OK....had a three hour Demo yesterday. Wanted to find out first hand and compare side by side the streingths and weaknesses of Plasma vs LCD and the various brands available using a budget of 60k with 37-42 inch panels. With me, and offering there opinions, were my 21 year old son who is experienced with gaming, my 12 year old and 8 year old son. Our use at home will be aproximately 35% PS3, 30% DVD BlueRay and 35% Sky cable viewing. After weeks of running around in the USA and seeing some great products at great prices my hunger for another HD monitor is at a peak. (I first purchased two years ago a 60 inch Sony SXRD 1080P rear pojection unit and have been pretty happy with it.) I decided to Demo and compare three aspects A) Gaming with PS3 - Motor Storm, B) Blueray Movie Viewing - Transformers, C) Official/Originol DVD Concert of Red Hot Chilli Peppers using the top of the line Pioneer upscale DVD player
PLEASE NOTE:All the viewing was first done on factory settings and adjusted by the very patient and experienced Sales Tech Sir Paul.
I could not evaluate sound quality of any of the units as there were other demos going on.
I can not offer any comments on standard cable viewing.
1) Sony 40 inch LCD (1080P S series entry level) Wanted the V series but only S was in stock
2) Samsung 37A550 (1080P entry level) ..wanted to test the 40 inch unit but none in stock
3) Panasonic LCD 37 inch (37A450) 720P only as the 1080P are not yet available in the Phillies
4) Panasonic 42PV80 Plasma (The highly discussed on this forum 720P 42 inch unit)
5) Toshiba Raiza 37AV500 720p
My Son Spent about 40 minutes using the PS3. All the sets preformed well but some better than others.
The Sony had awsome colors and tones. The TV did how ever have pixelization issues. Not my sons favorite
The panny LCD and the toshiba had very good colors although some what exagerated. Not true to life so to speak but still good. Had pixelization issues as well. Pretty good in general but not as good as the Sony
The Samsung preformed very well. The reaction time, according to my son, was very good ( perhaps the best). Color and tones were pretty good but short of the sony . (This may have been because the samy is so "Bright and in your face" .We probably could have tweaked it just a little more )...The over all colors were more accurate than the Panny LCD and the Toshiba. And yes we also had pixelization issues. Based on reaction time this was the best preformer of the LCD's so far.
The Panny plasma had good earthy colors and tones. A little darker than the LCD's but I expected that. Paul adjusted the brightness just a little and it looked great. Colors did come alive and the reaction time was also very good. NOT MUCH PIXELIZATION
My sons verdict: In respect to LCD's He liked the Sammy the best but PHERHAPS OVER ALL MAYBE the panny plasma the best??
The DVD concert was played and all the lcd's could not handle the moving and jumping very well. MAJOR PIXELIZATION THROUGH OUT THE CROWD AND PREFORMANCE ON STAGE. The experience left alot to be desired. I will add that the Sony had the most accurate color of them all. The Panny plasma handled it the best. The least pixelization and fairly good color and tone.
We all agreed the viewing of this DVD on the plasma was the best. The sony and Sammy were a distant second. Toshiba and Panny LCD were a tie respectively in third.
Here is where we come down to the nuts and bolts of the viewing for me as I am not a gamer and am really looking forward to the Blueray HD movie viewing.
When in the states I viewed (in a SONY shop) a stunning preformance of the Movie Transformers on a 46 inch XBR with 120hz. I watched the opening 15 minutes and it was really SPECTACULAR. I decided that this was the movie I would bring for the demo. I can only say that at first glance 5 minutes in to the movie the Sony was again brilliant in respect to color, tone, and sheer brillance. The Sammy looked very good as a close second. The panny plasma handled it very well. The Toshiba looked good and the Panny LCD could not take the 1080P feed so we shut it down. Based on the importance I placed on Blueray movie veiwing I was ready to declare the clear winner of this part of our demo to Sony. My eldest son agreed. Hands down the sony was Awsome. Almost as good as the viewing we had in the states. Now very importantly there were three other customrs in the store all carefully doing there own demos. All of them came over one by one and all commented on how the Sony looked best of them all. The Sammy also looked good but was very bright. The plasma was holding its own with very accuarte color rendering as well. But as the action in the movie picked up and we were watching battle and chase scenes and actual robots transforming that pixelization reared its ugly head on all the LCD's. I was not a happy camper as I found it to be quite a distraction. My 12 year old son pointed out that the Sammy was the LCD that best handled this and had the least pixelization. There seemed to be a smooth flow on the sammy which helped mute the constant pixelization problems on all the other LCD's. With that being said it seemed to lag a bit but that was limited when paul put the "movie feature" on low as opposed to high /medium. It was at this point that we turned our attention away from the toshiba and concentrated on the Plasma the Sammy and the sony. The plasma had the least pixelization issues. The Sammy with its smooth flow looked pretty good and the most disturbing at this point was the Sony. Paul tried to desperately adjust and tweak but that sony could not rid itself of that Pixel issue The Sammy handled it some what better.
I had then asked Paul to get another blueray and he got the fantastic four. It started off with again Sony proving to the best PQ, and color but as soon as the action started the sony and the pixel issue returned. The sammy also has these issues but not as much and the plasma looked very good.
For the next thirty minutes my boys played PS3. My eldest son then said playing on the plasma was easy on his eyes as opposed to the bright sammy and sony. He wants the Panny PV80. One of he guys demoing near us came over and said he liked the plasma the best. Another one came over and just said he ordered the Panny plasma for immediate delivery. They were happy with our demo. I am scratching my head. I really liked the PV80. I now need to demo the Panny Plasma 42PY700 full HD and the Panny Plasma 42PY800.
I also am asking myself:
Are the entry level 1080P LCD'S not high tech enough to display fast moving HD?
Is the LCD technology still a work in progress?
Are the more expensive LCD's better in avoiding pixelization entirely?
How much must one spend in the Phillies to get a LCD with out Pixelization?
And based on budget should I focus only on Plasma?
People.....I really welcome any comments you have.
