AKAI plasma at COSTCO - Page 3  

Costco here in my area had it hooked up with HDTV via dishnetwork. The picture was very nice with all the light that they have at Costco. With this price, it can't be beat. However, the picture with non HDTV material looked not very impressive at all.

i guess it could help. there's a 'component' input button on the remote. it toggles between component 1 and 2. the 'aspect' button toggles between the 6 or so aspect ratio controls. ideal situation would be to find discrete codes for each input and aspect ratio, then put 'em in a macro.

color would be trickier. in addition to not having (obvious) discrete picture mode access, only *one* of those modes is tunable. it'd be a real hassle to asjust contrast from 60 to 77 (for instance) each time i switch from tivo to dvd...

i guess a smart remote could do it, but i'm not that motivated.

ooh, there is a serial port (service only). maybe that could be used somehow?

/chris

I'll be getting this display on Monday when the coupon goes into effect. However, I still have no clue where I can get a stand. I emailed Akai and they said it should be in Costco stores in a couple weeks. I was at Costco today and they didn't think that they'd be getting stands in. The box the thing comes in says to go to Costco.com for a stand, but there is no evidence of the stand on Costco.com either. Any ideas?

Jeff

You can get the Samsung SML420 Table Top Stand. But for $368??? list price , you could try to make a DIY Stand and wait to see if Costco will be getting it at lower price.

Here's the only place I found (Google search) selling the stand: http://www.krystalvision.net/servlet...ries?partId=42

.

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$360 for a stand is ridiculous. It's a piece of metal and plastic. I guess I'll be making my own stand. I'm not paying more than $100 for a stand. If anyone has any experience making a stand, please let me know!

Cheers,
Jeff

Take a look on the DIY Stand made by Bagmite for his Panny (This thread)


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...607&fullpage=1
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...618&fullpage=1
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...628&fullpage=1
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...638&fullpage=1

I called Akai again on Friday and was again referred to a Tech help desk which turned out to be at Samsung. While still talking with the Akai man who seems to best know what is going on, he said Costco will also be getting the tabletop stand as an accessory and also the speakers. No prices mentioned. He said they were on the way to the customers (Costco). I couldn't tell if "on the way" means somewhere on a boat in the far western Pacific, or in a container already unloaded and being dispatched to Costco from a US west coast port.

In talking with Samsung help desk personnel, it seems the Samsung SPL 4225 has had other model numbers at other retailers recently. I think one of the models mentioned may have been the SLP 4225. Notice the clever inversion of the "L" and the "P." Every wonder why retailers can so generously offer 110% of the difference if you can find the same model advertised for less elsewhere? Good luck finding their proprietary model number elsewhere. And I just saw this morning an ad for a remarkably similar 42" EDTV at another retailer.

Samsung has an ops manual for the SPL 4225 in .pdf format, but they couldn't send it to me. Company policy. Looks like you will need to buy the panel in order to take a look at the ops manual. Sounds backwards to me, but what the heck. What is the return policy?

The Samsung help desk said the picture settings for component input #1 could be memorized within the unit, but not for #2 since this was a "digital input" and no adjustments are needed or done to digital signals. I about half-way understood this rationale, but only half-way. Anyway, component input #1 supposedly can properly scale signals that are 1024 x 768; 640 x 350; 640 x 400; 720 x 400 and 800 x 600. Component input # 2 is supposedly designed to handle these signals: 480p; 720p; 1080i.

The saga continues. Guess in a few days there will be some posts from new owners.

My wife picked one up for me this morning when CostCo opened. They were all gone by 11:00am.

Can't wait to open my "birthday" present,
Pat

Your post scared me. :) I went to our closest Costco in San Diego and took a look at the set. They had sold 2 this morning by noon. They still had 10 more in stock, but they were not sure they would be there after today.

The setting on the set was not right, they were running a feed from HDTV satellite. It looked great, but the sides were cut off. Not sure what mode that would be. I tried playing with the menu from the buttons under the set, but they were less than intuitive. I would guess setting things will be easier with a remote (and a manual). The problem with their setup maybe from the receiver? Not sure.

Still, for many things I watched on it, the picture was excellent. Black levels were very good, specially compared to the other HDTV RPTV next to it that looked washed out. The colors popped out. There was an obvious screendoor effect at 4 feet or less. I would guess that is typically for any plasma at this resolution. This would not be an issue for me, since I don't watch TV that close. At 10-12 feet away, it was stunning. Not all the time, but on certain visual shots, I would find myself in awe.

I would have loved to have seen it with a proper aspect feed, I am not sure if that had any impact. I would have also liked to have seen a SD feed, but that was not possible.

For me, it looks like a great value.

Positives-
1. Great picture/contrast.
2. Excellent Costco return policy.
3. Included wall mount.
4. No shipping or potential return shipping. It's down the street from me.

Negatives-
1. No DVI, no HDCP
2. No built in tuner or speakers
3. No table mount included
4. Not as common brand as Pio/Panny so more risk
5. Not as common brand as Pio/Panny so less aftermarket support. Less community info for service menu things, etc.

If I wait until July, Panasonic new 42" model arrives with presumably the awesome picture quality and 3000:1 contrast, built in tuners, built in speakers, DVi/HDCP. But I have to wait until July. It will cost more, maybe over $1000 more. I will probably have to buy it online to get that good of a price, so there is shipping costs and some potential hassles if it arrives with dead/stuck pixels.

The value of the "no questions asked" return policy of Costco is quite a lot when measured financially. Even a simple in home replacement guarantee for the same time frame would cost many hundreds of dollars.

I don't believe it is ethical for me to buy the set, with the intention of returning it later to upgrade. That is just me. So that is not part of my equation here.

I am leaning to pulling the trigger. Biting the bullet. Stepping off the curb.

But....

Austin's a smaller market I think they had 4 in the store....Pat

Mine sold 6 today and I got the last one at about 2 PM.

Unfortunately, mine was missing the mounting screws to connect the display with the wall mount. The outer box had been open and taped shut, but the inner boxes were sealed tight. I returned to Costco -- after a *very* long wait including several obviously misunderstood attempts to communicate, I finally got them to give me the bolts off of the display. (On the second try and after an hour, I was advised to call Akai and ask for the parts. If they had told me that 10 minutes after I got there, that would have been OK. After an hour, though, I had reached breaking point.) There had been one full-out return today. I suspect that may have been from someone who thought it was a TV set, because several people came up to me while I was waiting to check out and referred to at as a "TV". If you didn't understand exactly what you were getting, I think you'd be even more frustrated than I was about the bolts.

No complaints whatsoever on the display itself. I have it hooked up to HDTV/digital cable, and it's fantastic. I'm not enough of a videophile to give a truly sophisticated review, but it looks da*n good, and fantastic for 3 grand. Big thumbs up!

Just another note I don't think has been discussed here that may be of interest to folks -- the stretch modes for 4:3 broadcast may *not* be used on input from component 2. The problem with this, of course, is that component 2 is the only input that will accept an HDTV signal, so you're stuck with side bars on 4:3 HDTV or standard definition broadcasts. I don't care about it for watching television, but wanted to flag this for those who may be concerned about burn-in.

I now plan to watch standard def TV through my VCR or Tivo on the S-video input so it can be stretched if desired.

Christopher, can you please clarify. I understand component 2 is the only one that allows 1080i. But I am confused because the resolution is only 480 - so that's all you can ever see. I think you're saying the 1080 signal cannot be brought in through component 1 and if you try you won't see anything - correct?

And further, you cannot change the mode for anything you watch on component 2 - is that true? So whatever it comes in at, that's what you have to watch. Is there no solution at all for this? Nothing external? I am just grasping at straws here.

Are there any choices at all when watching HDTV? How are most HDTV broadcast shows shown - Are they mostly 4:3?

Couldn't you have two connections from you cable box - maybe one s-video and one component, and watch the standard TV on S-video and the HD stuff on component. Again, is most of the HD stuff broadcast at 16:9?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this. Of course, thanks to Cablevision, I am years away from any HDTV programming, so this is all theory for me.

1) Yes -- 1080 signal can't be brought in through component 1. I don't remember the native resolution of the display offhand, but I know it has to scale down the picture. Not sure if it takes it down all the way to 480. In any event, it looks pretty darn good as it is to my non-stickler eyes.

2) Yes -- you cannot change the mode for component 2. I believe for some odd reason this is the *only* input you can't change the mode in, which seems like a backward way of doing it to me. As I mentioned earlier, though, I think there are practical workarounds to this that will limit the impact.

3) My HDTV experience is limited to a random sampling over the two hours I've had it up and running -- spent most of the evening arguing about the bolts. I'm sure there are many others in the forum who could give you a better answer. BUT -- the aspect ratio differs with the broadcast. SD is always 4:3. HD is 4:3 or 16:9 depending on the source. There *were* a couple of 4:3 shows in HD that I noticed. In other words, the HD broadcast was noticably different than the regular broadcast, but both were 4:3.

4) I have mine set up exactly that way. I bought an AV selector box into which I have plugged a VCR, a Tivo, a Directv receiver, and a PS2. All go S-video into the AV box, and all go out S-Video to the plasma. Haven't tested how it looks yet because I'm not hooking in the S-video until I get it up on the wall tomorrow, but any of those inputs should be able to be stretched/zoomed.

Still *extremely* happy with the display.

A couple of last notes for the night after a little bit more experimentation. First, apparently the zoom modes don't work with *either* component input. No problem for my DVD player (I have a Malata with zoom and pan functions built in), but again a warning for those who might be interested or concerned about burn-in.

Second, my overall impression is still great but things like this, the sparseness of the documentation, the need to use very specific inputs for specific devices, and the PIP issues suggest to me that mid-range videophiles (like myself) are the only group that is going to be truly happy with this unit. There are too many little hinky things for high-end videophiles to be satisfied with it, and it's just too darn complicated for Joe Sixpack. (BTW, the pip can be set to source from the S-video input. Switch that input to Tivo or a VCR, and you're absolutely good to go PIP-wise.)

Third, my jaw just absolutely still drops at the HDTV picture. Worth every penny. Can't wait for the Super Bowl!

Most plasmas and other types of displays for that matter, lock aspect ratio when displaying 1080i.

I picked up one at the local San Diego Costco. I am not hanging mine on the wall, so the lack of a table mount is a big issue. As noted previously in this thread, the box says that the mount will be available at http://www.costco.com/ but it's not there as of this time.

I left the unit in it's packing material as a temporary stand, but that is kinda sad looking.

I have only been able to view two sources. A component output from a portable DVD player and a composite output from a Panasonic RP56. The component/RCA video input was noticeably not very good. Watchable, but not good. But when I went to the RP56 and component video, the picture was stunningly good. I checked out bits of the DVDs "Band of Brothers"; "Spiderman" and "Toy Story" as a sampler selection. I really liked the experience.

I have not tried standard NTSC yet...I am a little worried. I don't have a source yet for HDTV.

Got mine today. The Costco in Honolulu had about 15 of these stacked by the entrance. Costco rules. Cashier rang me up and realized that I would save money by upgrading to the Executive membership. So I saved another $40 or so that way, although I will see the rebate money for that later on. Then 3 guys helped me unpack the unit so I could fit it into my car. Very cool for Costco to provide such a service.

I then went to a hardware store to get some "L brackets" and screws. I attached the wall mount upsidedown, bolted the L bracket to the wall mount, then screwed the L bracket to my TV stand. This is a cheap, temporary solution until I get this thing wall mounted in my new apartment in a few months. It doesn't look half bad either. Here's a link if you want to see a picture:

http://www179.pair.com/hkflicks/photos/PICT0033.gif

Jeff

Jeff, for me right now, that is not a bad way to go. Thanks for the idea of the L brackets.

Hi,

I am thinking to get one of this unit. But can someone verfiy that is this unit comes with Remote control? If not, What can i get (inexpensive) to remote control this unit?

Which one is better, The Akai, The Daewoo 42SM, The Samsung,

I saw the Samsung and the picture looked different than the Akai. The blacks on the Samsung were better, also the Samsung pixel matrix looked different. It almost has a screendoor effect. I got up close to the Akai and it has a tiny dot type matrix. The same dot type matrix on the Daewoo. You sure these aren't the twins?

I was hoping in looking at both of these that the Matrix was more like the Sony which has no detectable dots, but has a smooth scan line look.

Another ? Are the Akai/Samsung/Daewoo all made in Korea. Isn't the Samsung made in China?

Also the Daewoo and Akai were side by side and the Akai has the better picture. Blacks were better and natural fleshtones were better on the Akai. I opened up the menu on the Daewoo and the custom setting looked about right. Brightness was down and Contrast was up, color was back a bit.

It does come with a full remote control. If you want, I can post a pic of it.

When playing a letterbox DVD movie using progressive component video input 1, the picture is not vertically centered. It is shifted up, i.e. there is more grey at the bottom than the top. I have tried both a Sharp DV-S2U and a Panasonic CP72. The amount of vertical shift appears similar.

The picture is centered vertically when progressive output on the component video of the players are disabled.

This is my first progressive display of any kind. Please post your experience with the progressive video on component input 1. I might to exchange the unit at costco.

Thanks

Can someone here comment on using the AKAI with an HTPC as a source using the VGA input? TIA!

Tim Corn
Grove, OK

The speakers and stand option for the akai have now been posted to the costco website

Akai PSP4290 Speakers for 42" Plasma Monitor $169.99
Akai MB4290 Table Stand for 42" Plasma Monitor $129.99

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?t...4&log=&NavTop=

For those interested in an included stand at the $3k price point, Bestbuy is now offering the SAMPO or the DAEWOO (model varies by store) for that price. It seems as though some of the big retailers watch the costco coupon books and offer a matching promotion at the same time.

Well, I have to admit this is not a bad looking display. I have been looking to throw one into the family room until I can get the upstairs theatre up and running. I went to the local Costco today and they had Attack of the Clones running on it; looked OK but kind of grainy. Of course after looking, the reason became clear, they were running composite signals into the panel.
I guess in fairness to Costco they are just out to sale at a good price with good service, (which they do); displaying the sets with optimal settings is a secondary concern.

Chris, if you don't mind me asking you, what made you decide to go with this unit over say the Panny or PIO. It didn't seem like a budget issue given all of the wiring you did to prepare for the screen. Man I hate making decisions like this, but if I don't get off my butt and make one, I will have to wait for the "next great thing" and who knows when that might be :)

-Dan

I finally got one at my local Costco. They had 8 units on Monday and only two left after I bought mine. Now am waiting for the installationto be completed.

Has anyone seen HD sources (1080i or 720p) through component 2. How does it look?

Thanks! I went ahead and ordered a stand. Not a bad price considering. The only downside potentially is the notice when you order it from the Costco site, that it should ship within 30 days. :eek: I would so like to remove it from the styrofoam.

Went to the Costco in Santa Cruz today to see if they had the newer Daewoo. Nope. But they DID have a boat load of the Akai. (12 I believe) They too were playing Attack of the Clones. Was hooked up via composite. Looked pretty good given there was no calibration done. (They were using the styrofoam and the bottom of the box for a stand!) Anyway, if it wasn't a mail in rebate, I would consider trading in the old Daewoo 4210. Oh well, still waiting for the Panny to get a little cheaper.

How good is digital cable supposed to look on a plasma like an Akai? I'm not all that impressed, but suppose it is the limitations of the cable. I connected my cable box to my TV via a S-Video cable. It doesn't look terrible, but thought it looked better on my old 32 inch WEGA. Definitely not "crystal clear" like Time Warner promises. Progressive anamorphic DVDs look fantastic, however.

Jeff