horrible...simply horrible...the hitachi has flicker issue...I need to do more research...

Why not check out the Panny PV series plasma, i heard its quite good, any price are lower now, and shouls be cheaper in Canada.

woaaa... so much information to digest. one thing for sure, i wouldn't buy lcd tv or monitor online or bulk sales - i need to see the PQ first by my own eyes! thanks for the info guys.

I think I need to do alot more research...looks like I havent done enough homework just yet. My dilemma here is that I got a PS3, I cannot tahan it on SD TV, and I nee a quick solution to use it and I have a low budget now which is why i picked the westinghouse. While the westinghouse has stellar PQ, even better than the SXRD, but the banding is apparent. So, no more LCD to me...I think I need to clear my mind and take a break from TV then make a rational purchase. Anyway, I am slowly increasing my budget...once I lifted that restriction, I should have alot more choices I'm eyeing on the Panasonic. It is only 100USD more compared to the westinghouse in the states, but 500CAD more in Canada.

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Jan 5 2007, 01:24 AM

I've checked with some guys on AVSforum and seems like plasma doesnt suffer from banding problem

Plasma main problem is its screen burn, reflextion & resolution, and not very good if u want to connect with your pc. Screen burn and reflextion so far has no solution yet, and plasma with native 1080P is going to burn your pocket kau kau if u really concern about its resolution. My advise is: Dont be too crazy about 1080P, as you are not even sure if u can tell the difference. And even if u can, does it worth the extra penny?

yeah, i'm not gonna bother with 1080p on plasma. I'm either getting a 720p or the hitachi 1080i if the flicker issue is solved. I'll be checking on the panasonic PX600 later today. However, I read that the PX60 has horizontal banding issue... damn

Go check and see it with your own eye, there is no perfect tv, so you can only get something as close to it as possible. Good luck...

yeap. I'll have to see them for myself. As long as the banding is as little as the SXRD projection, I'm cool with it. As far as 1080p is concerned, I'm not too worried about it. Even on my TV, the only time I ever use it at 1080p is on some 1080p hdtv content...it has always been 720p in games. I think as long as the TV can accept 1080i or if it does 1080p processing it should be fine for the next few years. Well of course...as long as the conversion doesn't lag..I know of alot of 1080i downconversion to 720p is not real time and the lag can be felt when gaming.

I m glad to hear that !!
So far I m satisfied using my plasma. Just need to becareful not to let any static image on the screen for more than 8 hours. A decent 42" 1080i screen will costs less than RM 7K nowadays. Regarding 1080p screen, I don't think you can see any difference unless your screen more than 50".

Is it true that plasma consumes more power than lcd tv? As for static images, it's hard to avoid sometimes like the CNN, Channel 8 / 9 logo or if you're playing a RPG like Final Fantasy for hours, stuff like that. However, I believe the current plasma tvs have less of the burn in issues especially those using the Alis technology.

LCDs use florescent backlighting to produce images, they require substantially less power to operate than plasmas do. LCD TVs consume about half the power that plasma displays consume. The reason: Plasmas use a lot of electricity to light each and every pixel you see on a screen - even the dark ones. Though plasma manufacturers have improved voltage consumption requirements a plasma TV will consume around a third more power for the same size display.

Actually for playing games, I would recommend LCD. Plasma is NOT designed for connecting to PC. Its best for watching movies. Try not to watch a TV channel with logo for a very long period, but then normally you will get the see all those "nice" advertisement in between which lasts for 1-3 minutes, so thats not a problem.

I just got back from extensive testing (3-4 hours ) of the Hitachi 42HDT79 (1080i with motorized swivel stand) and Panasonic PX600 (720p). Both are plasma obviously. There is 1 known problem with both of these TV:

Panasonic - horizontal banding *not really a banding, will explain why later
Hitachi - Screen flicker when there is a sharp change in contrast

Apparently the Hitachi flicker can be fix with a firmware, and also can be curb with some settings in the service menu...so it is really not a big problem. I find the hitachi to be more vivid than the panasonic, but also a little noisier...but my GF says that the Hitachi is better and much more natural, very close to a CRT.

The panasonic seems smoother to me, but my GF says the screen sorta looks like it had added photoshop smart blur on the picture and a little unnatural. Having said that, the panasonic is less noisier than the Hitachi.

Anyway, in general, I've found that LCD gives the smoothest picture with virtually 0 noise of it own. Plasma is much noisier and it can be seen easily if you compare an lcd and plasma side by side. As for color reproduction, plasma seems to be better off, and of course...black level as well. I can't decide which TV is better...the Hitachi or the Panasonic. I am actually leaning towards the hitachi as it can take 1080i (not as clean and clear as LCD @ 1080p though). Another thing is the Hitachi looks alot nicer (aesthetic), the panny looks really gross...especially the base. Anyway, at about 8 ft apart, Plasma noise is acceptable and not very significant. I think the panasonic has slightly better black level but the Hitachi black level is not bad at all...much better than my LCD imho. The panasonic is 400 (RM1300) bucks more than the Hitachi.

Anyway, regarding the flicker issue on the Hitachi..I didnt see a thing, but the content I was playing back didnt have a sharp change in contrast. As for the panasonic horizontal banding..It is fairly obvious when you display a pale background. The banding looks like poor gradient to me which causes a bunch of lines on the horizontal axis. I dont think this has anything to do with uneven surface/backlighting...it looks more like color banding to me. It is not visible in shows at all, and these poor gradient is often seen in LCD as well but less severe in projection (due to softer image)

As for the power consumption...yes...plasma suck up almost 150-200% like piscesguy said. If you live in Malaysia...power shouldn't be an issue *cough*. Plasma has poorer resolution and the noisier image makes it not so well to use it as a pc monitor. I've read alot about the newer plasma and image retention issue. It seems that if you burn in the plasma for 200hours or so with alternating color and image, the image retention issue will not appear, even less with Alis panel. However, I can tell you for sure that I saw some image retention on a set of Pioneer earlier. When the scene changes, I still see some text on the screen. But after a min or so the retained image went away.

EDIT: I think I will get the hitachi if they can do RM7.3k for me after 14% tax.

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Jan 5 2007, 12:37 PM

Well observed, if you still cant make up your mind which one to go with, the first thing to consider is the price, then the warranty terms and after sales service. U dont want to deal with a bunch of axxhole when something go wrong with your tv.

The price is definitely still a concern to me. I found out something very interesting. I went to this shop earlier called www.audiotronic.ca, not the online store, but the local store. The guy quoted me 2248.88CAD for the hitachi. When I went to the online store earlier, it is 60CAD cheaper. Im guessing he is putting that in as a commission. I'm gonna try calling another store and tell them about the online price and ask them to do 2000CAD for me. even if it is 2100 CAD, it is still a good price but I am paying 100cad more than the lowest price in the market.

As far as the warranty is concerned, I think there is little thing to warrant about for a plasma. The Hitachi carry 1 year on-site warranty, credit card will carry extra 1 year (whoa damn..almost forgotten about this..I wanted to pay cash) The only thing they really warrant you is the functionality of the electronics anyway.

The after sales service of this store is no where gonna near crutchfield (the place I got my westinghouse) but I can still return it within 15 days full money back guarantee. They have local store near my place so exchanging is not gonna be a problem. The best thing with this TV is that there is alot of user (forum) support for it and the firmware can be user upgradable (same for panasonic)

Beside checking about the plasma only, do check if there is any problem when use it in conjunction with PS3, sometimes electronic things are nasty. Do report back after you get yourself the Hitachi/Panasonic.

Forgot to ask a question. For those who use LCD without Astro, how is the PQ of the normal channel? I only manage to get sharp picture with TV3 and Channel 8, the rest all either very blur or with lots of interference like noises and lines. Bought a signal booster but the result is worst. I cant install any antenna since i am staying in a condo and all tv/astro channel are coming from dedicated wall socket.

So if i manage to get clear picture with 2 channels, is it possible that the other station's signal are too weak to reach my condo and there is nothing i can do to improve the signal strenght? Beside installing an antenna at my balcony, which may be agaist the rule of my condo.

Yes, I use it to mainly plays games on my XBOX 360 so I got a LCD instead. Can't have the best of both worlds but seriously, LCDs still can't display true blacks yet, it looked like a lighter shade of black and not those deep blacks that you get with plasma displays. Hai ....... Toshiba SED tv where are you? I guess that's probably my answer to get the best of both worlds, picture quality wise, hopefully it's not all talk and no action, worst of all, the project might be canned for good due to cost reasons.

New plasma models have 'picture shift' being integrated in it to minimise the burn-in effect.

I'll be returning my LCD and will be picking up the Hitachi 42HDT79:


Btw, here's what my eyes tell me how each different technology look like:
LCDTV

Plasma

SXRD