A New Plasma or A New LCD?

[S2KI]

As you can see from the Sig I have both a Plasma and a LCD. And from a personal point of view I prefer the picture quality on the Plasma. But this may be due to setup.

Bearing in mind 90% of SD sky is watched on them.

Anyway the time has come for a new screen of either 42" or maybe (budget depending) a 50" tv. I don't want to spend more than £3500.

I have my own opinions but would like to hear your ideas.

What should I do? What screen should I opt for?

Viewing distance is about 4m.

Cheers


(ps. going to post in both forums see what it turns up)

 

[NonPayingMember]

Fujitsu 50" plasma would be my vote (and a Lumagen, and an SDI mod for the 963)

I will use LCD in bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and other bright environments. But nowhere where picture quality actually counts...

 

[g852]

just out of curiousity, why the fujitsu? and do you know if the 55" will be released with a media box?

 

[NonPayingMember]

No it won't be, and the 55" uses a different glass technology to the 50" which doesn't produce as nice an image. I say the Fujitsu as to my eyes it is the best 50" on the market. It is based on Panasonic glass, but gets a cleaner, brighter image, has far better internal video processing (Faroudja), is built better, and has better connectivity, warranty, and after-sales support.

 

[Bat-man]

We have a Fujitsu plasma panel at work in our training room. It does produce some very clear images.

 

[NonPayingMember]

To be clear not all Fujitsus are the same. All models from last summer onwards use AVM-II processing which is far better than that in the older models (these are models ending 40, 51 and soon 58 in their model codes).

You then have the different panel technologies which Fuji use.

42" VHA uses Panasonic SD glass (very nice pic)
42" HHA uses Fuji/Hitachi ALIS glass (not as nice, more pixels, better commercial IMO)
50" XHA uses Panasonic 50" HD Glass (lovely pic)
55" XHA uses Fuji/Hitachi e-ALIS glass (nicer than 42", but still not the contrast range nor blacks of the 50")
63" XHA Fuji own 63" panel design. Very lush panel indeed.

And then, you have the cheaper TVs. GrahamMG should be able to jump in and help me out here, but I believe they are a high brightness, high contrast Korean sourced or Fuji manufactured panel (42HTA51 and 50XTA51). Not seen one, from what I remember of the VHA31 (which used a Samsung source IIRC) it still had impressive contrast and blacks and was a lot brighter than the VHA30 which was Panasonic.

And then the new 58 models, which seem to be back to Panasonic glass again (and a 42" Panasonic HD sourced model which will become the industry favorite if price is right)

 

[g852]

do you know what sizes the new models will be available in? And where there is some info for them...Thanks

 

[NonPayingMember]

there is no info as yet so facts are a bit patchy! As I understand it:

P42HHA58ES (replaces P42HHA40US)
P50XHA58ES (replaces P50XHA40US)

Will be the two new 42" and 50" HD monitors. I would assume there will eventually be HTS/XTS versions of the same (media box ones).

Then there are the cheaper

P42HTA51ES
P50XTA51ES

which are a new line of cheaper models, with assorted inputs and a tuner but all internal (no media box), using whatever new glass Fuji have sourced.

 

[S2KI]

I haven't seen the Fujitsu up and running. How does it fare with poor sources such as SD Sky?

I have to say that my current plasma is one of the best that I have seen with this source.

When I looked before Panasonic came out best, followed by Pioneer and then Fujitsu.

No doubting that the fuji was great with a good source.

 

[damo_in_sale]

For that amount of dough I'd probably get a quality 42" (PHD8, Pioneer MXE10), a decent video processor such my Lumagen (or Lumagen HDP/HDP Pro) and an ISF calibration.

 

[NonPayingMember]

The Fuji has similar physical properties to the Panasonic (contrast, colour, blacks etc) since it is based on the same glass. But that is about where the similarity ends. With AVM-II / Faroudja DCDi the Fuji does a great job of processing, with a real advantage over the Panasonic being the DCDi bit which filters jaggies on fast moving video mode deinterlacing (football in other words). It also has better build and more comprehensive warranty, more inputs, loads more options in the standard menu for adjustment of your picture, picture memories etc etc etc.

With a video processor the difference is less as processing and colour/grayscale adjustments would happen in the processor. But I still favour the image from the Fuji than the Panasonic. It's that little bit cleaner and brighter, is actually less of a pig switching between native 60Hz and 720p 50Hz than the Panny DVI card is (should you want a video processor setup that way), and again has the more reliable build and backup service (and 3yr warranty to prove it). Of course it's more expensive so you've got to want the best to justify it, a more limited budget will get bang for buck value out of a Panny PHD8 or Pioneer MXE.