DVI connection, currect video card is VGA only ATI 7200. Maybe new cable box will actually have one that sales people know nothing about and I'm in the process of spec'ing out a HTPC.

Well I think I take a break for now and say later. Also, a big Thanks! to all that have provided information on the subject.

Great Review!! Grr.... Now I can't decide wheather I want a Westy or Sceptre!!! AGAIN!!

For those of you that want to connect to the onboard ATSC tuner optical out, you might want to get one of this so you won't have a long cable dangling from the set if you ever have to move it. If you are willing to drill a small hole on the back, you can probably glue this in and have it look part of the original design or even replace the composite output plug with this in it's place:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=8240003&St=2911&St2=-74132016&St3=76336791&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=16154&DID=7

Great Review!! Grr.... Now I can't decide wheather I want a Westy or Sceptre!!! AGAIN!!

I got my Sceptre last night and will have a West... on Monday. I'll post an AB sometime later next week. I will try to post some sort of review, calebrations... on the Sceptre over the weekend.

Great Review!! Grr.... Now I can't decide wheather I want a Westy or Sceptre!!! AGAIN!!

I have both...here's a quick snapshot:

TV Functionality:
Westy - 0/5
Sceptre -3/5
Summary: Hideous remote and EPS on the Sceptre, but it still has adequate reception. Of course Westy doesn't have a tuner. SD picture is acceptable though.

Device input:
Westy - 3/5
Sceptre - 3/5
Summary: Lots of inputs on the Westy although lacks HDMI. Both sets have HDCP. The Sceptre seems to output 1080i inputs natively which the Sceptre usually descales to 540p.

PC Functionality:
Westy - 4/5
Sceptre - 3/5
Summary: The lack of a sleep mode is REALLY annoying (damn BSOD!!!). Otherwise the pictures are pretty much a wash at 1920x1080

Picture Quality:
Westy - 3.5/5
Sceptre - 3/5
Summary: Blacks are slightly better on the AUO Sceptre, but grays are difficult to get correct. The Westy though has much more calibration options (backlighting works, brightness and contrast controls, sharpness, color, etc.) to make it slightly better visually for its CMO panel.

Features:
Westy - 3/5
Sceptre - 2/5
Summary: Abysmal remote on the Sceptre as well as sound. Westy has many PiP options, able to directly go to inputs, and decent speakers. And yes it goes to sleep if there is no signal on the inputs.

Industrial Design:
Westy - 3/5
Sceptre - 2/5
Summary: Although charcoal black, the plasticy look base, frame, and sloppy silkscreen on the Sceptre leaves much to be desired especially if considering this for the main room. The Westy has a stylish silver finish and can compliment a Theatre system well.

Price / Value:
Westy - 4/5
Sceptre - 4.5/5
Summary: All in all very comparable sets. Since the Sceptre is typically $200 cheaper then the Westy it wins in value, otherwise it's a wash. Remember though, you do get what you pay for...

Winner:
TIE Westy/Sceptre
Summary: If you're an avid HTPC user you can select either of these LCDs and you'd be happy, since you won't need the Sceptre's ATSC/NTSC tuner. The Westy would be slightly better because of 1) More calibrations and 2) the Design / Look. But then again, the question is if you can live with it for $200, which can get you a nice fancy video card, more memory, or the latest dual core CPU.

I got my Sceptre last night and will have a West... on Monday. I'll post an AB sometime later next week. I will try to post some sort of review, calebrations... on the Sceptre over the weekend.

Thanks! That will be very very helpful!!! I'll be looking forward it! :cool:

Winner:
TIE Westy/Sceptre
Summary: If you're an avid HTPC user you can select either of these LCDs and you'd be happy, since you won't need the Sceptre's ATSC/NTSC tuner. The Westy would be slightly better because of 1) More calibrations and 2) the Design / Look. But then again, the question is if you can live with it for $200, which can get you a nice fancy video card, more memory, or the latest dual core CPU.

Wow, that is very nice! It indeed cleared up some... Well, I'll wait until what others say a little more and decide by next week!
Can you also tell about how they perform on gaming for computer? The color, contrast, ghosting-issue, and etc... anything would be appriciated!

P.S. I've already placed an order for Westy... but I can always return so... :D

Price / Value:
Westy - 4/5
Sceptre - 4.5/5
Summary: All in all very comparable sets. Since the Sceptre is typically $200 cheaper then the Westy it wins in value, otherwise it's a wash. Remember though, you do get what you pay for...


I actually got the Westinghouse for ~ $150 less than the Sceptre cost me. This includes the set, shipping, Tax. There was no tax on the West... given I'm in Calif and I ordered it from someone in NY. The shipping was under $50.

I'm also ordering the Dish Network with HD pak... Does anyone know if it's any good?

While my evaluation will continue over the weekend, I wanted to share my Avia calibration experience and settings of the Sceptre.

It essentially took two passes to get the best settings & set of compromises.

Pass1 settings:
Lamp = 0
Vivid Color = Off
Skin Tone = Off
Gamma = 0
Contrast (white level) = 29
Brightness (black level) = 32
Sharpness = 5
Color (sateration) = 42
Tint (Hue) = +2
Green = Off
Blue = Middle

Results:
Red is Pushed by +25% or more (+25% is the top of the scale)
Green is pushed +10 to 15%
Blue is at 0 (zero is good, meaning not too much (+) or too little (-))
White Level came out well (could see both moving bars)
Black level didn't adjust as well (could only see one of the two moving bars)

Since too much red is more objectionable than sateration being off a bit, a second pass was required with the goal of bringing red push down to +15 to +20% by sacrificing some sateration. An odd finding is there is no adjustment for red.

Pass 2 settings:
Color (sateration) = 35
Blue = High
All other settings the same as above

Final Results:
Red is Pushed by +15 to +20%
Green is pushed +10 to +15%
Blue is at -15%
White Level came out well (could see both moving bars)
Black level didn't adjust as well (could only see one of the two moving bars)

Notes:
-Vivid Color seems to push more green, so, since we have more green than we want, it stays off.
-Skin Tone seems to push more red, so, it stays off since we already have too much red.
-I put Gamma to 0, but didn't yet figure out how to adjust it.

These adgustments where made with a DVD player over component.
My plan is to see how this looks for a while, make any tweeks necessary, then to adjust my HTPC settings over DVI without touching the TV's settings. This should hopefully allow me to get around there only being one user setting on the TV and them not be configurable for each input.

I've cancelled my Westy order through J&R and will be driving about 3 hours down to Prescott, AZ this Sunday to see it for myself. If I like it, I'll buy it. If I don't, I'll wait until the end of the year. Hope I like it! Wish me luck :D

Hmm....???

I think I remember people saying the "User Mode" was not input specific. It look like it is on my set. At least half of them are.

After making the calebrations above for the component input being driven by my JVC DVD player through my HK tuner, I proceeded to watch the tonight show over component at 1080i from the Adelphia Motorola HD STB through my tuner.

I then switched back and forth between the component (throught the tuner) and the DVI/HDMI input (connected directly to the STB). They looked very much the same, so, I assumed the settings I made above where applied to the HDMI input as well.

Wrong.
I thought, well let me see that they're the same. It turns out different settings are maintained for the "Video" settings, but not for the "Advanced" settings.

The "Video" settings for the HDMI input on my set are:
Contrast = 40
Brightness = 16
Sharpness = 7
Color = 32
Tint = 0

Again, the picture looks very much as good with these settings through DVI as it does with the settings I previously posted via component. Both from the same HD Motorola STB. In fact, if I set the HDMI input to the same values as the component input has, it looks like crap.

I'll see later how well this calebration looks via DVI from the HTPC.

This all brings me to a question. Does adjusting a set well via a DVD player or HTPC really indicate how well adjusted it will be from a STB, internal tuner, PVR/Tivo, VCR...? How can one adjust the set for these non DVD sources?

Has anyone tried hooking up a DVD player to the Sceptre with an HDMI-HDMI cable?

It seems that everyone who's posted here about how awesome the image looks on the HDMI input is using a PC source with the DVI-HDMI cable.

My DVD player upsamples video to 1080i widescreen and has an HDMI out. The TV doesn't seem to accept this resolution. The TV says that it's displaying 480P on the HDMI input.

When the TV's aspect ratio is set to "Auto", the incoming signal is also shrunk t 4x3, with black bars on all borders. If I manually set the aspect ratio to 16x9, the picture looks grainy, like I'm taking a digital picture, shrinking it, then zooming in on the smaller one.

Also, I get no audio out of the TV speakers on HDMI in. I think the TV throws away the audio input.

I emailed Sceptre support about it, and their answer was simply "unplug your DVD player for 20 minutes." According to them, the HDMI input should accept audio and video signals from my DVD player just fine, and if it doesn't work, then it's my DVD player that's broken. I doubt this, since my DVD player is a top of the line model and this feature has worked for other TVs I've hooked it up to.

After having this set for a while now, I really only have two issues that are still bugging me. If anybody has figured out solutions for these problems, I'd love to hear about it.

1) Are there IR codes (that I can use with a programmable remote) to switch directly to certain inputs? Right now I'm using only AV1, Component, and DTV sources. It would be great to be able to jump to just those inputs, rather than scanning through all of them whenever I want to change my video source. It's even more annoying because switching from the "Source PC" button (for DTV) to the "Source AV" button (for AV1 or Component) always resets the source to TV Air, which is a setting I never use. If it would just go back to the last "Source AV" I had it on, I probably wouldn't mind as much, but always going to a source I never want it on is driving me nuts :-)

2) It still seems that the monitor is trying to do some sort of "auto-level" adjustment or something when the scene lighting changes (I especially notice this when parts of a scene get really dark). Am I just imagining this or do other people see it as well? I see it on all the inputs I'm using, so I don't think it's a particular source. I find this behaviour really distracting; I'd much rather have a "too dark" or "too light" scene than have it constantly flickering around trying to adjust the levels. If this is in fact a "feature" of the TV, is there a way to turn it off?

Thanks,
Michael

My DVD player upsamples video to 1080i widescreen and has an HDMI out. The TV doesn't seem to accept this resolution. The TV says that it's displaying 480P on the HDMI input.

I have a MyHD PC HDTV tuner card connected to my Sceptre 37 through DVI and it exhibits the same symptom: the Sceptre sees the 1080i output as 640X480. However, switching the output of the MyHD card to 1280X720P produces an excellent image on the Sceptre.

Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output... :confused:

I have a MyHD PC HDTV tuner card connected to my Sceptre 37 through DVI and it exhibits the same symptom: the Sceptre sees the 1080i output as 640X480. However, switching the output of the MyHD card to 1280X720P produces an excellent image on the Sceptre.

Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output... :confused:

This could be because your PC video card can't do 1920x1080 over DVI. My laptop did the same thing over DVI, but worked fine over VGA. I haven't had a chance to test with my desktop yet.

This could be because your PC video card can't do 1920x1080 over DVI. My laptop did the same thing over DVI, but worked fine over VGA. I haven't had a chance to test with my desktop yet.

Actually my video card, an ATI x800 Pro, has nothing to do with the output since it originates from the DVI output of the MyHD daughtercard. The x800 translates the Windows desktop very competently at 1080i.

I'm suspect that the culprit lies within the timing expectations of the Sceptre.

I've had mine for a couple of days now and am struggling with setting things up - it might be me or it might be my equipment.

I have my (regular) DirectTivo plugged in via composite into AV1 and whilst the picture is okay, it still looks a little blurry when I'm in 16x9 mode - it must be being streched - at least from 4x3 to 16x9 - but I'm curious to see if I can improve things a little. What does the DirecTivo put out? regular NTSC or 480p?

I have a Philips 642 DVD player hooked up via component and progressive scan turned on - the picture is really quite good but when playing back movies in 16x9, there is a small gap top and bottom - I assumed that widescreen movies would playback in 16x9 and fill the screen - am I missing something?

I hooked up a computer with a Radeon 9700PRO video card in it via the DVI cable supplied - I set the resolution to 1900x1080 and I noticed that (a) part of desktop was off the screen so for instance, I couldn't see the Windows task bar and (b) the picture was fuzzy and black text looked awful - seemed to be multi-colored. I tried playing back a couple of HD Windows Media 1900x1080 files and they looked great except there was a lot of noise when areas of the screen were black - does this sound like a video card issue or is there a TV setting I need to change?

Apologies for all the questions - this is my first TV for 10 years and am struggling to understand everything.

Cheers.

S.

I have a MyHD PC HDTV tuner card connected to my Sceptre 37 through DVI and it exhibits the same symptom: the Sceptre sees the 1080i output as 640X480. However, switching the output of the MyHD card to 1280X720P produces an excellent image on the Sceptre.

Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output... :confused:


I have Nvidia FX5200 with 256MB it does 1920x1080 over VGA and it does it over DVI to another monitor.

I have a MyHD PC HDTV tuner card connected to my Sceptre 37 through DVI and it exhibits the same symptom: the Sceptre sees the 1080i output as 640X480. However, switching the output of the MyHD card to 1280X720P produces an excellent image on the Sceptre.

Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output... :confused:

1080i over DVI works fine for me, both from my HTPC (ATI 9600, w/Catalyst 5.9) & my Motorola HD STB. I'm using a 25' HDMI cable with a DVI/HDMI adapter on the source end. 1080p works well from the HTPC too.

On a side note: 1080i works fine over component as well.

OK now I set this screen up and tested out. I at first connected it via DVI/HDMI cable (that came with the screen) to an Athlon XP 2400+ Gigabyte board with an NVidia Geforce 4 4400TI based video card running Windows 2000. After updating to the latest Nvidia forceware drivers (78.01) I started doing some video and still image tests. I thought that it was working great. I tested it with a the 5 color set to test for dead/stuck pixels (straight white, straight black, straight full red/green/blue) and didn't observe any noticeable problems. I tested it with some WMVHD's and it looked great. However I noticed after looking at a few digital images from digital camera (4-7 megapixel images) that there seemed to be dancing/flickering pixels here and there. At first I put it down to the software being flaky perhaps. Then I switched to another machine with an Athlon 64 x2 4600+ and two 7800 GTX based video cards running again at 1080P off the same cable to the screen. I am running it under DVI not HDCP or HDMI. I am running at 1920x1080 at 60HZ and 32-bit (24 bit plus 8 bit alpha) color. What I have observed now and have been able to repeat is that there are narrow color bands where if the entire screen is set to this band I can consistently now get these dancing/flashing pixels. I created a photoshop 1920x1080 image and opened the color picker and then selected two colors that were close and covered the range desired (it seems to be a curve in any given color swath) and then used a gradient fill from diagonal to opposite diagonal. I'll try to post bmp's that have the example image and an example of what I actually see on my desktop. But it's mainly noticeable when displaying static high res digital images on the screen. Unfortunately playing world of warcraft it's quite visible too in some places like Tanaris (sand and it must be in the same gradient range).

Anyone had similar problems? I think we may return this screen at this rate and maybe upgrade to a Sharp 45/46" 1080p screen. Or I might just hold off til spring.

Anyhow unfortunately JPG compression even at max quality evens out the gradient and removes a lot of the faulty pixels that would normally show up.

argh... can't post the images. 800x600 is the max jpg size they'll take, and booo 500kb is the max zip file they'll take. Ok I'll split it into rar's of 400kib each. Drat they won't accept rar as a valid file. Ok fine I'll add a .zip extension to all the rar's. Please remember to remove the .zip extension on these files to be able to unrar them properly.

these are the original file names. They merge together to uncompress into an 8 meg bitmap file that is 1920x1080. I am curious if anyone else with the sceptre screen can display this and get the same dancing/flashing pixels.

SceptreFailingPixelsTestExample.part01.rar
SceptreFailingPixelsTestExample.part02.rar
SceptreFailingPixelsTestExample.part03.rar

1080i over DVI works fine for me, both from my HTPC (ATI 9600, w/Catalyst 5.9) & my Motorola HD STB. I'm using a 25' HDMI cable with a DVI/HDMI adapter on the source end. 1080p works well from the HTPC too.

On a side note: 1080i works fine over component as well.

I have Nvidia FX5200 with 256MB it does 1920x1080 over VGA and it does it over DVI to another monitor.


Sorry for any confusion... I should have said:

"Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output from the MyHD card passing signal to the Sceptre from the MyHD DVI daughtercard"

1920X1080 works very well with the signal passed through the MyHD DVI daughtercard from an ATI X800 Pro card for the Windows desktop.

Actually my video card, an ATI x800 Pro, has nothing to do with the output since it originates from the DVI output of the MyHD daughtercard. The x800 translates the Windows desktop very competently at 1080i.

I'm suspect that the culprit lies within the timing expectations of the Sceptre.

Ah, sorry, I'm not experienced with the MyHD card so I was confused.

It is a company based in Taiwan, but it also has an American HQ. They also have the factory in California so I said it does not quite make them a Taiwanese company. Am I wrong? I've also heard the engineers are Taiwanese. :cool:

Sorry to tell ya but you're wrong. Company is based in US, has no office in Taiwan, has no factory in CA, but some in China. If it was made in US, those TVs would be like 5 grand USD a piece at least. Engineers I wouldn't know, I only know a friend there that works as a sales.

Wow! So you are quite familiar with the Sceptre huh? That's very interesting... I guess the things I've heard are all wrong than! Thanks for at least clearing up for me. :D

Anyway, I couldn't wait for a Sceptre to show up in Costco or any other places so... I had to go with an Westy...! BTW, Westy is a very very nice monitor, BUT! I don't want to compare with a Sceptre cuz I've never seen it in person. :P

My plan was to analyze it pretty thoroughly but I got impatient not having it at home and didn't have it around the lab all that long...just a couple of days. We did measure the gray-to-gray response time (worst case) and the panel impressed us by having worst case response time of 16ms. That's pretty good for MVA/PVA for a gray-to-gray transition and I think that is reflected in the overall viewing experience, e.g. when watching sports or other fast moving content.

Other things we noticed and liked:
- No dead pixels
- Very good low gray level mura, e.g. very smooth appearance of black; not blotchy.
- Very wide viewing angle

Things not so great:
- Poor black level viewing angle performance
- Meager dimming ratio from backlight assembly (less than 4:1 on my unit)

Yes, my compliance label carries the UL logo. My serial number ends in SC1427.

BSteely: "Display Lab"... Bro...is that a hint you're going to do a detailed analysis of this puppy? Right on! BTW, does your unit have an UL approval code? What's your serial number?

Thx & rgdz

When I press the Info button on the remote I get something like the following at the top left of the screen:

M: 1080I
S: OFF

My question; what is "S" and how do you change it's state? Also, I know what 1080I refers to but why is it "M", e.g. what does "M" stand for?

When I press the Info button on the remote I get something like the following at the top left of the screen:

M: 1080I
S: OFF

My question; what is "S" and how do you change it's state? Also, I know what 1080I refers to but why is it "M", e.g. what does "M" stand for?

M: main dispaly
S: Picture in Picture

My plan was to analyze it pretty thoroughly but I got impatient not having it at home and didn't have it around the lab all that long...just a couple of days. We did measure the gray-to-gray response time (worst case) and the panel impressed us by having worst case response time of 16ms. That's pretty good for MVA/PVA for a gray-to-gray transition and I think that is reflected in the overall viewing experience, e.g. when watching sports or other fast moving content.

Other things we noticed and liked:
- No dead pixels
- Very good low gray level mura, e.g. very smooth appearance of black; not blotchy.
- Very wide viewing angle

Things not so great:
- Poor black level viewing angle performance
- Meager dimming ratio from backlight assembly (less than 4:1 on my unit)

Yes, my compliance label carries the UL logo. My serial number ends in SC1427.

Can you explain what the dimming ratio... is?

I have both a Sceptre and a West... and am doing a an AB... and will post soon.
The backlight on the Sceptre looks real even to me.
The Westinghouse's backlight is real bad, uneaven, a big oval backlight blob in each quadrant (that's four). It's only noticable in dark sceans, but it's unaceptable.

Have you evaluated the West...?

Are you evaluating Color, Black, White adjustability of the Sceptre through different inputs?

Hmm....???

I think I remember people saying the "User Mode" was not input specific. It look like it is on my set. At least half of them are.

After making the calebrations above for the component input being driven by my JVC DVD player through my HK tuner, I proceeded to watch the tonight show over component at 1080i from the Adelphia Motorola HD STB through my tuner.

I then switched back and forth between the component (throught the tuner) and the DVI/HDMI input (connected directly to the STB). They looked very much the same, so, I assumed the settings I made above where applied to the HDMI input as well.

Wrong.
I thought, well let me see that they're the same. It turns out different settings are maintained for the "Video" settings, but not for the "Advanced" settings.

The "Video" settings for the HDMI input on my set are:
Contrast = 40
Brightness = 16
Sharpness = 7
Color = 32
Tint = 0

Again, the picture looks very much as good with these settings through DVI as it does with the settings I previously posted via component. Both from the same HD Motorola STB. In fact, if I set the HDMI input to the same values as the component input has, it looks like crap.

I'll see later how well this calebration looks via DVI from the HTPC.

This all brings me to a question. Does adjusting a set well via a DVD player or HTPC really indicate how well adjusted it will be from a STB, internal tuner, PVR/Tivo, VCR...? How can one adjust the set for these non DVD sources?

You bring-up a good issue. I am using the HDMI input for my STB and I do not have a HDMI DVD player (waiting for Blue-ray/HD-DVD) and thus am not able to calibrate my HDMI input. My settings are VERY similar to yours for the HDMI input and the picture looks very nice, but I really want to calibrate the input. Has anyone calibrated the HDMI input via and HDMI->HDMI cable from an HDMI DVD player? If so what settings did you end-up with?

I watch HDTV from a Terk indoor antenna and the reception is incredible. But, it seems that no matter what the broadcast signal is, 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i, the Sceptre indicates 720p. Is this correct? Does it mean that the tv is automatically converting every signal to 720p? If so, the shouldn't it be converting everything to 1080p? How can you change that if you you wanted to? And, if it was to receive a 1080p signal would that also be converted to 720p? Thanks for any info.

... However I noticed after looking at a few digital images from digital camera (4-7 megapixel images) that there seemed to be dancing/flickering pixels here and there. At first I put it down to the software being flaky perhaps. Then I switched to another machine with an Athlon 64 x2 4600+ and two 7800 GTX based video cards running again at 1080P off the same cable to the screen. I am running it under DVI not HDCP or HDMI. I am running at 1920x1080 at 60HZ and 32-bit (24 bit plus 8 bit alpha) color. What I have observed now and have been able to repeat is that there are narrow color bands where if the entire screen is set to this band I can consistently now get these dancing/flashing pixels. I created a photoshop 1920x1080 image and opened the color picker and then selected two colors that were close and covered the range desired (it seems to be a curve in any given color swath) and then used a gradient fill from diagonal to opposite diagonal. I'll try to post bmp's that have the example image and an example of what I actually see on my desktop. But it's mainly noticeable when displaying static high res digital images on the screen. Unfortunately playing world of warcraft it's quite visible too in some places like Tanaris (sand and it must be in the same gradient range).

Anyone had similar problems? ...

I downloaded and assempled your files and displayed it to the Sceptre through DVI (not HDMI or HDCP) at 1920x1080 and it looked perfect with no issues you described above. I also displayed it over VGA at 1920x1080 with much the same result.

Sorry for any confusion... I should have said:

"Can't figure out why the set doesn't like the 1080i output from the MyHD card passing signal to the Sceptre from the MyHD DVI daughtercard"

1920X1080 works very well with the signal passed through the MyHD DVI daughtercard from an ATI X800 Pro card for the Windows desktop.

I have MyHD without the DVI daughtercard, I feed it to the Sceptre over VGA and get the same result 640x480

I have another problem with two separate video cards - Sceptre does not wotk with either over DVI with the supplied DVI/HDMI cable.
I don't have any other DVI/HDMI sources to test the cable and the Sceptre, but the video cards DVI ports work for sure.

I have MyHD without the DVI daughtercard, I feed it to the Sceptre over VGA and get the same result 640x480

I have another problem with two separate video cards - Sceptre does not wotk with either over DVI with the supplied DVI/HDMI cable.
I don't have any other DVI/HDMI sources to test the cable and the Sceptre, but the video cards DVI ports work for sure.

See if the Sceptre will synch with the MyHD at the 1280X720P setting. This is what worked for me.

See if the Sceptre will synch with the MyHD at the 1280X720P setting. This is what worked for me.

It does over the VGA output of the MyHD 1280x720.

My problem is that the Sceptre will not work with the DVI out of my ATI or Nvidia video cards. Nothing, no picture just a blue screen - I have tried native res, lower resolutions, it is set @60Hz, my hope is that it is the DVI/HDMI cable that came with the Sceptre, but I will test with new cables soon.

Just got the TV and Component Video does not work. Is there a better manual to figure out this problem or does anyone has an idea how to troubleshoot this issue.

It does over the VGA output of the MyHD 1280x720.

My problem is that the Sceptre will not work with the DVI out of my ATI or Nvidia video cards. Nothing, no pucture just a blue screen - I have tried native res, lover res, it is set @60Hz, my hope is that it is the DVI/HDMI cable that came with the Sceptre, but I will test with new cables soon.

FWIW, I have no problem with my laptop using the DVI port at 1920x1080.

I have yet to use the HDMI/DVI connector on the set but have been reading on the problems that seem to be coming up on the subject. I found some good information at this link: world wide web (dot) ramelectronics (dot) net (slash) html (slash) DVI_info (dot) html Part of the problem may be related to either using the wrong type cable or devices with different DVI connections.

With regard to picture quality I have also learned that on the program guides that if the station says their signal is 1080i that does not mean 1080i @ 60 htz but usually @ 30 htz. The same may be true for lower res stations as well but they don't tell you that up front. You can find that info here: alvyray (dot) com (slash) DigitalTV (slash) Network_Plans (dot) htm

Something I haven't seen mentioned with regard to settings that seems to have worked for me is to simply turn off or set to zero the bump settings for skin tone, red, green and blue. Once I did that skin tones did not have the reddish tones and other colors appeared more natural as well.

Because I haven't got my furniture in yet and with the Sceptre in front of my current setup it was difficult to turn on or turn off the receiver for sound. I decided to take out the speakers and connect them for the time being to make things easier. I just stood them up in the foam packing and connected the wires. The first thing I learned is that with the mini-earphone jack in place sound is turned off to the main speakers. I unplugged the jack and now had sound through the speakers. I was expecting to hear really bad sound, as has been reported by others, but was pleasantly surprised. I think that you have to remember that this is TV set not a stereo system. I was also listening to them a low to moderate levels, between 20 & 35 most of the time. If I can figure out a way to fool the set into thinking the mini-earplug jack is not installed then I might just leave the speaker hooked up once the furniture arrives. To those that might know, will opening the circuit in one of the lines coming out of the mini jack fool the system or is this some from of mechanical switch when the jack is inserted?

Also, does anyone know a source for a visual that shows the difference in picture size for the various formats? I'm still trying to learn what I should be seeing. Some HD has vertical bars, some has horizontal, other times I get a full screen. I've seen pages with the numbers but I do better with visuals, and am hoping to find one that has the various sizes overlayed on each other to help me out.

Later,

P.S. - Sorry for the link notation but it was the only way I could include the info because of restriction on my account.

Also, does anyone know a source for a visual that shows the difference in picture size for the various formats? I'm still trying to learn what I should be seeing. Some HD has vertical bars, some has horizontal, other times I get a full screen. I've seen pages with the numbers but I do better with visuals, and am hoping to find one that has the various sizes overlayed on each other to help me out.

Later,

P.S. - Sorry for the link notation but it was the only way I could include the info because of restriction on my account.

True HD broadcast signal should fill the full screen (be it 1080i or 720p) but since most station does not broadcast in HD 24/7 (see www.titantv.com to see which program is broadcast in true HD). A lot of times you will just be getting the good old 4x3 broadcast with black bar on the side, the same will happen to commercials during HD broadcast as most of them are not formatted for 16x9. The worst kind of TV is those broadcast in normal quality in widescreen format, you'll end up with bars on all four size and none of the zoom function is perfect at bring those to full screen.

As for horizontal bars, you'll most likely see them from DVDs as most movies are shot at 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 and when they are played back on a 16x9 (1.78:1) display, you'll get the top and bottim bars.

jvoncolln

Thanks for your calibrations, I will adjust it to match your settings when I get home. Do you also have any idea how I can calibrate for my HDTV wonder card for HDTV via my PC via DVI? The closest I think we be using AVIA through a DVD player on my PC?

Does anyone know if this set would be able to handle a 60fps 1080p signal?
Has anyone experimented with higher refresh rates?

Is there a quirks or issues post on the set? I think I saw something about not
being able to adjust color settings on the HDMI port. It would be nice to have a
list of quirks to help would be buyers.

I'm interested in things like, SDTV video quality
SDTV Zoom capabilities.
Zoom on a 720p or 1080i signal broadcasting SDTV. (For widescreen shows)
Save video settings per input.

Mike

What I have observed now and have been able to repeat is that there are narrow color bands where if the entire screen is set to this band I can consistently now get these dancing/flashing pixels. I created a photoshop 1920x1080 image and opened the color picker and then selected two colors that were close and covered the range desired (it seems to be a curve in any given color swath) and then used a gradient fill from diagonal to opposite diagonal.

I have downloaded, renamed, and extracted the file you posted. Most likely, the reason you didn't get much response is due to the convoluted workarounds you used with the posting (Although I understand what you were up against).

Two theories:

1. The sparklies you describe sound like some I have seen when I was at or near the limit of my DVI signal strength. This can be due to cable length or also due to cable quality and sometimes only affects certain vulnerable frequencies.

To test this theory, use the shortest, highest quality DVI cable you can get your hands on, and see if the problem is affected in any way.

2. Alternative theory: You may have discovered a color (or colors) that are out of gamut for this display. While unlikely due to it's origins as a PC monitor-type device, I guess it's possible. Perhaps it's a manufacturing anomaly that only affected your panel, as others didn't see the issue.

Furthermore, I'd be happy to test but I am still waiting to get my chance to BUY a Sceptre. Watching daily for the re-appearance of this unit (or news thereof) at Costco.com or anywhere else.

Does anyone know if this set would be able to handle a 60fps 1080p signal?
Has anyone experimented with higher refresh rates?

Is there a quirks or issues post on the set? I think I saw something about not
being able to adjust color settings on the HDMI port. It would be nice to have a
list of quirks to help would be buyers.

I'm interested in things like, SDTV video quality
SDTV Zoom capabilities.
Zoom on a 720p or 1080i signal broadcasting SDTV. (For widescreen shows)
Save video settings per input.

Mike

I was able to get 60fps (60hz) at 1080p (ie, 1920x1080) via the digital input, when fed from a computer, no problem.

SDTV quality was not so good.

I don't recall the answers to your other questions, since I ended up returning the set due to the poor audio stage.

jvoncolln

Thanks for your calibrations, I will adjust it to match your settings when I get home. Do you also have any idea how I can calibrate for my HDTV wonder card for HDTV via my PC via DVI? The closest I think we be using AVIA through a DVD player on my PC?

That would probably work well for some of the settings. However, I've noticed (at least with my setup) that when using Avia with my HTPC (through DVI or VGA), I don't see the moving bars at all for the black level (Brightness) or the white level (Contrast) test paterns. Please (anyone) let me know if you do. This makes it difficult to get black and white levels set correctly. I made my best attempt, but it seemed a bit washed out and I ended up lowering both brightness and contract a bit after watching some programming. I don't have a HD tuner in the HTPC, so this was just SD content. I also used this HTPC method to tune the HDMI & HDCP (they share the same settings) input's settings and ended up with a similar result (a bit washed out) when viewing content from the Adelphia Motorola HD Box. Though this is understandably more of a crap shoot as I'm using one source to tune an input that will be used by another source that will likely need different settings. The color test paterns of Avia seem to work well with the HTPC.

Cable companies should be required to have a channel that cycles through a few key test paterns so people can calebrate their sets for that source. An OTA channel would be nice too. Is anyone aware of such a thing anywhere?

Hi, I am new to this forum and this is my first experience with HDTV, so I apologize if this question is too simple or if it has been asked before. I watch HDTV from a Terk indoor antenna and the reception is incredible. But, it seems that no matter what the broadcast signal is, 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i, the Sceptre indicates 720p. Is this correct? Does it mean that the tv is automatically converting every signal to 720p? If so, then shouldn't it be converting everything to 1080p? How can you change that if you you wanted to? And, if it was to receive a 1080p signal would that also be converted to 720p? I noticed in a previous post that someone else said his tv was always indicating 1080i. Any information would be appreciated.

Please refer to the earlier posts...

How do you use the aspect ratio button. On most widescreen TVs, you can use this to fill out the screen when watching 4:3 ratio standard programs. However on Sceptre, I can't seem to make 4:3 fill the screen. I have Dish 811 connected to the Sceptre using component input (1080i) and have also tried various screen ratios (16x9, 4x3 #1, and 4x3 #2) on Dish receiver without any apparent effect.

Use the Dish receivers option. Push the * button on the remote to change it.

When I hook my 37" Sceptre up to my Mac Mini using DVI at 1920x1080, the display looks fine until I try scrolling a window or moving a window on the screen. Then the Sceptre appears to lose lock and immediately turns blue. Sometimes is comes back, but sometime it won't lock back up. Any ideas here?

rsherwoo, I am experiencing the exact same thing. Almost seems like a thermal issue because once the screen goes blue, it's gone until I unplug the mini and let it sit for a while and cool down. However, I want to report success with using SwitchRes X to produce a custom, short blanking, native (1920x1080) timing that has a lower dot clock and seems stable. I am writing this email right now from a mini-driven Sceptre. I ran the flurry screen saver for a period of time before writing this and it was free of DVI noise and didn't cause the blue screen. Previously the flurry screen saver was guaranteed instant death for the stability of the display but no more. Here are the values I used in SwitchRes:

Pixel clock: 135 MHz
HActive: 1920 pixels
HFront porch: 16 pixels
HSync width: 16 pixels
HBack porch: 40 pixels
HScan rate: 67.771 kHz
VActive: 1080 lines
VFront porch: 1 line
VSync width: 3 lines
VBack porch: 46 lines
VScan rate: 59.974 Hz

Sync is positive for both H and V. Scan didn't come out to exactly 60 Hz but should be close enough I would think. I prefer to keep the dot clock a more round number and have the scan a bit off than the other way around. I'm very happy now to have the Mac mini driving the NAGA. Will let you know if I see any problems as time goes by.

Hi, I am new to this forum and this is my first experience with HDTV, so I apologize if this question is too simple or if it has been asked before. I watch HDTV from a Terk indoor antenna and the reception is incredible. But, it seems that no matter what the broadcast signal is, 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i, the Sceptre indicates 720p. I


The very FIRST post of this thread contains the following:
OTA HDTV:

There is an issue:

Any channel you tune to will say what it's being broadcast in in the EPG. The OSD always says 720p no matter what channel you are on. I've asked Sceptre about this and they say it's a bug, and the 720p is incorrect. I'm not so sure I believe them though. This unit may be using a tuner that has a max output of 720p, and therefor not delivering true 1080i to you.

You can search this thread using the little search this thread box on the upper right and see many more posts. Search on 720p.

Hi,

The SD program looks grainy and bad on my Sceptre set. I read in the thread that someone did some tweaking in the setting, including adjusting the noise level to get better SD quality. However, the Noise setting appears "white" and can not be selected. Does anyone know how to access it, and any hints on how to tweak it?

The TV is connected to a SA8300 TW cable box using component cable. Will a HDMI cable help?

Thanks!

Mike

Finally got X working at 1920x1080p on my X37 - in case anyone else needs this, here are the relevent sections from my xorg.conf file:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "SceptreX37"
VendorName "Sceptre"
ModelName "X37"
HorizSync 67.5 - 68.5
VertRefresh 59.9 - 60.1
ModeLine "1920x1080p" 148.500 1920 2024 2072 2200 1080 1084 1094 1124 -hsync -vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "SceptreX37"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1080p"
EndSubSection
EndSection

KDE and MythTV look great at this setting!

Has anyone tried hooking up a DVD player to the Sceptre with an HDMI-HDMI cable?

It seems that everyone who's posted here about how awesome the image looks on the HDMI input is using a PC source with the DVI-HDMI cable.

My DVD player upsamples video to 1080i widescreen and has an HDMI out. The TV doesn't seem to accept this resolution. The TV says that it's displaying 480P on the HDMI input.

When the TV's aspect ratio is set to "Auto", the incoming signal is also shrunk t 4x3, with black bars on all borders. If I manually set the aspect ratio to 16x9, the picture looks grainy, like I'm taking a digital picture, shrinking it, then zooming in on the smaller one.

Also, I get no audio out of the TV speakers on HDMI in. I think the TV throws away the audio input.

I emailed Sceptre support about it, and their answer was simply "unplug your DVD player for 20 minutes." According to them, the HDMI input should accept audio and video signals from my DVD player just fine, and if it doesn't work, then it's my DVD player that's broken. I doubt this, since my DVD player is a top of the line model and this feature has worked for other TVs I've hooked it up to.


I have the same problem(s) with my 37" Sceptre, their tech support offered an even weaker suggestion, "I wouldn't use the TV speakers anyway". Before I return it to our fantastic friends at Costco, can anyone tell me if 1080i res from a DVD player is possible and shouldn't we expect to get audio from the HDMI input.
Thanks!

After having this set for a while now, I really only have two issues that are still bugging me. If anybody has figured out solutions for these problems, I'd love to hear about it.

1) Are there IR codes (that I can use with a programmable remote) to switch directly to certain inputs? Right now I'm using only AV1, Component, and DTV sources. It would be great to be able to jump to just those inputs, rather than scanning through all of them whenever I want to change my video source. It's even more annoying because switching from the "Source PC" button (for DTV) to the "Source AV" button (for AV1 or Component) always resets the source to TV Air, which is a setting I never use. If it would just go back to the last "Source AV" I had it on, I probably wouldn't mind as much, but always going to a source I never want it on is driving me nuts :-)

2) It still seems that the monitor is trying to do some sort of "auto-level" adjustment or something when the scene lighting changes (I especially notice this when parts of a scene get really dark). Am I just imagining this or do other people see it as well? I see it on all the inputs I'm using, so I don't think it's a particular source. I find this behaviour really distracting; I'd much rather have a "too dark" or "too light" scene than have it constantly flickering around trying to adjust the levels. If this is in fact a "feature" of the TV, is there a way to turn it off?

Thanks,
Michael


I have seen this auto-level problem using a liteon dvd player that was scaling to 1080i on component.I have an external hd tuner 1080i same component input and have also seen this problem.Also on my htpc I have never seen this problem.
This problem is very annoying.I am going to contact Sceptre about this and will post reply

I have the same problem(s) with my 37" Sceptre, their tech support offered an even weaker suggestion, "I wouldn't use the TV speakers anyway". Before I return it to our fantastic friends at Costco, can anyone tell me if 1080i res from a DVD player is possible and shouldn't we expect to get audio from the HDMI input.
Thanks!

I'm using a Samsung DVD-HD850 upconverting DVD player with HDMI to HDMI input to my Sceptre. I use the 1080i setting on the Samsung and the Sceptre recognizes it with no problem. I am using a consumer grade Phillips HDMI cable I got cheap at WalMart. I am not getting audio through the HDMI, however, only video, so I'm using a separate amp and speaker system for audio. (I think the Samsung DVD player only outputs video on the HDMI, not audio -- you don't mention what player you are using, but could this explain why you have no audio through HDMI?) The Avia DVD helped me a lot with picture calibration. I also use a DVI/HDMI mechanical switch from Centronics.com which was inexpensive and works well. The other HD signal I have going into this switch is from a Dish Network 811 HD satellite receiver also outputting at 1080i. This signal is also recognized by the Sceptre with no problem, and the picture is awesome. Audio for this I run from the satellite receiver to the Sceptre, and I have a couple of powered Bose PC speakers hooked up to the headphone jack on the Sceptre which give me clean stereo sound I can control with the Sceptre remote. So, overall I am happy with the system.

The Sceptre has a weakness (occasional graininess on some SD broadcasts, depending on the quality of the source), but for me the detail and resolution and color accuracy of the 1080 picture in HD more than make up for that. Hope this helps.

Mike Gladych
Yucca Valley, CA

I'm using a Samsung DVD-HD850 upconverting DVD player with HDMI to HDMI input to my Sceptre. I use the 1080i setting on the Samsung and the Sceptre recognizes it with no problem. I am using a consumer grade Phillips HDMI cable I got cheap at WalMart. I am not getting audio through the HDMI, however, only video, so I'm using a separate amp and speaker system for audio. (I think the Samsung DVD player only outputs video on the HDMI, not audio -- you don't mention what player you are using, but could this explain why you have no audio through HDMI?) The Avia DVD helped me a lot with picture calibration. I also use a DVI/HDMI mechanical switch from Centronics.com which was inexpensive and works well. The other HD signal I have going into this switch is from a Dish Network 811 HD satellite receiver also outputting at 1080i. This signal is also recognized by the Sceptre with no problem, and the picture is awesome. Audio for this I run from the satellite receiver to the Sceptre, and I have a couple of powered Bose PC speakers hooked up to the headphone jack on the Sceptre which give me clean stereo sound I can control with the Sceptre remote. So, overall I am happy with the system.

The Sceptre has a weakness (occasional graininess on some SD broadcasts, depending on the quality of the source), but for me the detail and resolution and color accuracy of the 1080 picture in HD more than make up for that. Hope this helps.

Mike Gladych
Yucca Valley, CA


Mike,

Seeing as you have calibrated the Sceptre with AVIA and an HDMI/DVD player would you mind sharing your settings with us? Thanks!

DMFZ

Hmm on many dark scenes on Xvid files I am getting blotches of red or green. I'm not sure if it's because it's encoded at a low resolution. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I post a screenshot?

Hey gang,

Checking in...still want to buy myself one of these units...but haven't heard any new word on when they will be coming available again. Last I heard was October...well here we are mid-way through the month.

Anybody know anything?

Anyone use a universal remote with this TV? Any of those USB remotes even have codes available for this thing yet? The standard Sceptre remote is hideous.

Anyone use a universal remote with this TV? Any of those USB remotes even have codes available for this thing yet? The standard Sceptre remote is hideous.

I'm using a Logitech Harmony remote with my setup. When I first went to set up the Harmony via their website, I was surprised to find an x37SV setup was already active on their website. However, whoever checked-in that data must have been drunk. It didn't work at all. Wouldn't even power the TV on and off. And the inputs didn't map to the ones on the Naga. It was useless. I relearned all the commands from the Sceptre remote and that did the trick.

The hardest part was getting the input selection to work right with the "Activities" idiom as used by Harmony. The Scepter has a very non-standard method of making input selections, e.g. two different buttons that you have to cycle through. What I found during the set up of the Harmony was that you had to use method 2 of input selection, which is described as "I have dedicated buttons on my remote to make input selections" or something like that. While that may not sound anything like the Sceptre's remote, using this option from the Harmony website allows you to configure multiple button presses (up to 6 I think) to make an input selection. So, for example, I have my DVD player hooked up to the Sceptre's single (and only) component video input. When I hit "Watch a DVD" on the Harmony remote, the following key sequence runs to make the proper input selection: Source PC/Source AV/Source AV/Source AV/Source AV. Basically this works by anchoring or indexing the input point. Even though I want an AV input to be active (component), I start with the Source PC command. That means when the follwing Source AV is issued, it will start from a known point, namely the antenna input (called "AIR"). The next Source AV command switches to "AV1" and so on until component is reached. It tedious, but at least it is automatic. I had a lot of trouble getting the timing right so that this method was reliable. In the end, I have it pretty slowed down, which has maxamized the reliability of this method (it never misses) but is pretty slow. I guess I could spend more time optimizing to try and find the best tradeoff, but at this point I am happy to just be watching TV.

Ideally there are commands to directly access the inputs. I have asked Sceptre tech support about this and they said "currently unavailable." Not sure what they meant by currently. Does that mean they are working on it? Would be nice. Apparently the IR language Sceptre uses was developed by Hugoson. I went to the Hugoson website and even sent them an email asking about remote codes, but they haven't responded.

Everything else on the Scepter remote is pretty normal and was easy to learn and program on the Harmony remote. It's working well. I'm happy. It's nice having one remote for everything. The family resisted initially. I hid all the other remotes. Now they like the Harmony after getting used to it.

I was asked by someone that does not have the post count to post a link to the Drivers for the Sceptre LCD's:

LCD/CRT Monitor Drivers (http://www.sceptre.com/Support/index.htm)

Take Care,

Richard

One of my buddies that work at Sceptre leaked some info I thought would be interesting to share with some users. It seems they're making a revision of the 37" LCD/TV. The new ones has sony's codes for universal remotes due to high demand from consumers. The VGA port can double as a component port with a vga to component wire that's included in the newer TVs. There will now be 1 extra mode in Source PC called VGA1-PC and VGA-YPbPr. The buzzing sound that people found to be ultra annoying has been fixed by redesigning the circuitry board. A black screen with the words "no signal" will be there instead of the BSOD when used as a computer monitor and computer's video card is in sleep mode. But they still recommend turning off the monitor because it's not in truely turned off (personally I think it's dangerous, the words no signal will be permanently there, wouldn't that burn in? I asked for comment but he won't tell me). The new one would have a better coat of paint which makes it look more pearl like black (seen the new shell when I went over to pick up my friend) thus the dorky black cheap plastic look is out. Oh and I heard him mention price would go down again during christmas.... I wonder how they make money......anyways just thought I'd share this info, users enjoy.

I'm using a Logitech Harmony remote with my setup. .....

I'm using the same setup as you. You can read the story of how I got there here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=576370)

I didn't have to make any timing changes though - although it does take time getting use to the fact that you must keep the remote pointing at the TV for a few seconds after pressing the button.

I was away for the weekend, and when I came back, I turned on the TV and it was in DEBUG mode. The only way I could get it back to normal was to pull the power cord out and reconnect!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?

Harmony remote, huh... so it is a learning remote after all? I figured it would be but I could never find a site that explicitly stated it could learn remote commands. The 880 is one cool remote, although definitely on the pricey side.

One of my buddies that work at Sceptre leaked some info I thought would be interesting to share with some users. It seems they're making a revision of the 37" LCD/TV. The new ones has sony's codes for universal remotes due to high demand from consumers. The VGA port can double as a component port with a vga to component wire that's included in the newer TVs. There will now be 1 extra mode in Source PC called VGA1-PC and VGA-YPbPr. The buzzing sound that people found to be ultra annoying has been fixed by redesigning the circuitry board. A black screen with the words "no signal" will be there instead of the BSOD when used as a computer monitor and computer's video card is in sleep mode. But they still recommend turning off the monitor because it's not in truely turned off (personally I think it's dangerous, the words no signal will be permanently there, wouldn't that burn in? I asked for comment but he won't tell me). The new one would have a better coat of paint which makes it look more pearl like black (seen the new shell when I went over to pick up my friend) thus the dorky black cheap plastic look is out. Oh and I heard him mention price would go down again during christmas.... I wonder how they make money......anyways just thought I'd share this info, users enjoy.

Good to know, thanks for the info. The updated model going to be another costco-only item?

Last night I watched a program on PBS HD about Sharks (using built in Tuner). This morning I turned the set on to watch the news while I dressed, and the only thing I got was audio. I could not change the channel, and I could not select a different source (AV1, AV2 etc.). So I switched the set of, then back on again and everything was fine.

A week ago, I turned the set on and the entire screen had a purple apperance. It looked as if I were wearing glases with purple lenses.

I've got a single white spot (1 Pixel I think) on the lower border of the screen, and the backlighting on the screen is not even.

I received my 37" Sceptre on 9/1/05 and I've been trying to hold on to my obviously troublesome set until Costco gets a new shipment.

I'm not sure how long I'm willing to wait. The problem is that I can't settle for a smaller screen now that I've had a 37", and I don't want to spend a whole lot more than the cost of the Sceptre. I've been looking at Plasmas but, the possiblity of burn-in has me worried.

It's really to bad, since the picture looks really good when the set is working.

[QUOTE=BSteely]I'm using a Logitech Harmony remote with my setup. When I first went to set up the Harmony via their website, I was surprised to find an x37SV setup was already active on their website. However, whoever checked-in that data must have been drunk. It didn't work at all. Wouldn't even power the TV on and off. And the inputs didn't map to the ones on the Naga. It was useless. I relearned all the commands from the Sceptre remote and that did the trick.


I am thinking of getting a Harmony remote, but I do not want to spend the money for the model 880. $200 is just a bit much for convenience.

Do you have a model 880? Do you think that an earlier (cheaper model) would work?

Has anyone seen the autocontrast problem. I emailed SCEPTRE...they said to turn off the DCI control and that should get rid of this problem. I then called them and spoke to Roy in customer service and explained to him that the only menu that has DCI is the dtv menu( I have the problem on the componet input) He said that input is default on and there is no way to turn it off... he said he would refer it to an engineer and they would get back to me...this was last week, no call from SCEPTRE as of yet. This problem is extremely annoying has anyone experienced this?

I've abandoned ship! Today, I returned my 37" Sceptre to Costco. After owning my mildly defective Sceptre since 09/01/05, I did not want to wait any longer for Costco to get new stock on the Scepter. Furthermore, I'm not feeling overly confident in the Sceptre brand anymore.

Costco did give me a full refund less Rebate. I made the Customer Service Rep. aware of the Rebate otherwise she would have refunded the full amount.

I then bought the 37" Philips. Although, I haven't set it up yet, I think that the only features that I'll miss on the Sceptre are the detachable speakers, and black finish.

mantamet,

I have also noticed the auto contrast "feature" - it is very annoying and would love to know if you find a solution.
+

Leobag,

What inputs have you experienced this autocontrast problem?

Has anyone seen the autocontrast problem. I emailed SCEPTRE...they said to turn off the DCI control and that should get rid of this problem. I then called them and spoke to Roy in customer service and explained to him that the only menu that has DCI is the dtv menu( I have the problem on the componet input) He said that input is default on and there is no way to turn it off... he said he would refer it to an engineer and they would get back to me...this was last week, no call from SCEPTRE as of yet. This problem is extremely annoying has anyone experienced this?

I got used to it, but still annoying ...

Has anyone seen the autocontrast problem. I emailed SCEPTRE...they said to turn off the DCI control and that should get rid of this problem. I then called them and spoke to Roy in customer service and explained to him that the only menu that has DCI is the dtv menu( I have the problem on the componet input) He said that input is default on and there is no way to turn it off... he said he would refer it to an engineer and they would get back to me...this was last week, no call from SCEPTRE as of yet. This problem is extremely annoying has anyone experienced this?

Yeah, I have this same problem. It's beyond me why Sceptre choose to disable the ability to change some features on certain inputs, but allow them to be changed on others. I wish I could disable this auto-constrast (auto-level) feature on the component input. I also wish I could try out their denoise feature, that is also only available on the DTV input.

I just sent them an email about changing the auto-contrast on the component input, and implored them for any information on getting into the service menu (which I can only imagine would allow one to change this feature). I also inquired them about the possibility of firmware updates. I encourage you guys to do the same.

monitor-ts@sceptre.com

BTW, has anyone actually had any success getting into a service menu? I did read that someone here had mistakenly ended up in a debug menu. I wonder what he found in that menu.

Well, I finally got Quake 4 and i've been playing it like Crazy on the Sceptre and it looks fantastic even at 1024x768. Now if only I had the video card to drive it at 1600x1200 :D!!!!

But yeah I was suprised that the dark levels are not too bad at all while playing a game like Quake 4, but in video the dark levels are not the best. I feel so noob, I don't know how to tweak anything. All I have done so far is turn down the red by 10% compared to other colors and turn down saturation and up brightness a bit.

Doesn't Quake 4 support widescreen resolutions? The reason I ask is that you only mentioned 1024x768 and 1600x1200 which are both 4:3. I would think any modern game being released now should support widescreen resolutions up to and including 1920x1080. Shame upon any game publisher that doesn't 'get it' on this point yet.

BTW-still waiting for news on when these bad boys will be back in stock at Costco...or anywhere at a decent price for that matter!

Still, would prefer it be Costco due to the return policy.

BTW-I'm at the point where I can hold out until the first week of November before I have to look at my other options for a sub $2k 1080P 37 inch (or larger) panel. I guess the next stop would be the Westinghouse (I'm not a big fan of silver though).

Anybody care to share their thoughts on the two models again...now that the frenzy has died down, and with the benefit of over a month's worth of perspective?

TIA.

What inputs have you experienced this autocontrast problem?Sorry for the delay - I am pretty sure it is only on the component input.
+

Yeah, I have this same problem. It's beyond me why Sceptre choose to disable the ability to change some features on certain inputs, but allow them to be changed on others. I wish I could disable this auto-constrast (auto-level) feature on the component input. I also wish I could try out their denoise feature, that is also only available on the DTV input.

I just sent them an email about changing the auto-contrast on the component input, and implored them for any information on getting into the service menu (which I can only imagine would allow one to change this feature). I also inquired them about the possibility of firmware updates. I encourage you guys to do the same.

monitor-ts@sceptre.com

BTW, has anyone actually had any success getting into a service menu? I did read that someone here had mistakenly ended up in a debug menu. I wonder what he found in that menu.


I think a service menu is the way to go on this.I'm going to call Costco corporate to see if they might put some pressure on Sceptre.

BTW, has anyone actually had any success getting into a service menu? I did read that someone here had mistakenly ended up in a debug menu. I wonder what he found in that menu.

I think that was me. Unfortunately, it wasn't actually a menu, more of a core dump, and none of the remote keys responded


This auto contrast thing, I may have experienced that on Component, is that where a dark background sometime suddenly gets brighter and darker when people in the foreground move around? If so, that happened quite a lot while watching the Sorpranos DVD

This auto contrast thing, I may have experienced that on Component, is that where a dark background sometime suddenly gets brighter and darker when people in the foreground move around? If so, that happened quite a lot while watching the Sorpranos DVD

That's the one.

I wrote them an email regarding this, and this is their response.


Dear Customer,

We will look into the auto contrast problem. But the service menu has no
option that turn off the feature.

Best Regards,
Sceptre Technical Support Group

> One issue that I find bothersome is the auto-contrast of the display.
> This occurs even when watching cable TV on the component inputs. The
> picture will constantly switch from dark to bright and back, and this
> severly affects the picture and viewing experience. From what I
> understand, there's a way to disable this feature with the DTV input,
> but not the component input. This is a limitation of the TV that should
> not have found its way to the consumer. I can only imagine that this
> auto-contrast feature can be disabled through a service menu. How can I
> enter the service menu? The manufacturer of my previous HDTV provided
> the service remote control for a fee. Is this available from Sceptre?
>
>
> Also, if this feature can not be changed via the service menu, then
> Sceptre owes its customers frequent firmware updates to enable more
> features via the regular menu. The set could be updated via the HDMI
> input, or another digital input.
>
>
> I appreciate your response.


I have 5 main gripes about the display that could all be fixed through software.

1.) Auto-contrast feature cannot be disabled on all inputs
2.) Lamp setting is not always retained after turning back on the display (the LAMP level is incorrect although the value that was set before is retained).
3.) Denoise feature cannot be enabled on all inputs (would be nice to denoise the component inputs to minimize dot crawl; temporal filtering would be nice)
4.) Not all combinations of PIP possible (e.g. I cannot use my PC on the DVI input while watching TV on the component inputs with PIP).
5.) Discrete input selection (this is more of a remote control issue. They either need to release the remote IR codes so that we can program a Universal Remote to do this, or sell an upgraded remote that has the discrete input selection)

Otherwise I think this set is pretty close to perfect.

Can anyone comment on how well the black level are displayed on these demos, from your HTPC to this monitor. Because I am having bad black color represenation on these games, and not to mention these games have the darkest scenery possible on any form of media, and not to mention games in this genre make up 20% of my entertainment. I got the display yesterday and it is one of my initial findings. And the Black colors get worse as it ges towards the corners. But if I move to the sides the colors start to look normal, it's like a viewing angle problem.

Silent hill 3 (http://www.gamershell.com/download_3902.shtml) or Sillent Hill 3 (http://videogames.yahoo.com/predownload?eid=330036) The darker one, this is the 1st priority between the 2 games.(download from wichever server is working)


Silent Hill 4 (http://www.gamershell.com/download_7963.shtml) or Silent Hill 4 (http://www.download.com/Silent-Hill-4-The-Room-demo/3000-7504_4-10351698.html) Still a dark one but should be the 2nd priority between the 2 games(download from which ever server works)


And I have noticed that the picture quality in the center is better than the corners, and this can be noticed on allot of forms of media also.
My settings so far are DVI:

Contrast:Factory preset

Color temperature: User definded at 128 on R&G&B(this gives me pretty much the same range of colors as the high profile setting does.)

Lamp/backlight:0

Black level: no matter what I do with this setting nothing changes and when I switch the menu and go back the previous value are not there (in short it does not work.)

If there are any suggestions on how to fix this or have another set of settings please mention so. Because of the black levels and uneven color uniformity across the screen of this monitor I am considering returning it back for a refund or selling it, unless there are other people that do not have these problems. I will take pictures of these problems tomorrow. If need be. And I also noticed when the screen has black areas they sometimes have an almost reflective look to them, I kind of got used to it though. I got about 5 stuck pixels that are only noticable on certain different solid color backgrounds, but are not noticable with media playing.

While waiting 6+ weeks for my 37" Sceptre LCD to arrive, I read about the internal optical Toslink connector. I think it was on this forum and someone had posted some JPG photos showing the internal Toslink connection. Since I can't seem to find the pictures, can anyone point me in the right direction.

Thanks Very Much In Advance
Regards
Ron

Doesn't Quake 4 support widescreen resolutions? The reason I ask is that you only mentioned 1024x768 and 1600x1200 which are both 4:3. I would think any modern game being released now should support widescreen resolutions up to and including 1920x1080. Shame upon any game publisher that doesn't 'get it' on this point yet.

BTW-still waiting for news on when these bad boys will be back in stock at Costco...or anywhere at a decent price for that matter!

Still, would prefer it be Costco due to the return policy.

Quake 4 does not support wide screen resolutions from the menu. It does support widescreen aspect ratio like consoles do tho

Ron:

Check out post #331 from bobn4burton and the subsequent thread...his photo doesn't seem to be on file but perhaps he'd send you a copy. His description does tell you where it is though.

Remember to pull the plug B4 unscrewing the panel...safety 1st!!! :D

& tell us how it works....jak

Can anyone check and see if their monitors also have back lighting/viewing angle problems like this:
Pic1 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/001.JPG)
pic2 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/002.JPG)
pic3 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/003.JPG)
pic4 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/004.JPG) .
I obtained these results with a solid black background.

And can anyone look at my previous post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6419706&&#post6419706) and check and see if they have a similar situation.

Can anyone check and see if their monitors also have back lighting/viewing angle problems like this:
Pic1 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/001.JPG)
pic2 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/002.JPG)
pic3 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/003.JPG)
pic4 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/004.JPG) .
I obtained these results with a solid black background.

And can anyone look at my previous post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6419706&&#post6419706) and check and see if they have a similar situation.


My monitor was worse than that. Your monitor seems to be brighter on the sides and darker in the middle. My monitor actually had several large patches of uneven lighting.

That was one of the reasons that I returned my 37" Sceptre. :(

Can anyone check and see if their monitors also have back lighting/viewing angle problems like this:

I obtained these results with a solid black background.

And can anyone look at my previous post and check and see if they have a similar situation.
pic1 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/001.JPG)
pic2 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/002.JPG)
pic3 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/003.JPG)
pic4 (http://www.nuckinfutz.org/images/004.JPG).
I obtained these results with a solid black background.

And can anyone look at my previous post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6419706&&#post6419706) and check and see if they have a similar situation.My monitor was worse than that. Your monitor seems to be brighter on the sides and darker in the middle. My monitor actually had several large patches of uneven lighting.

That was one of the reasons that I returned my 37" Sceptre. :(
Thanks.
Can anyone else chime in. While the uneven backlighting is noticable, it's not as bad as the pictures show it to be. And if I move to the sides I can get the sides to look abit more normal but then the rest of the screen looks bright from the new viewing angle, if this problem is unique to only a few of these monitors, i would exchange it until I get one that works right, if not I will return it for a refund.

[QUOTE=BSteely]I'm using a Logitech Harmony remote with my setup. When I first went to set up the Harmony via their website, I was surprised to find an x37SV setup was already active on their website. However, whoever checked-in that data must have been drunk. It didn't work at all. Wouldn't even power the TV on and off. And the inputs didn't map to the ones on the Naga. It was useless. I relearned all the commands from the Sceptre remote and that did the trick.


I am thinking of getting a Harmony remote, but I do not want to spend the money for the model 880. $200 is just a bit much for convenience.

Do you have a model 880? Do you think that an earlier (cheaper model) would work?

Yes, I have an 880. Any Harmony should do. My friend is controling his Sceptre using the new 520 and he likes it a lot.

Sorry if this has already been covered. I haven't been keeping up with the thread for a while.

If anyone is hoping to find discrete codes for the 37" Sceptre, don't bother. I just spent the last few hours searching the first 256 codes produced using IRTools, MakeHex and IRPanels.

Of all the codes I tried, I think I did come across all the codes that are built into the remote.

The only bonus code I came across was one that put the set into debug mode. I couldn't see any practical use for that mode since all it did was display the following text in the bottom center of the screen:

DEBUG 0104
05/08/18 23:00
T370HW01
1920 x 1080

The power button also blinked and pressing any buttons on the set or remote no longer responded. I had to unplug the set and plug it back it to get it out of debug mode.

If you happen to have a Pronto remote and feel like playing with the debug mode, here is the code...

0000 006d 0000 0022 0157 00ac 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0689

One of my buddies that work at Sceptre leaked some info I thought would be interesting to share with some users. It seems they're making a revision of the 37" LCD/TV. The new ones has sony's codes for universal remotes due to high demand from consumers. The VGA port can double as a component port with a vga to component wire that's included in the newer TVs. There will now be 1 extra mode in Source PC called VGA1-PC and VGA-YPbPr. The buzzing sound that people found to be ultra annoying has been fixed by redesigning the circuitry board. A black screen with the words "no signal" will be there instead of the BSOD when used as a computer monitor and computer's video card is in sleep mode. But they still recommend turning off the monitor because it's not in truely turned off (personally I think it's dangerous, the words no signal will be permanently there, wouldn't that burn in? I asked for comment but he won't tell me). The new one would have a better coat of paint which makes it look more pearl like black (seen the new shell when I went over to pick up my friend) thus the dorky black cheap plastic look is out. Oh and I heard him mention price would go down again during christmas.... I wonder how they make money......anyways just thought I'd share this info, users enjoy.

Hey could you ask your friend if they will fix the ATSC 720p thing. That's the only thing that is really holding me back. I would love to be able to watch 1080i shows in 1080i rather than having them downrezed to 720. Also do you know if they will have a better scaler that doesn't downrez it to 540p first before upscaling?

And lastly can you ask if they will release a sceptre in 42/45 inch? That would rock.

Thanks.

Has anyone tried to use the toslink right angle adapter and drilling access hole in back of case?

Second, since they are revising the set, are they going to provide any digital output so we are not forced to do the mod on our own?

Here is what I have and what I think of the set so far:

I replaced my old receiver with a new A/V receiver for switching and better surround. I picked up the Pioneer VSX-1015TX and plugged in all my other equipment into it. This included Charter cable box, Panasonic DVD player and a 6 disc Pioneer CD changer. I have an amplified Terk hooked up to the ATSC tuner and cable feeding the NTSC tuner for non-premium channels. It was my intention not to mount the factory speakers but with the old receiver it was more of a pain to deal with so I connected them just to see what they were like, temporarily I thought.

Well, I found that the factory speakers did not sound as bad as some had reported. For general TV watching they seem to be just fine. With them mounted I don't need to bother turning on any of the other hardware so this is simple and clean. They even do a pretty good job with the movies as well but no were near what you get with the full surround and subwoofer. Now the learning remote that came with the receiver is also making things easier but I am still trying to remember what buttons I have programmed for each function of all the devices. It may even be a little faster on command execution but haven't actually timed them so maybe it is just me.

One of the many things I have learned in the course of this project of mine is that just because you may have configured something in the past doesn't mean you don't have to reconfigure it again when adding new pieces.

Of the things I have left, getting digital audio out for the HD TV shows will be next followed by a HTPC build. I interested in the new ATI offerings and what to see how they compare before I begin the build.

Later,

Hey could you ask your friend if they will fix the ATSC 720p thing. That's the only thing that is really holding me back. I would love to be able to watch 1080i shows in 1080i rather than having them downrezed to 720. Also do you know if they will have a better scaler that doesn't downrez it to 540p first before upscaling?

And lastly can you ask if they will release a sceptre in 42/45 inch? That would rock.

Thanks.

We don't actually know that they're downrezing 1080i to 720p. It could very well be that they're simply incorrectly displaying the resolution in the OSD as 720p. Not that their word is golden, but Sceptre themselves has said that is the case.

Sorry if this has already been covered. I haven't been keeping up with the thread for a while.

If anyone is hoping to find discrete codes for the 37" Sceptre, don't bother. I just spent the last few hours searching the first 256 codes produced using IRTools, MakeHex and IRPanels.

Of all the codes I tried, I think I did come across all the codes that are built into the remote.

The only bonus code I came across was one that put the set into debug mode. I couldn't see any practical use for that mode since all it did was display the following text in the bottom center of the screen:

DEBUG 0104
05/08/18 23:00
T370HW01
1920 x 1080

The power button also blinked and pressing any buttons on the set or remote no longer responded. I had to unplug the set and plug it back it to get it out of debug mode.

If you happen to have a Pronto remote and feel like playing with the debug mode, here is the code...

0000 006d 0000 0022 0157 00ac 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0040 0015 0689


Thanks for the work YNOS. I wonder if there are any practical service menus? Sometimes you need to apply a certain IR code while the TV is currently off.

I have had my Sceptre since they were shipped late August. It has been fine with the following fairly recent exceptions -

1) One day my son was watching football games on Fox and CBS (switching back and forth), using Media Center to the TV (digital). He was pausing, replaying, etc. Then the TV went screwy. All the image was corrupted (images were distorted, bleeding). I unplugged the HDMI cable and the screen went blue but left ghosting of the previous images. Even it's own menu did not display correctly and when the menu went away left ghosting (almost like burn in).

I reset the PC, then turned the TV off then back on. First standby button, then back of TV. Still no luck. I then tried my HDTV antenna into the ATSC tuner on the TV and the TV switched modes instantly and sort of came back to normal (image was too tall).

I then plugged PC back in and it was fine. This was several weeks ago.

Since then I have left the TV on 24/7 using a Windows screen saver that kicks in after 5 minutes.

Now I have this issue -

2) On top right hand corner, I see two somewhat jagged lines going horizontally into the screen about 6-8 inches (top one is longer). They are less intense than rest of screen. It is really noticeable if I use Dead Pixel Buddy and make entire screen white, then turn the contrast down on the TV to around 15-20. The TV darkens, but those line areas don't darken as much so they appear lighter. Backlight adjustment does not help. Higher contrast makes it less noticeable but it is still there.

I don't think it is a backlighting issue, as the lines (although irregular and approx. 1/2" wide) are distinct from the surrounding pixels.

I may try turning off TV overnight, but don't want that to be a requirement.

Anybody seen anything similar? What are good alternatives to the Sceptre?

I returned my 37" Sceptre late today to the Westlake Village, CA Costco.
If interested, get there quickly. There where no dead pixels that I could find.

I probably would have kept it if it weren't for them taking over a month to ship it. I ordered the Westinhouse before canceling the Sceptre order, then it shiped. I couldn't return the West...

Do you like the Westinghouse? Did you side-by-side compare when you had the Sceptre?

I checked mine out and the contrast lines do not show up when running ATSC tuner, but do on HDMI or VGA input. I even tried a Dell notebook to verify it wasn't my PC.

So I think the LCD panel is fine, probably the controller card which uses those inputs. I did find 3 bad pixels though, but they are in very far apart and near edges. I could live with that but not these contrast lines.

This along with the glitchy problem that happened a few weeks back will probably force me to return it.

Bad part is not many options, unless I pay a little more and drop to 1366x768.

Only one Best Buy out of 5 or 6 in area have the Westinghouse right now.

Should I just wait and take it back later (maybe more units at less $$ closer to Christmas) or do it now and get one of the few remaining Westinghouse?

How important is the 1080p? I mostly run DVDs in Media Center and still a lot of SD from DirectTV through Media Center.

Who is best in those units, Philips, LG, Sharp, others?

Well does anyone else have this backlighting problem? I don't know for sure if it is the backlighting or if it is the viewing angle that makes the sides look brighter than the center. I will return this monitor if everybody else doesn't have these problems.
The problem is not as bad on brighter colors as it is on darker colors, for example the blue color image versus the green image. This problem is very visible when there is a solid color on the screen.
http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/005.png
http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/006.png
http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/007.png
http://www.nuckinfutz.org/image/008.png

Can anyone answer my above question (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6481108&&#post6481108) and anybody that is takeing apart their panel to hack it or use the zinewell optical port, can you also look around on the pcb and see if any of these HDMI processors (http://www.siliconimage.com/products/productfamily.aspx?id=1#2) are in their, and which one. If nobody has found out what HDMI chip (1.0 or 1.1) that this set uses, we won't know if the hdmi>hdmi connection will work with 1080p content unless someone has already hooked up a hdmi scaler to find out if it does. Unless anyone has emailed Sceptre for conformation on what chip it uses. I know that some of the Silicon Image chips will do 1080p fine with unprotected dvi content, but 1080i is the limit with these chips and the HDMI 1.0 standard.

Thanks for the work YNOS. I wonder if there are any practical service menus? Sometimes you need to apply a certain IR code while the TV is currently off.
I'm nervous about getting into any service menu. That one I accessed made all the TV and remote buttons stop working, which was scary enough.

I was hunting for codes that would allow me to change directly to a particular source input, but unfortunately they didn't exist.

Well does anyone else have this backlighting problem? I don't know for sure if it is the backlighting or if it is the viewing angle that makes the sides look brighter than the center. I will return this monitor if everybody else doesn't have these problems.
The problem is not as bad on brighter colors as it is on darker colors, for example the blue color image versus the green image. This problem is very visible when there is a solid color on the screen.
This problem was discussed early in the thread. My set has the same problem. I have no idea what causes it. In my case, the dark area will follow you around where if you align your head in front of the right side of the set, the dark area is more on the right side.

Maybe this should be an actual poll, but while I sit here waiting for delivery of my just-ordered set, I'm wondering how many of you who have owned this unit since August/September are still happy?

I figure it's hard to gauge when nobody seems to post when nothing is wrong.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

cdissmore:

I've owned this unit since August/September and would consider myself in the "still happy" camp. But since many on this thread have different configurations, there seem to be a variety of opinions. For my setup, I'm using a YAGI (fishbone) antenna into a Toshiba DST-3000 HD Receiver (coax in) and component outputs into the component connections of the NAGA. No satellite is used --- over-the-air signal only. I'm in a high, unobstructed location in the San Francisco-San Jose area and have no trouble receiving all analog & digital channels. As to the NAGA, OTA standard def looks just OK but the HD programming is eye-popping. For the HD programming, the NAGA indicates it is displaying a 1080p signal. The NAGA is in a very bright room; some of the attractive aspects of this unit for me are its display brightness & contrast performance, the wide viewing angle and the response time of the display(8 ms). (I've actually had to turn down the brightness somewhat !) After some tweaks to the color settings (see previous thread comments), to my (untrained) eye, the color fidelity (HD) is excellent. After testing with a computer, the display appears to be pixel-perfect/no dead or stuck pixels.

As to some of the negative aspects:

--the manual is absolutely useless...except for a beer coaster. Notes from the posters on this thread have been invaluable!

--the NAGA's speakers/audio are also pretty marginal...I'm (temporarily) using the internal audio amp of the NAGA to drive some smaller wall speakers. (I'm planning to access the (hidden) optical audio connector when my AV amp gets shipped.) A low frequency hum/buzz form the NAGA amp is audible during silences and is an annoyance.

--the remote is a pathetic excuse...poor ergonometrics/layout and difficult to operate, particularly in setup mode.

--while I haven't had any reliability problems or strange mottled display patterns (see pics above), I am concerned about the longer term reliability of the unit. Also, while I've not used Sceptre customer support, this thread catalogs some mixed results with their knowledge & ability to resolve problems.

And one last big positive...it's sold by Costco...so if I don't want it in twelve or 18 months...Costco refunds not only the price by the shipping too! So keep all your accessories, packing materials and receipts.

Hope this helps...

If the Spectre people are reading this please allow more user options in the menu to make calibration easier.

Also another HDMI out would be great.

This would make a great xmas present to myself. :D

Anybody else notice that when you switch inputs that the volume is much lower after the switch? Once I turn off the tv and turn it back on the volume is fine again, but it has issues as soon as you change the input again.

Maybe this should be an actual poll, but while I sit here waiting for delivery of my just-ordered set, I'm wondering how many of you who have owned this unit since August/September are still happy?

I figure it's hard to gauge when nobody seems to post when nothing is wrong.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

I'm happy :)

If by some magic, descrete video input IR codes fell in my lap, I'd be ecstatic, but for now, my Harmony remote does the job, albiet a little slowly

BTW-still waiting for news on when these bad boys will be back in stock at Costco...or anywhere at a decent price for that matter!

Still, would prefer it be Costco due to the return policy.

Available again on the Costco website (no rebate required for original price!) Still appears to be "online only".

I am looking at the Sceptre as a PC monitor, and to play occaisional PC games connected to DVI with my nVidia 6800 card

Are these the main issues?

Unit does not turn off the lamp when Windows goes into screen blanking mode?

Unit does not turn off lamp when Windows is off or hibernating?

(These two issues would probably be deal breakers for me. Most LCDs lose brightness after about a years use, and I really dislike the lack of brightness and contrast a typical laptop screen etc. has after that time. This flaw would accelerate this process.)

There is a 'buzz' that comes from the unit? ( I hate extraneous noise, buzzing drives me crazy!)

There are few OSD controls to adjust image. (I do some graphics, so calibration is important to my work).

The screen does not look good closer than 24". Does it look great farther than 24"? I would probably be looking at it at about 28-30".

Other than that it looks really interesting. Are any on display in Costsos or anywhere else?

As a thank you for all the help we've received from lurking on this forum, I wanted to provide a pic of the optical out jack inside the set.

So, for those of you who might be hesitant to go mucking about in your new $2000 LCD TV, have no fear. A couple screws, and a small hole drilled in the back, and we were getting 5.1 in no time!

(NOTE: Unfortunately, the Forum won't let me post any web links as a newbie. So much for a thank you. So, I'll have to spell out the directions to the pic )

photos * yahoo * com forward slash jesscail

It's in the AV Forum directory.

Thanks all~

I am looking at the Sceptre as a PC monitor, and to play occaisional PC games connected to DVI with my nVidia 6800 card

Are these the main issues?

Unit does not turn off the lamp when Windows goes into screen blanking mode?

Unit does not turn off lamp when Windows is off or hibernating?

(These two issues would probably be deal breakers for me. Most LCDs lose brightness after about a years use, and I really dislike the lack of brightness and contrast a typical laptop screen etc. has after that time. This flaw would accelerate this process.)

There is a 'buzz' that comes from the unit? ( I hate extraneous noise, buzzing drives me crazy!)

There are few OSD controls to adjust image. (I do some graphics, so calibration is important to my work).

The screen does not look good closer than 24". Does it look great farther than 24"? I would probably be looking at it at about 28-30".

Other than that it looks really interesting. Are any on display in Costsos or anywhere else?

None of the things on your list is important IMO. For example you can adjust calibration on the computer instead of the monitor, like gamma, color etc without ever touching controls on the monitor itself and buzzing varies between individual sets. But you missed the most important shortcoming of this set and the real deal breaker for me: the set doesn't accept 1080p input over HDMI and it doesn't have DVI. It doesn't make any sense to me to buy 1920x1080 panell and then be limited to accepting 1280x1020 signal at most. That is probably why the computer input will never look good on this screen: either it has to be rescalled or it will use only portion of the screen. In this particular case you'd be better off getting more common 1368x768 panel or look elsewhere. Westinghouse 37" monitor accepts 1080p input on one of its DVI connectors and computer display is breath taking.

Wait what? This display DOES accept 1080p. There are numerous people using the DVI->HDMI cable provided to connect their PCs at 1920x1080. I haven't done so myself, I only tested using my laptop via VGA.

Wait what? This display DOES accept 1080p. There are numerous people using the DVI->HDMI cable provided to connect their PCs at 1920x1080. I haven't done so myself, I only tested using my laptop via VGA.

I'm sorry, I was under impression that this TV has only 1 HDMI input, I didn't realize it was combination HDMI/DVI input. I guess I need to take a second look at this set. I just wish those manufacturers finally realize, they're making HD sets. There are 4 SD inputs and only 1 component and one digital input.

Has anyone seen one of these for sale anywhere???????

I only ask because I have searched every webpage available, including Costcos with no luck.

I got word a few days ago that my Sceptre shipped from Costco but the tracking on the UPS site doesn't show an estimated delivery date.

Question while I wait: What solutions did people come up with for wall-mounting? I am considering a home-brew solution if there are no readily available wall-mounts (or if they stick out too far) but would like to know what others are doing.

I ask this because the set reportedly has a somewhat unusual VESA mount standard.

Carey

I got word a few days ago that my Sceptre shipped from Costco but the tracking on the UPS site doesn't show an estimated delivery date.

Question while I wait: What solutions did people come up with for wall-mounting? I am considering a home-brew solution if there are no readily available wall-mounts (or if they stick out too far) but would like to know what others are doing.

I ask this because the set reportedly has a somewhat unusual VESA mount standard.

Carey


Carey: The Sanus VMPL2 mount works. It only has two "fixed" adjustments (parallel to the wall, and 5 degree tilt).

I used it prior to returning my 37" Sceptre. Unfortunately for me, the VMPL2 was not compatible with my 37" Philips so I had to purchase the VMPL3, and couldn't return the VMPL2 (past 30 days). :(

If you're interested, I've got a 2 month old Sanus VMPL2 (like new) for a very low price. :)

cdissmore,

I am just using a "french cleat" method of mounting the TV to the wall. It was mentioned earlier in this thread. I basically took a 1x6 inch board and ripped it up the middle with the blade turned on a 45 degree angle. So I ended up with two 1x3 inch pieces with a 45 degree edge. Then you just screw one piece to the wall and the other piece to the back of the TV (using only the upper two screw holes). You can then just hang the TV on the wall and it fits quite securely. And the best part of this IMO is that the TV is only 1" alway from the wall...instead of sticking out 3-6 inches like a lot of the TV mounts you can buy (I didn't have any need to tilt the TV in any direction) and its way cheap!

Also...
Pete4,
This TV DEFINITELY supports 1920x1080p/60hz from a computer via the hdmi port. I have my pc hooked up to it this way and it looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Better than my dell 2001fp's. And I can guarantee you that the TV is not touching the signal in any way (scaling/overscan/etc.). Watching dvd's with zoomplayer/ffdshow brings them to "near" HD quality. I'm quite impressed with this setup. It's hard to find a TV that accepts a computer display output with NO scaling/overscan...

I too am very happy with this set. I feed it the Dishnet signal thru the HDMI adapter and DVD signals on component input. HD is very good and DVDs are quite good also.

cdissmore,


Also...
Pete4,
This TV DEFINITELY supports 1920x1080p/60hz from a computer via the hdmi port. I have my pc hooked up to it this way and it looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Better than my dell 2001fp's. And I can guarantee you that the TV is not touching the signal in any way (scaling/overscan/etc.). Watching dvd's with zoomplayer/ffdshow brings them to "near" HD quality. I'm quite impressed with this setup. It's hard to find a TV that accepts a computer display output with NO scaling/overscan...

Hey can it accept 1080P thru vga? Also what happens when you feed this set a 1080i signal thru hdmi/vga? Does it deinterlace/upconvert to 1080P? or does it downscale? How does it look under both conditions if possible? Also can it upscale over vga?

Thanks. :)

dbztrk,

It will accept 1080p through the vga just fine. It actually looks quite good. The vga will also upscale any smaller resolution than 1080p to the full screen size of 1920x1080. I have never tried to feed the set a 1080i signal via hdmi/vga. Unfortunately I don't have a source for this so I don't know what the TV would do with this signal.

My best "guess" is that the TV would downscale to 540p (just drop every other field) and then upscale to 1080p. The only reason I say this is because I've heard that 1080i TRUE deinterlacing hardware is expensive and hence probably not found in budget TV's. Since I don't have any way to test 1080i, then I cannot verify any of what I just said.

I use the VGA input with my HTPC setup (PIV-3.6 and AIW 800XT) and 1920 x 1080 looks great. Video games on this screen look AWESOME! DVD playback (through the HTPC) looks flawless. I watched Robots this week with my son and couldn't believe it was coming from a DVD. I can hardly wait for HD-DVD's to see how much better they will look. Mark me down as an extremely happy NAGA owner.

well just an update, I still enjoy the set.
Call of Duty 2 Is great and So is Quake 4 on this set. Now for the ultimate test when I get my Xbox 360 in. We'll see just how good those components really are =)

I ordered one yesterday from the Costco web site and it will arrive tomorrow.

well just an update, I still enjoy the set.
Call of Duty 2 Is great and So is Quake 4 on this set. Now for the ultimate test when I get my Xbox 360 in. We'll see just how good those components really are =)


I was hoping the xbox 360 would support 1920 x 1080 via VGA.........all reports seem to indicate that it will not.

Please let us know when the new orders received and tell us whether any difference in the back side connectors; digital uaidom additional connectors, etc...

I was hoping the xbox 360 would support 1920 x 1080 via VGA.........all reports seem to indicate that it will not.

If Xbox 360 can't support 1920x1080 then it sucks. This supposed to be state of the art game console with newest graphic chips and huge computing power and it should stay that way for at least 3-4 years until next generation box is developed. My 2 year old graphic card supports 1080p without a problem so xbox is outdated before it hits the market? So what's the difference between old xbox with HD package and the 360? MS was going to use ATI R520 graphic engine and I know for the fact that R520 can support 1080p, so the limitation seems somehow artificial.

I had ordered this TV orginally and have had it since August. There was a problem with it that it wouldn't always turn on using the remote. Seemed to lock up, but a power shut down with the switch in the rear would allow the set to come on, and would then work .... until turned off again!

Anyway I liked the set, but Costco didn't have one to replace it with. Now they do! Got the replacement today. Here are the differences I've notice so far.

First, I connect the TV via the DVI port to a DISH DVR921, and also connect to my OTA antennae for local HDTV.

The frame around the TV now has a shiny black inner frame -- the outer frame is still grey. The stand also has a shiny black insert in the front part of the stand.

There is an additional mode VGA-YPbPr. The OTA tuner now displays 1080i for channels which are broadcasting in that mode in the 'info' banner.

The menu for scanning OTA channels is different, and it now maps the digital channels to their 'regular' channel numbers (i.e. 002-01). The EPG has been upgraded, and seems faster at obtaining the program information.

And most important to me, the DISH remote control can be set to turn the TV on/off. (Haven't tried any other buttons yet -- turing off/on is about all I will ever need to do!)

pete4 - your 2 year old video card will choke running any 3d games at 1920x1080. Microsoft made the decision to render everything internally at 720p to make sure that games would run smoothly. Even R520 PC hardware can't run the latest games (FEAR) at 1920x1080 without choking. If your TV is worth anything, then it can then scale the 720p output to 1080, trust me it will look good enough.

I agree that they SHOULD have supported 1080p, but is it a huge loss? no. The only reason you would need 1080p now is for an HTPC. And even that would be only for regular windows usage, as games at 1920x1080 are pretty much non-existant on current gen video cards unless you have $$$$ for an SLI setup or are playing games from 2 generations ago. Even windows media HD and h.264 content are non-existant.

Having said that, I have an HTPC waiting for a 1080p display as well... waiting for the price on this sceptre to drop even more, or for a DLP with both HDMI and VGA 1080p inputs

I had ordered this TV orginally and have had it since August. There was a problem with it that it wouldn't always turn on using the remote. Seemed to lock up, but a power shut down with the switch in the rear would allow the set to come on, and would then work .... until turned off again!

Anyway I liked the set, but Costco didn't have one to replace it with. Now they do! Got the replacement today. Here are the differences I've notice so far.

First, I connect the TV via the DVI port to a DISH DVR921, and also connect to my OTA antennae for local HDTV.

The frame around the TV now has a shiny black inner frame -- the outer frame is still grey. The stand also has a shiny black insert in the front part of the stand.

There is an additional mode VGA-YPbPr. The OTA tuner now displays 1080i for channels which are broadcasting in that mode in the 'info' banner.

The menu for scanning OTA channels is different, and it now maps the digital channels to their 'regular' channel numbers (i.e. 002-01). The EPG has been upgraded, and seems faster at obtaining the program information.

And most important to me, the DISH remote control can be set to turn the TV on/off. (Haven't tried any other buttons yet -- turing off/on is about all I will ever need to do!)
I have the original version of the set and it has one big problem that has been discussed here and is really annoying. If you have some free time, could you test yours and see if it still has the problem described below?

You need to be using an input other than DTV. It sounds like you're using DVI so you should be good to go.

Adjust the lamp level to the lowest setting. It should range from 0 to 7 unless they changed it.

Turn off the set then turn it back on. On my set, this will kick the lamp level back up to the highest setting. If you go back to the lamp level adjustment, it will still show "0," but it's actually set to 7, which is noticeable when you bump it to 1 because the screen will become much dimmer because it's switching directly from 7 to 1. Switching it back to "0" will make it a little more dim.

OK -- per your request.

I turned on the set (DVI input). Set the lamp to 0 (the scale is still 0-7). Turned off the set.

Turned set back on. Lamp menu shows 0 and when I set it to 1 then 2, then 3 , etc., the picture gets progressively brighter, so I think everything is OK.

VanNuysBear,

Could you post some pictures of the new sceptre. I'd like to see what it looks like...

Thanks...

I agree that they SHOULD have supported 1080p, but is it a huge loss? no. The only reason you would need 1080p now is for an HTPC. And even that would be only for regular windows usage, as games at 1920x1080 are pretty much non-existant on current gen video cards unless you have $$$$ for an SLI setup or are playing games from 2 generations ago. Even windows media HD and h.264 content are non-existant.

Having said that, I have an HTPC waiting for a 1080p display as well... waiting for the price on this sceptre to drop even more, or for a DLP with both HDMI and VGA 1080p inputs

at 1920x1080 you do not need AA...very neglible differences with it on an off....so current gen cards work fine (7800GT/XL1800). if you have a viable htpc, output from dvd with zp/ffdshow to 1920x1080 looks fabulous.