LCD TV Picture Quality

[peterc10]

Good point about the websites. However I discovered a good trick because I wanted mine straight away. Looked at Comet website and found that they were

[Carblack]

carblack your not supposed to watch tv in toatal darkness

I know and I don't watch it in darkness, but it's the only point I could find which wasn't to the same standard as a tradditional CRT.

[mcbunny]

the problem with video black is it isnt actually black its grey its 16points above actual black

[jifster]

I think i'm going to get the LG 32LX2R, i've had one of their 21" LCD's for a couple of months now. Looking on the John Lewis website I notice they are about

[mbval]

Don't buy plasma :eek: buy LCD the picture is better

[jifster]

I was window shopping in the Westend of London on the way home from work yesterday and the new Philips 32" LCD looks outstanding. I'm not sure if they have some kind of High Definition demo running but i've never seen a picture like it. Part of the demo was a close up of a group of fighter planes and it was as clear as looking up into the sky and seeing them close up, not like looking at a screen at all. Quite amazing.

The only downside to seeing this is that all the other sets I was considering now look :pants:

I think the set is called a Cineos and the model was 32PF9830.

[mannyo]

jifster, that was a high def demo clip. They look truely superb, and they look just the same on my 42" plasma. You can download the clip and play it on your pc assuming its a reasonably modern one. Search for WMVHD on microsoft.com

[jifster]

jifster, that was a high def demo clip. They look truely superb, and they look just the same on my 42" plasma. You can download the clip and play it on your pc assuming its a reasonably modern one. Search for WMVHD on microsoft.com

Ah I see, so do you think any of the new HD ready sets would look as good if playing the same demo? I wonder why they don't show that on all of them instead of those damn cartoons or terrible tv feeds. :confused:

[bertJ]

Thanks for all your really helpful comments. I think I'll wait a few months, certainly to well after Christmas, before finally deciding.

[Goochie]

For what its worth....

I was recently in a TV shop where they had the discovery channel on every TV. The conventional TV's had nice crisp pictures that had no "motion blur" what so ever. SUbtitles were crisp and the "Discovery Channel" text was crisp.

The flat panel screens that were less than

[boyced]

I feed it from a HTPC running Microsoft MCE2005

Whats HTPC? and MCE2005?

[plumsoul]

I've been looking at LCD HD TV's but the posts above have made me reconsider at least for now anyway. I only have small lounge (12' by 12') and I've noticed in shops that the TV I stand in front of looks fuzzy compared to the TVs on the row behind - until you get up to those, then they look fuzzy too. So, in my small lounge I'm worried a 30" LCD screen will look fuzzy from where we sit. What would the best viewing distance be for a 28" or 30" LCD?

In Waitrose today I saw a 32" Dmtech and a 30" Evesham model on the internet that I liked - decided to hang on for a while now though.

cheers

derek

[maffwilson]

What would the best viewing distance be for a 28" or 30" LCD?

This is often quoted:

Generally, you calculate viewing distance by multiplying one of the screen's dimensions (height, width, or diagonal) by some fixed number. The rule-of-thumb generalizations for standard analog TVs with 4:3 aspect ratio no longer hold true for newer HDTV sets and HDTV-ready TVs. These high-resolution models include upconversion circuitry and wider 16:9 aspect ratio screens. High-resolution displays reduce the visibility of scan lines, so you can sit closer without noticing them.

Standard TVs with 4:3 aspect ratio

27" 6.75 ft

32" 8 feet

36" 9 feet

40" 10 feet

45" 11.25 feet

50" 12.5 feet

55" 13.75 feet

60" 15 feet

HDTV-capable TVs with 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio

30" 6.25 feet

35" 7.3 feet

40" 8.3 feet

45" 9.4 feet

50" 10.4 feet

55" 11.5 feet

60" 12.5 feet

65" 13.5 feet

[mannyo]

Whats HTPC? and MCE2005?

HTPC = Home Theatre PC, in this case a P4 3.0GHZ with 2GB ram and 500GB of disk space. Connected to my plasma TV using a Geforce 6600 Graphics card via DVI.

MCE2005 = Microsoft Mediacenter 2005, Operating system based around Windows XP Pro. Has extra application specifically for viewing TV, Photos, Playing Music on the TV.

[mannyo]

Ah I see, so do you think any of the new HD ready sets would look as good if playing the same demo? I wonder why they don't show that on all of them instead of those damn cartoons or terrible tv feeds. :confused:

They should be comparable. I know what you mean about bad feeds and cartoons. You can only take so much finding nemo.

[Theman7]

This is a very good question.

My dad who is retired and spends alot of time reading tech stuff has been banging on about this for about 12months.

he recons.......

That all of the expert advice is, at the moment buy CRT as LCD doesnt match it yet, he says get a 32" CRT for about

[jifster]

This is a very good question.

My dad who is retired and spends alot of time reading tech stuff has been banging on about this for about 12months.

he recons.......

That all of the expert advice is, at the moment buy CRT as LCD doesnt match it yet, he says get a 32" CRT for about

[peterc10]

This is a very good question.

My dad who is retired and spends alot of time reading tech stuff has been banging on about this for about 12months.

he recons.......

That all of the expert advice is, at the moment buy CRT as LCD doesnt match it yet, he says get a 32" CRT for about

[Goochie]

I have to revise my view of flat panel screens. I was visiting family at the weekend and had the pleasure of viewing a Samsung plasma screen - the thing was probably a 38" and the quality was simply stunning - Mind you it should be for nearly £3000

[Johnnyc]

Fraid my own eyes disagree with your dad. New 32" Sony LCD best picture ever - but you really need digital rather than analogue input to get the full effect. So he may be right for ordinary 5 channel viewing, but not for freeview

Trouble is that one person's idea of a good picture is quite often entirely different from someone elses.

A friend of mine works for a local electrical retailer here who sell most brands of plasmas and LCD tv's on the market. They are plaqued by complaints from customers over poor picture quaility. This seems to be the case whether the customers are using analogue or digital TV receivers. The exception seems to be a couple of sets with built-in freeview but thats probably because the digital signal is preserved completely with these sets.

Great Technology but still a long way to go i'm afraid.

[mcbunny]

i would never use an lcd tv with a feed straight from the wall only via a htpc its the only way

[LouisTsui]

Anyone tried to play Gran Turismo 3 or 4 on a LCD TV?

[simontreen]

Some people are sensitive to the lag on LCDs and smearing can be a problem, I have also looked at that Samsung (in Lakes) and wasn't terribly impressed with the picture quality and it was fed from the same source as the Sony next to it which was much better.

I think I'm going to hold out until the Rear projections DLPs come down in price as they are by far the best quality I've seen so far.

[mcbunny]

dlp's are very cheap sony 50" screen is about 1100 iirc

[Goochie]

:bump:

Looking at LCD's in the Janusry sales so more opinions welcome.

Is TV LCD technology the same as laptop screen technology? The screen on my Toshiba laptop suffers from no ghosting or lag what so ever when viewing DVD's. Or is this just because an object moving over the screen has to pass through less pixels to get to the other side so it's not noticable?