Sure thing bro. Looking forward to getting my 360.

I actually DO have a switcher for component inputs. Bought it from Lik-Sang for RM 60. Best decision I ever made That's a potential solution, yeah.

/puts on fanboy hat

Personally, I am anticipating the Wii more than the PS3 right now. Sony's continued arrogance will relegate it to a much later purchase, for me.

So yes, I love Wii.

/takes off fanboy hat

LoL The Samsungs are a good buy, IMHO. You just have to decide between the HDMI or non-HDMI model. I'd go with the HDMI, I guess, although you may have to fork out for a HDMI-compatible home theater unit...

This post has been edited by Lord_Ashe: May 25 2006, 10:22 AM

Yup. As mentioned, luckily I got myself one of those from Lik-Sang. Verryyy useful

I'm witchu. Screw DRM! Screw Broadcast Flag! Screw HDCP!

AFAIK the Sony site tends to be quite sparse in its product description, probably because not many people know what the difference between 1080i - 720p is. I suggest you visit a Best Denki/whatever outlet for yourself and check out the specs in addition to surfing the net. Always get what your eyes like the most - you'll be spending at least 3 years with it.

Other than that I'd suggest staying away from projection TVs - but then again for that particular Wega I may be wrong.

Personally I would lean towards the Samsung as well, especially if the Philips set is NOT a Pixel Plus2 set. The Samsungs have been very impressive so far and as for Philips I wouldn't settle for anything less than a Pixel Plus 2. The difference is enormous.

Interesting combo. I'm curious to see how the upscaler performs, so I may be leaning towards that. This is assuming that all other specs are the same. Otherwise though, if I'm not mistaken the only advantage of the R71 is the ATSC tuner built in, which we may not even be able to use.

Nah. It won't compromise your DVD picture issues - because DVDs don't go beyond 480p. It shouldn't be an issue.

As for 720p vs 1080i, it depends on who you ask. Some people will say "720p or die!" and others will shrug and say 1080i's good too. Either way, if your screen is smaller than 60" you WON'T be able to tell.

Hope that helps.

I'm assuming you set your DVD player on progressive scan mode too?

If that's the case, then I can't really say - except that if you buy an upscaling DVD player it won't necessarily improve your DVD experience. Remember, as xxboxx said, DVDs top up at 480p.

Don't forget Philips. Like my Pixel Plus 2 CRT.

Only problem I have is a little overscanning when on 1080i mode with the 360.

Cool. So you DID buy that one.

Mine is the 69PT29 or something, with Pixel Plus 2 - at RM 2300 way more expensive than the 8845 one. In a way I paid a premium for the Pixel Plus 2 processing at the expense of 720p capability, but still, am happy.

Overall you'll notice that Philips' tube gives a darker black than most sets - but I think for RM 1.5 k it's a good buy.

Wow cool!

My Philips set has a HD RGB input at the back. Does anyone know if I can get a VGA to RGB cable to plug into my TV?

Thanks!

Hmm. Actually the RGB input in the back is something like a PC VGA input, only it's not - so I was wondering if there was a cable to connect my laptop's VGA out to the TV's 15pin RGB input.

For PS2, you'll see SOME improvement in the textures, cleaner lines, etc. Not jawdropping, but it's visible.

Lik-Sang has one, as well as PlayAsia. Both quite reasonably priced. You may also want to hunt around SG wang.

Shouldn't be a problem! Just make sure you connect them properly.

Bear in mind the Samsung LCD sets feature DYNAMIC contrast ratio, not static. So while theoretically the set can reach 5000:1 contrast ratio, it won't be all the time. Usually it'll scale from 800 to 1200 and onwards depending on the source material. If contrast ratio truly is important to you I would suggest getting a fixed ratio monitor like the Sharp Aquos. Even at 1200:1 it's amazing.

from wikipedia.

As for Sony's Astro enhancement mode, I personally find that it doesn't really add much to the image as compared to Philips Pixel Plus technology. YMMV though so make sure you check it out properly before buying.

This post has been edited by Lord_Ashe: Sep 26 2006, 07:56 AM

If you disable the dynamic contrast it SHOULD default to the lowest available contrast ratio (which can be anywhere from 500 to 1000:1)

eone: I think you're referring to general contrast settings on your Tv.

terencey: Well I've been hanging around Best Denki for a while comparing general image quality - and I have to say that for the money the Samsungs are a good investment. However I tend to side toward the Sharp Aquos for these reasons:

1) dual HDMI - while I am not a fan of HDCP, I guess dual HDMI out of the box will be useful

2) 6ms response time - self explanatory I think

3) general image quality

4) 1200:1 contrast ratio

Bear in mind that I can't vouch for Astro performance on it since it doesn't have a proprietary processing engine (like Philips) but switch your Astro to S-video and there should be a jump to cleaner images.

First question: Your guess is as good as mine my friend, although I suspect Sony will release the first batch just in time for the PS3. Ditto for the price - at the moment these 1080p TVs are so rare I can only guess it's gonna cost at least as much as the 42" Philips LCD with Pixel Plus 3 HD (RM 17k) and that set's ONLY 1080i capable. As for screen size, my prediction is that you'll see anything from 32" to 70" out in the market - especially to entrap the unsuspecting buyer into purchasing since at sizes below 45" I personally don't think you can tell the difference between i and p.

i = stands for interlaced, where each line is drawn on screen alternately and p = progressive where a full image is drawn each time. Due to the many flavours of 1080p available (1080p/24/60 etc) only one thing is certain: producing 1080p images takes a whole lot of processing power and when we FINALLY see a native 1080p TV (as discussed above) some previous HDTV owners may be angry to realise their sets don't actually support 1080p.