Is the Panny 500 best in its class?

N

nickquest

Guest
Thinking about upgrading to the Panny 500PED. Generally reviews seem favourable, which i expected as i already own a PW6 screen and have been happy with it. Is there any other screen that i should look at in the same price band? HD compatible is a necessity but tuner box / speakers isnt really.
 
I think you should be looking at PHD8 + Scaler... this will yield better results then the PV500..
 
The pioneer 436 xde or fde would be well worth a look too......
 
Nick - with respect, I think you would be nuts to get rid of your PWD6, most of the panel orientated folks on the forum would acknowledge it as being one of the best SD panels that panny produced.

Ask yourself this before you spend £2.5 of your hard earned cash.

- What HD content is really available?
- Even if, for example, you are about to get an Xbox 360, how do you know that you won't be more than ecstatic with the way it performs on your PWD6?
- Do you really want to pay a price premium for something that does not display all of the SD content that is available today as well as your PWD6?
- If you waited another year or two (or even 3) the HD sets will be into their next gen, cheaper, more reliable and there might actually be some HD content worth having.

Just think, if you save the money you have for upgrade for another year or 2 you might be able to afford a 50" screen.

Then again if you are lucky enough to have money to burn - go for the PHD8 :)
 
I would have to agree with all of the above.

The only negative point I can think of with the PW6 is it has some colour banding, however the PV500 also has some colour banding, so a change at the moment for that screen would not really give you any gain, at the moment. In another 6 to 12 months when you have Sky HD and HD-DVD you may see a slight improvement, but it won't be dramatic.

I changed my PW6 for a PHD6 and was really pleased with the results, the colour banding almost disappeard completely and this was the only negative I really had for the PW6. However it cost me an extra grand to do it.

I think unless you need a bigger screen that a move now would be madness, you may as well hold out for the 42" 1920x1080 panel due next spring, even if you don't buy that one I bet you will pick up PV500 for alot less than they are now. If you didn't have a plasma then yeah get a PV500 and enjoy, but as you do I would wait.
If you have money burning a hole in your pocket and just fancy a change then go for it too, but don't expect it to look any better than what you have.
 
I have did enough testing with hi-def 1080i material on my pv500 to assure you thats were you'll see the biggest difference in pq- the move from sd to hd!

No point in waiting for a 1980*1080 panel as sky or others wont probably broadcast at 1080p for 4+ years
 
No, but they will be broadcasting at 1920x1080i and just having to deinterlace rather than, deinterlace and scale should be better in theory, and you haven't got that nagging "what if....?" in the back of your head.

The move to 1080i from 480i is a massive jump, the move from an SD panel to an HD panel showing it is not as big a jump as most people would like.
 
Interesting gizlaroc. Would you advise in waiting for some native 1080i panels to come out before making the jump?
 
You won't get native 1080i panels as they are all progressive, so that is why 1920x1080p panels is probably as good as it gets.
Looking at 1080i scaled to 1080p on a decent display definitely improves on scaling it to 1024x768p, not by as much as you would think though.

But if you had a decent 480p display I would be hesitant to swap over for something else unless it was a real improvement.
 
Fair point giz, but again you'd have to be able to clearly see that the difference in pq would be big enough in practise, because these 1080p panels will be extortionate prices at launch.
 
Oh, I would want to see an increase in picture quality just for the hassle in getting the old one of the wall again! :)

I am not sure if they will be more expensive though, the 1080p in japan is going to retail for 40% less than the outgoing 768p panel.
However, that probably equates to us getting shafted over here in blighty to cover their bargins as usual. :(
 
Oh yes they'll definately be more expensive as they try to see of the 768p panel. Id hazzard a guess 3.5-4k for a 42" Only a guess though :)
 
I think unless you need a bigger screen that a move now would be madness, you may as well hold out for the 42" 1920x1080 panel due next spring

Giz,

Regarding the 1920 x 1080p panel out next spring, are you talking panasonic here. Is this a guess or do you know something we dont? got any links or info on this? :lease:
 
There are loads of threads on the avsforum with links and pics.

Worth having a look.
 
I will run some searches, im aware of the 50" and 65", but you mentioned 42", i wasnt aware this full HD was going to filter down to this size screen?
 

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