Well it has arrived today and of course I had to set it up imediately. I only have the VGA connected with pc which has a HiPix card installed.
My observations so far over my Philip's 55 wide HD rpj set.
As a computer monitor there is no comparison, I actually was floored by the pc's video picture running 1024x768 res in full mode. The best way I could say how much I was impressed with the upgrade in this field would be to say it had a "Oh my god" factor of 10.0
For HD via the HiPix, I could easily see that when a HD feed video (KCET in my case) is sent to my 503 and my Phillips rpj set at the same time the Philips black levels in a scene where 95% of the image is black (like a star field) is much blacker (is that a word?) than the 503. BUT when the opposite is applied (med to bright scene with some or little black is involved) the 503 kicks the Phillips but in the blacks that are in the scene. Here is my thought on why this happens, in a rpj set I believe that a scene with allot of light tends to bounce around a bit inside the rpj set, washing out the blacks that are in the same scene. Of course this is not possible in a plasma. Sooo when the scene is very dark (again a star field) I believe the lack of excessive light in projo set keeps the screen nice and black. I noticed this during the retelivised space documentary on kcet tonight. I had allot of time to view star fields!
Settings on the plasma were left very close to stock, and the pc's out put was being monitored for excessive brightness, fyi. I did have to reduce color output, it was rather strong on some HD shows.
The plasma is smaller, barely.
The plasma has perfect geometry. My tweaked Phillips was close though.
During HD playback with both sets still running head to head/side by side against each other the 503 had a depth of field that the Phillips would never have.
I use a very good qaulity/shielded VGA cable fyi.
DVD playback through the pc was fantastic, very happy and still playing with it. Since my progressive scan Phillips DVD recorder put out a better picture to my rpj set than my home theatre DVD/pc, (it was visibly sharper) I can't wait to get the card for my 503 and run component from the DVD player/recorder and see if the same holds true for the 503.
The plasma never needs converging!
I can allready see some burn in on the screen where it sais at the top Internet explorer on my web browser, and thats just during some light surfing and this post! I sure hope it dissipates.
Phillips rpj set has NO burn in at all, I leave the same image on the screen for up to an hour at a time if not a bit more!
OK, Looks like it is dissipating as I write this. whew!
Ok hope I did not miss anything. Now I need to calibrate it, but after reducing the color level I have to say that I think it looks fine for now. Waiting for the HDCP card!
Dean
