philps 9527 - whats it like in non-pixelplus mode (generally)?

[Joe Pineapples]

okay, i know most people who buy this set, are doing it for the very reason of having the 'pxel-plus' feature, and although i personally cannot get on with the pixel-plus 'look', i still think the tv itself looks good value for money - feature wise.

For that reason, i would probably want to watch it in standard 100hz mode and just wondered if any 9527 owners out there are viewing it in the same, and of course what you think?

i am trying to decide between this set and the Sony FX66 - both about the same price.

btw - looked at a 9527 a while back, and used the pixel-plus demo button - IMO, theres no way that left-hand side should look THAT soft - a marketing ploy by philips?

cheers

dean

 

[bruno_scalera]

A recent review of the 28pw9527 "Essential Home Cinema" magazine preferred the image without Pixel Plus, they weren't very impressed with it on 28". May not be the case on the 32 inch if that's what you've got.

I am still deciding what damn tv i need 50hz,100 hz, one with enough scarts, my head is hurting :/

My current shortlist is pw9527, Panasonic PL1 50hz or a Philips 6515. Need to decide shortly or my wife is going to go ballistic with all the reseearch

Cheers

Bruno

 

[Joe Pineapples]

i know how you feel - i've been looking for over a year and a half now

dean

 

[bruno_scalera]

Hi Dean,

sorry to hijack your thread

what's the 9527 like for watching football or any type of fast action sport? Is it passable as a lot of people would say it's better on a 50hz tv.

ta

Bruno

 

[grahamtriggs]

Firstly, the picture is not as bad when in non-pixel plus mode as the demo would make out (ie. assuming you drop to 100hz digital scanning) - I think that picture is shown with as little processing as possible, so it flickers, has no sharpness applied to it, etc. to make the differences seem as large as possible.

Second thing to note is that default modes tend to have a moderate 'sharpness' setting - ie. 'natural' gives a sharpness setting of 4 (out of 7) (BTW - I find that 'natural' with a combination of the Active control gives pretty much perfect contrast / brightness / colour balance)... it is the sharpness that leads to some of the problems with pixel plus - the pixelated / 'weathered' faces and blocking with low quality digital sources)... turn down the sharpness, and it tends to go away...

Note that most sets will have a certain amount of sharpness 'applied' to them... I use the word 'applied' advisedly, as it tends to be that it is filtering the picture to make it appear sharper (rather than filtering to soften the image when you turn the setting down)... bear this in mind when you compare the 'non-pixel plus' half of the demo image on a PP set to other tellies...

With the sharpness turned down to '0', there isn't much of a difference between non-pixel plus and pixel-plus images... (although in theory that's probably about right)

In other words - the sharpness setting is accentuating the differences between non-pixel plus and pixel-plus, but depending on the input, leads to other artefacts... before condemning pixel plus entirely, check it out with a much lower sharpness setting (and don't forget to take the sharpness into account when comparing other TVs)

 

[ryanos]

Football is a joke on the set!

If you want to watch sport do not buy a pixel+ i have just bought the 32'9527 and is going straight back and being exchanged for the Sony fx66 hopefully i'll have better luck with this one

 

[atmoscinema]

Originally posted by bruno_scalera
A recent review of the 28pw9527 "Essential Home Cinema" magazine preferred the image without Pixel Plus, they weren't very impressed with it on 28". May not be the case on the 32 inch if that's what you've got.

I am still deciding what damn tv i need 50hz,100 hz, one with enough scarts, my head is hurting :/

My current shortlist is pw9527, Panasonic PL1 50hz or a Philips 6515. Need to decide shortly or my wife is going to go ballistic with all the reseearch

Cheers

Bruno

My 32PW6515 is great with football and everything else.Check out my threads on this TV.Plus it's half the price of Pixel Plus.

 

[yatesd]

Hi,



Have to disagree with some previous comments as I have the 32 inch version of the 9617 and have no problems when watching football and have also never seen the black bar issue (although I do not at present use ext3).

I generally switch to the "Natural Mode" for sport and fast moving images and rarely get any digital artefacts and that is only when I am deliberatly looking.

Football was always my main concern so tested out a friends specifically and never noticed any problems on his, or subsequently on mine.

Just my opinion!!


Dave.

 

[PaulJ]

I have the 32/9527, when pixel+ is on, things like football/cricket etc. the balls leave trails and can get to be quite annoying.

I just switch it into the 100Hz mode, and i feel that picture is fine.

 

[jim.rae]

Had a play with the Pixel Plus set a week or so ago, and I still haven't changed my mind that if you have a TV with digital picture enhancements, you should keep them switched off!

I am old fashioned enough to think that if you have a decent input signal - RGB or component preferably - you should be able to get a first class picture without any enhancement switched in.

If you can't, there's something wrong with the set or its settings.

I suspect that Pixel Plus is aimed at people with dodgy analogue reception, rather than the digital viewer...

 

[grahamtriggs]

I rather disagree - or rather, it depends on what the digital enhancement is / what it is designed to do...

Pixel Plus for instance, interpolates extra pixels from the existing onces in the picture... in theory at least, this is at least as relevant for an excellent source, as it is a poor one (possibly more so, as the noise inherent in a poor source will reduce the accuracy of the interpolation)...

However, it is not possible to enable Pixel Plus, without enabling a number of other digital enhancements... that may or may not be desirable...

 

[jim.rae]

In theory I agree Graham, but my fiddling around with the Pixel Plus setting was not particularly rewarding and to be honest, I preferred the unprocessed picture.

I still think the basic principle of picture processing is to improve one that's not as good as it should be, and I'd rather spend some more time and effort getting the basic source the best it can be, before switching in processing modes...

Call me old fashioned or what, but that's the best way to get good results.

 

[grahamtriggs]

Which is fine - we are all entitled to our own opinions after all, and what we like about the presentation of a set / what we are prepared to live with is highly subjective...

The chances are though, that it is not the "pixel plus" mode that you object to (per se), but the artefacts caused by the other digital processing options (100hz digital scanning, digital natural motion) that are always enabled when the pixel plus mode is used...

It also doesn't mean that it is aimed at people with poor quality analogue reception... indeed, the one digital processing option that is aimed squarely at poor reception - digital noise reduction - remains completely under your control, even in "pixel plus" mode...