Hey,
the local Costco (Canada) now has a Akai 50" HD (PDP5073TM) plasma for sale at a good price. Does anyone know anything about it? Supposebly it uses a LG panel but that's all I know. Specs are here: http://www.akaiusa.com/products_detail_features.aspx?cat=VISUAL%20ENTERTAINMENT&subcat=Plasma%20TV/Monitor&productno=PDP5073TM

It's a bit short on the inputs but I can live with that.

Any thoughts? Let me know,
Mike

Never liked Akai. All it reminds me of "you get what you pay for".

Futureshop used to sell a rebranded Akai DLP. it was called Viore. The worst TV for returns/defectives we've ever seen at FS. I avoided ever selling them, as i would avoid anything with an akai/viore name. Horribly made products.

Thanks for the all the info.

I'm a bit concerned by the fact that I haven't seen any reviews on it. I'm also a bit concerned of getting a 'no-name' but that being said, I've read the panel and components inside of it are labelled LG and it appears to a rebadge of their 50" plasma which I'm more comfortable with.

Also I really like the idea of buying it at Costco with there unbeatable exchange/return policy.

Well I understand. LG is a good brand and Akai use to be a very respectable brand of Audio equipment. You can also try it out and see. I agree though that no reviews is not a positive sign.

Never liked Akai. All it reminds me of "you get what you pay for".
Exactly. I work at a Sam's Club and we get these back all the time.

I purchased this TV yesterday from Costco. Initial setup was very easy, and the pictures looks really good. Haven't had much time to play with it yet, although I can say that it uses a LG PDP50x3 panel (looking through the back grill).

One problem with third tier TV makers are in the inside components and longevity. While good first tier manufacturer sets are more expensive. they typically last longer and the color reproduction and brightness stays longer.

I've looked at this panel several times already at Costco. I don't think it's very good, to be honest. I tweaked the settings as much as I could in the store but the image just wasn't clear/sharp. They were running a HD feed via components. Cheap it is, but I don't think it's worth it. You're better off looking at the Pio 4214 they have, but even that panel has issues.

Never liked Akai. All it reminds me of "you get what you pay for".

Not if you do your research...

Akai does not really make anything, they buy surplus parts and stuff they can get cheap from other manufacturers, put it together and call it there own... A lot of time the product ends up sub-par.. but if you do your research you can end up with an awesome TV way under market price for a similar brand name model.

I have the Akai PDP4273M (42in HD Plasma), which is essentially all hitachi parts.. I have been enjoying it for over 6 months now with not one problem and an amazing picture that is probably 90% the quality of competing sets that cost 50-100% more.. The detail and clarity of this plasma is amazing, the only thing that is not amazing is the black level detail, which is really a minimal issue after spending some time calibrating the set.

I have also heard many horror stories having to do with 'big brand' names..

So basically, I would say not to buy a TV based on the manufacturer name alone, buy it based on research and real world consumer reviews.

my 2 cents anyways. :cool:

I just got back from the local Costco, because I wanted to take a look at the Akai unit. And you know what? I think it's actually not too bad, considering the price point. They had a HD feed going, and it compared pretty well next to the Philips (not good). The others are 42". And the thing is huge!

micheldb, let me know if you do buy it. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Hopefully it doesn't have the issues of the model previous (noisy fans). The policy of Costco really is unbeatable. I have to return the Sony plasma that I got from them!

I can tell you that the fan on mine is whisper quiet, i don't hear it unless i put my ear up to it. I've been playing around with it a bit, and so far, i can't get it to go to 1366x768 resolution (as the TV is advertised as), but auto scales to 1280x720. The TV then displays the resolution onscreen (it shows 1280x720) and it looks really good. When tweaking it, compared to the philips 42" Plasma (at Costco). The picture on the Akai looked just as good.. So far I have no complaints at all, except the remote looks like something that would come with a $200 TV at Walmart. Oh well, $2000 for a HD 50" Plasma, you can't go wrong!

wiebe,

That's strange. I did hear about the previous model having issues on scaling via component (of the two comp. inputs, only 1 accepted HD signals). What is your input source? Is the source scaling out properly? Do you get a black border all the way around when viewing 16:9 HD/DVD material? This is really important to me, because I do a lot of both. The philips I saw wasn't so hot in certain angles. It seemed pretty fuzzy at times due to the glass/filter. How long have you had yours? Does it have any quirks? I'd love to hear more about it, as I'm thinking of buying this as a secondary.

I've only had this since sunday, so i'm still playing with it heavily. I bought a hdmi to dvi cable today so once i get home i'll test it out and see. And no, there are no black borders around it (I have only used a PC as a source so far), it scales to the full TV size, No quirks so far, we'll see!

wiebe,

1 more question for you: the panel does come with a built-in tuner right? Meaning I can plug the cable directly from wall to panel without a settop box right? Or do I still need a stb? I thought I saw it on the box, but can't recall for sure. thnx.

wiebe,

1 more question for you: the panel does come with a built-in tuner right? Meaning I can plug the cable directly from wall to panel without a settop box right? Or do I still need a stb? I thought I saw it on the box, but can't recall for sure. thnx.

I believe the specs say no tuner however it's not a very big issue since you'll probably want to use a HD stb anyway.

This TV doesn't have a tuner. The akai model that costco sold previous to this did have a tuner though. Yes, plugging cable into this thing wouldn't do it justice anyway, so it wasn't an issue for me (plus i'm running media centre and everything goes through my PC anyway)

OK, so that means that going from the wall directly to tv won't work then, right? If that's so, then it means that I have to get annother stb!

yup, you'll need a digital stb for this tv

wiebe,

are you getting HD through shaw now? how does it look? are you using any high definition/upscaled sources at all? thnx! if all goes well, i'm gonna go ahead and buy it. the box looks friggin' huge though....

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I have hd through expressvu. Looks really great! At the moment, I'm not using any upscaled sources, but once I get my cables I ordered (can't stomach paying $150 for a hdmi-dvi cable at futureshop when you can get one online for $10) I'll play around with it some more

I decided to go and buy it. It was the last one they had in stock (they started off with like 17 of them). I'm glad that I bought it too. It looked completely different when I got done setting it up in the room. At first I almost had a panic attack when I was switching through the component inputs (all had upscaled material going through it) and saw that Comp. 1 wasn't working right. It took 20 minutes, then I realized that I had accidentally swapped the Blue with Green comp. cables! All is well now. Coming from 37 inch Alis panel I was pretty impressed with the Black levels on this panel (the Alis would flicker during dark/white transitions). And the sucker is HUGE. I had to move the couch and coffee table back like another 10 feet. I want to watch all my DVDs over again with the new real estate!

What settings are you guys using for the break-in period? I got too excited and already started calibrating it, but I do have the brightness and contrast turned way down. Even so, Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan was very dark. Also, do you know if the monitor has user setting memory for individual inputs?

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I just bought this unit today at Costco and I'm really unhappy with it.

The SD picture quality is atrocious (Shaw Digital Cable) to the point of being almost unwatchable, but my biggest concern is that I can't fill the screen with the picture. It has 2 settings, 4:3 and Full. The Full setting displays at 4:3 with black bands on either side, and 4:3 is more like 3:3 with everything tall and skinny, and extra black bands on the sides. I've used both HDMI cable and Component video cable with identical results.

Only HD widescreen broadcasts actually fill the screen like they are supposed to, but virtually every other widescreen broadcast (while 16:9) has black bands all the way around the image, and from what I can tell there is no way to change it.

I played around with the 42" PDP4273M in the store more than this one, assuming they were the same and since there were other 42" units on either side for comparison. Then at the last minute, I decided to buy the 50" even though the store model had only displayed DVD output. My mistake for sure, but the 42" has 5 different picture size options and seemed to do everything I would expect it to do with regard to picture resizing. This thing only has 2 and I find them very lacking.

One very annoying trait was discovered when watching an HD newscast and the display kept switching from full widescreen, to 4:3 with the side bands whenever the image went away from the studio. I'll assume that this is the way things work when the image being broadcast isn't HD, but I also assume that most sets will auto-switch for size and the difference would be almost imperceptible to the viewer.

Perhaps somebody would be so kind as to confirm or correct my assumptions, and hopefully there is something about the set that I'm missing with regard to filling the screen with the picture (even if it is a stretched SD 4:3). If there isn't some way to make it do what I expect, then it's going back on the weekend, and I'll give the PDP4273 a shot...

To be honest, anytime you're inputing SD quality source onto a 50 inch screen, it's going to look pretty iffy unless you spend another $2,000 and get a panel that has the proper engines/drivers. Also, frankly I think Shaw's cable service is crap to begin with. Even their normal digital channels suck. I haven't had issues with the black going all the way around the picture though. Are you sure it's not the source? If I remember correctly, if the input is 480, then you should be able to cycle through 2-3 different picture formats (4;3, 16:9, full, and pano). Dunno. Most of my material is either DVD, HD DVD, Network, or console gaming. Also, most panels when it receives a higher resolution input will only allow you to switch 2 different picture formats (full, zoom).

Our costco just started getting the 42s in. I chose not to get it because I know that it's using an ALiS panel, which I've had bad experience with in the past (flicker, and can't do black at all). The 50" panel is stripped, hardly any features at all. But if you input good sources, you'll get good results.

I don't use the TV to resize the picture at all (I don't actually know anyone who does it this way). Use your shaw box to size the picture the way you want it, (this works GREAT with bell). Haven't used shaw before though, so i'm not sure. SD source on this TV with bell is alright. I totally agree with mooshoo - input good source, get good results, this TV is pretty barebones in features

wiebe,

i'm trying to figure out what the "Phase" function, Adaptive Lumen control are. The Phase is suppose to work with Component only, but I have no clue what it does. Do you? Same with the Adaptive Lumen function. The manual was pretty vague with that. btw, have you found the ideal screen settings yet?

Phase and pixel clock are controls used to sync a signal with a PC. It should only be valid on a VGA input. The display with automatically adjust the phase upon sync as well with no user intervention required. Adaptive lumen sounds like a peak white limiter is all. lumen = luminance (brightness or black and white portion of your video signal). Most plasmas have a white limiter so they're not driven too hard. It could also be a dynamic contrast control. The latter is undesirable and affects picture calibration negatively.

xcalibur,

most interesting. according to the manual, it says that the Phase is adjustable ONLY with the component input side. i'm aware of the clock/phase function in the VGA input. what's really odd is that the manual also says, verbatim, "sharpens things'. i have no clue what the heck they're talking about.

i haven't messed with the lumen control, except for once, and it turned the picture pretty dark.

anyone know how to get into the service menu on this TV?

My friend recently bought one of these and I was wondering if anyone has figured out how to stretch 4:3 letterbox material vertically (to use the full height) - all the picture modes seems to only stretch horizontally.

Anyone know how to get into the service menu on this TV? I've searched everywhere to no avail. The method that worked on the older AKAI models doesn't work on this one

Hi Micheldb - The TV doesn't stretch horizontally as far as I can tell, I normally just stretch it using the bell receiver (but actually, I never stretch the image - would rather just have the black bars when watching 4:3 content).

Hi Folks,
I have had my AKAI (from Costco) for about 6 weeks now and am just getting my HD Programming set up.
I have a Model 6100 ExpressVu Rx'r and can't find the code to program the Universal remote to control the TV.
Any suggestions.

THX
GDH

Hi,
I've just purchased this TV from Costco. I'm a novice, but it looks great to me, especially for the price. Does anyone with this TV use Shaw? I can't find the code to program the TV functions into the universal remote.

Thanks!

so any user reports on this unit?

I've had mine for about 3 months now. I've got the picture calibrated pretty good, but have noticed a couple issues:

1) I think the HDMI input needs work. I've got it hooked up to an Oppo 971H upscaling DVD player (supposedly one of the better one out there) via HDMI. I'm getting serious tearing of the frames at the 720p settings. It doesn't happen when I switched it to the component input. I'm pretty sure it's the HDMI.
2) Occasionally upon powering on, everything has a green hue to it. All the inputs are green. I have to do a hard reset before everything returns to normal.
3) The fan is quite noisy. It's a good thing I've got a surround sound system otherwise I don't think it's very tolerable.
4) Macroblocking. I think the panel has good potential, but it is very prone to macroblocks, especially during dark scenes.
5)Flickering. Once in a while, depending on what DVD, I get flickering in the picture. Very noticeable when the background is black, and there is something bright and small in the foreground (ie, scenes with space/ships flying around). Or during bright scenes in the background with small moving things in the foreground (ie, bright sky with a bird flying across the scree).
6) False contouring. Especially noticeable whenever the 'Sony Pictures' logo at the beginning of Sony commercial movie DVDs. Very colorful, but the banding is very noticeable.

But for the price it's not too bad. Keep in mind, I get pretty picky when I look at a movie. Anyone else notice anything?

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I have had this TV for about a month now, and the only thing that bugs me is once and while I will get a light faded vertical bar that will scroll up the screen. I am also having a hell of time trying to find the code for shaw's remote controll

I have been playing my tv for two months now and It looks great. No problems of any kind,
except for the remote code. I tried calling AKAI Canada (TV is from COSTCO in Canada) and all you get is a recording telling you that everyone is helping other customers and they finally, after 15 minutes or more tell you to leave a message and they will call you back. I was able to leave a message once they never called back. After that the voice mail was full and you could not even leave a message(over two weeks). So I got myself a harmony remote control (after tying 3 other brand universal remote control) and was able to program the TV and all my other components. (VCR,DVD,Cable box...) It was more expensive but better than having to talk to the none existent customer service of AKAI Canada.

jjmdo,

i have to agree. customer service akai is the worst. no response whatsoever from my numerous queries....

[ So I got myself a harmony remote control (after tying 3 other brand universal remote control) and was able to program the TV and all my other components. (VCR,DVD,Cable box...) It was more expensive but better than having to talk to the none existent customer service of AKAI Canada.[/QUOTE]

What was the code you used for with your Harmony remote? I wonder if that code will work with shaw's remote.

I got a HDMI cable from Costco for about 40 buxs.. WOW what a difference from the cables that came with the box from Shaw.. It took care of all my problems, (except for the remote codes for the tv)

I have even sent emails to Akai, and still no response, I wonder if I CC Costco's customer service if I might get a response.

The Harmony is programmed true the internet. The code is downloaded from there site in your remote. All I had to do was enter AKAI, TV/Monitor and PDP5073TM with the remote connected to my PC and the codes are copied in. So I don't know what the code is. Sorry. I also sent an e-mail to AKAI and the response I got was the phone number of the non existing customer service...

Good Luck....

can someone post their settings for this TV?
its awesome, but i dont know a thing about calibrating it

I got a Akai PDP5073TM from Costco Canada a couple of weeks ago and this ok to me since I am newbie in the plasma panel world. Price vs / quality when compared with other plasma on Costco shelf made me buy this one. period.
The only concern I have is wall mounting installation. Though I have not disassemble the bottom speaker set yet, I have still not figured out if the infrared eye in the speaker set can be moved out of the it and fixed somewhere near the planel in a esthetic manner, without the speaker set. Has anyone here wall mounted this monster ?

I did with the wall mount from COSCO but I did not remove the speakers. I think after looking at it that only the two end speakers could be removed and as you mentioned the infrared eye is in the middle. If you break it good luck with your warrantee. I would just put it up with the speakers if I was you. When you come home late and don't want to wake up anyone you just use the TV speakers. It's a nice option to have.

Just pickup one of these from Costco Canada (price just dropped another couple hundred this weekend and couldn't pass up) and noticed that the model number has an extra digit. PDP5073TMC. Can anyone explain this. Also would like to get into the service menu to find out my hours. Looked everywhere but no luck.