[Brent Madden]

OK, this has probably already been discussed somewhere and it may be a stupid question, but I'm a little confused so please bear with me. I read that the Panasonic 50PX20U will only display 720p through the PC input, but what about the HDMI connection? Can you not get 720p through the HDMI input and if not, what is the benefit of having the HDMI connection? I was planning on getting a Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi DVD player with HDMI to feed into this plasma, but now I'm wondering if it's even worth doing that. Please tell me if I'm missing something here. Thanks.

 

[plasmic]

this unit will accept 480p and 1080i through hdmi only I have tried the HDMI with a samsung 931 and the panasonic dvi-HDMI cabel and have found my sony9000es through component video beats all go figure.

Jon

 

[Brent Madden]

plasmic,


Thanks for the reply. That seems strange as I keep hearing about how much better DVDs are supposed to look running through DVI/HDMI over component, but you're not the first person who has said that their component connection actually looks better. I wonder what the reason is for this. Anyone else compared component vs. DVI/HDMI and if so, what are your results?

 

[Mike Williams]

Well you have peaked my curiosity as I have been basing my future purchase of a Plasma and dvd player on the DVI connection "improvement"


MRW

 

[1918sox]

The consumer Panny 50Px20u/p has a native resolution of 768, but doesn't accept 720p on the HDMI interface. If input on HDMI were to be 1080i, does anyone care to guess how many changes are needed to get at native resolution, and what they might be? What would be the optimal input for this interface to reduce the number of changes?

 

[plasmic]

I think but could be wrong that 480p to native is one upscale cycle, 1080i to native is down one cycle so there isnt much difference i think the difference is the quality of input signal. If the dvi player is scaling 480p up to 1080i and the plasma then rescales to native, I would imagine 480p scaled straight to native by the plasma is the best path and this certainly seems to be true in my case, but there are much more experienced people on the forum that may shoout this down.

the scaler in the plasma certainly seems to do a great job as I have no complaints about picture quality.

Jon

 

[ZiggyB]

I have the Panny TH50PX20U/P with a Denon DVD5900 connected to it via Panny-supplied DVI/HDMI conversion cable.


Plugging everything together out of the box, I originally found DVD's to appear better using 480p via DVI. However, after calibrating using AVIA, and messing about with the Denon's settings (lots of useful information in the DVD forum here; the Denon also has what it calls an 'enhanced black mode' for DVI) I have 1080i via DVI/HDMI to Panny and DVD's look absolutely stunning!


I am not totally confident about the tech stuff, bit I think the reasoning goes something like this:


When you use a component connection, your original digital signal is converted to analog in the DVD player, then it is sent over to the TV and becomes susceptible to noise, then it is converted back to digital by the TV. This dual conversion introduces conversion artifacts, plus the transmission can pick up noise. Also depends on how good the D\\A converters are in your DVD player. In a DVI\\HDMI connection, the original digital signal is passed to the TV digitally. So now we are dependant on how well the DVD player creates the digital signal to send.


The native resolution of the Panasonic is 1366x768; 1080i is 1920x1080, but since you're looking at interlaced it is actually 1920x540; 480P is 640x480. The Denon has the Faroudja FLI-2310 DCDi (which is supposed to be awesome) to turn the interlaced stuff on the DVD to 480P, and also scales it up to 1080i. It sends this to the Panny which then scales it down to it's native resolution, as I can't send 720p to the Panny (1280x720).


So I second plasmic's post - it depends on the "quality" of the signal going into the Panny (the DVD player) and then how good the Panny's internal scaler is; I think the Panny handles scaling down from a higher resolution better than scaling up.


I'm still figuring all this out for myself, but I think this is how it works....


Cheers,

--Zig--

 

[Brent Madden]

Zig,


Very informative post. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. By the way, where did you actually get your DVI/HDMI conversion cable? Is it available from Panasonic or did you get it somewhere else. Thanks.

 

[ZiggyB]

Brent,

Yeah I got mine from Panny, their Parts & Accessories web site. Part number is TY-SCH03DH ($39.95)


Go to the site then type the part number, and hit 'retrieve part info'.


Cheers,

--Zig--

 

[semigolfer]

Ziggy,


I also want to say I also found your reply post, very well written, yet concise about scaling characteristics of HD signals. About the only thing I could add is that from what I've learned - it is unlikely you will be able to find someone transmitting a signal with 1920 horizontal pixels. Maybe this will change with the blue laser high def DVD players that are expected, coupled with some 1080i to 1080p processing.


I had placed an order a couple of months ago for the Panny TH50PX20U/P (one of the main reasons was it's HDMI capability), and then cancelled it later in the same week after I saw it in another store displaying a 480p signal - that was less than desirable. I knew I had to resolve this dilemma before reordering - and maybe the answer is simply obtaining a quality DVD player.


But one thing I'm interested in knowing is how well does your model display ABC's 720p signal - and what kind of processing is going on there - if HDMI is not passing it along?


John

 

[ZiggyB]

John,

To sorta answer your question, remarkable well, but only because my cable provider Comcast scales everything HD that the networks send to it (including ABC's 720P, and Fox's 480P) to 1080i, and that's what I get out of my cable box (which is a Motorola 6200). This is a good thing really as the Panny can't handle 720P except through the front PC input. I don't have OTA HD set up.


Also, even though the Motorola has a DVI port, Comcast have not enabled it (yet) - so for cable HD I am using component out from Motorola to Panny. HD recorded material on channels such as INHD & INHD2 still look absolutely stunning via component I have to say. So in this case the Motorola is going from digital to analog, the Pannys converting analog back to digital and then scaling to native rez.


So the only thing I can compare is my Denon DVI\\HDMI and Motorola Component. How does this (the Denon) via [email protected] compare to genuine HD-recorded material from [email protected] via component? Well, the cable box wins hands down, I have to say! For stuff like HBO/Sho/Max/Starz movies etc. well, it's a closer contest, but things like the State of the Union last night (I'll watch anything in HD!) are pretty spectacular.


At some point in the near future Comcast say they'll enable the DVI port on the Motorola - but then I'll need a DVI switch!


Cheers,

--Zig--

 

[semigolfer]

Thanks Zig - just one last thing


I'm looking forward to your "future" post - discussing what you observe once Comcast enables the DVI port, and you're all digital.


I imagine this won't be easy, unless they enable the port as well as maintain the component output, so you can easily switch back and forth.

Plus the picture you describe sounds so good already - that maybe this feature will only be marginally better and difficult to determine - but the inquiring minds at this forum are always looking for another opinion on these differences.


John

 

[KidDoc]

Guys,

I have the 42PX in the bedroom coupled with a Sony SAT-HD300.

I have found that with SD sat material, outputting in 480i looks better than downconverting from 1080i.

This also allows use of the JUST stretch mode instead of FULL.

For 720p, from the correct distance looks great.


KidDoc

 

[ZiggyB]

Just to agree wholeheartedly with KidDoc, SD at 480i looks the best, but it's still not that hot (unless I'm about 20' away, then it's sorta OK-ish). The Motorola box will deinterlace SD to 480P, but it doesn't do a good job of that at all, IMHO.


I've also read threads where people recommend S-Video for SD - so I have that hooked up as well from the Motorola to the Panny - pretty similar to 480i via component for SD, can't really say if it's better or worse.


As Comcast have component & S-Video ports enabled at the same time, hopefully they will just add DVI without taking anything away. I'm just waiting for them to hook up the HD-PVR pieces in my area, mid-2004 they say...


Cheers,

--Zig--