Plasma or Rear Projection?

you people who are amazed at plasma screens should go take a look at the biggest rank arena or toshiba HD CRT you can find.

unless plasma screens have gotten ALOT better in the last 10 months or so (when i was shopping for my current TV)...

i'm not sure if sony even has a CRT which can physically display HD resolution yet. they certainly didn't 10 months ago, but i guess 10 months is quite a long time in the world of electronics. if you're shopping for a non-HD TV, sony CRTs are simply amazing. then again, so are their price tags.

 

IMO....

There are a few good CRT RPTV's around. The 57" HD Sony, 57" HD Toshiba are both quite nice. Two of the better RPTV pictures I've seen. If you can wait about 6 months, Toshiba will have their new 57" HD set. One of the first sets that can actually resolve 1920x1080p. (9" Guns, yikes!)

LG's LCD RPTV is pretty good also. Great for HDTV, but hasn't got the same sort of constrast you get from a CRT based TV.

And mute, no offence, but you're a moron. You DO NOT/CANNOT "regas" a plasma...just doesn't happen.

A good plasma IMO, will rival most CRT sets. Of course there are still some CRTs which are still better. The 1024x1024 Fujitsu and Hitachi, as well as the 1366x768 Fujitsu are fantastic. Pana's aren't bad either. The LG and Sony plasma's just don't cut it picture quality wise IMO.

Good Luck

Joe.

 

How am I not meant to take offence when you call me a moron?

It's like me beating the shit out of you and then saying sorry, I doubt you'd forgive me.

I'm just repeating what I've been taught so don't fucking blame me. I was taught that they work with millions if tiny flourescent lights, which "blow" after a while and need to be replaced or "re-gassed", simlar to a flourescent light in a classroom or similar.

 

Is there anything available that actually displays 1080i HD yet?

Anyway, it's worth browsing the forums at
http://www.dba.org.au/ , there is alot more discussion with people who actually own the stuff.

 

Here's an interesting little spiel about HDTV. Sounds like it's a lot better than I imagined.

http://www.eastwoodhifi.com.au/hdtv.htm

Cheers,
D.

 

Plasma > *

 

Go to Campsie HiFi and ask them to show you their RankArenas.
They are one of only two TRUE HD CRT's produced in the world (as of Dec. last year anyway) - Panasonic make the other.

They use the Toshiba tube, which is widely known as being the best quality picture tube in the world.

A large RankArena will absolutely BLOW any rear projection (and plasma, unless things have changed in the past few months) out of the water.
And they thousands of dollars cheaper.

 

Yeah it sorta works like little fluro lights, heated to a plasma state to porduce photons that hit phosphors or something like that.

But you can't regas them, and as far as i know you don't need to. There are just too many, and they are squashed between layers of glass and circuitry.

Plasmas are more like LCDs. Sometimes you might get a dead pixel. Also after a 10000 hours (if I remember correctly) they lloose about half of their brightness, but that's like 3 years of continuous use anyway.

Plasmas' are also available in SD and HD. So i don't know why some people are saying they don't look good, but maybe they were looking at an SD. I would assume that the pixels in a CRT need to be bigger, so a Plasma would be sharper and higher res.

 

I seen HDTV with BS Digital (Japanese digital TV with 1080i) and LCD RPTV with BS Digital.

HDTV was amazing... It kick DVD ass bad.¡K

But is all coming down to size or pic quality.

 

If one is viewing both tv sets at a close distance (say 1 metre) then probably yes.

If viewing from a normal distance (3-4 metres) then a properly calibrated 120 cm or above RPTV wins over a 80cm Rank Arena. Bigger is better (tv wise).

 

HDTV is great but not worth buying for the next few years. TV stations only need to air 20 hours a week of HD footage, and as I work at Nine I know we will be putting Fresh, Kerri-Anne and Catch Phrase plus advertisements as our content. The govt didn't specify what the HD footage had be. SOME American shows will be shown but not enough to justify the massive price of any HD sets. All the best HD stuff is the various footage that we are showing, hardly riveting viewing.

As far as CRT, LCD, Plasma and RPTV goes, everyone seems to be an expert on whats best. The best advice is to look at the set yourself, watching what YOU want ie DVD, sport, sit coms etc. After all it is you that has to live with the set!

 

Cant agree more with you are saying. Spot on mate.
Also if you are going CRT you should look a Loewe televisions seem to have some of the most natural colors calibarations i have seen and own. Also a very crisp picture. Their Tv's are great build quality and they come with a snazy solid stainless steel remote . Thats German quality for you.

 

Well thats your stations choice, and for that reason, Channel 9 sucks balls IMHO
Yeah, good work 9, just scraping in the bare minimum content

Channel 10 is broadcasting 24/7 HD as of July

Pitty Loewe cost so much

They are very nice TV's, I'm not disputing that, but IMO for the money they are not that great a buy.
Grundig are in the same basket IMO, although I prefer Grundig over Loewe... but thats personal preference.

IMO when you bring RankArena into the equation there is no competition mind you, the RankArena doesn't have a stainless steel remote

 

Wow, it seems as though things are almost heated in the debate about televisions. So heres my 2 cents.

I myself would go with rear pro over plasma. From what our reps tell us, plasmas are just a bit too fragile. One of our rep told us that they had a big problem with their plasma screens cracking. Just because people were treating them like normal CRTs (which can sometimes survive falling out of trucks!). You could actually crack the screen by grabbing either side and twisting! And this was customers fault.. Therfore not underwarranty. And therefore $$$ (very hard to fix a prob like that)

I personally am a big fan of Panasonics TX42P250 rear projection tv. Its 117cm widescreen and displays 1080i and 720p. We have it hooked up at work with a dgtech HD box, and well.. even though the only thing HD at the moment is the demo loops, it looks damn fine! And dvd, well.. looks pretty good through it. Expect to pay about $6500 for one of those.

But.. if thats not big enough.. the boss has one of the LG LCD based rear projection tvs! I cant find a link to it any web site. But its a 152 cm widescreen rear pro. Displays 1080i, 720p, 576p. As well as 1280 * 720 through DVI interface!
I can say that its one of the best pictures I personnally have seen. That includes the plasmas. Nice and clear, and even 4:3 Foxtel looks ok! (When the telly is that big.. the lines down the side dont matter so much!). A good price for one fo those is about $10,000. Although I know the boss didn't pay that much for one thanks to a very friendly LG rep!

But if you only have a small space, then the little panasonic CRT tellys are great. They do a HD compatible unit for around $3500. 76cm screen (TX76pw10)> Its nice and clear for digital telly and dvd.. but its toooo clear for normal telly.. unless you have great reception it looks shite. Too much clarity tends to pick out all the faults I have found.

So long and short of it.. the pictures only as good as you put in. So if you spend $10,000 on a telly.. dont be tight and use rabbit ears. Spend another two hundred and upgrade you aerial. Almost as good an upgrade as the telly!

Anyhow.. thats about all i know about these. Oh, except Im pretty sure that Channel 10 wont be broadcasting everything in true HD 24/7 (ie not 1080). But it'll do what chan 9 did a while back. On its HD channel (10HD) it will show hd when its available ie Rove live, secret life. But when any normal show which is not available in HD will be in either 576i or 576p. You will see a slight benefit in 576p due to higher data rates.

I know the motor sport looks shit on Standard def digital. Too much fast moving makes it look like a dodgy mpg all pixelated!

*re-reads post* Shit.. thats more than 2 cents.. more like a few dollars!

Rodney

 

I have not noticed anything like that. With my previous SD Grundig or my Current SD RPRO tv's & Thomson SD decoder.
I forget what features were on the Grundig, but perhaps the "digital reality scan" feature on my RPRO removes that issue?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe a progressively scanned img has anymore data than an interlaced img has.
The difference is in how it's drawn. IIRC, a progressive img is drawn in one scan, while an interlaced img is drawn in 2 scans.

Theres too much mis-information about RPRO tv's around. While older models had problems and pretty poor PQ, the current models are brilliant.
The biggest problem is, shops like Hardly Normal & co almost never have them set up correctly, convergence and contrast/color etc. So when people look at them, they usually think they are crap. You really need to see them at a speciality store to apreciate them.

With any huge screen size (plasma,rpro,lcd) you need to have room for it to get the most out of it. The Viewing Distance Caculator can be a lot of help in setting up a room for large screens.

 

anthony256

If you have to get something now get a HDRear Projection.
However I didn't like any RP TV's due to they all have limited horizontal viewing angles (or is that vertical? Humm)

A HD Plasma was to expensive, power hungry and current reading says they may not last more than 10,000 hours, suffer burn it effect.

The best looking of them all was the large LCD display TV's, current Sharp do a 97cm and Samsung a 101cm. However these are horrendously expensive right now and maybe should be looked at in 12 or more months. You can hook your PC up, browse and game etc with these.

HDCTR’s are $5-$6000, WTF.

None of these have a HD inbuilt digital tuner, so there is more money.

Suggestion: spend max $2000, buy a 80cm CRT 4:3 TV and wait a few years.

 

Youve obviously never seen a Louve/Metz TV - Best thing money can buy!.

My advice if you want huge picture with good quality is a DLP projector - will set you back around $7000 - $10000 but ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY! Plus the bulbs never where out

also, dont buy from Harvey Norman!

cheers

 

Just went to HN's...

They have a nice looking LG 42" Plasma for $7799. It looked very nice... 'twas playing A Bug's Life DVD.

Also a Panasonic 42" Plasma for $9999 which was playing Channel Nine HDTV, that looked so schweet.

The big RP I saw was a Toshiba 58" for $7500, a Sony 52" (I think) for $4999 and an LG 109cm for $2999 (I think it was $2999, maybe $3999 with $600 off, so $3399).

So, gots me thinking..

Plasma for ~$8k.
or absolutely huge RP for $7500
or decently big for $3399.

or inbetween for $5k.

I'm heading to $5k for now.. but I'm a good haggler, and never pay RRP for most electrical things (my previous Home Theatre, I got $4k off, so, paid $4500 for it).

I might be able to get him to throw in a set-top box + dvd's or something. I already have a DTS 5.1 Amp/Speakers/Subwoofer.

 

i might warn you that the channel nine HDTV is not actually avaiable.

It is played on a loop (goes for about an hour) - its far too expensive to implement at this point in time, and by the time they do implement it, its more than likly to have gone out of date.

cheers

 

i'll add my 2 cents after exam study.

to me its a matter of personal taste, budget and room size.