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Having a hard time deciding between IPS/VA (and SD quality)

1561 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Otto Pylot, Aug 16, 2011

sldvd

Discussion Starter · Aug 14, 2011

I just got two 26" TVs:

- LG 26LD350C (with a "D" in the Product Code, which means it's a VA panel)

- LG 26LE5300 (with a "W" in the Product Code, which means it's an IPS panel)

I've been sending the same source material to both of the TVs to compare them. Here's what I've noticed about them:

26LE5300 (IPS):

- looks better at angles and doesn't lose detail (except in dark scenes at angles, when it shows the white glow)

- has some backlight bleed that is noticeable in dark scenes

26LD350C (VA):

- loses detail at angles

- absolutely no backlight bleed

- has a darker black

- I've heard VA panels are supposed to have more input lag, but I didn't notice any problems playing some racing games on my PS1 or watching some sports DVDs

Is there anything else I should be looking for? Based on what I've seen so far, I might give the edge to the VA panel, because it won't be too often that I'm watching the TV at an angle. But it seems like most people prefer the IPS panel.

I've also been watching various SD material on both of them. I've seen posts from people saying that most TVs nowadays should be pretty good at displaying SD. I'm not sure either of these TVs are good at showing SD, though, since I frequently see noise artifacts. Turning down the sharpness helps to get rid of some of the noise, but then it also makes the picture kind of blurry. The 26LE5300 does have a "Digital Noise Reduction" setting that the 26LD350C doesn't have, and it helps but still doesn't get rid of all of it.

I did find a post here a few hours ago (unfortunately can't find it now) where someone said that 2 recent series of LG TVs (I think it was the LD450 and another one) don't do much processing to make SD material look good, and that explains why LG VA panels don't have input lag. He mentioned that you will have input lag on Sony and Samsung VA panels because they do extensive processing, but at least they will make SD material look good. The post made me wonder if the 2 TVs that I have also don't do much processing.

So at this point I don't know if I'm going to keep one of the TVs or return both of them. Anyone know of a 26" TV that's definitely good at displaying SD?

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BoilerJim

· #2 · Aug 14, 2011

Where do you get your facts & figures that most people prefer the IPS panels? If that's true, why do Samsung and Sony sell so many TVs? It all depends on your viewing habits. If you like the LD350C, then that's the one you should keep. It's rare to find a panel these days with good screen uniformity and it sounds like yours has few, if any, noticeable flaws.

As for SD, most HDTVs do a less than stellar job of displaying standard definition material, so I don't think I would use that as a criterion.

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sldvd

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 14, 2011

I've seen so many " Panel Lottery" threads with hundreds of posts, and countless people returning VA panels multiple times until they get the IPS version. I've never seen someone say "I just lost the lottery - I got the IPS version so I'm exchanging it and will hopefully get the VA version."

I also did not know that Sony and Samsung only make VA panels.

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BoilerJim

· #4 · Aug 14, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by sldvd /forum/post/20820499

I've seen so many " Panel Lottery" threads with hundreds of posts, and countless people returning VA panels multiple times until they get the IPS version. I've never seen someone say "I just lost the lottery - I got the IPS version so I'm exchanging it and will hopefully get the VA version."

I also did not know that Sony and Samsung only make VA panels.

I agree that the people who want IPS panels will exchange TVs until they get one (don't get me started on that subject). However, I personally don't understand the fascination with them. Yes, they have better viewing angles. However, I watch my TVs pretty much "straight on" and my non-IPS panels have never been an issue. Since I'm a stickler for picture quality and deep blacks, I know I could never be satisfied with most of the IPS panels I've seen. I've looked at some Panasonics that were pretty darned good, but always go back to the three "S" TVs, Samsung, Sony, and Sharp.

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rasmusbraun

· #5 · Aug 14, 2011

My TV is in the corner of my living room so I'm always viewing it at an angle instead of straight-on, so IPS is critical for me. I've tried S-PVA and MVA panels before and there's no comparison, in my opinion.

As for SD, there's no way to make it look good on today's HDTVs. Acceptable is the best you can do. You can always get an old CRT TV (plenty on Craigslist) if SD is the only content you can receive.

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Otto Pylot

· #6 · Aug 14, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by BoilerJim /forum/post/20820521

I agree that the people who want IPS panels will exchange TVs until they get one (don't get me started on that subject). However, I personally don't understand the fascination with them. Yes, they have better viewing angles. However, I watch my TVs pretty much "straight on" and my non-IPS panels have never been an issue. Since I'm a stickler for picture quality and deep blacks, I know I could never be satisfied with most of the IPS panels I've seen. I've looked at some Panasonics that were pretty darned good, but always go back to the three "S" TVs, Samsung, Sony, and Sharp.

I'm with Mr. Jim on this one ( returning tvs for no other reason than they didn't get an S-IPS panel). I moved up from a Sony CRT to an LG LCD in January. I'm not a big time gamer so game lag etc was not that big of a deal for me. My LG has the S-IPS panel as confirmed by the loupe test (magnifying lens) and looks just great to me. But, like Mr. Jim, most of our viewing is straight on or at a slight angle so I probably would've been happy with another panel type. Yeah, the blacks could be deeper (an inherent "flaw" in LCD panels) but once it was calibrated, and with the proper use of a bias light, it looks just great.

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Phase700B

· #7 · Aug 15, 2011

I have owned 5 LCD TVs over the past 5 years. The first, which I still have, is a Phillips 26", then a Mitsubishi 46" with IPS, an LG 42LD550 S-IPS, a 37" Insignia with VA I think, and a Sanyo 26" with H-IPS.

Without rehashing the differences and pros or cons of all of them here is what I've discerned. Light leakage is the worst issue on an LCD so I look for that first. Then, I look for decent brightness and contrast ratio. Equally I look for color balance and depth or accuracy. I neither like the too bright or "cartoon" like colors of some TVs, nor ones that can't render an accurate yellow or have too much red or green push. Off angle viewability is a plus also, but black level is more important.

Besides the TVs I've owned, I've purchased and calibrated a couple Vizios and another Sanyo for family or friends. Of all of the TVS I mentioned earlier the best color accuracy is on the newest LG 42LD550 with S-IPS and then the Mitsubishi with S-IPS. For some reason, the black levels are a bit better on the almost 5 year old Mitsubishi but not a deal breaker. Interestingly, the little 26" H-IPS Sanyo has low light leakage, good off axis viewing, and good black level. Only color accuracy is wanting, but still acceptable for the use it gets as a bedroom/game TV. I haven't researched the larger Sanyo models, but if there are any as good as the little 26" but with better calibration access they would be a bargain.

Well, just my opinion and findings. Take it from there.

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sldvd

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 16, 2011

I've got the 26LE5300 (IPS) packed up and ready to be returned.

But I was watching the 26LD350C (VA) tonight, and I noticed a couple issues:

1) Using the QAM tuner, I watched the HD broadcasts of NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS. NBC, FOX, and CBS appeared fine, but ABC seemed to have the audio out of sync with the video by a fraction of a second. Do you guys think that's a problem with the ABC feed or maybe the TV?

2) During one scene where a couple of cops were running after a bad guy, the video quality dropped, and then when they stopped running, it got better. I know that can happen with fast action scenes for SD material that uses too much compression. Can it also happen for HD material?

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Steve S

· #9 · Aug 16, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by sldvd /forum/post/20826836

I've got the 26LE5300 (IPS) packed up and ready to be returned.

But I was watching the 26LD350C (VA) tonight, and I noticed a couple issues:

1) Using the QAM tuner, I watched the HD broadcasts of NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS. NBC, FOX, and CBS appeared fine, but ABC seemed to have the audio out of sync with the video by a fraction of a second. Do you guys think that's a problem with the ABC feed or maybe the TV?

2) During one scene where a couple of cops were running after a bad guy, the video quality dropped, and then when they stopped running, it got better. I know that can happen with fast action scenes for SD material that uses too much compression. Can it also happen for HD material?

1-if it's the tv it's gonna happen on all channels, simple logic on that one. Back in the day (2001ish) it was rare to get the audio perfectly synched with the video on most HD channels.

2-HD is more bandwidth hungry than SD and bit starvation is the problem here, not video processing as is sometimes the case with SD.

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Otto Pylot

· #10 · Aug 16, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve S

Steve S is correct here. It all depends on data stream that's feeding your tuner. Some channels are more consistent than others in how they handle and process the data stream.

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