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MX-5020HPM Owners Thread

post #1 of 548
8/21/06 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 
Maxent MX-5020HPM

I looked for this thread and don't think I missed it, so I guess I'm starting it. I bought one of these today from a local warehouse, its sitting in my Express van waiting to be brought in.

Compared it side by side with a HD signal at the store and I really noticed a huge difference in detail and clarity between this unit and the 3 DLPs that were right next to it. It also was far and away (to me) a better picture than the Aquos 45" LCD. The panny 50" retail unit was also there and from a distance I couldnt say one was better than the other. What this unit does have is a wide array of inputs. I'll post some pix and a better review once I can get it unpacked and setup.
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post #2 of 548
8/21/06 at 3:41pm
Great! Power it up and let us know how it looks once calibrated properly. It was in between the Vizion, Philips and Panasonic 50 inch this weekend and looked on par with the Panny and quite a bit better than the Vizio and Philips. Philips looked REALLY red, but I'm sure that's a config thing. [EDIT]
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post #3 of 548
8/21/06 at 7:40pm
Thread Starter 
Well I had to dismember my old entertanment center but it turned out nice. Fired it up and hooked up my laptop to RGB right off the bat. Cycled though the resolutions nice.

Put in Finding Nemo and noticed a bit of blockyness going on in dark passages..not sure if its the source or lack of calibration or just is what it is. I'll run the Avia dvd.

Also hooked up my Dish Sat box (non HD) via S-video and it looked passable, then tried the component input and everything turned to crud. Now its showing a bit of that "clayface" in some scenes...not sure what happened. Will post pix in a bit.
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post #4 of 548
8/21/06 at 9:00pm
anyone else with this TV get good settings? I'm trying to use my Xbox 360 thru VGA and it doesn't allow me to set color/contrast/etc. through VGA? Does this TV use the same settings through all inputs?

Also is there a way to set the color temp settings discreetly? The manual says that the color temp changes with the picture modes, but you can't adjust settings in any other mode but user.

Any other tips on getting the settings right would be appreciated!

Thanks!
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post #5 of 548
8/21/06 at 9:22pm
I'm dying to hear from any users/owners as well.

This went on sale at the local wharehouse store and I went there today to check it out. They had tons of them! At least 50 on the floor!

It was connected to a Toshiba Upscaling DVD player at 1080i through component and it looked really good. It wasn't anywhere near the other PDP's though so it made it tough to compare. I thought it looked excellent though. No remote available either. Blacks looked good, color looked good, they were playing hoodwinked and I watched the scene down in the sewers and tried everything I could to find some issues with the black levels or false contouring and could not find them.

I think whoever they have setting up these tv's at my local store does a decent job, because this is one of the first times I've seen the Panny 50x6u and others look really good on a showroom floor as well.

I am really considering getting two of these for the house - bedroom and second living room.


Please keep the feedback coming!!!
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post #6 of 548
8/21/06 at 10:41pm
I want to install a 50" set in the plasma lift cabinet Costco sells in their stores. I find that max dimensions that will fit are 50" wide x 31" tall. I noticed this MX-5020HPM has what appears to be a speaker panel at the bottom. Does anyone know for sure if the built-in speakers can be removed to shrink the height so this set would come in under the 33+" shown in specs?

Thanks!
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post #7 of 548
8/21/06 at 11:22pm
Hey guys-
Until yesterday I owned a vizio. I was never 100% happy with it but I wasn't willing to spend so much more on a different set so I never replaced it. Well yesterday it pretty much exploded at five months old. I wasn't too upset since the HDMI stuff didn't work and the picture at times didn't really do much for me. I gladly took it back to costco that day. I started reading around and thankfully found this info about this new maxent and it being on sale and all. I decided to try it out.

I find it much better than the vizio. Initially when I hooked it up I thought it looked TERRIBLE. I was running my HD through component and everything was off. The color, the contrast, all kinds of blotchiness and no matter what I adjusted it just looked like complete trash. I was pretty disappointed. I decided to try the HDMI since it never worked right on the Vizio. The difference was night and day! The picture instantly looked far more impressive, crisp clean and vibrant. I tweaked it a bit and it looked as good as I could hope for, especially at this price. It was definitely head and shoulders above the Vizio. I went ahead and tried everything, dvds, games, SD tv, HD (of course). It all looked very good, except for the SD tv which was passable. Even the 480i signal of a PS2 looked good. There also appeared to be far less overscan than the Vizio. I'm also pleased that thus far I have not gotten a single handshake issue with the HDMI. In fact this is the first time I've been interested now in HD-DVD's or Blu-ray.

I'm appreciative of an excellent picture but I am definitely not as die hard as many here as my post count shows. However, I feel that this Maxent is of far higher quality than the Vizio I owned. The casing is nicer, the picture is better, and all of the features actually function. Plus I paid less than I did for the Vizio (back in March of course). I think games, movies etc. are meant to be enjoyed. It might not be the absolute BEST display on the market but considering how much you save over the other sets I can fully relax and enjoy the picture instead of wishing that for 3-4k$ the set would do this or that 10% better. I think once I tweak and calibrate this thing it's going to be a knockout set, regardless of price.
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post #8 of 548
8/22/06 at 5:14am
Doc - Did you have the box for the Vizio or did your local warehouse store take it back without a box? I might have to shed the box before I get it home and just wondering if I'll be able to take it back if I don't like it or something happens in a month or two.
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post #9 of 548
8/22/06 at 8:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Bass View Post

Hey guys-
Until yesterday I owned a vizio. I was never 100% happy with it but I wasn't willing to spend so much more on a different set so I never replaced it. Well yesterday it pretty much exploded at five months old. I wasn't too upset since the HDMI stuff didn't work and the picture at times didn't really do much for me. I gladly took it back to costco that day. I started reading around and thankfully found this info about this new maxent and it being on sale and all. I decided to try it out.

I find it much better than the vizio. Initially when I hooked it up I thought it looked TERRIBLE. I was running my HD through component and everything was off. The color, the contrast, all kinds of blotchiness and no matter what I adjusted it just looked like complete trash. I was pretty disappointed. I decided to try the HDMI since it never worked right on the Vizio. The difference was night and day! The picture instantly looked far more impressive, crisp clean and vibrant. I tweaked it a bit and it looked as good as I could hope for, especially at this price. It was definitely head and shoulders above the Vizio. I went ahead and tried everything, dvds, games, SD tv, HD (of course). It all looked very good, except for the SD tv which was passable. Even the 480i signal of a PS2 looked good. There also appeared to be far less overscan than the Vizio. I'm also pleased that thus far I have not gotten a single handshake issue with the HDMI. In fact this is the first time I've been interested now in HD-DVD's or Blu-ray.

I'm appreciative of an excellent picture but I am definitely not as die hard as many here as my post count shows. However, I feel that this Maxent is of far higher quality than the Vizio I owned. The casing is nicer, the picture is better, and all of the features actually function. Plus I paid less than I did for the Vizio (back in March of course). I think games, movies etc. are meant to be enjoyed. It might not be the absolute BEST display on the market but considering how much you save over the other sets I can fully relax and enjoy the picture instead of wishing that for 3-4k$ the set would do this or that 10% better. I think once I tweak and calibrate this thing it's going to be a knockout set, regardless of price.

I've been checking out this set too (just in case my Viz blows up )...my only concern is the component inputs...my DVD player is component...why is it so bad? Most people will argue that in general there is little to no difference between component and HDMI inputs...what makes the Maxent PQ "better"? And when you say SD is "passable", is it better than the Viz? I've actually been pleasantly surprised with how the Viz handles SD...
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post #10 of 548
8/22/06 at 8:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg17 View Post

I've been checking out this set too (just in case my Viz blows up )...my only concern is the component inputs...my DVD player is component...why is it so bad? Most people will argue that in general there is little to no difference between component and HDMI inputs...what makes the Maxent PQ "better"? And when you say SD is "passable", is it better than the Viz? I've actually been pleasantly surprised with how the Viz handles SD...

Remember, the Viz has Faroudja DCDi, so the Maxent may have that great of a de-interlacer/scaler in respect to SDTV. Don't be surprised if SD looks worse on the Maxent... I'm concerned about the component inputs, as well. Is it calibration, or what? Seems like 2/2 say that component is quite poor. I noticed @ Costco that (at least at mine) they are running component on all TVs from the store feed. Looked pretty good to me, at least in comparison to other sets..
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post #11 of 548
8/22/06 at 8:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jawatkin View Post

Remember, the Viz has Faroudja DCDi, so the Maxent may have that great of a de-interlacer/scaler in respect to SDTV. Don't be surprised if SD looks worse on the Maxent... I'm concerned about the component inputs, as well. Is it calibration, or what? Seems like 2/2 say that component is quite poor. I noticed @ Costco that (at least at mine) they are running component on all TVs from the store feed. Looked pretty good to me, at least in comparison to other sets..

I'm looking forward to hearing from different people as they purchase this set over the next few weeks...
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post #12 of 548
8/22/06 at 8:52am
Thread Starter 
Ok, after putting the living room back together and hooking up my antique original Apex DVD player via S-Video, I must say the strange artifacts and horrible clayface I was seeing before are gone. I've yet to hook up my Dish 811 for HD signals, but watching standard def Dish signal now at full screen from about 10' back is fine.

Also using the internal speakers for now until I get a proper sound system. Average at best. I read in a previous post someone asking if the speakers are removeable, they are not. Actually they are located on the lower portion of the monitor. The unit is 49 1/2 " wide.

I'm quickly realizing that I need a new dvd player and probably going to build a small HTPC for this TV due to the quality of Windows when I had it on RGB. HDMI also has the PIP though I dont see it being split screen.

So far, this being my first large TV purchase (Other than the Benq PE7700 in the basement) I'm very happy. The black bezel is nice though I'd have liked the stand black as well.

I hooked up my HDR-HC3 Hi Def camcorder through the component input and it produced a great image. Watching back previous recordings, content in lower light was a bit grainiy but colors were right on and the image was very sharp. Actually sort of amazing considering the size of the camera, but thats a story for another day


The noise level is only noticable if you stick your head behind the vents on the top and you hear a small buzz, but more than one foot away and I hear nothing coming from the unit. It does generate a bit of heat though, but winter is coming


I'll post a bit more thoughts once I get a proper signal fed to it, but for those stuck watching a great deal of SD content, its not a bad way to go considering the array of options that come standard.
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post #13 of 548
8/22/06 at 8:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jawatkin View Post

Remember, the Viz has Faroudja DCDi, so the Maxent may have that great of a de-interlacer/scaler in respect to SDTV. Don't be surprised if SD looks worse on the Maxent... I'm concerned about the component inputs, as well. Is it calibration, or what? Seems like 2/2 say that component is quite poor. I noticed @ Costco that (at least at mine) they are running component on all TVs from the store feed. Looked pretty good to me, at least in comparison to other sets..

It probably depends what kind of component input you're feeding it. I've feed my Xbox 360 w/component @720p to this set and it looks great.

Note out of the box you have to dramatically tone down the color (30-35 for me) and the sharpness control (10-20 for me). Out of the box its on Vivid and the 'User' setting is oversaturated + false ringing due to the sharpness control.

I've not fed the set 480i since all my TV viewing is via MCE and mostly ATSC using HDMI. One nice thing is that the HDMI ports (at least HDMI 1 I've not tried HDMI 2 outside of 720p) takes native res (well the 1360x768 that my nVidia 6600GT will do) which is nice...

I'm happy with the set. Speakers are weaker than the vizio if that bothers anyone.
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post #14 of 548
8/22/06 at 9:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdampier View Post

One nice thing is that the HDMI ports (at least HDMI 1 I've not tried HDMI 2 outside of 720p) takes native res (well the 1360x768 that my nVidia 6600GT will do) which is nice...

Does the display enable or disable overscan for 1360x768 over HDMI?
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post #15 of 548
8/22/06 at 9:30am
To answer the question about component, the conclusion I came too was that it was just the cable source, for whatever reason. When I hooked up video games and a dvd player it looked just fine. Clear, vivid and sharp, but not overly so once you turn down the defaults (contrast at 80 and the color especially was noticeably way up, but I have yet to "calibrate" each input).

SD is worse than the vizio, but not by a lot. It's not like SD is that nice to look at either way but over the HDMI SD ended up looking watchable and I have no complaints. Over component not even HD was acceptable for whatever reason. I'm using a scientific atlanta explorer 3250 box if anyone cares to know. However other sources over component were fine. It's awfully nice to have working HDMI though. :-)

Also I have to say I'm so glad I can't hear the set when watching it, even with it's slightly less powerful speakers (which are actually a good thing because you could hear my tv down on the sidewalk outside my second floor apartment with the vizio) but since I have everything hooked into a decent system I don't care. If I want great sound I just fire up the receiver. For watching comedies and such the built in speakers are just fine.

So far I'm pleased. I just hope it doesn't fry like my last set.
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post #16 of 548
8/22/06 at 10:25am
could someone comment on the options for filling the screen? Like is there a zoom feature for 4:3 content, etc?

How well do these work?

I've read some things where folks have wished there were more options with previous maxents....curious about this one.

Thanks,

Mike
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post #17 of 548
8/22/06 at 10:31am
found some info on their website.

4:3 Normal = The original image is preserved but black bars are used to fill the extra space on the left and right.



16:9 Full = The original 4:3 is proportionally stretched to fill the entire screen.



Panorama = The original 4:3 image is stretched only on the left and right sides to fill the screen, leaving the center image unchanged.



There are also 3 zoom modes available for use when viewing wide-screen content:

ZOOM 1 = Shifts the image up to facilitate the viewing of subtitles.

ZOOM 2 = Made to stretch 2.35:1 content to full screen eliminating the black bars.

ZOOM 3 = Further zooms in on 2.35:1 content.

Anyone want to say how well or bad these work?

Someone should post a pic of SD content if they could...I would love to see this.

Thanks,

Mike
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post #18 of 548
8/22/06 at 10:55am
I got this information regarding calibration and service menu from another forum. I don't know if it works since I will not get this set until Thursday or Friday.



Date Posted: Aug/14/2006 3:31 PM
Rating:

Alright, I was able to score one today. Here's the thing - out of the box, I was VERY disappointed. I very nearly took it back right then and there. However, I decided to play with the settings, and still, terrible.

I then decided to hook up the RS232 and tinker with the internal settings. BINGO. The RBG gain settings were WAY above board. I put everything at 250/500 and checked out the picture.

Eureka. Looks exactly like my 42" Maxent, only bigger. An additional plus is that the HDMI actually doesn't have the red/green blooming problems of the previous model. Sound is markedly worse, probably due to the speaker location, but you plan to use a stereo, it shouldn't be an issue. This unit will take some time to break in as well.

Bottom line - expect use the RS232 adjustments out of the box or you will be very diappointed.



Date Posted: Aug/14/2006 4:24 PM
Rating:

Do you have to use RS232 cables or can you adjust the BIAS etc via the service menu?

Press UP 5 times, then DOWN five times then press the "POSITION" button on the remote. You'll get into the service menu and one of the options appears to be for setting BIAS/RGB settings etc from there.
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post #19 of 548
8/22/06 at 11:35am
Wow...so this Maxent is better than the Vizio...I've actually been very happy with my Viz other than it looks a little "dull" or "soft" with HD...it's still very good though...now you people are telling me the Maxent is easily better than the Viz for HD? Hmmm...

Btw, for those of you that follow the Viz thread, you will know that I care about the vertical scaling/overscan issues at 1080i...can someone pull up the HDNet test pattern and compare the height/width of any circle or square pattern at 720p and 1080i?
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post #20 of 548
8/22/06 at 12:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg17 View Post

Wow...so this Maxent is better than the Vizio...I've actually been very happy with my Viz other than it looks a little "dull" or "soft" with HD...it's still very good though...now you people are telling me the Maxent is easily better than the Viz for HD? Hmmm...

Btw, for those of you that follow the Viz thread, you will know that I care about the vertical scaling/overscan issues at 1080i...can someone pull up the HDNet test pattern and compare the height/width of any circle or square pattern at 720p and 1080i?

I'm curious about this, too. I can tell you, though, when watching the same feed (since the Viz & Maxent were placed together), the Vizio had noticably more overscan than the Maxent. I'm not sure what the store feed is (1080i or 720p), but it was noticable to me, and I hadn't read about the overscan issues yet!
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post #21 of 548
8/22/06 at 12:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg17 View Post

Wow...so this Maxent is better than the Vizio...I've actually been very happy with my Viz other than it looks a little "dull" or "soft" with HD...it's still very good though...now you people are telling me the Maxent is easily better than the Viz for HD? Hmmm...

Btw, for those of you that follow the Viz thread, you will know that I care about the vertical scaling/overscan issues at 1080i...can someone pull up the HDNet test pattern and compare the height/width of any circle or square pattern at 720p and 1080i?

I'm positive my old vizio had way more overscan than the Maxent. I'm seeing more picture on everything, in fact on certain SD tv channels I could see "junk" for a few lines (maybe 2 or 3) on the border edges and was wondering if I could actually turn ON some more overscan.

I know the Vizio cut off the picture on dvds, games and tv. I immediately noticed more picture with all sources.
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post #22 of 548
8/22/06 at 12:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Bass View Post

I'm positive my old vizio had way more overscan than the Maxent. I'm seeing more picture on everything, in fact on certain SD tv channels I could see "junk" for a few lines (maybe 2 or 3) on the border edges and was wondering if I could actually turn ON some more overscan.

I know the Vizio cut off the picture on dvds, games and tv. I immediately noticed more picture with all sources.


See, that's what I thought. Now, the question is: is the overscan (even the little that is) symmetric? I think that the problem with the Vizio is that it was NOT symmetric overscan so the stuff that was presented in certain res (I think 1080i feeds, correct me if I'm wrong) was stretched vertically. You can measure this with any circular pattern on a test DVD or HDNet, measure the diameter at the midpoint horizontally and then vertically and see how close it is. It was quite off on the Vizios.
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post #23 of 548
8/22/06 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jawatkin View Post

See, that's what I thought. Now, the question is: is the overscan (even the little that is) symmetric? I think that the problem with the Vizio is that it was NOT symmetric overscan so the stuff that was presented in certain res (I think 1080i feeds, correct me if I'm wrong) was stretched vertically. You can measure this with any circular pattern on a test DVD or HDNet, measure the diameter at the midpoint horizontally and then vertically and see how close it is. It was quite off on the Vizios.

I'll try it if I can. Would it be dependent on the source or input at all? I don't have HD NET and I dont know of any test patterns on any dvds I have. I do have a cheap calibration dvd but I dont know if that would have a suitable pattern. I could always put a proper jpg on a cd and stick it in my dvd player...
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post #24 of 548
8/22/06 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Bass View Post

I'll try it if I can. Would it be dependent on the source or input at all? I don't have HD NET and I dont know of any test patterns on any dvds I have. I do have a cheap calibration dvd but I dont know if that would have a suitable pattern. I could always put a proper jpg on a cd and stick it in my dvd player...

I don't see why that wouldn't work, since that's mostly what the calibration DVDs and HDNet do anyways, display a static image. Does anyone know if the THX Optimizer extras included with some Disney DVDs etc have any test patterns you could try this with?

[EDIT] I don't know about source independence. Pdawg, is it across all inputs?
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post #25 of 548
8/22/06 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jawatkin View Post

I don't know about source independence. Pdawg, is it across all inputs?

Worse with HDMI than component but even component was off...whatever you use, you have to make sure it is coming in at 1080i (720p has a little too but not noticable)...if you have an HD-DVR you can also pause any program and pick out something to measure on-screen and then flip from 720p to 1080i to measure both...I'm most curious about HDMI however since that's what I use for my HD-Tivo...
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post #26 of 548
8/22/06 at 1:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg17 View Post

Worse with HDMI than component but even component was off...whatever you use, you have to make sure it is coming in at 1080i (720p has a little too but not noticable)...if you have an HD-DVR you can also pause any program and pick out something to measure on-screen and then flip from 720p to 1080i to measure both...I'm most curious about HDMI however since that's what I use for my HD-Tivo...

Well I don't know how I would do a test over HDMI right now since I only have tv running through that. I can tell you when I saw signal junk on a tv channel it was equally on top and bottom, like I said about 2 or 3 lines of resolution on both.
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post #27 of 548
8/22/06 at 2:07pm
Aha! And someone told me a week ago there was already a thread, but I couldn't find it.


I've had one of these for 2 weeks. Out of the box: lots of noise and waaaay bad clayface. I don't know about the service menu, but I was able to adjust the color and sharpness down and issues went away.


DVD over component looks just fine. Not sure why others are having trouble with it. Overall: very happy with this set.

Mark
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post #28 of 548
8/22/06 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by qzak View Post

DVD over component looks just fine. Not sure why others are having trouble with it. Overall: very happy with this set.

Mark

Great! This pushes me closer to going to pick it up... Now, how to get it home....
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post #29 of 548
8/22/06 at 2:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemann View Post

found some info on their website.

4:3 Normal = The original image is preserved but black bars are used to fill the extra space on the left and right.



16:9 Full = The original 4:3 is proportionally stretched to fill the entire screen.



Panorama = The original 4:3 image is stretched only on the left and right sides to fill the screen, leaving the center image unchanged.



There are also 3 zoom modes available for use when viewing wide-screen content:

ZOOM 1 = Shifts the image up to facilitate the viewing of subtitles.

ZOOM 2 = Made to stretch 2.35:1 content to full screen eliminating the black bars.

ZOOM 3 = Further zooms in on 2.35:1 content.

Anyone want to say how well or bad these work?

Someone should post a pic of SD content if they could...I would love to see this.

Thanks,

Mike

Weird. I haven't found these zoom options. Damn sure I'll look again - I was wishing for a Panorama feature like that.

I'll post a pic if I get a chance.
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post #30 of 548
8/22/06 at 3:44pm
I have the set for two weeks. This is my third HDTV, but the first plasma HDTV. I like it very much relative to my older CRT and LCD HDTVs. Here is my two initial findings:

1. There is a huge difference in SD PQ for Dish Network TV between the component input and HDMI input connections. The component input is much worse than the HDMI/DVI input.

2. DVD upconversion (1080i by Zenith DVB312) via the component input is very good in PQ.

I have turned the sharpness way down (10) for the component input, while keeping the sharpness in the middle (50). I have also turned up the contrast (80) for both component and HDMI inputs.
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