Got it up on the wall last night , was less of a hassle than I thought.
very happy with the PQ so far.
Watched Gladiator: was unimpressed at first until I realized I was feeding off the 480i component outputs of my Q50 (duh!), when I hooked up the progressive outputs I was extremely pleased. Great PQ, no problem with blacks. No contouring that I could see at all, and contrast good, as I expected. Had the unit on the floor about 6-7 feet away at first, until I could get a friend to help me lift the unit up onto a wall mount. Very happy even at that distance. It is 10 feet away now, up on the wall.
With the non-progressive output (what I was watching accidentally at first) and at 6 feet away the unit did have a hard time with all the mist in scene 2 of gladiator: some 'blockiness' . No problems at all on progressive however, Just stunningly good.
Watched some of Aliens to stress the black processing a bit more. Looked great on progressive output, didn't get a chance to try 480i. Some of the lighter to mid grey tones had a wierd graininess to then ( sorry guys I am not a technical guru to give more appropriate descriptions). Could that actually be the original film print. Regardless I was specifically looking for any weaknesses, and once I settled into enjoying the movie I didnt notice anything at all.
Watched some cable TV: I had been set to be unimpressed with this (I bought mainly to watch DVD's and add HDTV someday) but found it very watchable. I do have a very clean analog feed. Will try bringing one of my digital cable boxes downstairs to try that out when I have time. Some channels were just OK some were very clean and very sharp. Nothing was horrendously bad. Weird phenomenon: for some reason all the home shopping channels have amazingly good PQ (almost hd looking): I wonder what they do to their feeds that sets them apart??
more after a weekend of experimentation....
