plasma virgin help needed

J

jmack

Guest
hi all great site
please could you give me your thoughts on what plasma i should buy i have got about 4000 i been looking at a phillips 429952 with tuner. the lack of cables speakers appeal, what are your thoughts on this set, only a dvd and ntl didgi box and maybe a game consoll to hook up to it,
or do you think a panasonic or toshiba but then i will need tuner amp speakers receiver and all
any help would be great
james mackie
 
With the problem of burn-in , especially if you watch SKY a lot , I think plasma is an intermediate technology that you should give a miss.

Wait for LCD to get bigger and cheaper , I am.
 
I thought that burn-in effected plasma's less than ordinery televisions??? And even normal TV's very rarely suffer this...

jmack: I was also thinking of upgrading my philips 36" wide screen to this particular model of plasma, I'm interested where you have seen it for around £4,000, most of the places I have checked have to for around £4,500 - £5,000 with any stand etc.

I to am looking for something without any additional speakers etc as I already have that stuff. Lately an uncle lent me this projector and I was amazed at the quality of it, when watching wide screen films during late evening (less light) there is nothing quite like it!!! I then thought about getting a newer model projector, as you can get very good ones at the £4,000 - £5,000 price mark.
 
Two points: -

Screen Burn In

Don't get to uptight over this issue, as long as you set your contrast and brightness at reasonable levels, 40 - 50% and you don't leave static images on the display for hours on end you should have trouble free viewing.

Most screens also have screen saver facilities and you can "wash" the screen to prevent/remove minor burn in.

Plasma Choice

My advice on Plasma (I'm talking from experience I have a Fujitsu 4229 which I love) is if you like then its right for you. But and this is a big BUT, check out how the screen performs with darkly lit video. Screens on demo will usually have nice brightly lit scenes from Phantom Menace or A Bugs Life. Most screens will render these DVD's pretty well and can fool you. Dark video footage really stretches plasma, images become grainy with lots of background noise, detail retrival is limited and colours become muted, largely due to poor contrast ratios and dodgey video processing. Take your own demo disc, The Matrix or Seven both have a lot of dark imagery that will put the screen through it paces. If yout not happy with the Phillips then try both the Fujitsu and the Panasonic. The Panasonic gets particularly good press due mainly to a fantastic contrast range and some neat video processing which converts all incoming video into progressive scan. The Fujitsu uses a new system called AVM, Advanced Video Motion which does a reasonable job of rendering smooth video but is not too kind to low grade signals. I've added a line doubler which does a similar job to the Panasonics circuitry by converting everthing into 576 progressive scan. This really does the improve the quality no end and produces a wonderful picture.

I hope this helps.
 
Originally posted by YYZ

I've added a line doubler which does a similar job to the Panasonics circuitry by converting everthing into 576 progressive scan. This really does the improve the quality no end and produces a wonderful picture.

What sort of prices are Line doublers?
 
There is nothing unusual about the Panasonic converting signals to progressive, with the exception of the few plasmas based on the Fujitsu sourced 1024x1024 resolution glass, all plasmas do this. including the Fujitsu 4229.

Some do it better than others, and some support features like 3:2 pulldown, but plasmas are inherently progressive devices unless they use the Fujitsu ALiS glass which is interlaced.

Some plasmas can benefit from an external scaler/deinterlacer but generally it is better to try it without first as often it is not much of an inprovement over the plasma's own scaler/deinterlacer.

Mark
 
Originally posted by Party Animal
Originally posted by YYZ

I've added a line doubler which does a similar job to the Panasonics circuitry by converting everthing into 576 progressive scan. This really does the improve the quality no end and produces a wonderful picture.

What sort of prices are Line doublers?

Oddly enough, I've just been sent a link to this http://www.av-sales.com/plasma/html/prov_converter.html the price seems right and it does the job.. I think.

jamie
 
update to my thread decided to go for the phillips 42pf9952 plasma bought from nexnix at £3350+vat wall mount included
the guys there were very helpfull and put up with my constant phoning to check the order was ok biggest thing ive bought over the net/phone so was quite worried deliverd within 24hr installed my self .which took 30 mins. i`m very happy with it colours and sound are amazing (to me). any tips on caring for this model or any plasma
thank you
 
Don't push the contrast and brightness too high, particularly when new, avoid bright static logos, such as Cartoon Network for long periods (if using Sky) and use the screens wide or zoom options to avoid the 4:3 aspect ratios black bars on either side of screen image, but above all enjoy it!!!
 

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