hey guys...who's using what for Video?
Looking at a 60" or greater RPTV and seem to get more questions than answers. Wanted a Toshiba 65" LCOS but they are not making them and my wife is up my fanny to buy a tv. Looking at the 61" DLP Samsung & Sony's 60" LCD. I only need a monitor so I'm trying to avoid the audio included to save money. Also like the Phillips LCOS 55" but wishing it was bigger...can't do a projector due to skylights. Thanks


------------------
;-)

For more information than you can possibly digest, check out www.avsforum.com. The RPTV section has a lot of debate regarding these technologies. Personally, I'll have a 50" Samsung DLP within a month.

I've got a Samsung 43" DLP, a Hitachi 51" rear projector, a Panasonic 42" EDTV Plasma and an Infocus 5700 DLP front projector. They all have HD feeds, though the Panasonic is connected via a composite cable. The others have a component hook up. They are all less than 3 months old and each looks terrific. If space and weight are an issue, I wouldn't hesitate with a rear projection DLP. I've seen some good looking LCDs, also, for reasonable prices, as long as you do not have any severe viewing angles.

grundc,

Just a guess, but my bet is that the Hitachi is the best looking set in your collection - followed by either of the two DLPs, with the plasma somewhat behind the pack. I'm assuming that they've all been professionally calibrated.

For picture quality alone, you still can't beat a well-calibrated set of CRTs in my opinion.

DLP has the potential to edge it out with further refinements - and LCOS has the potential to eventually vault past it. Right now there are some excellent DLP units out there.

I'm still not sold on either plasmas or LCDs for critical viewing.

But then again there are more factors to consider than picture quality (and accuracy) alone.

The buyer's biggest difficulty is the inability to do critical comparison shopping at almost all stores big enough to carry good examples of each type. It's tough to find properly calibrated units on the showroom floor / in a viewing room. And if you are going to drop a whack of change on any HDTV, it's the after-calibration results that matter the most since you'd be crazy not to do so. I have no connection to ISF except to say that I was blown away by the improvement to my 40" Toshiba CRT HDTV once ISF calibrated - even though I had done a better job than probably 95% of the population just by using the user-accessible controls and a few good calibration disks. Likewise two of my friends who had their larger Toshiba and Hitachi CRT's ISF calibrated after seeing what mine looked like.

Jeff Mackwood

I have a Samsung 61" DLP and just sold my old Hitachi 53" HD CRT RPTV.

While there were some aspects to the CRT that put it ahead of my DLP, the occupation I've had for the past 10 years has honed my skills (i.e., made me hyper-sensitive to the point of major annoyance at times!) at seeing minor geometric issues in images (as well as matte lines, edge enhancement, film grain, steadiness, color issues, etc). So convergence and geometry made CRT a poor choice for me, but plasma, DLP and LCD were far too expensive at the time, and too immature.

Last August I got the Samsung HLN617W, and wouldn't go back. While DLP has its own set of issues, to me the gain of an all-digital path and little to no geometric issues, as well as a much more linear gray scale post-calibration (I'm ISF trained and own the proper equipment) puts my DLP well ahead of my old Hitachi.

That said, Brett, Sony has evidently made great strides forward with their Grand Wega III line of LCDs, though I haven't seen too much of them yet to form an adequate opinion (just to avoid the appearance of too much of a bias towards DLP ). And Samsung is going to be releasing its latest line of DLPs very soon, which will offer increased contrast ratio and video processing, and later in the year when TI's xHD3 chips are being implemented, 1920x1080 resolutions in a 61" and 73" display will be available, although Samsung usually ends up missing their target release dates.

LCoS is still too immature for me to consider it seriously when I'm purchasing. The Toshiba is on indefinite hold, and the Philips has many issues as well. But it would be nice to see this technology get past its early issues!

I may very well upgrade to the xHD3 DLP with the 7-segment color wheel when they come out, but in the meantime I'm pretty happy! Calibration made a world of difference for my set, especially at the lower end of the grayscale. I'd definitely recommend it if you want to get the most out of whichever display you choose.

Incidentally, you're unlikely to find a monitor with no audio at all.

AVSforum.com is a good resource, as DollarBill has pointed out.

Good luck!

Rick

[This message has been edited by ender21 (edited March 09, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by ender21 (edited March 09, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by ender21 (edited March 09, 2004).]

I'll be in the market towards the end of this year. For what it's worth, I read the Face-off that Home Theater Magazine did on HD RPTV's in the February issue and the top two sets were the Sony KF-60WE610 (#2 w/ an asterisk) and the Toshiba 65HX93 (#1)

They said that the Sony was probably better if you were looking for a TV to do everything well in bright or dim environments and the Toshiba was the hands down winner for a dedicated HT.

For the entire face-off, you can find it online HERE .

Good luck with your quest. I'm keeping my ear to the ground to see which will be the one I go with later this year.

As an aside, do TV's come out like cars? (Meaing do they all come out at the same time for that model year) If that's the case, when do the new model year sets come out?

Jeff, you're right about the Hitachi. It does have a stunning picture. For the money, it is hard to beat a good rear projector, though I do think the others all look terrific in their own right. The great test is going to be how they all look in 3 to 5 years.

Hey Kugumby, Thanks for the link...I have read it before & actually was looking at the Sony until I made the mistake? of looking at avsforum. That place makes my head hurt! I think I am narrowed down to a Sony LCD or a RCA or Samsung DLP. One thing I noticed at the local circut city was that next to a Sony plasma, & 2 samsung DLP's was that the RCA looked much more defined. All the others seemed to have an airbrushed look about the actors faces, etc. while the RCA showed how really ugly actors are! Amazingly, the RCA was so noticably clear that I'm not sure that I could handle seeing the truth! We had the same feed & I even changed all the settings to see if I could blur the image slightly & could not. I think I'll have to pass on the RCA for that reason anyway. Not bad at $3250 or so for a 61" dlp price range though. thank sfor the thread's

------------------
;-)

HA! forgot that the RCA was profiled in the home theatre mag face off. no notes about the resolution but plenty of other bad reviews so Now I know I'll pass....


------------------
;-)