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[scissorfight]

The new Sony RPTV LCD sets are supposed to hit July 28. Still in July just a little later in the month, now!

That's good news; I wonder when the new 50"/60" Sony SXRD sets will land. God, there are so many choices. All I know is that I want 70" for my finished basmenet this fall. Which brand and whether it's 720p or 1080p will depend on what's out by Nov and what they cost.

LG has a 71" LCOS 1080p set coming that sounds awesome. It's supposed to rival the Qualia at a much more resonable price...unfortunately I haven't heard much about it since CES. I hope it's an option this fall.

 

[Mrbob]

The SXRD sets are tentatively scheduled for October/November release.

 

[Marty Chinn]

New Sony is at Fry's right now.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Which type?

 

[Brisal73]

I like my Mits 62 DLP. Never had a problem and games like Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, and Conker look great. It's nice having a HTPC

 

[Mrbob]

New Sony is at Fry's right now.

The A10? The new A20s may be there but I would be very surprised if the A10s are out.

 

[Mrbob]

What do you guys think of these new Hitachi sets coming out later this year:

http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachic...ne.html&path=jsp/hitachi/aboutus/Press-Media/

It'll be interesting to see how these stack up against the new Sony RPTV LCD sets.

 

[scissorfight]

What do you guys think of these new Hitachi sets coming out later this year:

http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachic...ne.html&path=jsp/hitachi/aboutus/Press-Media/

It'll be interesting to see how these stack up against the new Sony RPTV LCD sets.

Wow...I didn't know Hitachi was getting into LCoS. That's great news...there are now potentially four LCoS brands to compete this fall (Sony/JVC/Hitachi/LG).

If any of these LCoS sets can come close to DLP blacks and avoid the QC issues of the early JVC's (which they all should) then you've got a real winner. Hopefully the competetion drives LCoS set prices down across the board as well.

 

[Mrbob]

Yeah I'm hoping for prices to come down a little more too with Hitachi going with the LCoS sets. Although they may be out of my budget. We'll see how the prices go down.

One thing I do like about the Hitachi LCD RPTV over the Sony is having two HDMI ports versus one. I'm confused by Hitachi's vaunted virtual 1080P mode. I've been trying to read up on it and don't understand it. Does this mean the Hitachi sets takes all signals and converts them to 1080P internally and then outputs that signal to 720P?

 

[Crazymoogle]

The other odd thing with one of the Hitachi sets was a USB port. Crazy.

In other news, the A10 prices are starting to sound more interesting based on the AVS thread...

 

[Mrbob]

Ohhh, just read it now after the mention. 50" model for $2499 not bad. Get a 10 percent off sale and grab it for 2250! I'm guessing the 42" model will be $1999 then. Circuit City has the 55"A20 on sale for $2699 right now. One thing that confuses me though is Sony trying to gimp the A20 line? You have the A10 with the cinema black pro which the A20 does not support. I guess the allure will be a bigger screen? The A10 is only 42 and 50 inch. The A20 are 55 and 60 inch. I'm really looking forward to seeing the A10 models in store. I had been thinking about the 42 inch, but now I'm getting greedy and may upgrade to the 50 inch model! I'm going to sit about 6.5 feet away so I figure either one would work. But if I'm going big I'd like to go as big as I can without going too big! Since the A20s aren't 720P native and don't have the cinema black pro they are out of the equation for me.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Ohhh, just read it now after the mention. 50" model for $2499 not bad. Get a 10 percent off sale and grab it for 2250! I'm guessing the 42" model will be $1999 then. Circuit City has the 55"A20 on sale for $2699 right now. One thing that confuses me though is Sony trying to gimp the A20 line? You have the A10 with the cinema black pro which the A20 does not support. I guess the allure will be a bigger screen? The A10 is only 42 and 50 inch. The A20 are 55 and 60 inch. I'm really looking forward to seeing the A10 models in store. I had been thinking about the 42 inch, but now I'm getting greedy and may upgrade to the 50 inch model! I'm going to sit about 6.5 feet away so I figure either one would work. But if I'm going big I'd like to go as big as I can without going too big! Since the A20s aren't 720P native and don't have the cinema black pro they are out of the equation for me.

Could be some way to dump older components on the market with newer screen processing, maybe. It's hard to say with Sony, but it does seem pointless to buy the A20's when it's the A10's that have the iris and cinema black pro stuff onboard.

What I do know, however, is that the A10 line looks pretty damn good, especially with the speakers relegated to the sides of the TV.

 

[Mrbob]

Anyone get a glimpse of the new mits lcd rptv sets?

Looks like they have some new 3LCD models of their own hitting later this year. Some info:


http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/mitsubishi05san.htm

http://reviews.cnet.com/Mitsubishi_WD_52528/4505-6482_7-31385399-2.html?tag=top

52 inch model. I think it is going around 2799-2999 for price at the moment. Showing up in some stores now!

 

[ourumov]

20",720p, 600€...Is it possible ? In Europe ?
I really don't care about if it's LCD, Plasma, CRT or Laser...It would be nice if it had scart RGB conectors.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Hitachi, along with JVC, have been producing LCOS displays for years....they have tons of experience with LCOS....

In fact, both the Toshiba LCOS RPTV of 2 years ago and the $20K Mits. Alpha 82-inch LCOS RPTV of last year both used LCOS chips made by Hitachi....

So the New Mitsubishi and Samsung xHD4 1080p DLPs are shipping (mits accepts 1080p over VGA and firewire) and the LG (which accepts 1080p for sure) Sony and JVC are all bringing 1080p LCOS TVs in the fall......Toshiba will be releasing their fancy Talon-X 1080p DLPs then too (should also accept 1080p video)...

The two to watch out for, IMO, will be the LG LCOS and the Sony SXRDs(if they accept 1080p video)....

 

[Beer Monkey]

Frankly, I wouldn't buy a 1080p set in 2005 and probably not in 2006. I'd wait a generation or two for the sets to get better at things like scaling, rainbows, contrast, black level, and even perceived resolution (tech like wobulation is a stop-gap measure).

Buy a good 720p set now, and invest the savings over the 1080p set, and you'll have the money in a few years for a much better 1080p set than you can buy today.

Then again, I'm pragmatic about such things.

Regardless, I'd never buy a set based on resolution alone, and I wouldn't fool myself into thinking that a 1080p set was some kind of future-proof investment, as these sets are going to get a lot better in the next few years.

Frankly, if I did have a 1080p set today, I fear I'd still be feeding it 720p for a lot of games in the next couple of years, and then you have the issue of additional latency due to the scaling. Likewise, I'd avoid the oddball sets that are marketed as 720p but use resolutions like 1366x768 or 1024x768. And I certainly advise hanging onto an old interlaced set for playing the classic/legacy consoles---all the stuff that has to play in standard NTSC or PAL.

 

[Kiriku]

I got a new LCD monitor recently, and I think it's good enough to replace my previous CRT monitor. So I was thinking about getting an LCD TV as well. But I'm wondering if one can expect prices for LCD TVs to go down substantially during the latter part of this year? Don't know if it's worth waiting for...

 

[Warm Machine]

I'm looking to get a bunch of LCD/DLP/Plasma TVs for an office with a 1280x720 resolution. Probably around 17" - 25" in size. Any recommendations?

 

[Kleegamefan]

Yeah, about a million...


DLP=Samsung or Toshiba

Plasma=Panasonic or Pioneer

LCD=Sony


take your pick....

For a small LCD, I would go with Sharp...

 

[Shogmaster]

Yeah, about a million...


DLP=Samsung or Toshiba

Plasma=Panasonic or Pioneer

LCD=Sony


take your pick....

For a small LCD, I would go with Sharp...

How dare you forget to recommend CRT direct views! *glances at the thread topic*

Sony Aperature Grille CRTs all the way. Just set up my parents' 34HS420, which is a lower end none- Superfine pitch HDTV tube. It fucking looks FANTASTIC with Comcast's 1080i feed (only using component). I can't even imagine how good Superfine pitch 34XBR960 looks.

Tubes are still the muthafucking king in image quality, even with interlaced output. The colors brah, the colors.....

Heavy as fuck though (200 lbs for only 34" diagonal!!!)

 

[Mrbob]

How dare you forget to recommend CRT direct views! *glances at the thread topic*

Sony Aperature Grille CRTs all the way. Just set up my parents' 34HS420, which is a lower end none- Superfine pitch HDTV tube. It fucking looks FANTASTIC with Comcast's 1080i feed (only using component). I can't even imagine how good Superfine pitch 34XBR960 looks.

Tubes are still the muthafucking king in image quality, even with interlaced output. The colors brah, the colors.....

Heavy as fuck though (200 lbs for only 34" diagonal!!!)

Yeah this is the one thing I love about tube sets. Going back and forth between the 34" superfine and a 42 or 50 inch lcd. 34" Tube HDTV will look mighty fine with hd, x360, ps3, plus I won't have to invest in 400-600 dollars in bulbs over the next 5-7 years.

 

[Zaptruder]

How dare you forget to recommend CRT direct views! *glances at the thread topic*

Sony Aperature Grille CRTs all the way. Just set up my parents' 34HS420, which is a lower end none- Superfine pitch HDTV tube. It fucking looks FANTASTIC with Comcast's 1080i feed (only using component). I can't even imagine how good Superfine pitch 34XBR960 looks.

Tubes are still the muthafucking king in image quality, even with interlaced output. The colors brah, the colors.....

Heavy as fuck though (200 lbs for only 34" diagonal!!!)

For those that appreciate as much aesthetic appeal in the living and display quality of a display unit as the actual aesthetic quality of the image it generates, CRT is no longer an option.

 

[Shogmaster]

For those that appreciate as much aesthetic appeal in the living and display quality of a display unit as the actual aesthetic quality of the image it generates, CRT is no longer an option.

The 34HS420 is a sexy (if a hefty) bitch. It's like the Beyonce of HDTVs. Way too sexy for my parent's living room. :lol

 

[Bebpo]

For those that appreciate as much aesthetic appeal in the living and display quality of a display unit as the actual aesthetic quality of the image it generates, CRT is no longer an option.

That's kinda like saying you'd buy a weaker looking PS2 version of a game over the Xbox one if the PS2 had the better box art :\

 

[Mrbob]

Shog I gotta admit I'm a little surprised to see you sing the praises of a Sony tube set (especially the hd content) after all the smack talking you've done on them. :lol

 

[Shogmaster]

Shog I gotta admit I'm a little surprised to see you sing the praises of a Sony tube set (especially the hd content) after all the smack talking you've done on them. :lol

I also have owned 6 different Sony Clies (all over $500) over the years, and 2 Aperture Grille CRT monitors for computers.

I don't hate all of Sony. I just hate SCEE.

 

[Zaptruder]

That's kinda like saying you'd buy a weaker looking PS2 version of a game over the Xbox one if the PS2 had the better box art :\

Not really. Large HDTV screens are centerpieces of the living room and can't be hidden easily (you can build recesses into the walls, but that kinda planning is as expensive as the TVs themselves). On the otherhand, box art if you don't care for it, goes into a cupboard, or is far more easily ignored (especially just the spine).

 

[pxleyes]

The 34HS420 is a sexy (if a hefty) bitch. It's like the Beyonce of HDTVs. Way too sexy for my parent's living room. :lol

That is my future set, only 4 inches bigger. I dont have the cash for a the 34 inch, so the 30 (which on sale comes in right around 800) is the way to go. Best bang for my buck.

 

[Bebpo]

Question: Would it be smarter to wait for purchase until after the X360 is launched so people can play X360 games at 720p output on that Sony 34 CRT and make sure there aren't any bizarre scaling/cropping issues? Or is it pretty much a safe bet that other then some slight downconversion there will be no other issues?

Also is the price on the 34" gonna drop in the next 4-5 months?

 

[Shogmaster]

Question: Would it be smarter to wait for purchase until after the X360 is launched so people can play X360 games at 720p output on that Sony 34 CRT and make sure there aren't any bizarre scaling/cropping issues? Or is it pretty much a safe bet that other then some slight downconversion there will be no other issues?

Also is the price on the 34" gonna drop in the next 4-5 months?

Surely it will drop. 34XBR960 might go down to $1700 by then. It's already down to $1900 from $2100.

 

[mrklaw]

20",720p, 600€...Is it possible ? In Europe ?
I really don't care about if it's LCD, Plasma, CRT or Laser...It would be nice if it had scart RGB conectors.

Yeah, but 20" is an odd size. For widescreen (720p), you start at 17" and then there are 23, 26, 30 (approximate sizes)

Plenty of cheaper LCDs starting to become available. Check out avforums.com LCD screen section for some pointers.

Its annoying really. About a year ago I paid £2000 (about 3k Euro) for a philips LCD, top of the line, and at the time it was a bargain. Now, good 30" widescreens can be had online for around £800....


Oh well.

 

[seanoff]

Shog, you've got to get a super fine XBR. It will blow you away. And no fucker is going to steal it without some sort of lifting device.

You will have to outlay a fairly large sum to get an LCD/Plasma that beats it, plus it looks good as a pc monitor @ 720p. (just a reminder)

+ I'm seeing them for less than $1500 in the US. http://www.dealtime.com/xPC-Sony_FD_Trinitron_KD_34XBR960

 

[Bebpo]

How do you buy a TV online? I mean don't you want to see it first hand and make sure it has no defects? Also I'm guessing those prices don't include shipping. Considering how heavy the 34" XBR is I'm guessing you have to add a few hundred for the shipping.

 

[tenchir]

Ack, I cannot get my HDTV to display 1280x720 resolution when hooking up my laptop to it via VGA cable. I know it supports 720p, the XGA connector even said 480i, 480p, and 720p. Is it a problem with the videocard for my laptop? I can get it to display with resolution like 1024x768(ended up stretching) and other odd resolutions, but cannot get 1280x720 to work. I just want to output from my laptop to HDTV using widescreen resolution.

 

[Shogmaster]

Shog, you've got to get a super fine XBR. It will blow you away. And no fucker is going to steal it without some sort of lifting device.

You will have to outlay a fairly large sum to get an LCD/Plasma that beats it, plus it looks good as a pc monitor @ 720p. (just a reminder)

+ I'm seeing them for less than $1500 in the US. http://www.dealtime.com/xPC-Sony_FD_Trinitron_KD_34XBR960

Yeah man. I'll have to see how much of the interlacing jitter will bother me with X360 games with the XRB960 (I play games on a 480i CRT, and I hate what I call the "interlacing jitter" with the games), but I was quite smitten with even the lower end HS420 on a proper source. Let's just say looking at XBR960 at Best Buy doesn't give you any fucking inkling on the picture quality!

How do you buy a TV online? I mean don't you want to see it first hand and make sure it has no defects? Also I'm guessing those prices don't include shipping. Considering how heavy the 34" XBR is I'm guessing you have to add a few hundred for the shipping.

Not only will you be paying around $250 for shipping that muthabitch, you will make a life long enemy of your UPS/FedEx guy. :lol

 

[Bebpo]

Not only will you be paying around $250 for shipping that muthabitch, you will make a life long enemy of your UPS/FedEx guy. :lol

Doh. Well since I think I want to keep it under $2000 after tax + shipping + cheap stand I guess I'll wait a few months until I can actually find it for $1500 somewhere.

 

[seanoff]

click4tvs quote $150 for ground shipping, $799 for next day air. :lol

-1fedx friend

 

[Crazymoogle]

Not only will you be paying around $250 for shipping that muthabitch, you will make a life long enemy of your UPS/FedEx guy. :lol

:lol

Actually, that's another good reason why I won't be going CRT this time. With 4 flights of stairs to cover and uneven ground towards the building, it would actually make more sense to hoist the box several floors and drop it onto the porch!

tenchir: What sort of TV? What's the highest odd-resolution you can see on it?

 

[Kiriku]

I have a friend saying that Plasma TVs still suffer from the same kind of slow response, ghosting, as LCD TVs. At least when playing games on them? Is that true?

 

[Deg]

I have a friend saying that Plasma TVs still suffer from the same kind of slow response, ghosting, as LCD TVs. At least when playing games on them? Is that true?

Untrue. Its LCD that suffers from slow response rate. Plasma are perfect in this area and have no flicker unlike CRT too. Image quality is out of this world with a calibrated plasma so i wouldnt worry about that. Next to even the best 42" LCD a less than standard plasma will kill it. But the main point of 42" LCD is that they are cheaper.

 

[mrklaw]

But the main point of 42" LCD is that they are cheaper.

if you buy an SD set. If you want native HD - i.e. 1280x720 res, you'll pay for it. Of course, at 42", plasma is still cheaper, but under that size, LCD wins for HD panel prices.

And plasma has its fair share of problems too - all displays do.


CRT - geometry, distortion etc
LCD - black levels, ghosting
DLP - rainbows
Plasma - dot crawl, 'fizzing'

basically just look around and see which bothers you the least, in the price bracket you can afford.

 

[Deg]

Plasma - dot crawl, 'fizzing'

Rubbish. Thats do with the quality of input you are using. Its unlikely you will use RF or anything worse than svideo.

 

[Kiriku]

I read that Hyundai invested a lot of money in a Korean plant only to manufacture LCD screens, and that they're actually good. Any truth to that? 'Cause at least they're cheap.

Also, I'd like some advice...I've been looking around through numerous reviews for some time now...still not sure which TV to buy. I want it to handle 720 properly, and it shouldn't be too expensive. I'm looking at a 26-32 " LCD TV, or 37-42 Plasma TV. No CRT HDTV since I live in Europe. Not sure about plasma though, seems like the good ones are too expensive for me. If it's LCD, I'm worried about response time...and how important is progressive scan? Could someone name a few examples that aren't too expensive?

Say, what about Hitachi 32ld7200? Seems good based on the impressions I've read so far, and has a price I can handle.

Or wait, Samsung LE32R41B sounds awesome as well, and is cheaper too.

 

[Bebpo]

I'm reading that a lot of people with these Sony 30" and 34" sets have slight geometry issues. That would be a dealbreaker for me. So assuming DLP doesn't have geometry issues, I'm thinking about just getting 2 TVs: A 34" or slightly larger 720p DLP soley for X360/PS3/dvd/blueray, and then a 25-28" 4:3 CRT for current-gen and previous-gen systems.

Does that sound logical? Or is there a better solution?

Things I absolutely cannot stand in any games NES -> PS3 (in order of most annoying):

#1 Ghosting like what happens on the PSP screen.
#2 Input Lag
#3 Geometry
#4 Weak black level

 

[Bebpo]

To add to the idea of getting two TVs. I'm thinking if I get one now instead of my big HDTV, by the time X360 comes around and I buy that TV it'll have dropped a few hundred basically making the smaller TV I get in the meantime free.

So I'll add another question: Can I get a 4:3 tv 20"+ that is able to show 480p and has component inputs for under $300?

That would seem like a perfect TV for classic gaming -> this gen I think.

 

[Mrbob]

Someone at avsforum posted about the new Mitsubishi LCD RPTV set:

The reason there are very little reviews on these sets is because they are just coming out of the gate. As far as less screen door Vs the Sony, I have just received the Mits for my sales floor and have it placed directly next to the Sony. Out of the box it is better with no adjustments. I was pretty amazed at the black level as well. One thing particularly interesting to me was hooking this TV up with an antenna feed, the Local HD broadcast was STUNNING with almost no SDE! Anyway, at 2799.99 I think this will be a great addition to the Mits line up.

Sounding good, but dropping 2800 bucks on a 52" RPTV LCD set seems a little high. I'm hoping this price goes down another 300 bucks or so. For 2800 dollars I can start thinking about spending more for a 1080P set. Of course this comparison is against the old Sony sets. Not the new A10 models coming.

The new JVC D-ILA sets are starting to hit floors now too.

 

[human5892]

So I'll add another question: Can I get a 4:3 tv 20"+ that is able to show 480p and has component inputs for under $300?

Not sure about 480p, but last Christmas I got a 27" "flat" CRT for about $280 or so that has component inputs and is decent. Not mind-blowing or anything, and it has noticable flaws, but it does the job for what it is.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Sonystyle has preorders up on the A10 line. Looks like they start shipping august 3rd.

50A10: $2499
42A10 $1999

Dammit, I hate the world of debt hell and monthly payments, but this is mighty tempting...

 

[Mrbob]

Sonystyle has preorders up on the A10 line. Looks like they start shipping august 3rd.

50A10: $2499
42A10 $1999

Dammit, I hate the world of debt hell and monthly payments, but this is mighty tempting...

Oh, hell yeah! Those are prices I like! I don't mind the lack of twin view. I'd wait for a local store to put these sets on sale and pick them up there. 10 percent off sale puts the 42A10 at 1799 and the 50A10 at 2250! I originally planned on a 42" set, but I think I need a 50" set now!

 

[Mrbob]

Some specs and pictures are up for the 42A10 and 50A10 at Crutchfield!

I'll link to the 42A10 to read about it. You can find the 50A10 on the website too. Same feature set!

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-5Wxcu8X4SOr/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=147350&I=158KD42A10

» High-Definition TV — receives and decodes digital standard-definition and HDTV signals from over-the-air broadcasts (antenna required) and cable TV service (CableCARD™ required)
» widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio
» 3 LCD panels, 1280 x 720 pixels each (all signals displayed at 720p)
» Cinema Black Pro with Advanced Iris for improved contrast
» Wega Engine™ video processing
» adjustable DRC MultiFunction V1 (upconverts non-HD signals)
» built-in stereo speakers (12 watts x 2)
» multibrand remote control
» picture settings memory for each video input
» 6 A/V inputs, including:
• 3 composite video (2 rear, 1 side)
• 1 S-video
• 3 HD-compatible component video (2 rear, 1 side)
— accepts 1080i/720p/480p/480i signals
• 1 HDMI digital audio/video input
» PC input: analog RGB (D-Sub 15-pin)
» 2 RF inputs (1 Antenna, 1 Cable)
» optical digital audio output for Dolby® Digital
» Energy Star® compliant
» 39-3/8"W x 28-1/2"H x 14-1/8"D
» weight: 61.8 lbs.
» warranty: 1 year parts & labor

They even have a pic of the advanced iris on the webpage. Not sure if you care but I'll post it here:

$1999 for the 42" model and $2499 for the 50" model so it looks like those will be the retail prices!

Both expected July 28.