drpellypo Posted March 12, 2006 Report Share Posted March 12, 2006 Finally got round to looking for a panel for the new house. Any thoughts on the above? And would I need something like a lumagen, and plug stuff into that, or would the HDMI board do on it's own? I'm probably going to stick a freeview box on it, and a DVD player (could probably do with getting a new one of those too - any ideas on that too?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Without doubt the best plasma available when combined with a scaler. I have had a pw6, 435xde (urgh!), NEC 42XM3 (urrrgggghh!!), PHD6 and now a 50PHD8. It was a very close call between the Fuji 50" and the Panny 50" but the Panny looked more like a CRT than the Fuji so it won. If you are going to be using it for TV and DVD that means you are going to be watching a fair bit of Pal video based material, so I would look at the Crsyatlio scaler rather than the Lumagen, I had the Lumagen and swapped to Crystalio. I have had an HDP pro here for a couple of weeks as there is new firmware but still think the Crstalio using Faroudja processing is far better. Even the guys at Lumagen say there unit was not really designed for Pal material as it uses the SiL504 chipset, although newer firmware has improved it alot. The new Pioneer 50" monitor looks promising though, 1080p panel, I like the 506XDE picture until stuff starts to move then it looks crap!! So the thought of getting the Pioneer with off board processing sounds very promising, I will definitely buy one, use it for a couple of weeks and then sell it or the HD8. I would avoid hdmi if you are going to use a scaler, RGB/h/v is far better and lets you bypass the interal deinterlacing and scaling of the panel and use the scalers. HDMI is too limited regarding resolutions etc. and there is actaully more noise in he image than analogue. if you want to drop me a line I can explain things a bit better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Hey fella - thanks for the reply. Having looked into it a bit more, I've realised it'll be daft to get the hd, but rather go for the PW, as it's a fair bit cheaper, and I wont be using sky or anything, so wont have a need for HD yet. I had decided on the PW8, and a Lumagen, but now you mention a different scaler, looks like I'll have to go for that! Any ideas where to buy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 I would get the PHD8 for sure, it is definitely better as there is no issue with banding/solorization like you get with the PW range and most other plasmas. TH-42PHD8 In Silver or Charcoal £1,650.00 inc VAT & delivery (UK mainland) Inc. Composite/VHS video board as supplied with the screen from Panasonic Inc. 2 years Manufacturers warranty Accessories Flat wall mount £68.00 (forum power buy price) Tilting/ flat wall mount £89.00 (forum power buy price) Low profile pedestal stand £71.09 (forum power buy price) Send Alastair a PM on avforums and ask him if he has any left. If you are not a member on there tell him Guy (gizlaroc) told you to get in touch. I would take a PHD8 and no scaler over the PW8 and scaler, as you can add a scaler later. Alastair is also doing 9 months interest free on the PHD8 by the way. Send me a PM and I will give you my mobile number, I will talk you through the differences between the panels and the scalers if it will help, far too many to list on here. FORUM OFFER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 If you are going to get the PW8 I would just get a decent dvd player and forget the scaler. I can't see the point of the PW8 and the scaler combo, I would rather have a better dvd player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Argh! Another can of worms opened. I'm actually already talking to Alastair on AVforums If I were to go for the PHD8 then, which DVD player would you recommend? TBH, I was only going for scaler because loads of people were rainting about them - and I figured it was the must have. Someone has suggested the HK DVD25 as a DVD player.. and that would match my HK AV4000 amp looks wise, so sounds good. Thanks for the advice so far by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 What kit have you got that you need to use. You want it as easy to use as possible while making sure you have the best quality from each source device. So what sources have you got, how many component inputs are on the amp etc. etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameo Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 I was in a similar position to you at the end of last year. Although I really wanted the PHD I couldn't justify the additional cost (I had not intention of going doen the HD route in the next few years). So I went with the PWD through the av-sales offer. I am really pleased with the picture and have no regrets....well other than wishing I'd gone 50" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 The PHD has one major benefit and that is the near total lack of colour banding. However from about 9ft viewing distance just about everything else looks the same with the pw range and the hd range even when you see them side by side. I have had a few people see my pw6 and HD6 running next to each other with dvd, sky and HD and only a handful could tell which was which, I think that says alot. Sky was actually the only thing that looked obviously better on the PHD screen, which also amazes alot of people, decent dvd and proper HD (from D-Theater) looked almost the same on both screens, until you have your face a foot away from the screen. I spent £5.5k on my screen and video processor but it only slightly better than a PW8 at £1000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 [ QUOTE ] What kit have you got that you need to use. You want it as easy to use as possible while making sure you have the best quality from each source device. So what sources have you got, how many component inputs are on the amp etc. etc.? [/ QUOTE ] I currently have (or should I say, am not wanting to replace), an HK AV4000 amp. Would want to buy a new DVD player to connect to the panel, but for now, that would be it. We wouldn't even be bothering with freeview. Certainly, we aren't ever going to get sky. With that in mind? WOuld it be daft shelling out for the HD panel? Arrggh.. I'm soo confused! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 So you are not going to watch any TV on your new TV??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 No, not in the short term. We'll have a TV in our bedroom, but we'd rather not have a TV in the living room, as it's not the best of influences for the littlun. Much easier when he wants to watch something to stick a DVD on, rather than him whiling away hours in front of the telly etc. Saves arguments too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Well if you are not going to have any TV in there at all that makes a big difference to what input boards you need. I would say buy the screen with no input boards then, then buy a decent progressive dvd player, forget hdmi etc. it is no better than analogue and certainly not on the panny which has a sublime analogue input stage. How is your disc collection built up?? Is it Pal (UK) discs or NTSC (US/Canada) discs?? This makes a big difference to what player to choose, some chipsets work very well with ntsc but don't deinterlace pal as well. Also, you won't be disapointed with the PW8, however are you the sort of person to think "what if......?" If so spend the extra £600 now and know you have the best 42" plasma on the market fullstop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 My budget is around 2k.. certainly no more than 2.3k for panel and dvd player. All my DVD's are PAL. My question now is, is it worth spending my money on a PW + scaler, or getting an HD, and no scaler, but something like a Denon DVD that upscales? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Don't buy a Denon, absolute bag of shite!! I have had the A1 to test and it is appauling, the sound quality is also terrible. I would get the 42PHD8 and a component to VGA cable from av-sales. Then get a decent dvd player, this could be a Philips using Faroudja deinterlacing for a couple of hundred quid. I have a Philips 963SA that I use which is awesome (play.com were doing them for £119 delivered recently), best player I have seen picture wise as I have it SDI modded. I also have a Classe CD/DVD-1 which I use for music and concert dvds, again a very good player but not as good as the Philips for picture quality, and certainly not £3100 better than the Philips. Also had the Meridian 598DP which was £3000 but that is not as good either, but a very, very good cd transpot. Tag top loader, again really nice, but not as good as the philips! I wouldn't have a Denon if it were free, they really are that bad. A Pioneer player would be a good buy, but don't go for one with loads of toys, the Panny likes component better than hdmi. And you don't want an up scaling dvd player either. The panny screens are either 864x480 or 1024x768. You want to feed the screen a progressive signal and let the panel scale it to the native resolution, if you feed it an upscaled image you will be giving it say 720p. Then the player takes the interlaced data off the disc, deinterlaces it and and converts the 720 horizontal lines to 1280, it then takes the dvds 576 Vertical lines off the disc and converts this to 720, then it feeds the plasma this 1280x720 progressive image and the screen has to use its own internal scaler to get the 1280x720 image to match its 1024x768 pixels so it has to scale again, and when this happens you start to get scaling artifacts, not nice! If you look at resolution tests using an upscaling players outputs vs regular progressive from the same player you can see that you loose loads of detail. So I would say get the HD screen, and a decent progressive scan dvd player, this will give you the best results possible, let the player deinterlace and the panel scale, it is going to scale anyway so why do it in the palyer first?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Guy, thanks so much for all your advice. I can't find the Philips anywhere, but did find a Pio here http://www.avsales.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=PIONEER-DV-585A&cat=165&nav= That plays DVD audio too, and as we'll be using the DVD player for listening to music as well as watching films, it'd be nice to have this as well as SACD. And is progressive. A good buy you think? After two months, I think I have finally got a shopping list together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 I can't find the Philips either. I don't know that player and I never like to comment unless I have spent a fair bit of time with one. For the money it looks excellent though, and I have yet to see a bad Pioneer really. Have a look for a Panasonic S-97 as well, another cracking player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Samsung 950 is pretty good and not alot of money. I may know someone who has a Philips 963SA for sale, he was going to put an SDI board in his machine but is thinking of selling it and buying one already modded now they are down to £400 from £599. I bet he would sell it for £125 shipped, he bought it for £120 from play and then had to get it multi regioned so it is a fair price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Oh, he also has a £1000 Denon sitting there that the Philips replaced, he wants £225 deoivered for that, but I wouldn't touch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted March 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Samsung 950 is pretty good and not alot of money. I may know someone who has a Philips 963SA for sale, he was going to put an SDI board in his machine but is thinking of selling it and buying one already modded now they are down to £400 from £599. I bet he would sell it for £125 shipped, he bought it for £120 from play and then had to get it multi regioned so it is a fair price. [/ QUOTE ] Ya think that's a better player than the Pioneer? (I searched for the Panny.. but can;t find that anywhere either!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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