Having recently managed to offload my old Samsung panel to an unsuspecting punter (poor chap but he did get it for peanuts!) I am now the proud owner of a spanking new Panny 6. Currently I have my STB/DVD connected via a scart terminal board and am generally happy with the PQ. I do however occasionally notice shimmering/"gauze" effects which, if I am honest, now offend my (recently acquired) av-purist sensibilities. My plan to remedy this is to run all sources through my AV-3700 (Brightview clone) scaler and feed progressive YUV to the Panny. To do this, my understanding is that I have two choices: 1) Purchase a new YUV terminal board and feed from the AVT-3700 using a 15 pin D-sub to component RCA cable. 2) Purchase an additional PC terminal board, configure it to accept YUV, and feed using a 15pin D-sub cable. As the PC board is (usually) considerably cheaper than the component board I was thinking of going for option 2 above. Can anyone give me any specific reason why I should go for option 1 over option 2? (e.g. PQ via the component board is better than via the PC board) I know I could also buy an RGB2VGA converter but I assume I still get interlaced pics with this option..? Any help would be much appreciated....
On the PW6, you can configure the VGA port to accept YUV. So, no extra outlay, except for the cable is req. (from Lektropaks - £26)...No board....direct into plasma. Same quality as the component board too.
Many thanks for the quick response. Probably should have mentioned that I have my PC on the fixed VGA input so still need the additional terminal board (the AVT-3700 rather rudely ships without a VGA pass though!) As there is no noticeable difference in quality between the two boards then I may go for less expensive PC board. I assume that I could always hook up an RCA component source (e.g. dvd-player etc.) using an RCA to 15pin D-sub cable and that this would also give the option of a second PC input if I ever needed it. Thanks again for the info...
Ok, you're using the VGA input for the PC, so that option is out. You could have used an RGB to Plasma VGA input here, and while it's still an interlaced signal, it's a very sharp and clear signal which will amaze you in how good it is. Getting a good signal to the screen, rather than a poorly processed one, is always going to give you a better picture. Terminal board is probably then the best option. You could still use an RGB to Plasma VGA unit here, as the input is now RGBHV. However, the converter of choice seems to be the RGB to Component (YUV/YPbPr) converter. It does give you further options in the future if you wish to route via an A/V amplifier with component switching, or to add a video processor as many do require component video. For the record, I use both the RGB to Plasma VGA and the RGB to Component converter with my screen. DVD player is in via VGA, and Sky/XBox via component. Although, I am the one responsible for creating them.... All the best, Dr John Sim.
Hi Dr.John, many thanks for your comments. Strangely enough I do have a JS RGB2YUV unit lying about somewhere so a third possible option is to resurrect this and connect to the panel via the RCA/BNC component board. In your current set-up is there any specific reason why route your STB source through the RGB2YUV and not via the RGB2VGA? Also when you made the point about "getting a good quality signal to the screen rather than a poorly processed one", were you making specific reference to the processing abilities of the AVT-3700 (Brightview) scaler? I just assumed that feeding 720p/1080i directly to the screen would give me better results that feeding an interlaced signal via the component board. But then maybe the Panny's internal processing is better optimised for this task and (as you seem to suggest) the RGB2YUV is the converter of choice as an alternative to the scart board. Any further thoughts or comments would be much appreciated...
Have come across a post which seems to suggest that it is possible to send interlaced YUV to the Panny 6 via a 3 x RCA to 15 pin D-sub cable. My understanding was that the PC input can accept progressive signals only. Can anyone confirm whether this is in fact the case?
Why do I use both the Plasma VGA and Component converter? It allows me to directly connect the DVD player to the screen via VGA, but have my other video stream (XBox to Sky to DVD recorder). I can set up the DVD recorder to back up from Sky, and still be able to view a DVD. As for scalars, while I do have one, I prefer to have a direct connection to the screen to get a sharper picture. I know a lot of people like to go via a scalar, I prefer the direct route myself. So I've got a scalar which really isn't used. Yes, you're using an interlaced source, but the screen is doing a sufficient job of de-interlacing. As far as I'm aware, the component input via the VGA is fine for non-progressive signals. All the best, John.
Gents, many thanks for all your input. The plan of action is now to purchase the cheaper (£60 approx) PC input board (TY-42TM6PB) over the RCA/BNC component one and try both interlaced (via JS RGB2YUV and RCA->VGA cable ) and progressive (via AVT-3700 and VGA cable) signals. I will update this thread with my findings once I have done this