So I installed everything. Still no stuck pixels. No banding with the greyscreen. No lockups. The base swivels sideways and tilts vertically. Very solid and nicely built. It even looks good, which is in stark contrast to Dell PCs.
Viewing angle is very good, and noticeably above average, but I wouldn't say it's the absolute best for viewing angle.
I'm using VGA with the Mac. OS X senses the TV as 1360x768. Dunno why it's not 1366x768, but the TV can be set to a "1:1" setting on the TV so there is perfect pixel mapping. (According to the TV, 1360 is the proper setting.) I just get 3 columns of black pixels down each side which I don't notice. There is also a "Fill Aspect Ratio" and "Full Screen" setting that scales up slightly to use those extra 6 pixels, but there is no point in doing that.
The only annoyance is that the TV sends this info even when it's off, so the Mac always thinks there's an active screen attached, even when the unit is off.
Colours via VGA in bright scenes are very good. Blacks and dark greys are OK, as is contrast, but I've seen better. I'd say this screen (rated 800:1 contrast ratio) is not as good as the iMac's (rated 800:1 also, although excellent IMO despite the sub 1000 rating), but better than the iBook's (which isn't given a rating). DVD from the iMac is quite nice too. It's better than from my cheap 480i player over component. 720p trailers look good too. Unfortunately, my G5 2.0 with 64 MB Radeon 9600 is struggling with 720p when the second screen is attached. With the native iMac screen 720p plays fine. However, once I plug in the second screen, 720p video sometimes stutters. Now I have another good reason to get an iMac Intel Core Duo.
(Click to enlarge)
I hooked up my HD cable box to the TV, and have it set to 720p most of the time. It also works fine via 1080i. 480p sorta works too, but it doesn't look anywhere near as good. 480i is not supported over DVI. One cool thing is that if I use that "1:1" setting again, the TV sets itself to 1280x720, with a black rim all around the screen. No scaling needed. Scaled to fill the screen it still looks awesome, so I leave it that.
One bonus of the remote is there is a "DVI" button, so it instantly takes me to the DVI input. Too bad there isn't a "VGA" button. There is also a useful "Info" button, which tells me the resolution, refresh rate, audio and video settings, etc.
HD channels are very nice. Again, colours in bright scenes are great, but again blacks and dark greys are good but not as good as the best I've seen on LCD. Mind you, I was checking out the Sony Bravia XBR 26" and for some strange reason it was thrice the price.
It seems that this TV is designed to be used in a fairly bright setting. In dim light you really have to turn down the brightness, but I find that if you go below 40 (out of 100) brightness, the contrast suffers severely. So, I added another lamp to this room, and turned up the brightness on the iMac to match.
Image quality from my HD box over component is good, but DVI is noticeably better. It seems this unit is built for digital, and that analogue suffers a bit. SD channels over S-video range from OK, to downright crap. No comparison whatsoever to CRT. Mind you, the Bravias don't look so hot with SD channels either over S-video, but I'd say the few I've seen are superior to this set for SD channels to a certain extent. CRT still blows away the Bravias though for SD.
However, if I switch to DVI, the SD channel quality improves noticeably. ie. My Scientific Atlanta 3250HD deals with analogue SD cable better than the TV does, which doesn't really surprise me, but still is a bit of annoyance.
