New unknown TV - Mirai DTL-642E500 (42" full HD)

[Koshn]

Anyone heard about this screen? I only just found it at some Norwegian stores. It is dirt cheap, about NOK 13000 vs NOK 17000 for the Tatung V42EMGI. According to one of the stores selling it, it has a 1200:1 contrast, 2x HDMI, Analog and DVB-T tuner, SCART and Component, and is made in cooperation by Chi Mei optoelectronics and IBM: http://www.gs.no/shop/index.wa2?ParentProductId=14997

It is not yet in stock. I haven't even heard about Mirai, and had pretty much decided to go for the Tatung, which seems to be ok quality. Anyone know anything about Mirai? Could it be worth waiting for, or is it just cheap Chinese junk?

[brain_stew]

Mirai have quite a good reputation on this forum for offering decent performance screens at bargain prices. There's a huge thread lower down this forum with plenty of user feedback. Their parent company is one of the biggest panel makers in the world and they have links with Sony as well apparently. I didn't know about this new 42" 1080p screen (its not mentioned on their site) but there's every chance it could be a good performer.

[lsalvador]

Only 1080I

http://www.mirai.eu/Download/documen...TL-642E500.pdf

[Mr Sparkle]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...e=pricegrabber

[Neil_B]

i sent mirai-eu a quick email asking them:

I'm interested in purchasing the DTL-642E500 LCD television but will
be feeding it from a PC using DVI to HDMI.
Will the TV display a 1920x1080 progressive signal at a 1:1 pixel
ratio?

and they replied the next day saying:

The answer is yes. I've seen it here and it looks good.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Best regards,

Reinier Vervaart
Service & Support engineer

sounds like it's back in my wish-list, tech fever have in for £950 inc vat atm.

cheers.

[Marcie]

Well, there's something strange with this tv. In the specs it says 1080i is the highest resolution supported. So 1080P is NOT. I queried Mirai about this and the support guy told me that 1080p is not supported because the TV does not meet emission requirements. So, from a consumer point of view, this is not a Full HD set.
It reminds me of that Toshiba LCD TV reviewed in What Hifi recently that has a native resolution of 1920x1080 yet is not capable of displaying 1080p, it will not accept a 1080p signal.
Another point is that the Mirai's VGA input has a maximum resolution capability of 1366 x 768. Again, this is strange for a native 1920x1080 panel, and if true, it has a detrimental effect on picture quality thru VGA.
The last point is: it does not have a digital TV tuner, just analog so no Freeview. There will be a version with digital tuner, but Mirai can't say when it will be available.
Lastly, the lowest price I've seen in euroland is eur 1250, official rrp 1500.

Marcie

[Neil_B]

i just got back a similar response from mirai tech saying about the 1080p and emi. he also said that the newer models will have 1080p spec.(no date was given)
i also asked about potential noise from the backlight dimming and was told in practical situations there is absolutely none detectable - only if one is to put ones ear right up to the device.
i also queried the warranty as the press release contradicted the spec sheet.
it's 2 year pickup and return.
quoting the helpful support tech:

It is able to support 1080p over HDMI but it's not in the specs because it's
not within EMI (Electromagnetic interference) standards. The newer types will
be in specs but this is the reason why it's not on the specification sheets.
Warranty is 2 years pick up and return.
Dimming the backlight will give a tiny little buzzing sound, but for this,
you have to put your ear on the backside of the tv so from a distance you can
say no there is no extra noise to hear. Yes black is more black when dimming
the backlight, but the whole image gets darker so also the bright parts. I
think the main reason to use this option is when the TV is in a dark
(bed)room so that the picture is not too bright.

i may yet get one of these as i will almost certainly be driving it from a pc for 99% of its life.

or i could wait a bit.........

cheers.



..tech fever have dropped their price to £916.71, their stock level appears unchanged from a week ago.

[ninehours]

The manual makes no mention of NTSC so will not play American DVDs ?

[Neil_B]

couldn't resist.
could well arrive tomorrow, shall post a mini review (which will probably be a world exclusive judging by my trawling the web to date).

[Neil_B]

A quick review:
They come well packaged but will probably need to two people to handle due to size and weight: around 36kg gross, 29kg nett.
It's well constructed and nicely finished - a well polished product, not over-styled but presently modestly and very smartly.
The remote is very good; responsive, well laid out - stylish and functional. The telly responds well to the remote too, quick to come out of standby and navigate the copious menus
which are equally well-designed too.
The first thing I adjusted was the backlight level. Initially set to the max. of 10, I moved it to 0 which helped the black level quite markedly - I would have preferred it to adjust even lower but it was still very useful and maintained an extremely bright and vibrant screen. Backlight evenness was very good but not perfect.
Viewing angles were excellent with colours staying even until the very extremes and only contrast dropping very slightly off-centre.
I've not seen any dead pixels or sub-pixels to date.
I bought this to drive primarily from a PC - I don't have a DVD player let alone any 1080p funkyness, so up i hooked it with my ebay bargain £11 5m DVI-HDMI cable.
By far and away it's the most flexible TV I've seen as regard timing and sync from a PC. It behaves largely as if it were a monitor.
I gave it dozens and dozens of different settings through PowerStrip and it displayed virtually all of them.
Mainly I was in search of the illusive 1080p.
The cable I use is on the edge, it's at the suggested maximum length for a DVI cable and it was made on a budget.
The best image was obtained with 1080i, It was very crisp indeed. I prefer a slightly desaturated image and after setting this i went to look at a few photos taken by a friend on a visit to Nepal.
Wow. Simply wow. With a decent camera this screen is immense for viewing photos, bright and incredibly vibrant - very life-like. Very impressive.
Snapped quickly with the camera held in the hands (I'll take some with a tripod later):

First picture

Desktop animation suffered in this interlaced mode, but for films it looked great. I acquired some Imax Amazon footage in 1440x1080p and excellent it was to view.
I could happily sync the screen at 25Hz and 30Hz interlaced and virtually everything I tried inside and outside these ranges. It reported a maximum of 37Hz to the graphics driver.
I tested the screen with 2 graphics cards (I'll probably try a 3rd later on); an ATI 9700 and a Nvidia Ti4200, both with fairly up to date drivers.
The ATI was better behaved and also had overlay gamma control which was much better than the still useful but limited handful of selections on the telly itself.
As the gfx drivers had defaulted to an interlaced screen when I had set it to 1080p initially, I went into PowerStrip and unchecked the interlaced button. A couple of seconds later the screen had resync'ed to 1080p@40Hz. Like in interlaced mode I could change this merrily without the screen getting too stressed. The max. of the cable I was using is 60Hz @ 1080p so I didn't exceed this.
Desktop animation became very smooth but image crispness suffered. I tried everything I could in PowerStrip to sharpen up the image (also tried the telly's own sharpness setting) but I couldn't get it looking like interlaced mode. It was still doing 1:1 but on close examination of the screen it was vertically blurring the pixels. Horizontally it was sharp as a pin. I can only assume this is how it internally handles 1080p signals. I shall email the helpful support staff at Mirai Europe to try and get some clarity on this issue.. See the photos of the pixels - a single off-pixel behaves strangely; the pixel above and below are darker and the ones above and below them are slightly lighter.

Second picture 1080i

Third picture 1080p

DVD, 720p and 1080p all still looked very good on 1080p but still images had lost a bit of ping.
I haven't tested sound yet although I could well hook up a stand-alone DVD player via SCART and later on I'll certainly be installing PomPom's Mutant Storm too, for what could be the ultimate test of the screen's gaming credentials. That game is very rapid, colourful and played over a dark, often black screen.

This screen has a lot going for it.

Any questions I'll try my best to answer,
cheers.

[Marcie]

Thanks, Neil. Good job. The 1080p problem MIGHT be down to the DVI-HDMI cable, with DVI almost being put to its limit (bandwith) in conjunction with its length. DVI to HDMI is troublesome, particularly regarding colour space conversion though that doesn't seem to be the problem. OTOH, it might due to the fact the tv is not 1080p certified. Let's hope not.
The reply from Mirai support will be interesting.

Cheers
Marc

Im interested in this TV, and I would love it if there was some more information about this TV being 1080p or not (and if it is, does it handle 1080p badly like in that picture above?).

Cheers

[Parmenion]

I am easily confused but there is this: 230092884993 on a well known auction site.

Any similarities?

regards

Parmenion

[Parmenion]

Still looking

regards

Parmenion

[Neil_B]

I've since played Mutant Storm on the screen and it worked flawlessly. The game went into 960x540, the action was very smooth, no blurring - great old-style arcade fun.
I've received this reply from Mirai support too:

Dear Neil ,

You can make this 'blurring' effect less by changing the sharpness option to
'2' or '3' and play a little with color settings. When I changed the
sharpness setting here while sitting at a distance I saw no problem anymore.


Met vriendelijke groet,
Best regards,
Reinier Vervaart
Service & Support engineer
MIRAI

I'm not overly impressed; altering the sharpness ostensibly did nothing to the image.

Here's a couple more photos of the telly, the buttons one is a bit blurry but you get the idea. I'll post some more of the screen actually in action later on.
The remote
The buttons

Cheers.

[Neil_B]

Here's a couple of photos of photos:
Nepalese APC and pensive citizen
Dwellings++
I've also ran it over RGB and it worked great @ 1360x768 even though the manual says only 1024x768 max.
I tried 1080p overRGB but it was a bit distorted and colour shifted.

If someone can explain how one achieves component over d-sub I'll be a happy man. This thing has no component inputs per se, but is supposed to support via the PC input.

[im123456]

I know someone asked earlier but it went unanswered. Does anyone know if this TV will play NTSC, it is not mentioned but i was wondering if the screen can accept the signal. Thanks

[Neil_B]

Will it do NTSC?
I can't say for sure but it is extremely flexible at synching, so I would very much expect it to do so.
Pop a post off to info@mirai.eu to check though.

[im123456]

I wrote them an e-mail and they said that it does not support NTSC...

[kukkula]

Mirai will do 1080p but only on hdmi as stated on their website:

http://www.mirai.eu/Uk/ProductDetail...d=53&cat_id=32

[Kutya]

Any news about 1080p?

[muff]

I see from thier website they now give a 3 year pick up, repair and return warranty,

edit from mirai website,

MIRAI introduces a three year warranty on all LCD TV products

CeBIT, Hannover, - 15th March 2007, MIRAI today announces, at CEBIT 2007, that they are to immediately extend the warranty of their LCD TV products to a pioneering 3 year service. MIRAI is one of the first TV brands to introduce such a warranty, leading the industry and creating a new standard for consumers. The 3 year pick up, repair and return (PURR) warranty will also be applied retrospectively to cover all LCD televisions already sold.

[herbsz]

whats this one
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...p?EdpNo=273640

[EmThor]

hey folks, found this tv in hungary too and its way cheaper than the next fullhd model in price (sammy 40f71)

I've found a norwegian forum, they say they can run this tv in 1080p from pc, but seems a bit blurry, 1080i way sharper.

The main question I want to ask, if there is this blurriness @ 1080p from hdmi (playstation 3) or its clear and sharp ?!

here are the pics of the nordic users: click

see:
1080i

1080p

the picture quality seems to have enough dark and colorness, its ok

but what about with the 1080p ps3 - blurriness problem?!

[FriedCPU]

Can anybody confirm what resolution is available when connecting
a computer over vga or dvi to hdmi converter?

I have contacted Mirai but as its the weekend it might take a while, some people say 1920x1080 some say alot lower :/

Has anybody got this display that can confirm lol

[Nom]

Originally Posted by Neil_B

If someone can explain how one achieves component over d-sub I'll be a happy man. This thing has no component inputs per se, but is supposed to support via the PC input.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=280101255809

You just need a Component to VGA cable like that one. Providing the telly really does accept Component over VGA, and you select the right input, it should JustWork™

[rondha]

Originally Posted by Neil_B

.........
..tech fever have dropped their price to £916.71, their stock level appears unchanged from a week ago.

Wait until it drops to £400 ish..

These crazy competitions force companies to drop prices.

look 40" HD ready LCD for £387.74 inc VAT and delivery.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/118008/product_info

But I don't know the quality, I've never seen it performed.

I just want to talk about price.

[dan1979]

Originally Posted by im123456

I wrote them an e-mail and they said that it does not support NTSC...

All HDTV's can take a 60Hz signal. I can only assume they mean it only has a PAL tuner.

[Neil_B]

just popped over to techfever again, recently they've had the price back up closer to everyone elses for this telly, but now it's slashed by a ton to £814.47 inc vat and del.

[gazzer_67]

Originally Posted by Neil_B

just popped over to techfever again, recently they've had the price back up closer to everyone elses for this telly, but now it's slashed by a ton to £814.47 inc vat and del.

Most likely due to the tosh 42X now Just over £900.

And the Sammy 40M87 Under a £ 1K.

Whould you still go for it? The tosh look very stylish and the sammy has 3 hdmi.