[ronnydynamic]

Hi, I've gone through the Boards and I narrowed my final selection down to two TVs. I can't decide between the Sony KP-51WS500 and the Toshiba 50HDX82.


also, should I use a setup disc and if so, does anyone have a good reccomendation on a setup disc for this type of TV?


Thanks!

 

[DRS]

Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. The WS series is Sony's intro to HDTV and the HDX line is Toshiba's high end. If the price was the same I would be looking at the Toshiba. The Toshiba has native 720p while the Sony downconverts to 480p. The Toshiba has a 5 element lens while the Sony has a 4 and finally the screen on the Toshiba is multicoated for better anti-glare. It's pretty much a no brainer if the prices are comparable. I got my Sony for $1800 with free delivery and a DVD player but I was stuck to buying at BestBuy because I had a gift card so the HDX series was out


BTW, AVIA for a calibration disc for sure.

 

[ronnydynamic]

Quote:

Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. The WS series is Sony's intro to HDTV and the HDX line is Toshiba's high end. If the price was the same I would be looking at the Toshiba. The Toshiba has native 720p while the Sony downconverts to 480p. The Toshiba has a 5 element lens while the Sony has a 4 and finally the screen on the Toshiba is multicoated for better anti-glare. It's pretty much a no brainer if the prices are comparable. I got my Sony for $1800 with free delivery and a DVD player but I was stuck to buying at BestBuy because I had a gift card so the HDX series was out

Thanks DRS! That's exactly what I'm looking for. Since I'm new to this, I have no way to tell them apart. I looked at them side by side at best buy and they were the two best looking TVs on the floor for that money. As far as price goes. The Sony would cost me $200 more than the Toshiba. So you think I should go for the Toshiba?

 

[DRS]

The only thing that the Sony has going for it over the Toshiba (at least on paper) is leaves DVD at 480p instead of upconverting it to 540p which can introduce some errors, but the Toshiba does a very good job with this. If it's the Toshiba HDX versus the Sony WS, yep I would opt for the Toshiba.


And FWIW, the showroom don't mean crap

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings


The Toshiba does not display 720P native ... it gets upconverted.


DVD's will tend to look better on the Sony versus the Toshiba as a result of the upconversion the Toshiba does. Not night and day, but a difference you can see.


Sony has better control over the colour decoder where as Toshiba has no control to correct issues there.


Regards

 

[ronnydynamic]

In my case, I'll only be watching DVD's 10% of the time at the most. The rest will be on Direct TV regular programming and Football games and other sports. That being said, is the Toshiba still a better choice?

 

[DRS]

That's interesting Michael TLV, the advertising on the Toshiba website is very misleading (imagine that!).


Then stretch modes will be very important to you. I would suggest going back and asking to see a cable picture and then going through the stretch modes to see which you find more acceptable. FWIW, and while some will disagree, if you are going to be watching that much 4:3 TV you may not want to purchase a 16:9 display.

 

[ronnydynamic]

I tried that, but the sales people at Best Buy said they couldn't switch it. What about HDTV broadcasts of Football, won't that be on 16:9?

 

[mendes9]

If you get the sony, make sure it's manufacture date is 1/03 or later (flickering problem). I prefer 480p to 540p.. hence, sony wins here. Unless, all your watching is DVD and HD then 540p up conversion doesn't matter as much. I don't think that HDX comes with DVI right? I forget... That would be a deal breaker for me.. The only stand out for the Tosh would be the stretch modes. They are better on the toshiba for 4x3 viewing. However, a little tweaking on the Sony you can get it to look almost as good. Lot's of info around on how to tweak the hell out of the Sony.. In fact... properly calibrated one of the top ISF calibratators in the industry has said it has the best image for a 7" rear project crt along with the Hitachi swx or whatever that model is (wish they would make those model numbers easy to remember).

 

[DRS]

The Toshiba has HDCP compliant DVI. I dunno, on paper the HDX Toshiba should be better. But the 540p thing is really annoying to me and I returned a Hitachi set because of it--but most don't find it that offensive. I have to say that my Sony after tweaking is awesome, I have yet to see anything that compares to it but all I watch on it is HD and DVD so I can't really say how happy you would be with 4:3 Dish.


BTW if you are at BB they don't carry the HDX line so you might want to check the Toshiba model again.

 

[ronnydynamic]

Quote:

But the 540p thing is really annoying to me and I returned a Hitachi set because of it

Sorry if I ask a stupid question, but could you explain that to me?

 

[DRS]

No it's not a stupid question at all. Native progressive scan DVD resolution is 480p. Hitachi and Toshiba, in order to make things more cost effective, I suppose, convert 480p to 540p because twice that resolution is 1080--this simplifies things a bit and that's where the supposed cost cutting comes in. Whenever you scale 480p to an uneven multiple (no matter how good the process) scaling errors will result. Jaggies, and even the color information can be affected with this scaling resulting in a, less than accurate and pleasing DVD picture IMHO. Some manufacturer's will claim this is an enhancement, and some see it that way, and some others don't even notice, but ultimately you have to be the judge.

 

[ronnydynamic]

So does it come down for me (if I read all of these posts correctly) to which set stretches the image better?

 

[DRS]

I would think so, yes. If they cannot hook up a cable signal they can certainly hook up a DVD player for you. Just ask them to hook up one with S-video (The Sony has a port on the front for example) and try the different stretch modes (edit: with a full screen dvd), that should give you a good idea. Don't be afraid to spend as much time as you need and tell them to leave you alone with it for a while--you are the customer after all

 

[ronnydynamic]

Definitely a tough choice.