What's The Best HDTV Money Can Buy Right Now?

[kit23]

Hello to all


Ok I have finally read more about screen burn and im going to give it one more go, the last plasma i had got this screen burn within only a week of having it and i could not get rid of it in any way. So now please can someone recommend me the very best 42" or 50" money can buy??? make model does not matter, as long as it’s the very best out there and is HD ready and good sound and picture and has all the great features and all inputs.

Thanks for any help you can offer me on this.

 

[tscotsman]

HD I would say if it was a panel 42PHD8 or TV 42PV500.

 

[Rahmorak]

If money is no object then probably one of:

1) Panny 50PHD8 + Crystalio/Lumagen etc. (*looks at Giz*) - 4.5-6k+
2) Fuji P50XHA40US + Crystalio/Lumagen etc. - 5.5 - 7k+

Some 60"+ 1080p plasmas are also due next year which might be pretty amazing.

 

[kit23]

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me

Im looking at a 42" or 50" and my maximum budget is set to £7,500 but that would be the very most, i would like to get something under that if possible. would you say for that kind of budget i could get something that is classed as a very high spec TV and is the best around? now for that price or under what is your choice of the very best out there? By any chance have you heard anything about the Panasonic TH50PV500? good or bad?

thanks

 

[Rahmorak]

For 7.5k you can get an amazing setup and I would strongly recommend 50" over 42", the Fuji or Panny panel married with a decent scaler will blow your mind. I would also rule out the TVs like the TH50PV500 or 506XDEs if you are after the ultimate in PQ. However it also depends on what other gear you have, i.e. AMP/Speakers/DVD etc.

Waaay too many people vastly underestimate the importance of sound to the AV experience, marrying a cracking display with tinny/boxy speakers. I would much rather have a good (but not best) display and decent 5.1 setup than the best display with stereo TV speakers.

If you don't already have high quality AV gear then you are probably better opting for the 50PHD8 and spending the rest on Amp/Speakers/Player etc.

Either way, I would strongly recommend speaking to Joe @ The Media Factory/Liam @ Progressive-AV/MAW/Gordon etc. as they will will provide excellent guidance, they won't be the cheapest but they are worth the slight premium.

R.

P.S. And set aside some money for ISF calibration after you get the screen.

 

[kit23]

Hello

Thanks for your advice there.

Can you tell me if the Panny/Fuji are out to buy now? or are these still waiting to be released? any chance of a link where i can read more on them? just done a quick search and came up with nothing on these.

thanks

 

[chedmaster]

they are both available now, but with that kind of budget you may be better off waiting for the next gen 1080p screens like rahmorak said

heres the fuji: http://www.progressive-av.co.uk/flat_screens/fujitsu_p50xha40us_p50xha40_plasma-screen.htm

 

[gIzzE]

I have seen the Fuji 50" advertised for £3.5k and the Panny 50" for a little less and would say you can't go wrong with either of them, but I would wait now for one of the new scalers, they will be breathtaking and really do HD processing justice. I would expect them to start at around £3.5k minimum though, maybe £4.5k for the new Lumagen and the new Crystalio II with the HD-SDI inputs etc.
Not sure if prices have been released, I don't dare look!

 

[kit23]

Hi

Thanks for the links there.

im not good with all this stuff but im learning slow but a lot to take in so which is better over all Panny or Fuji? I have a HD camcorder so i will be using that with the new TV. i heard the bigger the screen the worst the picture is that correct? Also from your point of view what makes the Panny/Fuji so much better then any other set out there right now?


Again thanks for all this info this is helping me and I greatly appreciate your help

 

[chedmaster]

what makes the Panny/Fuji so much better then any other set out there right now?

they both use panny glass

 

[gIzzE]

The Panasonic panels are about the only ones that when showing absolute black are pretty damned close, nearly all the others still look grey, however the new Pioneers are getting better, now black is what gives an image a solid and lifelike feel and gives the image real depth. The Fuji uses the Panasonic panel and its own processing to squeeze a bit more out of it. However if you use an external scaler and totally bypass the internal processing on the panel this should in theory make the processing irrelevent, however there are still other things that can improve an image, it may just be one screen has a better power supply?

Either of those screens will give you stunning results, and when using a decent scaler to deinterlace and send the picture back to the screen at its native reolution of 1366x768 it will look very, very good.

The TV units also use the same generation of glass as the monitors, but when you start adding loads of stuff like tv tuner and speakers etc. there is more in there to reduce ultimate image quality. Just compare a Pioneer 435xde with the monitor only version, both the same panel but one has a tuner etc. and the difference is not subtle, the panel blows it away.

If you really want the ultimate that is available at the moment then I would go with either of these two, it may be worth just buying a scart input board for now though and using that till the new scalers arrive, the next generation is about to arrive and they look very, very exciting. The new Lumagen has a few really nice touches and so does the Crystalio II, I don't think either would dissapoint, and they are both geared up to really squeeze every last drop of detail out of hi-def sources.

That is a nice budget to have to play with, spend some time and get it right, there are a few guys on here who can show you their set ups, myself included, so it may be worth having a bit of a drive round and seeing these things up and running.
I would also agree, save some money to get it properly calibrated, on a top end set up it is well worth it, even on a budget set up it is worth it, but when spending £5k+ there are no excuses!

 

[kit23]

Hello

I appreciate your long reply was very good to read learning as i go along. Yes good advice i will take my time and think careful about what to buy and would like to see some in action. iv just seen some people saying that the Pioneer Elite Pro 1130 is really good, not sure if you have heard of that one but its suppose to be good i must say its a very difficult choice what to buy so many to choose from. im most interested to see how my HD footage comes out on one of these screens.

thanks

 

[gIzzE]

Ah, are you based in the US?

If so nothing really changes, but the Pio model you are talking about is a US model so I am presuming you are.
You want to ask the same questions on www.avsforum.com and compare answers. If you are US based you do not have the big stumbling block we have which is 50Hz, most screens can do 60Hz at native resolution which is a great if you live in 60Hz world.

 

[kit23]

Hi

no I am uk based but of course you can understand that i want to here from many people as possible because this is a large amount of money so i always like to here from all different people from all over and get different opinions and here experience to see what they think of the models.

thanks

 

[MAW]

Treat the US opinions with a bit of caution, their models are slightly different in some areas. I think the 3.5k fujitsu is the wrong model, you'll never get a XHA40US for that, not unless it's nicked, or ex demo. All the scaler manufacturers have new models on the way, check out www.dvdo.com also, the UK agent is not as market savvy as the other guys, but a good product.

Further to the uS plasmas maybe differing, of course their signals differ too, so a plasma that is highly rated there may show horrific frame rate conversion judder here, due to internal refresh rate being optimised for US/Japan 60Hz signals. NEC? Pioneer?

 

[Rahmorak]

Whereabouts in the UK kit23? Depending upon location one of the traders/members may be able to demonstrate their setup as Gizlaroc suggested.

 

[madshi]

All the scaler manufacturers have new models on the way, check out www.dvdo.com also, the UK agent is not as market savvy as the other guys, but a good product.

Actually, the DVDO is the only one of the "new" models which doesn't do proper HD processing, nor proper video processing. I'd rather check out one of the Realta or Gennum VXP based processors like Vantage-HD, Crystalio II, DragonFly or the like...

 

[MAW]

Perhaps you'd like to back up this statement, and maybe take it up with Dale?

 

[gIzzE]

Hate to point this out but I would not say the Fuji could be had for £3.5k unless I had seen it, however, I didn't realise it was 121electricals that were doing it! So for £3.5k you will probably have to wait for stock to arrive and then when it doesn't get asked if you had considered a 17" lcd as an alternative!

https://secure.121electricals.com/detail.asp/sku=P50XHA40ES

Edit: ah, is that the ES and not the US?

 

[MAW]

That's not the one you'd want, there's no [email protected] support on it. Do you see and HD ready logo? No. The suffix 'US' is the one, the ES is being flogged off by Fuji, hence it appearing in www cheap.

 

[madshi]

Perhaps you'd like to back up this statement, and maybe take it up with Dale?

Dale knows that the SIL504 video deinterlacing is not up to par with the Realta, Gennum and Faroudja chips. The SIL504 can't do motion adaptive video deinterlacing for HD sources. It also doesn't have diagonal edge processing to get rid of jaggies, like Faroudja's "DCDi" does, or Gennum's "FineEdge" or Realta's "Multi-Direction Diagonal Filter (MDDF)".

Dale also knows that the SIL504 can't do proper 3:2 and 2:2 pulldown for HD movies. The SIL504 is basically a really good deinterlacing chip for SD movies. But for HD movies and for SD video and HD video the new Realta and Gennum VXP chips are very much superior.

Dale is already working on the next deinterlacing chip which he sais will be a giant killer. But that chip is for a future product (VP40?) and not for the VP30.

You can get some hints from Lumagen. They're also using the SIL504 chip and they are doing their best to realize HD film pulldown. They can't use the SIL504 for that, but have to do that in their own FPGA. That's why it takes them so long to finally add this long promised feature.

Check out this one:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4330669&&#post4330669

With a 1080i signal, the iScan HD+ uses 'bob'

Using BOB for 1080i is absolutely outdated. It throws away half of the resolution. The VP30 uses the same deinterlacing chip as the HD+.

 

[kit23]

Hello

After all this technical talk im still confused to which is the best model out there.

 

[gIzzE]

Fujitsu 50" 40US and the Panny PHD8.

But wait for the next gen of video processors.

 

[madshi]

Fujitsu 50" 40US and the Panny PHD8.

But wait for the next gen of video processors.

Agreed.

Does the Fujitsu accept native resolution in 50Hz and show it without FRC?

 

[gIzzE]

Yeah on the VGA I beleive.