[dan70cuda]

Hello


I have been lurking in this forum for a long time and have been researching RPTV's. I have read every review and opinion that I have seen on the new Pioneers, but I wanted to ask for specific feedback before I commit to spending $3K.


I never would have thought I would be looking to buy a RPTV since I always thought I would get a direct view but for the money, you seem to get a lot larger screen etc. We all know there are pro's and con's to each.


My question is for people who have the Pioneer SD533HD5 and DirecTV, what is your opinion of the quality of the images ? I have only seen this TV at Best Buy and they have nothing other than the canned HD Demo loop which tells me nothing about how other sources look.


I know everyone's opinion will be different but I am just looking to satisfy myself that the normal DirecTV feed is not going to look horrible on this set. I presently have an old analog 27" 4x3 TV and I am very familiar with the pixelation and compression artifacts that show up on some channels. I know this pixelation will still be there and that the blocks will be larger but I am hoping that the line doubler will help somewhat in helping the picture look ok. At a minimum I am looking for the quality to be the same and not worse. I agree that DirecTV already uses too much compression.


I have a Sony A50 receiver which would be hooked up to the TV with an S Video cable. Until I buy an HD receiver box, this is what I would be using. I am comfortable that the DVD viewing on this set will be fine, my biggest concern is the DirecTV feed. I will be sitting 12 feet from this set. My other understanding is that the stretching of a 4x3 feed on this Pioneer will not look very bad. This set will be my main TV.


Any feedback will be appreciated. If others have done what I am looking to do (use DirecTV and go from small analog set to a SD533HD5) would you do it again.


Thanks for your time.


Dan

 

[usabrian]

Best Buy usually has a regular satellite signal running parallel with the HD loop. This is often why one tv will outpeform another, because one is not running the HD loop. To check this out, simply channel through the inputs and you will usually find an HD input and a regular 480i input. Compare the TV's with the 480i to test the doublers. Generally, I have found that most decent directv stations (in the 500's) look fair during the day and sometimes approach DVD at night. Starz is consistently the best, showtime the worst. The lower channels get progressively worse but you can live with it.


Brian

 

[BTDT]

dan70cuda,


I currently have a Pioneer Elite Pro-1009W. No, not an HDTV, but a very good widescreen representation of what NTSC will look like on a new Pioneer or Elite model. I have also been looking a lot lately at the Pioneer and Elite lines (and others) with an emphasis on their handling of the kind of content you are talking about.


In my opinion the Pioneers and Elites do an outstanding job with NTSC content. The 2002 Pioneers inherit the line doubler out of the previous Elites, and the picture is very sharp (for DirecTV). Watching a "premium" DirecTV station gives you a very good, close-to-DVD picture. I also feel that the "Natural Wide" mode on the Pioneers/Elites does about the best job I have seen of presenting 4:3 content on the 16:9 screen. One of the main reasons we went with an Elite before is because it was the sharpest RPTV picture we had ever seen.


I am still toying with my own purchase, and have pretty much come down to either a Pioneer or Elite. One of my reasons for staying with an Elite is that all of my A/V equipment and cabinets match the black urishi finish


Good luck! You can't really go wrong with Pioneer.

 

[dan70cuda]

Thanks for the replies.


I would buy the new Elite 520HD now, but I can not bring myself to spend over $5k for it, due to the very real possibility that in a few years (or sooner) I will not be able to get HiDef feeds from DirecTV due to encryption and down rezzing etc. I know OTA will not have this problem but I do not think I will be able to receive them well from where I am. Who knows if they will ever agree on an encryption scheme and the hardware portion of it. (DVI, 5C, etc) With that, I am assuming that the TV I buy now will have a 3 or so year life span until it is outdated. I.E. until they agree on standards. Hopefully much longer.


The other thing is that I would love for Pioneer or some other tester to confirm, is that the line doubler in the 2002 non-elite's is in fact the same as was in the 2001's Elite models. I have not been able to 100 % confirm this. Pioneer calls them both Pure Cinema but who knows if in fact they are the same. Going by some user feedback on the 643HD5 I have read, they thought it was. Plus some people seemed to think the 643HD5 had the Pure Cinema II line doubler (as in the 2002 Elites) but per Pioneer's website, that is incorrect. The 643 has the same doubler as the 533.


By the way, I have noticed that the quality of some DirecTV channels varied by time of day but I thought I was crazy. Guess I am not the only one who thinks that.


Dan

 

[BTDT]

I share your feelings with regard to high-end HDTVs and impending copy protection. I really, really wish that Pioneer had a decent and openly-proclaimed approach to this, much like what Mitsubishi has done with its "promise".


In terms of the line doubler, my local A/V store, which has very knowledgeable staff and every set perfectly tuned, confirmed for me that the Pioneers have the previous Elite line doubler (even though they don't carry the Pioneer line themselves, only the Elites), but that the improvements in the 2002 doubler are pretty small and incremental (just a bit better at taking a jag off of this and that).


In looking at the Pioneers, the doubled picture certainly looks as good.


Yes, DirecTV definitely plays an amazingly-complex game of bandwidth shuffling. Locals during primetime programming get better. Major events on various channels can typically be counted on to get better quality/less compression, and anything you are paying extra for (e.g. PPV, Sunday Ticket) will be in full DVD glory, or something similar. This isn't always consistent, though.

 

[wbreagy]

I've had the Pioneer HD533HD for several months. It is connected to a Directv Tivo. The picture is great. I highly recommend this set

 

[lwhitman]

dan70cuda,


I live in your area and have the Pioneer HD533HD with DirecTV. The picture is fabulous both using S-video and over the RGB input.

I find the DirecTV picture to be reasonably consistent across all channels. I highly recommend the set. I agree with the comments regarding Natural Wide being the most natural of all the sets I considered.


Good luck, you won't be sorry going with this set.

 

[dan70cuda]

Thanks for the feedback, this forum is extremely helpful.


I went ahead and purchased the 533. I get it delivered in a few days and I am looking forward to it.


I am in Tyngsboro so I doubt I will be able to get OTA channels but will give it a shot once I figure out which STB to buy. I will also need to find someone to replace my present round dish with an oval one and run new cable, but that is getting ahead of things.


Once again, thanks for the replies.


Dan

 

[Black]

I agree that this forum is extremely helpful. I've pretty much narrowed my research to the Mid-High end Mitsu's and the Pioneer and the Elites. Although it looks like I'm gonna go with either Pioneer or Elite. But I'm trying to justify $1500-2000 extra for a TV thats made by the same company, and, as examined by the people on this forum, has the same internal components as the regular Pioneer. I, too, am probably going to go for the 533 or the 643. Unless someone has something groundshaking to make me get an Elite instead...


wbreagy: your post in particular helped me out because I have a DirecTivo as well. I've been sweating bullets trying to figure out how non-HD content would look on these TV's. What I saw in a store was awful, but you guys make it sound like they're fine. Could you explain the tuning (if any) you did to your set to achieve good quality (I want to do this to a store TV if its out of wack).

 

[dan70cuda]

I'll throw in my .02 here.


The only tuning I did was using the Avia DVD to set all the parameters. I also turned off SVM, Flesh tone enhancer, and black level enhancer. I am presently feeding the DirecTV signal to the TV via S-Video.


The settings for my setup are the following:

contrast -19

black level -4

color -6

tint -17

sharpness -4


Granted everyone's setup would mean different settings, but for my setup this looks very good.


My set looked very good out of the box other than the contrast being set to maximum. Unless the store has a light controlled room where they display the sets, it is tough to really get a good feel for the quality level of the picture.(this holds true for any brand of RPTV) This is especially true with the non-Elite Pioneers since the screen is very reflective. I am unsure if the Elite series have anti-reflective screens.


Good luck


Dan

 

[ejasons]

How did you turn off SVM on the 532? I have an SD-582-HD5, which should be in the same family, but am unaware of any easy way of disabling SVM.


In response to the original question, the SVM artifacts that result from the MPEG artifacts on DirecTV are very evident on my set...


Jason

 

[wirehead_rick]

The 533 models are significantly different then the 532 in many features. SVM disable in a user menu being one of them. Another significant difference is the 533 has 3:2 pulldown detect for it's line doubler. The 532 does not.


Not to fret, the SVM IS adjustable in the Service menu. I can give you a copy of the 532 service manual (PDF) if you want. Just beware that it is very difficult to understand and I myself have not messed with it. My ISF tech disabled the SVM for me in my 532.


Rick