i thought Sony is using Samsung components, so there share with same problem, other than that. LCD TV Technology may need couple of years for improvement.....i would think like Plasma Technology better right now in malaysia

I check the bending on my LCD by switching off the input, so the background is grey color, just like soem photos posted at the first page. No bending that I could detect on my 32" LCD.
The thing is, if it's very difficult to find the bending, I think it's fine.

As long as you don't see it, that is good enough. Another way of checking for banding is to turn the whole tv off, leave some ambient light on and look at the screen from the side. If there is banding, you'd be able to see different darkness on the screen, with certain pattern (vertical/horizontal) stripes. If it has perfectly even gradient, then it has probably no banding.

kelvinyam, try using s-video cable for your ASTRO connection, it should help to improve the quality of the picture & make sure you have about 7 to 10 feet of viewing distance.

Tumbang for question ya...

What is the min & max viewing distance range for 42" LCD?

hmm... tested a Haier 32" LCD today for my company
surprisingly it can support up to 1080i, tested the 1080i using PS2's GT4 with component input as we don't have DVD player with HDMI

I notice there's the curvy shadow on the screen, which looks like a curve cloud... a smile shape, is that consider banding? It's there all the time, even when it's off. It looks a bit like uneven surface, but when I check the surface from the side, it's flat.

btw, this Haier TV has worst quality among all of the branded 32" TV I've seen, the color bleeds, graphics gotten worse at higher res, grainy pictures, extremely slow response time, and lousy speaker.
But their offer is the best among all, which they promised 5 years warranty and zero dead pixel warranty, the price also is cheapest among all brand. I can't close my jaw when I heard the bulk price they are offering to my company... which there's no way you can get that price in retail market even after heavy discount.

Now trying to persuade management to go for Sony Bravia...

I don't think s-video will help much. The problem is resolution. Unless the resolution of the source matches the LCD native resolution, like those demo video specially made for particular model, there's no way to enjoy great PQ on LCD.

Even with DVD, both resolution of 720 × 480 (30Hz) and 720 × 576 (25Hz) doesn't match the LCD's native resolution, the PQ won't be better than CRT. LCD is meant for HDTV, Xbox and PS3.

For me, the only benefit of buying a LCD is that it looks cool in my living hall

1080i LCD? I think it's pretty useless at the moment.

does anyone know whats Samsung LA40F71B price?

This post has been edited by ramuk: Jan 26 2007, 05:58 PM

Unless you view all full aspect ratio movies in stretched mode to avoid the burning issue.

I intend to buy a LCD TV (either JVC SX6 or Toshiba 40") but quite concern about the PQ of Astro. Can anyone advise me how bad is the PQ. The local showrooms /dealers do not put on Astro programs.

Would s-video cable help? What's the difference like?

Well, not entirely true because some dvd players can upscale to 720p, 1080i & 1080p too. Even at normal 480p, the picture is quite decent. Most shops here use a normal dvd player, I guess you wouldn't complain about the picture quality.

Besides this, you can view your digital camera pictures, view your HD camcorder movies on your LCD too. S-video will reduce the dot crawl problem but it's still inferior to component videos.

During my search for a HDTV, I also discovered almost all showrooms will not hook up HDTV with Astro and they will tell you thousand of reasons why it's not there. They are afraid to turn down your appetice of getting HDTV.

Instead of letting showroom promoter to influence what they want you to watch, I have recorded some channels from Astro into DVD disk, some digital photos converted into DVD quality slide show format and recorded into DVD disk as well, then I go to the shop and play the disks on LCD and plasma HDTV. Also tried at different brand and model. Right after that, your naked eye will give you the right answer. You could repeat the same process in another 1-2 different shops. At the end you will receive pretty consistent answer of whether to chose LCD or Plasma TV, which model & etc.

Yes, Astro picture quality is definitely can't match with DVD quality disk but at least we want to know at what acceptable level if showing on HDTV. Overall I could say it's OK and the quality will vary from one channel to channel. But for those live telecast sport programs, it's always have better picture quality. We believe Astro has done certain level of compression.

In fact the thrill of having a big scree TV, at least > 40" screen is the effect of feeling more engaging and more invovled. It's also making your eye feel more pleasant to watch the programs/movies. Another biggest plus is if you have a lot of digital photos, you could compile it into DVD quality slide show format and play on DVD player, it's like enlarge your digital photos to the biggest size that we've ever seen with great picture quatlity. Recall back all the past sweet memories...........

I always believe garbage in garbage out. Upscaling is no difference from interpolation where most people will avoid it.

Best Denki at Mid Valley does let you try out their LCD with Astro. Since my dad watches football a lot, he get a chance to check on one of the sport channel from Astro. He told me he could see the ball clearly (no pun intended)

Nice to know that.

But I still think to burn Astro programs into DVD disk will be the most convenient way to check on the HDTV performance since you're able to load it on any DVD players and play on any HDTV as you wish. Besides, you're using the same source all the time then it's much easier to make comparison in terms of PQ, clearity for fast moving actions & etc.

Thnks Higlander8 and Kelvin. Too bad I don't have Astro Max but I do have some home videos in DVD format. Think I run meself to Midvalley this Thursday to do some serious checking.

BTW, since you have done your research, could you share some thoughts on the brand and models of LCD TVs? Could not decide between JVC, Toshiba, Sharp and Samsung.

Different people will have different selection criteria and taste. It's better for you to conduct your own survey.

For me, I've selected Plasma HDTV as my final choice based on PQ, color and motion clearity.

Alamaklor, just wondering, reading through this topic, it seems like you are/were insterested with the Hitachi, seeing that Hitachi and Fujitsu's should be using the same PDP, does that mean Fujitsu is as good? Any ideas?

Coz I was in Jakarta recently and the Fujitsu's looked good and affordable, also realised they were made here in Malaysia, but can't seem to find them at home here, I think they're made here for export, sad but true..

Fujitsu is one of the very best. As for whether they share the same panels...i'm not really sure but it is not implausible. After all, panel is one thing, the processor and circuit makes a big difference in PQ. Malaysia manufacture alot of things, you'd find alot of stuff in north america are actually made in malaysia...sometimes i see more stuff made in malaysia than in china. It's pretty hard to find fujitsu here too, it's easier to get them online though.

Thanks for the info, didn't know that the processors and circuits can make a big diff in PQ...

That's what I captured from researching online that Fujitsu is one of the very best, but weird enough, in Indonesia, they are cheap... lucky bastards...

Not sure if you know much on LG Plasma's since you are in the US, but what do you make of them since you seem to be the master of flat panel displays..

Cheers mate..

Im not master buddy , I'm merely sharing and documenting all the information I gathered while searching and researching for HDTV. I haven't really looked at LG's TV, for some reasons it doesnt interest me too much. I believe LG shares similar panels with Philips...well since they are one company now. I did, however, looked at a the PX60 plasma vs one of the LG EDTV displaying the same resolution...the PX60 seems better than the LG in most cases, the picture is smoother and sharper, the LG seems a little blury in comparison. Anyway, I don't suppose LG's main selling point is PQ but the price instead. Personally, I'd choose something that is above par, especially some huge @ss TV since it is not something that you'd change very often. I still haven't found the TV I wanted, currently waiting for 2007 lineup from various companies to be available.