[davyo]

I currently own a Z3 projector and a 46" ED plasma, I was looking to get the new soon to be coming 70" JVC. I took my reference DVD's to a few local A/V stores and had them hook up a DVD player so I could see how the 61" JVC looked with DVD instead of the HD source that is being fed to everything in the stores.

Since I have been using a plasma and a projector it has been a while since I have seen a DVD source playing on any RPTV.

I had both stores (B.B. and C.City) hook up the same DVD player to a 61" JVC DILA and the Sony 60" XBR LCD, while the DVD did look good on both these sets I also had them put the same DVD player on a Panasonic 50" and Pioneer 50" HD plasma's.

The difference was night and day, both RPTV's could not hold a candle to the picture quality of a plasma when fed a DVD source. HD on both the Sony and JVC looked amazing, as good as plasma, but with DVD the RPTV's looked like crap compared the 50" HD plasma's at the stores and also compared the ED plasma and at my home.

I was really wanting to get the newer 1080 70" JVC or Sony but after seeing DVD on a RPTV I am so not impressed.

Is it just me or does a RPTV maybe require lots of tweaking at home to get it to look as good a plasma for DVD.

Or is a plasma always going to blow away any RPTV when being fed DVD.

(cant do DLP, I suffer from DLP rainbows and headaches)


Thanks in advance

Davyo

 

[westa6969]

 You never mention the source DVD Player? What was used? Perhaps a Samsung HD950 which upsales to 1080i would provide a better comparison?


Also noticed you didn't compare any DLP - you tested a D-ILA and an LCD both known to be inferior to DLP doing blacks, CR and brightness of colors especially against the new 1080P 10,000:1 CR and brightness of the Samsung DLP RPTV.


In most cases I would agree with you that Plasma can blow away most RPTV's especially in viewing angles however, but try buying a 61, 67, 71 " Plasma - that would equal about 3 times the money. Panny 65" Onyx as an example or an Elite 61". The Samsung 1080P becomes the true value for HT size.


I like Plasma but once you upsize to =>60" the price automatically doubles or triples. I have 26 reviews copied from the new owners forum that compares it to Plasma and Sony Qualia 006. I'm not saying your wrong though since a quality plasma is hard to beat but at large HT sizes they are also hard to fit within ones budget thus = popularity of Samsung 1080P's iin larger sizes. Would be interesting to see you do this test with a upscaling DVD on a 1080P Samsung.

 

[BillP]

The biggest weakness of the DILAs are poor blacks, meaning you lose shadow detail when viewing movies, especially in a dark room. DLPs are much better for that (if you don't see rainbows). If you do a lot of movie watching at night, DILAs may not be a good choice for you.

 

[davyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by westa6969 You never mention the source DVD Player? What was used? Perhaps a Samsung HD950 which upsales to 1080i would provide a better comparison? Also noticed you didn't compare any DLP - you tested a D-ILA and an LCD both known to be inferior to DLP doing blacks, CR and brightness of colors especially against the new 1080P 10,000:1 CR and brightness of the Samsung DLP RPTV. In most cases I would agree with you that Plasma can blow away most RPTV's especially in viewing angles however, but try buying a 61, 67, 71 " Plasma - that would equal about 3 times the money. Panny 65" Onyx as an example or an Elite 61". The Samsung 1080P becomes the true value for HT size. I like Plasma but once you upsize to =>60" the price automatically doubles or triples. I have 26 reviews copied from the new owners forum that compares it to Plasma and Sony Qualia 006. I'm not saying your wrong though since a quality plasma is hard to beat but at large HT sizes they are also hard to fit within ones budget thus = popularity of Samsung 1080P's iin larger sizes. Would be interesting to see you do this test with a upscaling DVD on a 1080P Samsung.

As far as the DVD source player I did not think it was relevent to post that info since I used the same DVD player (JVC, component input) at B.B. to compare the Sony and the JVC RPTV's and the Panny plasma. At C.City it was a Panny DVD player (component input) to check out the Sony RPTV and the plasma. I considered it an "all things being equal" as far as the DVD player being use at each store,, as in which display would do the best job with the same DVD player.

As far as the cost of a 50"or 60" plasma vs. the cost of a 50", 60"or 70" RPTV goes I am very much aware of the difference in pricing.

If I could get a 60 or 70" plasma for the same price as a 60 or 70" RPTV you would not be seeing this post.


Davyo

 

[HomeGuy]

When we went looking for a new set the Plasma and LCD Panel sets looked the best. But keep in mind that they were 40" sets and I was comparing them to 55" and 60" sets. I ended up with a Sony A20 which had the brightness, black levels and color of the Plasma but the Plasma had a smoother looking picture up close. Interesting enough I was replacing a Toshiba 65" RPTV. I thought the old CRT TV's had the best picture. Well I hooked them up side by side using a DVD player and component cable and was blown away on how much better the Sony was. Keep in mind my CRT set was adjusted with a Avia disk. The Sony had much better contrast, blacks, color, detail, u name it. My TOshiba was for 2002 and was rated #2 after the Pioneer Elite for PQ. I would say that the Sony is 85% of being the set that I would never have to upgrade. Also, what is the big deal with a DVD that upconverts when the new sets can do this. Are u saying that a 300.00 DVD player has a better scaler then a 4k set?

 

[davyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeGuy When we went looking for a new set the Plasma and LCD Panel sets looked the best. But keep in mind that they were 40" sets and I was comparing them to 55" and 60" sets. I ended up with a Sony A20 which had the brightness, black levels and color of the Plasma but the Plasma had a smoother looking picture up close. Interesting enough I was replacing a Toshiba 65" RPTV. I thought the old CRT TV's had the best picture. Well I hooked them up side by side using a DVD player and component cable and was blown away on how much better the Sony was. Keep in mind my CRT set was adjusted with a Avia disk. The Sony had much better contrast, blacks, color, detail, u name it. My TOshiba was for 2002 and was rated #2 after the Pioneer Elite for PQ. I would say that the Sony is 85% of being the set that I would never have to upgrade. Also, what is the big deal with a DVD that upconverts when the new sets can do this. Are u saying that a 300.00 DVD player has a better scaler then a 4k set?

HomeGuy, I do thank you for the input but you asked a few questions that could change or highjack the whole reason/subject of my post, such as CRT RPTV's vs. the Sony A20 and is a upconverting DVD players scaler better than a 4k set.

I have learned from experiance that questions like that on this forum will make my original question become lost.

I would kindly ask that everyone please stay on the subject of my thread question of RPTV's vs plasma PQ when showing a DVD source.


Thanks

Davyo

 

[jlk_250]

DVDs have 480i content. When you display it on a 70" TV it will look worse than it does on a 50" TV if the viewing distances are the same. It'd be interesting to do your comparison between a 50" plasma and a 50" rear projection. Or a 70" plasma and a 70" rear projection, if such a thing was available.


Jon

 

[John Mason]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davyo I would kindly ask that everyone please stay on the subject of my thread question of RPTV's vs plasma PQ when showing a DVD source.

Just to spectulate, might be the difference between the upscaling required for a RPTV vs. an ED plasma. The plasma resolution is close to that of a DVD. Upscaling would be minimal. The RPTV, depending on how much upscaling is required and the quality of its scaling circuits, could spoil images compared to the smaller-scale images on the plasma. -- John

 

[hibeta]

Can't really speak to plasmas, but I've seen lots of rp lcd/dlp sets in stores playing dvds....the eagles concert was popular for a while...and the pictures were extremely good. On my rp lcd at home some dvd's look better than others but the good ones look realllllly good...nearly hd quality. Can't explain why your experience appears to be so different.