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General discussion

LCD vs DLP recommendations

Nov 30, 2004 5:37AM PST

Any recommendations on the best buy between 42' and 50'? Picture quality is most important. My Father just bought a 50 inch Panasonic Plasma and I am not impressed. What are the major pros & cons with either DLP or LCD, thanks is advance.

Discussion is locked

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just curious...
Nov 30, 2004 10:37AM PST

In what way is it not impressive to you?

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Re: just curious...
Nov 30, 2004 11:34PM PST

I just thought that the picture on non-HD channels would be better. My 32 inch Toshiba is much clearer on regular channels.

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Re: just curious...
Dec 5, 2004 4:30PM PST

I am with you on that. Take a look at any of the NEW sony LCD sets.

The new ones:

the KDF-42WE655 (42 Inch), the KDF-50WE655 (50 Inch).

I have compared these to plasma, crt rear projection, DLP sets from Hitachi and Mitsu and, to my eye, I could not find a better picture once it had been calibrated. Happy

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Re: just curious...
Dec 9, 2004 10:45PM PST

thanks I will check out the Sony LCD's this weekend.

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Re: just curious...
Dec 9, 2004 11:49PM PST

I have a friend with a Panasonic 50" Plasma, and I can't say I'm too impressed either. It seems to be very susceptible to noise from the cable box signal -- or that's the best I can make of the prob.

Now, your 32" is better -- well, that's a whole different story (you're comparing apples to oranges). The deal here is that with the 50" you're basically expanding the same amount of vertical lines, so with a larger screen you're more likely to see the incoming signal's imperfections (stretch your 32" to 50" and you'll see garbage there too in non-HTDV signals). The reality with non-HDTV channels is: Bigger screens amplify the intrinsic noise coming out of the cable box and such. I've noticed the big retail chains are now showing their wide/bigsceens in a way to mask this issue (direct satellite feeds with 720p to match native screen resolutions). The surprise is when you plunk down $6K for a plasma display (that will probably be at its best for 2 years) and come home, hook it up to your cable box and see all the noise the cable company and underlying media providers are sending you that you didn't previously discern on smaller size/resolution screens.

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Re: just curious...
Dec 10, 2004 2:15AM PST

i agreed. the dirty little secret about hdtv, which ever technology you go with, is that non-hd broadcast can be very disappointing. that's why retail showrooms never show there hdtv with regular broadcast signals. sony's latest top of the line plasma retails for $20,000. imagine watching a rerun of friends on that.

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Re: just curious...
Dec 12, 2004 9:12AM PST

My thoughts...
The key here is matching lines of resolution in a signal, bottom line NTSC (STD) do not display well on the HDTV/ High resoltion sets. However, an Enhanced HDTV fits perfectly to the resolution of the NTSC signal broadcast from most station, so the picture looks great. It compresses and HD signal to fit it (better to have more resolution than not enough). Its not quite HD but its a tremendous picture for half the cost

Consider the 42PWD7UY Panasonic or the Hitachi Hitachi CMP-420V1 ...

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Re: just curious...
Dec 13, 2004 1:23AM PST

enhanced HDTV, is that EDTV ? So what your saying is that non-HD channels look good as well as when you can get an HD Channel (Which isnt very often).When will all channels come in HD ?

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Re: just curious...
Dec 13, 2004 2:37AM PST

i've compared EDTV to HDTV before i decided on my 1280/720 HITACHI. although they both display excellant hd signals, regular broadcast was still disappointing in my opinion. EDTV is not a bad way to go. they are certianly much less expensive, especially if your thinking of a plasma unit. if you have the opportunity, HDTV is the way the technology is going. check out this link for more info on EDTV/HDTV.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5137915.html

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edtv
Dec 16, 2004 11:48PM PST

I also saw a 42 in Samsung EDtv for around 2000. The picture was great. My concern was that they couldnt give me the specifics on resolution. they said somewhere around 720i. Does that make sense ? Will HD programs that are broadcast in 1080i still look good?

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EDTV vs HDTV
Dec 17, 2004 2:13AM PST

certainly. some people perfer EDTV because they dont provide as sharp an image as HDTV. this gives you a softer picture. unless you have both EDTV and HDTV side by side to compare, you would be hard pressed to notice the difference.