[tmij]

About time for this newbie to de-lurk. 433cmx arrived 10 days ago, had to wait for the Peerless mount, completed installation this weekend. A special thanks to Bill Gehring for helping me out. His tips for plasma buyers took the fear out of making the purchase (especially delivery), considering I bought the 433cmx sight unseen.


What a great plasma! I love it. Here are a few pics, source DVDs: Baraka, Crouching Tiger (superbit), Calle 54, Diana Krall Live in Paris--

http://66.179.15.17/ht/01.jpg


The 433cmx is mounted to a center post (had to drill additional holes in the wall steel plate because it was wider than the post). Fully extended, the articulating arm gives the plasma the appearance of "floating"...

http://66.179.15.17/ht/02.jpg


Tough to take a picture, the color always seems off. I'm using an old Sony F505V with a polarizing filter in these shots.

http://66.179.15.17/ht/03.jpg


My favorite music DVD, Calle 54. A shot of the bandoneonist (from Paquito D'Rivera's group).

http://66.179.15.17/ht/04.jpg


Baraka, again. Applied the sharpen feature in Photoshop as the original scan didn't look at all like the plasma image (too soft).

http://66.179.15.17/ht/05.jpg


One of the better produced music DVDs, Diana Krall's Live in Paris looks great in this plasma.

http://66.179.15.17/ht/06.jpg


I'm quite new to HT, so my other HT gear is pretty cheap. I got into this after a friend showed me his Samsung 3297 running the PBS HD channel. My front/surround/sub speakers are KLH el-cheapos, $80 from J&R. I just added a PSB Image 8C center channel, all driven by a $150 Panasonic SA-HE70 receiver. But I was lucky enough to get an RP82 from one of the online stores for $199 before they ran out of stock. That said, for my listening volume, this setup works fine. In fact, I think they're pretty okay. I run a 30 ft optical cable (SPDIF) from my home recording gear to the receiver and have tried jamming on both near-field monitors (L/R), KLHs (surrounds), PSB (center) driven from Cubase SX and it sounds fine.


Next thing is to run a 30ft VGA cable from my notebook DAW so I can do either of the following (using S-video here)--

http://66.179.15.17/ht/11.jpg


Integrated home recording + HT??? Ain't no such beast

http://66.179.15.17/ht/10.jpg


I'm still waiting for a HD box from TWC, when that comes I'll need to free up one component input. Hopefully someone shall report on the Bravo + A303 when the card comes out.


Thanks for reading!

 

[Maximus330I]

Ooh great pics! Congrats on the new toy!

 

[Bill Gehring]

Tito:


Glad I could help. I really like your setup with the pole, and your pics are great.


You might want to check out Cable Wholesale for the 30 foot VGA cable. I got a 75 foot VGA cable from them that I run from my HTPC to my 433CMX. It was priced very reasonably and works just fine.


Did you do any tweaks in integrator mode with RGB gains and bias, brightness, contrast, color, hue, etc., or are you running the 433 at factory mode settings?

 

[robot1998]

hi tmij,


mind to tell me where you bought it from ?

 

[mattg3]

Excellent pictures that show black levels are fine on this plasma.I love the screen size of the 433.Many of my friends have taken it for a 50 as I did when I first saw it next to the Panny 42 in Tweeter.

 

[tmij]

Bill, the only tweak I did in integrator mode (aside from enabling the orbiter) was lowering the side mask to 30-30-30. "Calibrating" was through the THX tests on the Monsters DVD (I still have to buy Avia) and the settings I have are contrast: +7, brightness: +3, color: -3, sharpness: -7. Thanks for the cable supplier tip, I'll check them out.


robot1998, I bought the plasma from Dell.


Maximus330I, thanks for the kind words.


mattg3, although I think I understand what some people say about the black levels on the 433cmx, as it is, it looks good enough for my taste.

 

[LisaJ]

What digital camera are you using to take these plasma pics? Great job!

 

[tmij]

Thanks Lisa! I used a Sony F505V with a Crystal Optics polarizing filter. I bet the pics will look even better after I've installed an A303