plasma and richer sounds

S

setay

Guest
Hi,
I recently bought the Philips 42pf9945 from Richer Sounds. A bargain at £2000..or so I thought. Unfortunately, the picture is pretty awful and I really am most disappointed with it. Skin tones develop contours and it takes the pleasure out of watching tv. It happens whether its Sky or DVD. I've had it for less than 30 days but richer Sounds seem to be reluctant to take it back for an exchange. I'm still waiting for them to get back to me...2.5 days waiting! Anyway, just wondered what is the best way to connect. Currently I have Sky being pumped into my Panasonic DVD recorder which then goes into the scart socket on the plasma. All signals are RGB and Scart cables are very good quality (one of them cost me £70!!). I read about improving picture by using the VGA socket to connect Sky and DVD. Will this really make a difference?
Can anyone tell me if their Philips 42pf9945 always reverts to 'soft' picture setting everytime the source is changed or put into stand by????

Lastly, if I do manage to change the plasma screen which should I get. I guess I'll exchange it @ Richer Sounds so which would be the best purchase. I'm resigned to the fact I'll have to pay more...perhaps upto £2700.

Cheers.
 
tell richer sounds that unless they take it back and exchange for a different model , they can take it back as stated in there 30 day money back guarentee and refund your money and you will buy elsewhere watch them change there tune then.
It worked for me they dont want to lose the buisness
 
Cheers Mate,

Will try that. Problem is though I don't have the box....something of that size is not something you keep in the house! The guy in the local Richer Sounds shop reckons that I will have to take it in to the shop itself so they can test to see if there is a fault. Imagine taking it all the way there and then having to bring the damn thing back again because they reckon there is no fault!!
 
are you sure it is a 30 day money back guarantee, logistically they charge £50.00 for delivering a plasma which I paid otherwise i had to sign a disclaimer saying if i took it home myself and damaged it in transit they are not responsible! they surely would not refund the delivery charge as well!!! If they have any hitachi pm400e left, get 1 of those, awesome plasma, better than the phillips me thinks, use component to connect your dvd player if the player and plasma have the neccessary sockets, sky can be connecetd to the vga socket if again your plasma has one via a scart to component converter which is about £80-£130 depending where you go, your sky box goes via scart to the converter then via a 3 phono to vga cable to your plasma, be warned though that sky digital picture quality is very ''iffy'', to test whether your plasma is any good, use a progressive scan dvd player (if your plasma can support it) and connect it via component, if the picture is no good using this method, get another plasma!IMHO
 
Although I don't have the Philips, the Panny I bought, and using the scart card, I was very upset with - colour contours, etc. I bought the RGB to VGA converter and I am now 100% happy with the picture quality.

I'm not saying this will solve your problems, and I knew the scart card for my plazzy was meant to be poor quality and a "soft" picture. But it turned a "my god I've wasted £2500" to a I'm glad I speant the money.
 
I did take the plasma home myself. signing such a disclaimer cannot void a guarantee though. It certainly was not damaged in transit although perhaps they might argue otherwise! all in all, I'm quite disappointed with my experience with plasma and Richer Sounds. One big problem with richer Sounds is that you can only see a few plasma's been demonstrated. I had to go to Dixons to see the one I eventually purchased 'in action'; incidentally it still £800 more at Dixons!
 
Can you recommend a secure on-line e-tailer to purchase an RGB to VGA converter? As much as I dislike the philips performance, it looks good above the mantlepiece and I've got four massive bolts in the wall holding the damn thing on!!!!!
 
setay said:
Can you recommend a secure on-line e-tailer to purchase an RGB to VGA converter? As much as I dislike the philips performance, it looks good above the mantlepiece and I've got four massive bolts in the wall holding the damn thing on!!!!!

A lot of people here recommend the JS Technology converter - they are one of the forum sponsors. Also do a search to see what people say.
 
I think you'll be disappointed. I'm sure Philips models will not work with RGB to VGA converter - something to do with incompatible sync? I did quite a bit of research into this myself. Furthermore, most Philips Plasmas, as far as I'm aware, will not even accept Prog scan signal via component - only interlaced. I think you can force a prog scan sinal via VGA input, so the only way to a better picture may be to spend loads of money on an external scaler / de-interlacer ?? I gave up in the end. Mine is a 37PF9965 - newer model with Pixel Plus. On broadcast material sometimes it looks fantastic, and other times absolutely ropey. DVD is much more consistent of course.
 
Good luck. Check if the money back guarantee mentions the box it came in.

Don't worry about the holes in your wall. You can get a Panny PW6 for just over £2K from AVSales, who have great customer service - see special offers section. I don't think you'll find anyone who doesn't think its a good display for the money (you might find a few trying to get you to spend more on a hidef display though). And you won't be regretting buying a plasma.
 
I've noticed Richer Sounds are selling this model for under £2000. Could exchange for this. Problem is it doesn't seem to come with any boards i.e you have to buy scart boards etc!
 
It will take VGA if you're using the JS converter. You can use a video switcher so that you don't have to plug everything directly into the plasma, and if you need one extra board, you shouldn't have to pay too much.
 
get rs to confirm they will take it back first then scour the forum for the best plasma deal, that is what i would do
 
i had the philips 9945 and got rid after a week the pq is crap :mad:
dont spend money on anything to try and make the pic any better cos it wont work,i had a plasma engineer come to my house and he tried allsorts of ways to get it right it was so bad after 3 hours of trying that he gave up and waived his fee charging me only £20 to cover his costs
ive now bought the panny 6 from av sales with the component input board and got sky going through the vga slot on the plasma via rgb2vga js technology box
and the dvd going direct from player into ty-42tm6z component board in plasma
with sony amp for audio
IT ROCKS :clap: :clap:
the pic quality on the panny 6 in my opinion is 100x better than the 9945
go into richer sounds with the tv and kick up a fuss (as loud as you can) this has worked for me in the past at comet etc they hate it when you stand up for yourself in front of other customers (just dont swear or hit anyone) just keep repeating 'is this is how you look after customers who spend £2000 at a time i would hate to see how you treat customers who spend less!!!'
 
I don't think you will have a problem with Richer Sounds. I bought a Daewoo Plasma from their Southampton branch. Wasn't happy with it so called them and said I would be happy to exchange it for the Panny PW6 they had in stock , provided they price matched it. Because theirs didn't come with any video boards I found the cheapest ( at the time) at NexNix which included a mounting bracket and video board of choice. Richer Sounds then took of the cost of the video board ( £125) and bracket (£99) off their price of £1995. I then connected it via VGA so didn't need the board anyway !

You need to talk to the store manager , be polite and explain your predicament.
 
I'll second pezzer's recommendation, go for a PW6, you won't be dissapointed.

spook
 
In the end I exchanged it for the Hitachi 42pd5000pro. Sky still a bit iffy but dvd is better. Richer Sounds were really supportive in the end and knocked me £250 off the Hitachi as compensation......just still not impressed with plasma screens.
 
Perhaps! According to all the reviews the Hitachi is supposed to be very, very good...picture wise anyway! Perhaps I'm still in this apparent 'running in' period. In hindsight I think I would have stuck with my 36" Phillips with pixel plus...........better than plasma it would appear!
 
Most of the reviews of the Hitachi that I've read state that the picture quality is dependent on ' strong sources'.
So, DVD should be very good, while off air ???

Brian.
 
Setay

Don't forget that the picture on Sky can be notoriously "iffy" anyway. This is due to some broadcasters using low bitrates to keep their costs down. The differences in picture quality between channels is noticable on a 32" CRT TV, so will be much more so on a 42" plasma. Have you tried adjusting the picture settings on your new set? The settings "out of the box" are usually well off optimum. There is a thread on here regarding optimising settings for Hitachi plasmas.

Finally, regarding comparison with your old set, there is no way that any plasma will give you a PQ equivalent to a high-end CRT like the 36" Philips you used before. The advantage of plasma has always been the size and 'thin-ness'. It's only recently that the PQ has started to approach the level of the best CRTs, but most commentators would say that they are not quite up there with the very best yet.

Hope you enjoy your viewing.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm continually changing the settings to try and get the optimal image, still not found it! Will check out the posts re members settings and try them. In fairness, I always knew the plasma's were not as good as top end crts...I didn't go into plasma lightly. However, since living with a plasma, as opposed to viewing them briefly in shops, and watching various sources over long periods of time....I'm disppointed with plasma. i expected better quality images. Its ended up costing far more than anticipted on leads and even a new dvd player (for progessive scan) and in truth its made no difference what-so-ever to the quality. Should I notice a difference between progressive scan component and non-progressive scan component??? I can't. Same goes with the lead.. I paid £79 for a Cambridge Audio component lead and it offers no improvement over a £6.99 component lead I bought from the local Curry's! I also still get the contours (red/green) on skins during movement (both Sky and DVD) as I did with the Phillips. Of course not quite to the same extent but it is still there; not enough to justify taking it back. I suspect this may be a general plasma issue. Ironically, that issue aside, I think the Phillips covered up Skys poor quality much better than the Hitachi..even though the Hitachi is a better unit.

BTW, the fact that my plasma is 42 inch, on the wall and taking up no space what-so-ever is a very big reason I bought into it. i guess my expectations were a tad too high. i paid close to £2000 for the Phillips CRT so the plasma wasn't too far away in terms of price.
 
Setay,
I'm not an expert and don't have a plasma!!
However, many members on here have posted that they are delighted with their plasmas. Just do a search and experiment with their recommendations and I think you will improve your PQ somewhat. The general consensus is that CRT is still the benchmark in terms of PQ but plasma is gradually getting there.
A few years ago I got a 56'' RPTV and PQ, whilst very good, is inferior to the best CRTs but the 'cinema' and 'sport' experience on a large screen more than compensates for the slight drop in PQ. And it may be my age, but my eyes have definately got used to the picture and I have no regrets in changing to a RPTV.
Good luck with your searches and resulting improvement,

Brian.
 
We're all well off topic now. but who cares! The PQ issue is a tricky one. Personally I find the Hitachi picture somehow 'busy', giving the impression of picture noise/artefacts. It's why I prefer the panasonic. However, I have seen a Hitachi I was forced to admire, so it's possible to get it right. I'm sure some of the Hitachi owners would be happy to share their settings with you, I'd put up a new thread if you can't find anything specific. There's no law against it here!
 

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