Plasma decisions - fed up about to give up

L

ladypickers

Guest
:confused: Right I am about to give up buying a plasma completely. Its alot of money to get it wrong. Firstly these were the setups I was thinking of, we are on a tight budget but I do want a good system.
Setup 1
Panasonic TH-42PHD
Panasonic TY-42TM6AB BNC Component Video Terminal this is what was advised
Yamaha DSP-AX750 AV Amplifier
Panasonic DMR-E85HEBS DVD Recorder this is what was advised
Velodyne CHT 10 - cant really afford more although love the SPL 1200
Canton CD50 x 5 or if i cant afford that CD50 x 3 (front) CD 10 x 2 rear.
JS Technology RGB to Component (YUV) converter - do i really need this
2m Vandamme Cable 3 RCA to 3 BNC (Component/RGB)
1m Van Damme 3 RCA to 3 RCA (Component)
1m Tech+link Cable Scart to Scart Ribbon
1m Tech+link Cable TOSLink - TOSLink
1m Tech+link Cable 2 RCA to 2 RCA
1.5m Tech+link Cable Scart to 3 RCA Switchable
3m Tech+link Cable 1 RCA to 1 RCA (Mono Audio & Subwoofer)
QED-MICRO QED Micro Speaker Cable (200m drum buy)
Pansonic Table top stand or wall mounted must be tilt & swing - does it make the plasma stick out from the wall too much though.

Cant find any pictures anywhere of hat the table top stand looks like, can you use TH42PW7B stands -still cant find pictures.

Setup 2

or same as above but with TH42PW7B plasma instead, would the cabling be different.

Setup 3
43” Pioneer PDP-435XDE
Yamaha DSP-AX750 AV Amplifier
Panasonic DMR-E85HEBS DVD Recorder
Velodyne CHT 10
Canton CD50 x 5 or if i cant afford that CD50 x 3 (front) CD 10 x 2 rear.

Setup 4
43” Pioneer PDP-435XDE
Pioneer DVR920H DVD recorder -advised this - but too rich for me Is this really necessary
Pioneer VSX-2014-s receiver - advised this - but too rich for me Is this really necessary
Velodyne CHT 10
Canton CD50 x 5 or if i cant afford that CD50 x 3 (front) CD 10 x 2 rear.

Setup 5
43” Pioneer PDP-435XDE
Pioneer DVR420H DVD recorder
Pioneer VSX-1014-s or 814 receiver
Velodyne CHT 10
Canton CD50 x 5 or if i cant afford that CD50 x 3 (front) CD 10 x 2 rear.

For setup one I was advised to run component from the plasma to the amp then from amp connect the VCR (old) using composite & left & right phono.
Also from the amp to Dvdvrecorder use component & also optical. Then from the DVD recorder run scart to Sky box. What I am confused by is what cabling listed above will be going to which items. Also if I go for one of the other plasma setups above will that change on how the system is setup and will I need different cables. I assume that the satelites will go into the amp as will the sub (or is that wrong as the sub has its own amp). I was told to setup this way as the Yamaha will upscale everything that goes through it????? Would the same apply to the Pioneer AV receivers I've listed. Do any on this plasma do rescalling or ewhat ever its called and do I need it

I have also been told that none of these plasmas may work when HD is broadcast by Sky so is there any point in spending the money on HD screens and what may possibly be required to ungrade each one

JS Technology RGB to Component (YUV) converter and would this be connected between the the amp and the plasma. Is it only needed for the Panny plasma and what exactly is it for

I am sorry for all the questions but am about to give up and stick with my trusty CRT. If anyone can help feel free to PM me and give me laymen answers if poss.
Thanks :lease: :lease: :lease:
 
Oh dear, it can drive you mad all this information overload! :eek: I think there must be quite a few of us on this board itching to make a decision, but worried about justifying the expense.

To answer your questions, you will need to list what you are trying to connect up apart from the DVDR and Display.

I'll try to answer some of your questions from my limited knowledge:

JS Technology RGB to Component (YUV) converter - this will convert SCART RGB signal from Sky/ Digibox etc to component which you can feed into 1 of the 2 component inputs on the AX750. The E85 DVDR can connect to the other input, but if you connect the Sky box to this it will convert to YUV anyway. This info is useful & the pdf at the bottom is very informative:
http://www.av-sales.co.uk/html/rgb_to_component.html

Maybe getting the Canton CD1 set will be a simpler start to the Speaker options, you can then add larger speakers later as you wish. They are particularly cheap from Germany, there are a few threads on here regarding this:
http://www.tenspot.de/shop/product_info.php/products_id/196

Tilting wallmounts from AV-Sales vary between 20mm and 50mm deep:
http://www.av-sales.co.uk/plasma/html/plasma_mounts.html

For what it's worth, I demo'd the 2 Pannys, VR5 & 435XDE today and found the Pannys to be the best to my eyes. The 435 lacked contrast and was misty in some dark scenes. I am in 2 minds whether to go for the PWD or PHD at the moment.

Good luck in your selection, hope you get through this traumatic experience unscathed. :)
 
Thanks for that

Pirnted out the thread will have good look at what u said and PM you tomorrow if thats OK.

Can anyone else offer any help MEP & Tarsh have answered some but not all.
 
hey man
no expert but know how you feel. all i can suggest is that you dont give up. after 2-4 weeks of decisions, costs, tech advice i came to the conclusion the PW7 with denon DHT500 was the setup for right for me. I went down the Scart to VGA (cable) route for sky and BNC component route for the DVD. Both of which are fantastic quality. I ordered the PW7 with media box from AV sales and, a steal at £1398 delivered.

I promise you will not be dissapointed with it - its feckin gorgous.
I had read alot about this, but when its sitting in your own house you can really appreciate it in all its glory. Far better IMHO than any other screen i viewed and in some cases half the price.

To sum up i am glad i took the time to look at all the possibilities, if id bought the first thing i saw i would have a crap samsung sitting down stairs, which i might add cost just the same!!!

THE PW7 IS BLING
 
yup but I'm lost in mine field of cabling & terminal boards. Probably coz I dont actual know what cable does what, what ever happened to the days of just a scart and arieal connector. Well fed up might not bother wasting to much time and energy on this
 
MEp this is how I was told to set up the PHD 7
 

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looks great though i reckon you need another tos link (optical) between sky and the amp....js is optional
 
Hello ladypickers

01. SKY HD:
Pioneer PDP-435XDE - will work with SKY HD when it arrives.

Panasonic TH-42PHD7BKJ + TY-42TM6DB (DVI card) - wont work with SKY HD when it arrives.

Panasonic TH-42PHD7BKJ + TY-42TM6DB (DVI card)+ Video Processor that can Frame Rate Convert a 720P(50hz) signal to 768P(60hz) - will work with SKY HD when it arrives.

02. Wall mount:
If your on a tight budget a Tilt and Swing articulated wall mount is possibly best avoided - they tend to cost £300+.

03. Loudspeaker connectivity:
Your AV Receiver delivers 'power' to the five 'satellite' speakers over non screened 'speaker' cable + a line level signal over a screened interconnect to the 'active' subwoofer (it has it own in-built amplifier).

04. Video up-conversion:
The AV Receiver cant scale (resize) a video signal - instead it can
up-convert from one video format to another; input Composite or S-Video and Output YUV component video.

The Yamaha DSP-AX750 can up-convert Composite and S-Video to YUV.

The Pioneer VSX-2014i can up-convert Composite and S-Video to YUV.

The Pioneer VSX-1014 cannot up-convert Composite and S-Video to YUV.

Best regards

Joe
 
Hi mate, There are many more ways of doing anyone's system. If you have sky and a premium pack, don't be silly, go get sky+ and ditch the DVD recording. It's so much cleaner as a way of doing the job, as well as lossless recording, and will make your system clearer to use without going to a pronto or similar all in one remote. Likely it's the same kind of cost or less, too, and you will get better DVD playback. A scaler can be added later if the budget is tight now, just buy the card (just in case they change them)

1 Question, how big is the room? This affects amp power needed, and sub of course, and probably speaker choice too.
 
thanks everone for you comments, I'll reply tonite when I get home, room size is double reception with arch 17 x 15 & 12 x 11 but we will probably move this year and the next recetion will probably be anything up to 35 x 14...but the system would be down one end only.
 
sorry only just finished work thanks to those who helped have a couple of questions but will post in the morning when I'm not so tired
 
MAW said:
Hope they pay you enough, you're as bad as my wife!
I wish, we dont get overtime...joys of working in film industry, not glamorous and underpaid
 
Maw as I've woken up a bit and hubbie is sleeping on the sofa could you explain to me what connections do what, re my long post on this hread, still stumped about boards etc. Dont like buying what I dont understand. When I went dor demo down at Av sales, I viewed both the plasma I listed above and the PW7, to be honest the PHD7 had the edge followed by the PW7 & XDE, when I got an email from them today they said that none of them are future proof, and that none of them might work when Sky HD comes out, so is there any point spending a £1000 more for what is supposedly high definition. If I cant make my mind up tomorrow I think I'm going to give up. Also everyone says see the pannys with a scaler, I have no idea if they were using one as I didnt know to ask, they did have a JS Technology RGB to Component (YUV) converter on the PHD7 I think also i dont really understand what they actually do. I shouldnt have stated on the AVF I would have probably come homewith my XDE 2 weeks ago and been happy
 
Just a personal opinion but I think it's very easy to get over stressed with this whole thing. I am totally happy with the pw7....I couldn't give a **** about HDTV in the future because PQ now is excellent....HDTV will take ages to become established and initial offerings are likely to be not very exciting and certainly not exciting enough to base a buying decision upon right now. By the time it is established you'll be looking for a new screen anyway.
 
ladypickers,

re-read Joe's post - he knows what he is talking about and has got it right. Equally, I agree with mep - don't base your buying decision too much on HD compatibilty - it will not be that important in the short term and in the long term you will be onto another screen or can add a scaler.

Get the best quality screen for displaying standard definition TV now. The PHD7 is significantly better than the PW7 (as you seem to have seen for yourself) and the Pioneer is equally good but gives a slightly "different" type of picture - some prefer it, others prefer the Pannys.

The Panasonics need a terminal board if you are inputting anything other than VGA (which could be Sky / Freeview converted from RGB to VGA through a JS Tech converter). The Panasonic DVD recorders will output component so if you go for that then you need the component terminal board (and won't need the JS converter).

The only other point to consider - is picture in picture / picture and picture important to you? I never use it but if you might do, then the JS tech converter into VGA and the DVD-R into a component board will get that all working.
 
Piers said:
ladypickers,

re-read Joe's post - he knows what he is talking about and has got it right. Equally, I agree with mep - don't base your buying decision too much on HD compatibilty - it will not be that important in the short term and in the long term you will be onto another screen or can add a scaler.

Get the best quality screen for displaying standard definition TV now. The PHD7 is significantly better than the PW7 (as you seem to have seen for yourself) and the Pioneer is equally good but gives a slightly "different" type of picture - some prefer it, others prefer the Pannys.

The Panasonics need a terminal board if you are inputting anything other than VGA (which could be Sky / Freeview converted from RGB to VGA through a JS Tech converter). The Panasonic DVD recorders will output component so if you go for that then you need the component terminal board (and won't need the JS converter).

The only other point to consider - is picture in picture / picture and picture important to you? I never use it but if you might do, then the JS tech converter into VGA and the DVD-R into a component board will get that all working.

think the problem is that because I dont i=understand alot of what everyone talks about re differnet cables and whats the best connection for doing what job I am at a loss to know what to do, I dont want to instance buy the wrong separates only to find that they dont work well together, if I understood exactly what are the important things to get in each piece of equipment in terms of functions & connectablity I would know what to buy. The boards for the panny plasmas for instance completely lost me AV Sales list them with different names to the panny catalogue. I am also worried spending an extra £1000 on a PHD or XDE when it could turn out to be a waste of money. I dont want to fin intwo years that I have to hook up another load of separates just to make my panel work. The whole idea for the plasma was to cut down gear in my living room :( I should never have started on this forum and bought the pioneer and been blissfully ignorant
 
it sounds a lot more confusing than it really is....make the decisions in bite size pieces.......decide on the screen you like....and if the phd7 is better than a pw7 you really cannot go wrong so stick with that.........then select your sound system.....I stil think the cd1 is a great choice and you can always swap out the sub later on if you wish......then hooking them up will be easy with all the info already provided on this thread
 
think thats the problem cant decide between the three plasmas, speakers/sub I am decided on no problem there. amp or reciver & dvd recorder/HDD, not totally sure because not sure if one work better with one plasma and so forth. I am sure connecting up wont be a problem, like u say loads of help there on here but dont want to buy something only to find its not really right for the setup....if you see what I mean, especially as not all of it will come from one retailer
 
there is no way you will regret the panny and your yammy amp and any version panny dvd will be fine with it (and sky + is good option so you can skip need for hdd)...but if you're going to be moving this year why not just wait until then and research even more in the interim...you can get back on with your life then ;-)
 
Its a long story but through work my husband will be able to get some deal which means we have to buy now. If we go for the PW7 or PHD other than PHD being HD is it worth the extra £1000 orshould I save my money.

Also the Yamaha 750 amp (100w) will that be big to run 5 canton CD50's which I think are also 100w, I have been told to always go a bit higher with the amp
 
Ladypickers, you're welcome to phone for a chat, but I can't write all that, I have a life you know!! Your sound problem is the whole thing, not the amp. You need more power for that room...
 

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