Is this a good home theatre setup?

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timmmay

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#403294 11-Nov-2010 10:18

Thanks for checking. I might go listen to some plasma screens in JB, since I work in the building.

I sit 2-3 meters from the TV. In a month or two i'll be an additional meter back, once the wall behind it has been painted.

timmmay

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#406367 18-Nov-2010 18:26

The buzzing is definitely bugging me. I went to J B Hifi and put my ear up to the plasma screens, some I could hear some I couldn't. It was quite loud in the store at the time though, but mine i'd be able to hear no problem in the same environment. In practice I can hear it during quiet patches of TV and movies, which is kindof annoying, but when anyone's speaking you can't hear it.

Also the blurring around people when there's fast motion is weird. I plugged the PS3 into my 40" 720p Samsung LCD and I didn't see any of the blurring. The picture didn't near look as sharp or as awesome compared with the plasma at night.

Would I be crazy to swap the 50" Plasma for a 55" LCD? In the store honestly the screens looked almost exactly the same, the only reason I went for the plasma was because of the 3D which I thought might be handy in a few years, but 3D isn't a big deal for me. It wouldn't cost me anything to swap it, and L V Martin seem happy to do it.

Dunnersfella

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#406479 18-Nov-2010 22:39

The blurring is a non-issue as previously stated.
You're only now getting the chance to see the deficiencies in the content, as your TV is now capable of showing them, whereas your old TV was not.

Buzzing - it's a tricky one.
A large number of electronic devices make noise (I can hear a laptop in the lounge right now as the fans fire up during video encoding) - it's part of owning gear. If you're sitting a meter away / watch TV with the sound off, you may notice it.
But if you do that, you're definitely in the minority of TV owners...
Thing is, there's nowt 'wrong' with your set, and odds on, any TV you get to replace it, will exhibit either the same fault, or another one. Heck, if you get an LCD to replace it and then post a thread about poor black levels... we may be forced to do something rash... like throw small poodles at you. ;-)

Remember - there's no such thing as the perfect TV.
Don't believe the hype, the forums, the sales person or the guy next door.
If they were perfect, you wouldn't get another model coming out every 12 months. ;-)

timmmay

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#406481 18-Nov-2010 22:46

Oh no, not poodles!!!

I'm not sure the blurring is a non-issue. It's clearly visible on the plasma, but on the LCD it looks like the refresh rate is higher and you don't get it. I guess it's possible that it's there but not visible due to it not showing as much detail.

The buzzing isn't a huge deal, but between the buzzing and blurring I feel like i've spent $3K on something that has some significant flaws. I know the LCD is only 720p, but i've never had any complaints about the picture at all.

I'll go into the store on the weekend and have a chat with them, stare at TVs for far too long, then trust my own eyes.

Dunnersfella

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#406886 19-Nov-2010 19:18

So if you currently have an LCD, what model is it?
What picture aids do you have turned on / off on your plasma? It may be a case of calibrating your plasma to suit your eyes somewhat.

timmmay

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#406889 19-Nov-2010 19:25

The LCD is about 2 years old, not sure of the model number, it's on the back somewhere and I can't get to it easily and don't have it written down. 720p, two hdmi inputs, 1360x768 resolution. Works good but it isn't as rich as the plasma. In the store the modern LCD and plasma looked much the same though.

On the plasma it has all the defaults. It's not calibration that's the problem, it's some of weird ghosting that the LCD doesn't show. I wonder if the plasma is just slower and so things look blurred.

Dunnersfella

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#406902 19-Nov-2010 20:08

I kinda doubt it's slower...
I'm speculating that your current LCD is 50Hz... as it's an HD Ready model. I could be wrong, but there's a good chance that this is the case.
To make a half decent 3D panel, the likes of Panasonic implement 'faster phosphers'... or, to put it another way, they need to have extremely quick performance to deal with 3D images. To start with, plasmas handle motion better than LCD's, they don't have to create frames to increase the fast motion performance. This in turn means there will be a more accurate picture for you to enjoy.
I'm not sure if Samsung have followed the Panasonic path, but I doubt their panel is sluggish... let alone as slow as an LCD.

I truly believe what you're seeing are just artifacts from poorly compressed / shot video.
You know the story, crap in - crap out.
Well now you have gear that's good enough to show you the poor footage you've never noticed previously. And now you've read reviews... you're looking a lot harder to find it.

As an aside, what exactly are you playing your footage through?
Is it blurring on the in-built Freeview tuner?
Is it blurring on MP4's you've ripped?
Is it blurring via your PS3?
How is your PS3 connected? Via the amp - HDMI, or directly into the TV?

if you're running the plasma via your Onkyo receiver, it may well be effecting the image you're seeing on the screen. Its upscaling / graphics chip may be introducing unwanted artifacts into the TV. Try running the source directly into the TV and see what results you get.
Artifacts will often show up on poorly compressed HD Freeview shows, poorly rendered DVD's etc.
A perfect image is a much rarer thing than you may think...

Also, if you do end up getting a new TV, get a Panasonic V series plasma. It'll smash the Samsung around the park performance wise...

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timmmay

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#406952 19-Nov-2010 23:24

I turned off the anti-jitter feature of the plasma tonight the artifacts (artefacts?) went away. That's the reason I got the higher up model of TV... plasmas without anti jitter looked pretty bad.

The screen itself is pretty nice, sharp and great colors. That buzzing drives me a bit mad though, and I don't like the burn-in - which is apparently "not an issue" any more... yeah right. Leave the PS3 on the menu for a few minutes then turn the TV off you can see it for a while.

The LCD TV is a Samsung la40s81bx/rad. 7,000:1 contrast, 8ms response. It's not in the same league as modern TVs, but it does well in my office to show customers their images. Six months after I bought it 1080p was common, but there's always something better along in six month.s

Dunnersfella

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#407162 20-Nov-2010 19:43

I definitely agree with the image retention issue (it's not actually burn in... that's much worse) - but the Samsung 3D plasmas do seem to suffer from quite a bit of image retention. I saw a mates one, and to me, that's the biggest issue with this specific panel.
My Panasonic plasma doesn't suffer from it at all...
So it's not a plasma issue, instead, it looks to be more of a Samsung technology thing?

It's interesting that you're seeing artifacts created through anti-jitter technology.
With a 100Hz LCD, you may see a whole different type of introduced elements - so there's probably no way to avoid what you're seeing.
Your old LCD won't have any anti-jitter / frame creation technology, so you'll never see this issue.
Having said that, I have anti-jitter features turned off on my panel, and it looks just fine...
What are you watching when you see the jitter issues?

timmmay

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#407259 21-Nov-2010 11:29

I see the jitter/ghosting issue on every show I watch. When I had a look at the 55" Samsung yesterday it had a similar issue, though it's not as bad. The color isn't quite as good on the LCD in the store, but it's still pretty nice. The Panasonic Plasma looked nice, and didn't buzz, but doesn't have 3D.

L V Martin have been awesome, they'll happily exchange it for something else.

Dunnersfella

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#407376 21-Nov-2010 18:51

Well, as neither the 55" LCD or the Panasonic Plasma have 3D, I'd definitely get a 50" V Series Panasonic. You can find the VT (3D) for not too much more than the Samsung 50" Series 7 (well... $600 or so) - and that's easily the best 50" TV on the market.

timmmay

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#407396 21-Nov-2010 19:42

I spent about 90 minutes in the store over the weekend, with blu ray disks and a few things on USB memory stick. I decided 3D isn't important to me, that I really don't like the buzz from plasma TVs, and to my eye most TVs image quality is reasonably similar. I watched the same shows and blu ray disks on each TV. Here's what I thought:

Panasonic Plasma: nice picture, good motion and detail, the buzz was about 1/4 the volume of the Samsung screens too. It was nice, but nothing really grabbed me about it.

Sony LCD: seemed to do motion a little better than the Samsung LCD, but the image quality didn't seem as good, in particular it seemed to have quite a bit of digital noise.

Samsung plasma: very nice picture, but blurring/ghosting and a loud buzz.

Samsung LCD: nice colors and picture, blacks and contrast not quite there but really close. There's a bit of ghosting on standard settings but you can play with the options to reduce or eliminate the ghosting without really hurting the image quality.

If you weren't looking at the screens side by side I think it'd be difficult to tell much of a difference between them. You'd have to know what to look for, or be as fussy as me ;)

In the end I went with the 55" Samsung LCD. It has a nice picture, it's a good size and a good price, and as a bonus it's lighter and uses less power. L V Martin were great about exchanging it, they've won a loyal customer.

Watch this space to see me complain about the LCD in a few days ;)

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