Our native mobile app has a new name: Fora Communities. Learn more.

Panasonic PT-50LC13 vs. Sony KF-50XBR800?

880 Views 13 Replies 9 Participants Last post by umr, Sep 9, 2003

kevinsd

Discussion Starter · Sep 9, 2003

Hi All,

I've been trying to decide which 50" rear projection HDTV to buy for the past two weeks. This forum, as well as several others, has been pretty helpful but I still have some reservations as to which on to pick. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been to more TV shops than I care to count: Anderson TV, World of Sound, Circuit City (2!), Good Guys (2!), Access To Music, etc. So far, I've yet been able to find a store that has either of these TV's plugged into an HD stream...they always either have some lame demo DVD playing or regular cable so I really can't say that been that awed with the pictures.

So far, I was more impressed by the picture on the Panasonic, but judging by the inputs that these stores have plugged into the TV's, it's really hard to gauge the difference, especially when I havenâ€™t been able to see the two TVâ€™s in the same store! I just canâ€™t understand how these stores expect you to buy something _when you canâ€™t see it perform_

I would appreciate any feed back from this board that anyone stuck with the same dilemma (past or present) could provide!!!

Thanks in advance.

-Kevin

General questions:

1: Which one is brighter? Iâ€™ve got a fairly bright room where this TV will reside and I couldnâ€™t tell without seeing the TVâ€™s on side by side, which was brighter.

2: Do both TVâ€™s upscan all inputs by default?

3: Has anyone gone through the steps of hooking up a PC to either of these TVâ€™s?

4: Are there any good stores in the SF Bay Area that I missed where I might be able to see these TVâ€™s hooked up to an HD input?

Anyway, here is my list of issues with each:

Sony KF-50XBR800:

Pros:

1: Supposedly incredible picture, although Iâ€™ve only ever seen boring demo DVDâ€™s playing on one

2: Slick looks, small form factor, Sony reputation.

3: Good viewing angles.

4: Higher 1366 x 768 resolution

Cons:

1: The price. Come on, itâ€™s a rear projection LCD and itâ€™s priced almost at the same level of some DLP HDTVâ€™s.

2: No VGA input. Iâ€™m in the planning process of building a HTPC, and the thought of having to fiddle with input and overscan settings on the PC video card donâ€™t sound like fun.

3: Memory Stickâ„¢ memory card reader is Sony specific, I have a Canon digital camera that takes compact flash.

4: Strong red push??? Every floor model Iâ€™ve seen on so far looked way out of whack color-wise, but that could be because the store monkeys just wheel them out and plug them in.

5: Canâ€™t handle a 480p resolution input at all? I read this a few different places and was sort of surprised, is this true?

Panasonic PT-50LC13

Pros:

1: Also supposedly has a really good picture (though Iâ€™ve never witnessed this)

2: Price!!! I can get this TV online for

See less See more

Save

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 14 of 14 Posts

Foxbat121

· #2 · Sep 9, 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by kevinsd
Hi All,

Cons:

1: No one can tell me if I can do side by side display (4:3) of a Video input AND a RGB input at the same time (ie. PC display next to some cable station).

2: Slightly lower resolution than the Sony @1280 x 720

1. Yes, it does support side by side display with RGB or DVI to video input.

2. It is actually an advantage because native 720p materials don't need any scaling at all. There is no 1366 x 768 is either PC or HD content. You will have a tough time try to get a 1x1 pixel mapping on Sony. The higher resolution LCD in this case is actually a drag.

See less See more

Save

kevinsd

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 9, 2003

I saw somewhere that it supported Video input/Video input, and Video input/RGB in the split screen mode, but I hadn't read anywhere if someone had actually tried this. Do you by chance have this set? If so, how does it react when these varied inputs are being used simultaneously? What resolution can you run the PC inputs at when using the TV in split screen mode and also just as a PC monitor (like if I had an HTPC plugged into it...)?

Save

DLiquid

· #4 · Sep 9, 2003

So what about these memory card slots? I have a Sony digital camera, but I typically take pictures, transfer them to the computer, and delete them from the memory stick.

- So is it possible to display those pictures from last year's vacation on either of these TVs? In other words, if I copy the pictures back from my computer onto a blank memory stick, can I display them on one or both of the TVs, or is it only possible to display them when the camera puts them on the memory stick (I thought I'd read that about the GWII)?

- And what about the picture resolution? If I went to the trouble of converting a bunch of pictures to the TV's 16:9 native resolution (i.e., Panasonic: 1280 x 720, GWIII: 1386 x 788), would either TV be able to fill up the whole screen with the picture without any scaling?

- Can either of the TVs play MPEG movies off of a memory stick?

I know this thread is discussing the GWII, but if the GWIII has improved the memory stick functionality over the GWII, please let me know.

See less See more

Save

videoking

· #5 · Sep 9, 2003

Just saw the Panny 50" LCD at my local CC and it is a nice looking set (too bad about those side speakers though). It compares favorably to the Samsung HLN507 which was near it.

I still thought the Sammy was slightly better but for the price, size and looks of the Panny....I can see why everyone loves it.

Maybe Sammy will now be forced to lower the prices for their 43/50/61" models that have been out for almost a year now.

Also saw the new Hitachi LCD tv at Sears and I thought the Panny's cabinet looks better. Sears had a poor feed on the Hitachi so I couldn't really get a good look at its performance (they had on SD MSNBC from an antenna).

Save

manpig

· #6 · Sep 9, 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by DLiquid
So what about these memory card slots? I have a Sony digital camera, but I typically take pictures, transfer them to the computer, and delete them from the memory stick.

- So is it possible to display those pictures from last year's vacation on either of these TVs? In other words, if I copy the pictures back from my computer onto a blank memory stick, can I display them on one or both of the TVs, or is it only possible to display them when the camera puts them on the memory stick (I thought I'd read that about the GWII)?

- And what about the picture resolution? If I went to the trouble of converting a bunch of pictures to the TV's 16:9 native resolution (i.e., Panasonic: 1280 x 720, GWIII: 1386 x 788), would either TV be able to fill up the whole screen with the picture without any scaling?

- Can either of the TVs play MPEG movies off of a memory stick?

I know this thread is discussing the GWII, but if the GWIII has improved the memory stick functionality over the GWII, please let me know.

I haven't used the memory card slot on the Panny. I would rather download the pics to my hard drive and then burn them onto a 50 cent cd, plug the cd into my dvd player and display them on the Panny. They look awesome and they fill the screen completely.

See less See more

Save

DLiquid

· #7 · Sep 9, 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by manpig
I haven't used the memory card slot on the Panny. I would rather download the pics to my hard drive and then burn them onto a 50 cent cd, plug the cd into my dvd player and display them on the Panny. They look awesome and they fill the screen completely.

Aren't you limited to 480p by doing that? I could get almost that quality just by hooking up my camera to the TV using a composite cable. I'm interested in displaying digital pictures using the TV's full resolution. With the Panasonic, you can easily hook it up to a PC, but with the GWII/III, the memory stick slot is more important, hence my questions.

Save

manpig

· #8 · Sep 9, 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by DLiquid
Aren't you limited to 480p by doing that? I could get almost that quality just by hooking up my camera to the TV using a composite cable. I'm interested in displaying digital pictures using the TV's full resolution. With the Panasonic, you can easily hook it up to a PC, but with the GWII/III, the memory stick slot is more important, hence my questions.

Well, you would be limited to the output resolution of your DVD player using this method.

Save

Chorizo

· #9 · Sep 9, 2003

Re: memory sticks,

The GW2 can only show images from non "pro" memory sticks, and can't display movies. The pictures look awesome when displayed, but the lack of "pro" support and no movie support is upsetting.

I have a GW2 and not a 3, but the 3 does list enhanced memory stick support. I would guess that it fixes both of these flaws.

Re: 480P input,

I've turned my progressive dvd to progressive mode and turned on the service mode and the GW2 displayed 480P as the input format, so I think the 480P concern isn't valid

Re: 768 lines vs 720 lines,

720P would display better in a 1:1 mapping on a 720 pixel display, however 1080i should display better with more lines to scale to. The scaler is awesome, and there's nothing I can notice after scaling an HD signal. DVDs are scaled from 480 to 768 and look amazing.

I have no idea of the tweak-ability of the panasonic, but the GW2 is very customizable.

See less See more

Save

kevinsd

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 9, 2003

While on the subject of this TV...has anyone recently purchased it for a good price in the San Francisco Bay Area? I have one receipt from another thread for Video Only purchase, but any other receipts would likely help my cause...

Save

Foxbat121

· #11 · Sep 9, 2003

Quote:

From my Panny's manual, as long as the picture is stored in standard folder locations (as they stored when in digital camera), you can display them w/o problem.

Save

BBYRNE

· #12 · Sep 9, 2003

kevinsd

Go with the 50" Sony GWII. I have had this set for about nine months and its been amazing. I was able to get CC in Denver to price match an Internet site which was selling it for $3199. CC's in the Bay area should do the same since its a national chain. This set can handle 480p, 720p and 1080i. I watch DVDs in progressive scan and I also play PS2 and Gamecube games in 480p. The strong red push that you may have been seeing on these sets in the store is because the color temp is set to warm. Just get into the menu settings and set the color temp to neutral this will give you a more realistic picture. This set in HD looks awesome, I was able to watch a hockey game in HD on this set. The picture is very comparable to a plasma in HD. One cool thing that this set has that the Panasonic does not is that you can get into the factory settings and tweek the set to give you a better picture (see umr's tweeks). You should not base the picture quality of this set from what you see in the store. Most stores feed there TVs a standard cable single that is split 50 times or they will play a dvd on a crappy player with stock cables. Go to a high end store where they will have a direct HD feed or will have it hooked up to a high end progressive scan DVD player then you will be able to see what this set is capable of.

See less See more

Save

faceoff

· #13 · Sep 9, 2003

All, I had the 50" Panny on order (for our bedroom), just had the nagging feeling (and kept hearing my wife say) that the 50" was just too big (I think we would have survived).

So, we ended up pre-ordering a 42" Sony GWIII - hopefully, it was the right decision.

David

Save

umr

· #14 · Sep 9, 2003

I have looked at several Panny and Hitachi LCD RPTV's and none of them were better than my tweaked GWII. This does not say they could not be tweaked to be equal or better, but I have not seen a post on how to tweak one yet.

Save

1 - 14 of 14 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.

Top Contributors this Month