433mxe/43mxe-1

crobo

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Pioneer specialists probably know this already but here goes anyway.

I am looking for a HD plasma and, because we are in Denmark for a while, was worried about 433mxes selling out before we return to the UK. I asked the Pioneer head office in Copenhagen who distributes them here and, to my surprise, the sales chief offered me a personal demo. Had a good look and was very impressed with DVD playback - and fantastic linked up to a laptop.

The guy seemed very clued up and he had tried out the 43Mxe-1 recently. Thought it was excellent and a step up from 433mxe/434hde model though not necessarily a quantum leap ('evolution not revolution'). This fits with the brightness/contrast being 10-20% higher I guess. Confirmed that it has DVI but not HDMI, which you knew already, but stated that a 3rd party (sounded like 'Iosys') was developing an HDMI board (and tuner board) for this model. No idea how much it would cost. This would not fit 433mxe and he doubted very much whether one would be developed for 433mxe (but note very small market here, and most mxes sold for commercial displays; consumers almost invariably buy the 434HDE). I was certainly tempted by the 433mxe but will wait for the mxe-1, and I'ill try and find out more about this HDMI board. Anyone else heard of this one?.
 
Interesting stuff. I've been looking to get a plasma for HCPC use, with the potential to be able to use it later for HDMI. I think the Pioneer PDP-43MXE1 is probably the best of the bunch at the moment. It has the ability to accept NR inputs from the DVI port, and from what you say above, the potential for someone building a HDMI/HDCP enabled interface card.

This would give me the best of both worlds.

The Pio consumer model doesn't accept NR on the HDMI port. Daft buggers.

The latest generation of Panny Viera models don't appear to even have HDMI interfaces from what i can tell.

Have you had any luck tracking down the iosys company?

Andy.
 
Will the 43MXE1 be suitable for use with a HCPC. I thought that for excellent HCPC performance the panel had to accept 1:1 pixel mapping (which the MXE1 will) however if it is set up that way the image will be distorted as the pixels are rectangular)

Or am I mistaken.
 
You are correct... best performance for DVD will require feeding from the DVD-drive, scaling once in the HTPC, then feeding out to the Plasma at NR. With each of the 42" plasmas on the market, you'll be stuck with oblong pixels, however for DVD or TV use, I don't believe this will be an issue. Both dscaler, and showshifter can cope with oblong pixels, scaling the image to take account of thiis.

Normal windows use will be somewhat squished, although I'm not convinced this will be a big issue.

These are theories, as I haven't actually got a plasmas yet.

Andy.
 
But isn't the PC doing even more processing to compensate for the rectangular pixels of the display.

I'm starting to think that there are too many compromises to deal with in a plasma display. Fine for TV and DVD but for HD material we're betteroff sticking with a projector.

I've just seen a cheapo PS DVD player connected to a 504HDE via DVI-HDMI at 720P and am very impressed.
 
Eagerbeaver - I've recently bought a 433MXE and the pixel shape isn't an issue in practice for me. I use TheaterTek for DVD playback and it has a very good aspect ratio editor that compensates for pixel shape and is a doddle to set up. I've had TheaterTek running on a PIII 733 laptop, so the processing isn't a huge issue; though getting it running with fddshow has required me moving it to a 2Ghz Celeron.

I've got 1:1 pixel mapping with virtually no messing around (must have taken maybe three minutes) via VGA,

(I will warn you that getting fddshow configured is FAR from a doddle - two all evening sessions so far, but a huge improvement in picture quality over what I thought was very good in the first place.)

Using the PC the pixel shape is more obvious, but not enough for me to worry. Only issue is, perhaps, if you want to look at lots of photos.
 
Phillip

Ffdshow is a bit of a swine to get right - I still haven't managed it yet. Care to share your settings? Are you using the VGA or DVI input into the 433?
 
I use TheaterTek for DVD playback and it has a very good aspect ratio editor that compensates for pixel shape and is a doddle to set up. I've had TheaterTek running on a PIII 733 laptop, so the processing isn't a huge issue

So the PC is compensating for the rectangular pixels if I understand you correctly. Isn't this yet another level of processing which should (or might) degrade the picture.

I'm familiar with 1:1 pixel mapping on a projector using a HCPC. The pixels are square, the refresh rate is optimised for the source material, pixels are 1:1 to the native resolution of the projector, obviously progressive scan. The only scaling that is done is from the DVD source to the NR of the projector. The result is a a fantastic pixture.

Are you saying that you can achieve a similar effect. If so then this should be possible on the HDE models too shouldn't it.
 
Originally posted by Eagerbeaver
So the PC is compensating for the rectangular pixels if I understand you correctly. Isn't this yet another level of processing which should (or might) degrade the picture.
...
Are you saying that you can achieve a similar effect. If so then this should be possible on the HDE models too shouldn't it.

Yes, TheaterTek compensates, presumably as part of its primary scaling routine - as it certainly doesn't seem to have any affect on processing.

I don't know whether you could do this on a HDE. I know you can't do native resolution via the HDMI input, but haven't a clue whether its even got a VGA input.

philipb - not a problem to share the fddshow settings, but I've taken the day off today to rearrange the network and screw (network) things on the wall. As I write I have only just got internet access back up and working!
 
Theatertek does only 1 level of scaling AFAIK, once you give it aspect info that's it. So no extra reduction of quality for rectangular pixels. The only downside is the stretched appearance of windows.
 
This is an eye opener for me. I was ready to give up on plasma for home cinema.

I can't have a play with the HDE right now as it is packed away (whilst decorating) however I will be playing with another in the next couple of days.

So, if I understand this right I can use TheaterTek to correct the rectangular pixels, Powerstrip to feed a native resolution at 72Hz using the PureCinema mode of the HDE.

It should be easier on the MXE1

Obviously I'm missing something here.
 
So this can be done on both the HDE and MXE?

The HCPC produces a native resolution, distorted by TheaterTek and scales to the native res of the plasma.

So we should get a very acceptable picture this way.

Won't the media box of the HDE screw things up somehow. It usually manages to somehow.
 
Powerstrip can improve things even if the graphics card can output XGA, by allowing you to tweak the timing. How much it actually helps though is a matter of experimentation with your set up.

On one of my PCs (a laptop) it helped a lot. On the other it really, really messed things up. Both have onboard graphics cards and I suspect that it would be more help if you're using a "proper" AGP card.

Be prepared for a long evening or two of rebooting and remeber to turn the contrast down a bit

BTW - I'd strongly recommend installing reclock - in the case where PowerStrip worked the level of perceptable improvement from reclock was greater than that from PowerStrip. Might just be my driving of PowerStrip though.

As my partner pointed out - "aren't you going to sit down and actually WATCH something, rather than just configure it?". :laugh:
 

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