CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**Joust**

Hi guys.
I'm looking for advice on a tv to view SD 480i tv source "most" of the time.
this will replace the old 32" CRT tv in the front room.

I'm on the fence between LCD and plasma. I like plasma better as we like action movies and some hockey.

since we will be watching mostly 480i i was wondering if it makes a difference what native resolution is.
will a plasma that has 1320x768 display 480i better than an LCD that is 1920x1080.
DVDs will be displayed at the best rate possible but thats not the main focus of this set so I'd rather not shell out a pile of money.

basically will 720p do me here or should I hold out for 1080p?

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:28 am Post subject:

If all you're going to watch is upscaled SD, the 720p display (or 768p) should be more than adequate. The only way you'd benefit from the additional pixels and resolution in a 1080p display, is if your viewing distance was short enough that you saw pixels with the 720/768p display.

My wife's 37" 768p LCD in the living room is great for "watching TV". I'm typically sitting about 7-8' from it, and I don't really notice any pixels at all. Just get an idea of your actual viewing distance in your room, then go look at some displays from the same distance in the stores.

Probably more important than resolution is how good the SD scaling is in the displays you look at. Some scaling sucks, while some is really excellent. Some of the manufacturers know full well that people are getting these displays to use with HD sources, and that if the SD looks like crap, people will simply chalk it up to "standard def sucks and HD rocks". Read some reviews, check them out in person...

If you're viewing distance is far enough and all you want to watch is SD, you might even look at a used or overstock ED (480p) display. The prices on them should be REALLY cheap by now, since everybody is all excited about anything with an "HD" label on it.

As for LCD/plasma, kind of depends on your room and what you'll watch. Most plasmas have much better blacks than LCD, but most plasmas don't tolerate bright light well. Our living room is very bright for most of the day, so I went with the brighter LCD, which also has the matte screen instead of the glossy glass. If you have a darker room or will only typically be watching in the evening, I'd definitely look at plasma first.

SC

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

I'm using a Fujitsu 852x480 plasma, and I really like it. The resolution lousiness isn't nearly as obvious as it was with the CRT RPTV I was using; the only negative is that since it's an older plasma the black level isn't so hot and the low IRE quality is ass. But for SD 480i broadcast input that hardly matters anyway. It also has really nice zoom modes for letterboxed stuff. It's got component input and isn't half bad for DVD in a pinch, either. But... only in a pinch. Smile

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:31 am Post subject:

Hey that looks like my living room but with ALL crt's. Very Happy

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

Oh, that's my office. The living room I keep nice. Razz

Anyway, I finally got the extra stuff out of there and stored until I can work on the other plasma.

That plasma is in my living room now, but not on the couch. That would be stupid, because then we'd have to sit on the tv stand to watch...

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:03 am Post subject:

My couch has two moome cards, an Ampro neck card, and a Sony G520P naked on it. Fortunately there are two other chairs. Laughing

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

macg, my Toshba RPTV has a line doubler, of course, but it doesn't bother scaling, and I think a lot of stuff is like that. A 480i signal into that just makes huge square pixels, like a big chess board. The edges are very obvious because they don't even try to blend or scale well. It looks tons better at native res ('line doubled' to 480p) on the low-res plasma panel.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

Edit: To be clear, it's an older generation (no tuner or HDMI) HDTV, not an older SDTV with a doubler so things look better.

It's a 42H83. HD looks pretty reasonable even though the focus is far from dialed in:

...and it's definitely doubling. It would be horrendously obvious if it was displaying 480i60! The 'doubling' is deinterlacing, really. The deinterlacing works fine but it's just nearest-neighbor upscaling, nothing like, say, the 5-tap lanzcos you can use in FFDshow, or even like bilinear interpolation. It's not removing information, or screwing the signal up, it's just showing EXACTLY what's there.

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:03 am Post subject:

I bought an open box blowout special Sony KDL52W3000 for $2100.00

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:33 am Post subject:

Oh it does. I watched a bluray movie on it. It was freakin' awesome.
going back to 480i is kinda tough though.... Sad

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

Well is does have a built in line doubler but I'm sure its still looks horrible compared to 1080p. I know it maybe hard to tell after watching at 1080 but how does the pic look with SD with the doubler?

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:44 am Post subject:

actually from our seating distance of 10-12 feet, its pretty good.
I'm going to put a line doubler in front of it and see if that makes a difference.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

It will just bypass it. The signal when sensed at 480i is then sent through the doubler. 480p or anything aboved when sensed it sent a different path and bypasses the doubler. But give it a try and see what happens.

The external doubler may process the signal better then the internal doubler and produce a better pic.

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:46 pm Post subject:

thats not what the sales guy told me but thats what I though would happen.
who says the sales guys at FutureShop know what the hell they are talking about anyway Confused

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:46 pm Post subject:

the doubler will be a good test regardless.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Joust** · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:36 pm Post subject:

No, I havn't had a chance.
we've been watching it and love it thought.
I'll post when I do try it