[SILVERBACK]

the review below is ALL IMHO and i am in no doubt as to the fact im not a professional tuner or reviewer.im simply a fussy guy who doesnt mind paying the price IF the quality is there.my equipment is

a old toshiba sd900e via component.

a pana e55 dvd rec.

sky+ via scart to the pana which outputs component.

an xbox 360 via component.

hd dvd player add on for the 360.

all going into a zektor switcher.

dvds i used to test all my disc drives.pana e55 rec first.rab c nesbitt season 1 to 4 (cant remember tbh),batman begins,bad boys.tosh sd900e,any given sunday,american pyscho collectors edition and blade 2.hd dvd add on,fear and loathing,serenity and batman begins.

Right. let me start off by saying i am a staunch plasma boy and your lcd`s pic isnt gonna stand a chance of beating a plasma.that was till i went to get a pana px70 from costco and bought a sony lcd instead i have run a disc calibrator through it and im thinking of investing in a spyder express (god damn you runtime,more expense lol) but i have to say NOW,im blown away by the pic quality through xbox 360 through to my sky + box and everything in between.this has to be the cheapest tv i have bought in a decade and the level of connectivity etc is superb and pretty well thought out (beats the arse off my pw7 which you had to pop all the cables underneath the set instead of the back of my pw7) and now thats out the way,



THE BAD (at this early stage anyway)



1,when you get the late night programmes with the sign language person at the bottom right she looks overly noisy (no pun intended) but it could get better with tunning.maybe ?

2,****** plastic stand,i know the lcd isnt top the pile ,but jesus sony come on.

3,remote is weak to say the least,my 32ls60 crt remote was lovely compared to this.


THE GOOD (at this early stage anyway)

1,black levels

2,the pic from my pc to the lcd running through a 10 metre VGA cable is fantastic (bit of tunning necessary obvioulsy) and watching DIVX`s and having the media player spectrum analyser on full screen looks lovely,as does the WMV HD demo`s.

3,the pic was horrendous out of the box BUT after a few carefull moments tunning and switching off the majority of the novelty items you can get a decent pic from freeveiw/sky.i think my pw7 MIGHT have been quicker getting a nice pic but i cant remember.it was however a damn site quicker than a friends 37x3030,and he still isnt happy with it.

4,hd dvds and the games on the 360 look razor sharp (after a few tweeks) put batman begins on and wasnt overly impressed on the ontial boot up of the hd dvd but after tweeking and putting on troy,fear and loathing etc you could cut your wrist on it if you get close enough to the screen

5,the price. £800 and a 3 year warranty is ridiculous

6,the menu system is simple and easy to navigate around,so if your not savvy with this kind of stuff then its pretty easy to find everything.

7,the pic on itv filled me with dread at having to watch the larry sanders show from my sky+ but it was same as the pw7 (not as good as the 32 inch crt granted) quite impressive.

8,cant see any motion blur so far but im not really looking and i hopefully wont see it (hate looking for faults but thats what i tend to do) but i will be testing some poor football receptions from eurosport hopefully today.

9,the quality of the setup ups at costco was way above what i would have expected.so much so that i changed my mind from a plasma to lcd within 24hours of viewing the two.i did pop into comet (forgive me for my sins) and was approached by a "salesman" who wasnt overly impressed at me asking to run SD sky through the px70 but did so anyway.ALL CREDIT TO COSTCO.

10,the set has been on for about 8 hours and seems to be getting better picture wise the more it runs in.this could just be new gadget optical illusion but it would be nice to confirm if these sets do get better with time (my pw7 had the same effect and im still not sure if that was NGOI lol) so god knows what the weekend brings.

11,the pic from my pana e55 dvd rec via component playing rab c nesbitt season one was no different from my pw7.i do like to put some of the worst possible material on just to see how poor the bad really can be,but i was presently surprised.

well i think that just about sums it up for me for me it was a choice of 37px70 or a s2530,i went with the lcd and only time will tell if that was the right move.once my fears of jumping from a bloody good plasma (i would recommend a pw7 to anyone) to a mid range lcd had passed and the tunning and removal of the plasma was underway im quite happy with my purchase.BUT the 37px70 did handle sky sports news better and i would imagine sport in general but i could be wrong.

[Paulie-W]

Nice one

I really like my one (still tweaking). I think this model was almost over looked, considering it`s only been about since christmas (i think).

[SILVERBACK]

Originally Posted by Paulie-W

Nice one

I really like my one (still tweaking). I think this model was almost over looked, considering it`s only been about since christmas (i think).

how long you had yours for ?

[Paulie-W]

Originally Posted by SILVERBACK

how long you had yours for ?

About two months or so.

[SILVERBACK]

the more you used the tv did it actually seem to get a picture pic ? im in danger of losing my mind heer as it seems to be settling down very,very nicely.

[Paulie-W]

Actually yes. Either that or it`s my eyes that were adjusting to it. But it did seem to get better and better over the first month for sure.

[SILVERBACK]

cheers,atkeast i know im not loosing it nowwhat are your settings btw ? and have you been in the service menu etc ?

[Paulie-W]

Originally Posted by SILVERBACK

cheers,atkeast i know im not loosing it nowwhat are your settings btw ? and have you been in the service menu etc ?

Nooooooooo the service menu seems like a scarey place to go

My latest settings (via thx optimizer inc blue glasses, from the incredibles) are :-

Backlight = off
Contrast = 92
Brightness = 48
Colour = 52
Col Temp = Neutral
Sharpness = 2
Noise Red = 0ff

Advanced

Black Corr = off
Adv Conrtast Enh = off
Gamma = low
Clear White = off
Live Colour = medium
Colour Space = wide
Mpeg NR = off

This so far has given me the best overall pic enjoyment. Nice blacks too

What are yours out of interest?

[SILVERBACK]

contrast 92


backlight 2

contrast 55

brightness 52

colour 50

colour temp neutral

sharpness 5

noise reduction off

black corrector off

adv contrast enhancer off

gamma off

clear white low

live colour low

colour space wide

mpeg noise reduction low

[Paulie-W]

Originally Posted by SILVERBACK

contrast 92

It`s rather common.


A lot of peeps tend to have the contrast up around that level to be honest. The thx optimizer is quite a handy tool for putting you in the general zone, so to speak.

[SILVERBACK]

92 contrast on a plasma would have killed it i used a dvd calibrator aswell but was thinking of getting a spyder2 express to really get a good calibration.thanks for the replys btw

[Paulie-W]

No worries mate.

I think a lot of lcd`s are up there in the contrast figures.