How future proof is the 42' Panasonic Plasma Screen TH-42PV700AZ?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › How future proof is the 42" Panasonic Plasma Screen TH-42PV700AZ?

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10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#84361 29-Aug-2007 22:02

Right guys I do believe we are getting somewhare - you'll make a geek out of me yet!

Now Cyril, can you please explain the difference between 1080p24, 1080i30 & 1080p50/60. In essence what do the letters and nubers mean after the resolution?

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Daza

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Snowflake

#84373 29-Aug-2007 23:47

Daza: Right guys I do believe we are getting somewhare - you'll make a geek out of me yet!

Now Cyril, can you please explain the difference between 1080p24, 1080i30 & 1080p50/60. In essence what do the letters and nubers mean after the resolution?

Cheers
Daza

1080p24 is 1080 vertical lines, progressive scan, 24 frames per second
1080i30 is 1080 vertical lines, interlaced, 30 fps
etc. etc.

progressive = redraws all the lines of resolution at once (i.e. why you need 1080 lines for 1080p)
interlaced = redraws every second line in the first refresh and the rest in the next refresh.

movies are typically shot using 24fps, PAL signal is 25fps (50 fps interlaced), NTSC is 30fps

3:2 pulldown is where you convert video from 24fps (cinematic) to 30fps (ntsc). unfortunately this can create some artifacts and errors in the resulting stream.

note that the new "RED" cameras that Peter Jackson was testing which were noted in the press recently can shoot natively in 1080p at up to 60fps. This would be much better for HTDV that can display 1080p50/60 as you wont need to do the pulldown conversions anymore

i hope that all makes sense :)

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nutbugs

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#84394 30-Aug-2007 08:51

All starting to make sense to me :)
Is anyone able to explain to me the significance of the vertical resolution? I note that on this Plasma it is 1024, but on similar sized LCD's (and some larger plasma's?) the resolution is 1366. Does this mean that widescreen images will end up being letterboxed or cropped still or am i missing something obvious here?
Thanks.

cyril7

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#84399 30-Aug-2007 09:02

The panel will rescale up or down whatever input signal you apply to match its pixel map, no cropping at all.

Cyril

sbiddle

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#84401 30-Aug-2007 09:26

Just one other thing to be wary of is PC support. If you ever plan on buying a media centre PC then connectivity is something you should look at as well. Check what native resolutions the TV supports for VGA input and HDMI and possibly try and establish if you can do 1: pixel mapping over HDMI. Hooking a PC up via the VGA input is the easiest way but in the future this will end up being a obsolete connector as HDMI is needed to support HDCP copy protection if and when it starts to be implimented. Many TV's will try and scale the HDMI input or process it meaning that each pixel is not mapped directly to a pixel on the TV screen which results in a blurry PC image via HDMI. My 50" Pioneer suffers from this, I get a rock solid VGA input at 1280x768 but can't get 1:1 pixel mapping over HDMI.

lchiu7

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#84406 30-Aug-2007 10:03

Good points to note about HDMI support and 1:1 pixel mapping. Also make sure your video card supports a HDTV and can handle overscan. From what I have seen HDTV's usually have overscan on their video inputs (apart from the VGA input). This can cause the Windows desktop to be too large for the screen with the taskbar etc. off screen. A decent video card that supports a HDTV usually will have an overscan compensation feature that scales the desktop back to fit in the screen. I run a Nvidia N6200 (basic AGP card) but it does has DVI out and the drivers support a HDTV so it can scale the image to fit in the tv screen.

As for a point Cyril made about thin RP JVC sets, I think he was referring to these

http://tv.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028047&pathId=139&page=10

11.6" deep for a 65" RP set is pretty amazing. But from reading the specs they don't seem to do 1080p24 (well the specs don't say). I still think the Sony SXRD (especially the new narrow profile ones not available here yet) are the best bets in RP

Larry

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Snowflake

#84467 30-Aug-2007 15:56

Is anyone able to explain to me the significance of the vertical resolution? I note that on this Plasma it is 1024, but on similar sized LCD's (and some larger plasma's?) the resolution is 1366.

thats actually the horizontal resolution, not the vertical resolution. The vertical resolution on this panel is 768 (which means it could do true 720p and 768p).

From what I have seen HDTV's usually have overscan on their video inputs (apart from the VGA input). This can cause the Windows desktop to be too large for the screen with the taskbar etc. off screen. A decent video card that supports a HDTV usually will have an overscan compensation feature that scales the desktop back to fit in the screen. I run a Nvidia N6200 (basic AGP card) but it does has DVI out and the drivers support a HDTV so it can scale the image to fit in the tv screen.

I have my Media PC hooked up to a Samsung plasma panel using DVI but i'm *not* using the HTDV functions. I get way better results when outputting the signal as a normal PC desktop (in this case 848x480 as i only have an SD panel

). MCE does a great job of scaling the picture and i never have to worry about overscan etc.

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#84528 30-Aug-2007 21:13

I received my TH-50 equivalent last week. I watch it with Sky SD and use a PS3 for both games and Blu-ray disk playback plus upscaled DVD through the PS3.

With the natural tones SD material is excellent. I view at a distance of 4 metres and all PS3 material is outstanding.

At the distances most people would view I would suggest that your horizontal resolution (same as mine) is absolutely fine and 1080 is not worth the premium you would have to pay.

LCD to me, and it is a personal opinion, does not offer the all-round performance of the Panasonic Plasma.

As to future proofing, this new plasma replaced a TH-42PW4B I brought to NZ from the UK. It still works perfectly and has been relegated to the family room. I was not dissatisfied with it but saw the difference that the higher resolution of the new plasma could offer with the new technology offered by the PS3. It is 6 years old which is a fair age in technology terms. Also bear in mind that when HD broadcasts arrive in NZ they will probably be 720.

Go for it.

Cheers

Daza

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Wannabe Geek

#84560 30-Aug-2007 22:40

cshwone: I received my TH-50 equivalent last week.

I assume your TH-50 has the new anti-reflective screen too - what are your thoughts? Are there any 'losses' due to this?

Seems to be a lot to think about, although in all honesty I get the feeling that the 1080 might be a bit overkill - at least in the next few years and also when HD broadcasts eventually come in I get the feeling it will not be broadcast at that higher level (only 720). For me, it is broadcast TV that I will be watching 90% of the time.

Just on that note - is there a noticable differnce in picture quality from Saturn, Sky and Freeview decoders? I currently have a Saturn digital decoder. I have heard (right or wrong) that Freeview boxes currently give the best feed. I find this hard to believe with the likes of Sky (and their gazillion dollars) as competition - surely they would have the best quality feed?

Thanks again for all the posts - most helpfull
Cheers
Daza

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Snowflake

#84576 30-Aug-2007 23:48

Just on that note - is there a noticable differnce in picture quality from Saturn, Sky and Freeview decoders? I currently have a Saturn digital decoder. I have heard (right or wrong) that Freeview boxes currently give the best feed. I find this hard to believe with the likes of Sky (and their gazillion dollars) as competition - surely they would have the best quality feed?

thats because SKY have gazillions of channels being broadcast with limited bandwidth and the average b/w available per channel is lower than that available to Freeview.

perhaps when SKY go to HD the quality will go up significantly due to much better compression than the existing MPEG2 streams

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#84656 31-Aug-2007 13:44

Regs:

I have my Media PC hooked up to a Samsung plasma panel using DVI but i'm *not* using the HTDV functions. I get way better results when outputting the signal as a normal PC desktop (in this case 848x480 as i only have an SD panel ). MCE does a great job of scaling the picture and i never have to worry about overscan etc.

I would be surprised if a regular DVI to HDMI signal from a video card, going to a TV would not have some sort of overscan issue. Seems like MCE compensates for that. Of course the scaling to compensate for overscan can make it harder to get 1"1 pixel mapping (but not impossible)

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#84758 1-Sep-2007 08:58

Anti-glare never really been a factor for me as I have always been careful where the Plasma is positioned wrt lighting.

However, I have noticed an improvement in daylight use. In the evening no real difference.

HTH

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#84772 1-Sep-2007 10:14

lchiu7:
Regs:

I have my Media PC hooked up to a Samsung plasma panel using DVI but i'm *not* using the HTDV functions. I get way better results when outputting the signal as a normal PC desktop (in this case 848x480 as i only have an SD panel ). MCE does a great job of scaling the picture and i never have to worry about overscan etc.

I would be surprised if a regular DVI to HDMI signal from a video card, going to a TV would not have some sort of overscan issue. Seems like MCE compensates for that. Of course the scaling to compensate for overscan can make it harder to get 1"1 pixel mapping (but not impossible)

It's a shame that TV manufacturers and video card manufacturers just can't get basic things sorted. Within a couple of years hooking a PC up to a TV is going to be a lot more common that what it is today. VGA inputs work fine and give good results for probably 90% of TV's now but HDMI is still a big issue. VGA is fine and allows displaying non copy protected HD content but it's lack of HDCP means that people will be forced to HDMI as HDCP starts to become more common. Plugging a HDMI capable PC into a HDMI TV should be a simple process that gives perfect results instantly, unfortunately we're still a long way from that being the case.

Loftus

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Master Geek

#84792 1-Sep-2007 13:48

Sbiddle, I completely agree! How hard can it be for panel makers to implement overscan for "video" resolutions and non-overscan for "PC" resolutions?

The hassles involved with getting a typical consumer plasma/LCD to work *well* with a PC's VGA card convinced me to pay the extra $$$ and go with the commercial Panasonic plasma. As a fringe benefit it also supports 1080p24, but I've only recently realised what a bonus that is

DesFlurane

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Wannabe Geek

#85066 3-Sep-2007 12:25

Hi Daza,
Lots of good info given here.
The question is whether the anti glare is worth $500 to you?
Try to see the 700 vs the 70 side by side and then decide.
I didn't think so for my money.
I also prefer the all black frame of the 70 series.
For 24fps support you would need to go for a Pioneer and they are nearly double the price.

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