Sony's 40" LCDs

M

Majid Khan

Guest
Hi folks,

I've just cancelled my order for 42" Hitachi PD6600 plasma, due to concern of screen burn. One of my mate's bought the same plasma and it has been ruined within days, due to screen burn... and having seen the mess on his screen, it was enough for me to cancel my order without hesitation.

I am now considering buying either a new CRT or waiting till the LCD televisions out there get better with ther picture quality..

I must admit that i've never rated LCD televisions from what i've seen of them previously and they've always seemed inferior to plasmas in terms of picture quality by some distance... or at least that's been my perception.

I realise that picture quality is a subjective thing, but I am basically looking for picture quality in a new tele that at least resembles what I get with my CRT television.. and while plasmas aren't perfect, they come fairly close in terms of contrast, vibrant colours and picture quality.

On the other hand, the LCD televisions i've seen always seemed to resemble the picture on my flat screen TFT computer monitor or laptop screen, which is blurry, pixellated and lacking in depth.

That's the reason I wasn't very keen on going for an LCD, but obviously I do realise that LCDs do not suffer from screen burn issues and that's really what I'm more concerned about at the moment if I were to get a new television.

Basically I am after a 37" or above (preferably 40"+) LCD screen, which boasts pic quality that is as good as a plasma.

My main worry is motion blur, I watch a lot of football and cricket and won't be able to stand the jitter that i've seen on some LCDs... (even some plasmas, are quite poor in this regard to be honest)..

I am particularly interested in the new Sony LCD televisions out there, can anyone confirm what they are like with football or cricket?

Also, i'm aware with my TFT monitor that I look at it from an angle, the picture looks messed up.. is this also a problem with LCD televisions ?

Thanks, in advance..
 
Just looking at Sony's website, I notice they have a new Sony W-40" Lcd - which they claim is the "Ultimate LCD", it looks far more stylish than the S and V range... and apparently boasts better picture processing.

Anyone know when the W40 LCD is likely to be released ?
 
Okay, went down to the Sony Centre to see for myself what these new LCDs are like... and here's my views.

They had a V32 on display and my first impression was "WOW", it was running a DVD (Godzilla) and the picture looked superb... far better than I had ever seen on any LCD.. that's it , I thought.. this looks like just the tele I've been waiting for, I'll be buying the 40" version... seriously, that's how good the pic quality was like with DVD. (didn't see Hi-Def with it, I can only guess it must be pic quality out of this world on these Sony V range LCds!)

Anyhow, I asked the salesman to put on Freeview - to see how it copes with low quality sources and I'll be lying if I said I was impressed... the picture was pretty poor close up (better than other LCDs i've seen, sure.. but still looked mediocre compared to CRT or plasmas), although from a normal viewing distance it was watchable.

Watched some of the cricket on Channel 4 and while I will definitely say there was no motion blur that I noticed (that's comparing it with other LCDs), the motion was still nowhere near as fluid or smooth as i've seen on CRT and some plasmas... it's 'watchable' but being someone who will primarily be watching sports on my tele, it still left quite a bit to be desired..


I should point out however, that I'm someone who prefers CRT-like picture quality and plasmas do seem to resemble it - even if not give PQ quite as good as CRT - but my main issue with LCDs is they just don't seem to give pic quality that resembles a TV.. (especially with low quality sources), it looks very much like a high resolution TFT computer monitor.. not quite as easy on the eye as a good plasma is.. or at least that's my perception.

If you are one of those who prefers LCDs generally to CRTs, than I'm in no doubt that the Sony V32 is going to impress you considerably.. its by far the best LCD i've seen.

Having said that, I'm still considering the Sony V40 - if for no other reason, the simple fact that it means I could get a big screen tele and not have to worry about screen burn.. (as I would, if I were to get a plasma).. so its a bit of a compromise..
 
Majid, it sounds like you're really, really used to the phosphorous image a CRT or Plasma gives. They do have a similar look.

Is the screen burn on new plasmas that bad?
 
Managed to see the 32" V series today. 40" does not come till next Wednesday.
Generally very impressed.
Very sharp and vivid picture.
Black levels were acceptable and even.
Picture quality better than the Philips 9830 imho
The set was being fed with a satellite feed (some German HDTV satellite channels 1080i).
I was however, shocked at the level of pixelating around moving objects.
Unfortunately they did not have a DVD player hooked up and seemed unwilling to get the remote control from its box etc (SONY Centre) - so I could not determine if the problem is down to the TV, the TV settings, the HDTV satellite broadcast or the STB.
But for this issue I would be very excited about the V series.
Unfortunately the two serious AV shops in my area (who have been around for 24+ years) have both gone out of business this year and frankly I was not impressed with the SONY centre's lack of enthusiasm with respect to helping me test the set properly.
Overall the V series looks very promising to me (I am 80% sold) - but I will now have to find somewhere where I can get a decent demo (DVD,component/hdmi) in order to determine if the pixelation is a flaw with the SONY.

I have to say that most of the LCD's I've seen today appear to show a lot more noise/pixellation than their equivalent size Plasmas/CRTs.
 
[/QUOTE]Majid, it sounds like you're really, really used to the phosphorous image a CRT or Plasma gives. They do have a similar look.

Is the screen burn on new plasmas that bad?
I think your spot on there Lyris, as much as I'm keen on going for an LCD ... I think I will find it difficult to adjust to the 'look and feel' of the picture on an LCD...ah, i think thats just what I was thinking about.. but couldn't express, there is a certain resemblance of CRT picture quality in a plasma that isn't there on an LCD and I wasn't sure what this 'invisible' quality was - it is the 'phosphors' that produce the image in both cases, quite obviously.

As far as screen burn on plasmas, I really am confused to be honest... on the one hand I read stories of ppl getting screen burn on their plasmas and have personally seen screen burn on a new Hitachi 6600 plasma earlier this week.. but then on the other hand I read about ppl who've had plasmas for years and claim never to have had any issues, some ppl even claiming that screen burn is not an issue with modern plasmas.. its a bit risky I guess.

As far as LCDs go, I will admit that I was extremely impressed with the pic quality of the DVD on the Sony V32 and no doubt, the High Def pq will be out of this world..
so my feeling is LCDs will eventually replace plasmas as they seem to be technically superior, but it seems their higher resolution and more 'detail' means that low quality SD will look far more flawed than it would on any other type of display..

The only other area where I feel LCDs need to improve is the response time - especially for it to handle sports better.. but I can see this improving, the 8ms on the Sony V32 made cricket look very 'watchable' (even if not CRT-like).. but i'm guessing that 5ms will be very much on par with CRTs.. but i suppose that's a while yet.
 
Majid, do you mind if I ask how old you are? Age seems to play a surprisingly large part in the LCD vs Plasma debate. Looking around AVSForum for example, most of the plasma owners seem to be by far older than those taking up LCD technology. Part of that is probably due to the fact that they have more money to spend. I'm definitely in the younger age range myself but despite me being part of probably one of the last generations to grow up with CRTs, I warmed to the flat, silkier look of LCDs almost instantly. My point is that I think the longer people have grown used to phosphor-based displays, the harder it will be to become accustomed to the LCD pictures.

As for the response time, the panel might not be the only thing causing lag. Deinterlacing (also an issue for Plasma) might be contributing to a blurring effect as well.
 
There's a (at first) surprisingly large gap in image quality between DVD and Freeview or Sky on many flat-panel TVs. I suspect the problem is nothing to do with phosphors vs LCD at all, it's to do with the lousy deinterlacing circuitry: the DVD output is progressive scan (over component, or perhaps even over HDMI which would make an even bigger difference).

This isn't just a question of the DVD player deinterlacer being better than the one in the screen (although it probably is) it's also that demo DVDs will be cinema films that can be exactly reconstructed to the original 24/25 frames per second progressive picture without much trouble. Broadcast television is often stuff shot on video which is not an inherently progressive source.

If you could afford a good quality external scaler/deinterlacer then the LCD screen would probably look better (although video would probably still not look as good as film).

People often accuse plasma TVs of looking crap with Sky, usually going on to claim that this is because the original Sky signal is crap and a plasma just lets you see it more accurately. I don't believe that's true. CRT looks better than plasma or LCD on Sky because it deals with an interlaced signal better.
 
Lyris said:
My point is that I think the longer people have grown used to phosphor-based displays, the harder it will be to become accustomed to the LCD pictures.


Nah, its just because the older people's eyesight isn't as good so we appreciate the bigger sizes and don't need the extra detail. :) And we don't care as much about xbox 360.

(BTW I ordered a new Plasma on the weekend)
 

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