Feedback: Panny arrived!

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UselessPratt

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Well, my Panasonic Plasma arrived yesterday. I have to say that I had some fears, mainly due to the fact that my local stores were displaying some fairly bad picture qualities! I couldn’t quite work it out. Everyone was saying what a good picture plasma’s had, and yet the picture quality was nowhere near as good as my standard telly at home. Watching one DVD in Comet, an “advisor” stood next to me and said “isn’t the picture brilliant”. No, it wasn’t, it was terrible. I started to realise that perhaps the difference was the price tag on the DVD player. In every case, shops were using sub £200 DVD players to drive multi thousand pound screens. The worst was one using a £60 player. Luckily a theory that proved to be correct when my Panny arrived. Plugging in my old Sony, the picture quality was far better than the one in the shops. Can’t wait till the even better DVD player arrives!

The only down side is when my Sky box plugs into the RGB input on the Panny, the Panny does not support Colour or Auto Aspect on RGB or PC in. The colour is the most important. ( My lounge is always fairly dark and the brightness, contrast and colour need reducing a bit. ). Alas I also went and ordered an RGB to PC converter, which may turn out to be a poor choice. I am not sure yet, because the only other option to the RGB input on the Panny is S-Video, and I am concerned about loss of quality. The difference between RGB and Composite is HUGE. I am worried that S-Video will also be significant, in which case I am about to waste £75 on a converter. What do you think guys?
 
IMO you will see a drop in quality from RGB to S-Video, but obviously not a HUGE as with composite.
The only other option is to use the RGB to component converter. I assume you will be useing the component input on the plasma for your DVD player. Therefore you will need to be able to switch the inputs, possible via your AV amp.

Mark.
 
Hi Useless Pratt, (very satisfying to say that and know I am not causing offence!), you need to purchase a Syncblaster from such as Keene Electronics. This takes the RGB ouput from your Sky box and inputs to your plasma via the PC input. It works well and leaves your component input free. I wouldn't use S input for anything other than a VCR. Good luck anyway!
 
Or

JS Tech RGB to VGA converter

&

Iscan Ultra has had a big price drop (But you'd need a JS RGB to YUV converter to go thru into that from Sky & be aware that the Iscan may introduce further lip sync problems which will mean more expense to correct)

Connecting Sky directly to the Panny some people preferred composite to VGA as they found the screen was more forgiving with the weak Sky signal on composite than VGA.
 
Vonhosen that is interesting ( the bit about some folks prefer composite) I had noticed that in RGB mode, I did spend some time watching the interesting Sky digital defects rather than the show. Perhaps in fact the S-Video will be acceptable. Oh damn. The only way to tell is to buy both boxes from John (JS Technologies) RGB->S-Video and the RGB->PC (VGA) and compare them! ( Like I said before the RGB and PC input on the display lacks colour and auto aspect control, but perhaps it is better to do without these controls and have the generally better picture??)
 
Add my tuppance
You will see a big drop in Quality using S/vid
always use RGB or Component.. I used to be of the opinion that the differences between S/vid and RGB were nil, after seeing my DVD connected with both... I wont be ever watching anything thru S/vid on my Panny

As Delta said use S/vid for VCR stuff
 
Hi,

I would completely agree with not using DVD on S-Video, DVD is vastly superior quality to Sky. Did you try S-Video with Sky?

I won't use the S-Video for anything else, I am not into recording anything ( Just sold my video, thanks to total lack of use).
 
Originally posted by UselessPratt
Hi,

I would completely agree with not using DVD on S-Video, DVD is vastly superior quality to Sky. Did you try S-Video with Sky?


My Sky box does not have a S/vid connection...but using the best possible source (DVD) it manages to make DVD look poor

I can Loop the sky thru the VCR to the S/vid Connection but in my opinion
S/vid = Artifacts
VGA and Component = Artifact free

so there is no way that it is going to make Sky look better.. So I would not waste my time and money in doing it

John Sims -- Makes these various converters and has stated on these forums that RGB and Component gives better results than S/Vid

as I said it would take about 3 seconds for you to make your mind up. I can switch between both connections with the DVD.and would "NEVER" even think of watching S/vid

I use the Sims RGB>VGA Converter and it works great.
 
My Panny arrived on Friday tea time , unfortunatley the RGB to VGA scart convertor didn"t. So at the moment i"m watching Sky via composite which I didn"t want to but am a little suprised by the pq which is reasonable.
Hope there is noticable improvement when it eventually arrives.
Connected Panasonic S75 via Qed P-CV1 component leads - no probs there.
Should I notice an improvement in pq in when enablieng ps on ntsc discs ?.
 
Lurcher, You can plug the sky directly into the component, because these inputs also support RGB. You do, howerver, need also to connect the composite and go into the Panny configuration and set "sync on video". This needs a SCART->6 RCA cable, RGB+Sound+SYNC

Party Animal, I ordered the RGB>VGA, but on the Panny you don't get colour control or Auto Aspect on the VGA, so I am wondering whether a loss in quality is acceptable in view of the fact I get those controls back.
 
UselessPratt,
Did u get the RGB to VGA convertor ? Does it work ok ? If its the one from J S Technology whats the turn round as I see its payment by cheque.
Reason I ask is that when I ordered my plasma it should have been delivered with a keene Syncblaster do da. But it didn"t and del is a couple of weeks.
So want one quicker like this week.
 
Originally posted by lurcher
If its the one from J S Technology whats the turn round as I see its payment by cheque.

I can answer that one lurcher. Excellent turn round. I posted my cheque last Thursday, knock on the door Saturday morning - special delivery sir. My JS box had arrived. Now if only the plasma was here....

Mike
 
lurcher,
I've got a JS RGB>VGA and it works really well. JS will get a box to you within a couple of days as he doesn't normally wait for the cheque to clear.
I would recommend getting one of his boxes. The quality is great as he uses only the best quality components in all his boxes. After spending a few grand on a plasma is it really worth saving a few quid on a lower quality converter?

Mark.
 
Please excuse my butting in, but MarkE19 I notice you have a Panny 37". This is one possibility for us as we have a small room!

I'm hoping to hang it up on the wall, How do u use yours?

Are you pleased with it? I'm hoping with it being a bit smaller the PQ might be better than 42". Would you agree?

How's sky quality?

Thanks,
GAry
 
The 37" Panny is supposed to be a slightly sharper picture than the 42"
I don't really know how true this is as I have never seen them side by side. I am not the best person to ask about PQ though as I am partially sighted, so everything looks a bit blurred to me anyway :rolleyes: . But saying that I do love the plasma as it does look so good and to me looks far clearer than my old 29" 4:3 CRT. This may be down to the increased size, but all Panny plasmas that I have seen, even close up, look to have a great picture.
I don't have Sky, but do have freeview. This goes via TiVo into a JS RGB>VGA box into the plasma. IMO this gives a very good picture.
My plasma is stood on a TV unit with the pedistal stand as behind the plasma is a window, and this is really the only wall it can go against.

Mark.
 
I posted my cheque on Friday and the JS box arrived just ten minutes ago ( damn postman woke me up..yawn). Thats very good. I am impressed. Nothing else arrived that fast. Except stuff ordered from DABS ( did you know DABS do sony?).


dvdphile I bought the 37" panny for the same reason - small room. It is utterly excellent. Picture quality is far better than the shops. I use mine on the stand on an AV table. I use the plasma for sky and dvd. DVD is awesome. The plasma is very revealing of source, so gives slightly mixed results with sky. Most channels are great ( movie channesl seem particularly good), some are a bit poor though ( ITV often suffers from digital effects). But maybe this is just my reception???
 
Shop set-ups are generally awful. You would think they would make the effort to display best possible picture but few do.
I have the JS RGB to VGA and it's brilliant. Picture always impresses people. More than one person has said "they don't look that good in the shops".
Pity the screen died after 5 months (!!!!) though. Still waiting for Panasonic to tell me what has happened and when I will get it back!!!! Aaarrgghhhh!
 
New technology huh....Tv tubes were much the same when they first came out. They failed frequently and it was a real concern for the buyer.
 
Yeah, except I expected flaws to be ironed out by "5" series.
I just hope this is a one-off and gets fixed OK rather than the consumer being used as a guinea pig (again!).
 
Here is my method for connecting components to my Panny Plasma.

1x Component Switching box (Key Digital, Audio Authority, Zektor)

Sky - QED SquartAV19 - Component Switch (RGB signal)
DVD - Component Cable - Component Switch (YUV signal progressive scan)
PS2 - Component Cable - Component Switch (YUV signal progressive enabled)
PC - VGA Cable - Plasma Screen

The Componet switrch will cost between £200 and £500 pounds
The QED Squart Cable costs £50

This solution requires 1 extra box and gives you the optimal connection for each device. The Key Digital component switch has 4 inputs so you could add another console or video recorder.
 

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