10ft means minimum 42". 37" is too small at that distance. Even 50" will look okay at 10ft. Astro, DVDs, TV will look best on Plasma. Plasma's are a little iffy on the PC part though (cause of burn-in issues with extended PC usage).

If you're going to use more than 2 hours of PC at a stretch, then go with LCD. I'd say, Sharp for PC, Panny for upscaled DVD, and LG60 (Scarlet) or Toshiba for Astro, DVD, TV.

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Added on September 29, 2008, 3:02 pmTrue. But that also means the LCD you buy now doesn't have those technology yet. While Plasma's already look good.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Sep 29 2008, 03:03 PM

It really depends on how far you're sitting away from the screen. If you're having a 42", then you won't be able to tell the difference between HD-Ready and Full-HD from 9 ft onwards, even at 8 ft it will be difficult.

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Added on September 30, 2008, 2:09 pmBTW, saw Hesstar brand 28" 16:9 CRT selling for RM388 at Homenet Bandar Puteri. Finally, a highly affordable CRT widescreen.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Sep 30 2008, 02:09 PM

Well, TVs can't downscale. They have to upscale SD sources to match their native resolution (1080 in your case). I'm afraid Astro is for sure going to look bad on Full HD LCDs. Best you can do is upscale Astro through a 1080p HDMI receiver or recorder. You'll see some improvement, but don't expect miracles. Astro is too highly compressed to start with.

No ISF-CC??? That's a real deal killer there... That's about the only advantage LG has over other makers. What, they think Malaysians are too dumb to ISF-tune their machines?

This post has been edited by 99below0: Oct 3 2008, 01:02 PM

You mean, Sony's Samsung panels has a good black level...

Well, I used the SD card slot and turned my TV into a 42" photo frame...

The CATS will adjust the backlighting of your Plasma according to the ambient lighting. Useful if you're not too fussy about PQ (the default setting is Contrast 80), and have large variations in ambient lighting (eg Hall with bright sunlight daytime and very dim light at night). You can turn down the contrast but then it gets too dark at night. My mom loves the feature (gentle on the eyes). I just use Cinema mode (which doesn't activate the CATS) to deal with all lighting (better PQ).

Bottom line, CATS is useful if you can afford the extra couple of hundred bucks. But if you're really tight, you can live without it.

I doubt many Malaysians would care about "accurate" color reproduction. I'll bet you 99% of the man on the street would look at a perfectly-calibrated accurate colored set and say "why your high-end TV color so dull one-ah?, buy-lah Sony Bravia, color so nice...".

One man's meat is another's poison. Once you tune your set to your personal preference, almost any TV is going to look the same, cause you would have set it to look the same.

After messing around with so many TVs, I'd say that all the TVs are very close together in terms of PQ, once you've tuned it a bit. So what's the deciding factor for me? Long warranty, baby.

... and, err, good PQ of course...

but it was Panasonic's 5-year manufacturer warranty that did it for me.

Plasma lovers, drool over Panasonic's 2009 PDP tech:

http://hdguru.com/ceatec-2008-the-hd-guru-...from-japan/298/

Also quoted from the article, to Pioneer fans waiting for their new LCD TV:

"Pioneer also provided a “first look” at its LCD “Kuro” models available in Europe. Three sizes were demoed, a 37”, 42” and 46” (pictured). Sourced by Sharp, the images were very unimpressive, and did not have the deep blacks that have made its plasma “Kuro” models some of the top rated HDTVs in the CE industry."

This post has been edited by 99below0: Oct 22 2008, 09:14 AM

I second that. Best bang for your buck, especially if you're watching a lot of Astro on it. A 42" is the minimum you should get at that distance. Upgrade to a HDMI DVD player to bring new life into your DVD collection.

The thing is... Plasma TVs should be transported upright, never sideways. You do NOT want to put stress on that large 42" plasma glass and subject it to all the bumps of a road. If you accidentally crack that glass, no 5-year warranty is going to cover it.

Better to pay a bit extra and get the seller to transport to your house. If they break it on the way, you can ask them for a new one. You break it yourself...

That's nonsense from that "specialist". ALL HDTVs upscale or they won't be able to fill the whole 720p/1080p panel with a 576i SD source. It's the quality of the upscaling that sets the various TVs and manufacturers apart. An external upscaler MAY be better than the internal one in your TV, but the only way to be sure is to actually test and compare BEFORE you buy it. In many cases, a good 480p component DVD is better than a cheap 1080p HDMI DVD. Your eyes are the only opinion you should trust.

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Added on October 29, 2008, 10:48 amWhatever looks good to you. Seriously. There is NO single setting that will please everyone so you should set it to your own preference. Don't believe that only properly calibrated sets are "good" sets. Those settings are frequently too dull for the average Malaysian viewer who are used to "Sony" colors.

In general, setting your set to "Cinema" mode and "Warm" setting will get you closest to the 65K standard without much tweaking. It may however be too "yellow" for some folks. That's quite close to a calibrated set with just a few button presses.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Oct 29 2008, 10:48 AM

Older DVD players have only component output, so can manage a progressive scan 480p/576p signal at best. Since there's very little processing done, the DVD is sent via it's original format through the (hopefully good) component cables into the HDTV where it's internal scaler will scale it to the TV's native resolution (720p/1080p). Component always looks good.

The latest HDMI players can upscale to 1080p (via HDMI cable), and so does all the upscaling and deinterlacing work for the TV. The advantage of HDMI is it's lossless and so, in theory, will be better the the lossy, analog component signals. However, much of the PQ depends on the quality of the processor in the player (as it has to upscale the original source using its algorithms). And cheap players have cheap processors, possibly even cheaper than the one in your TV. That's why not every external scaler will be better than the one in your TV.

To test which scaler is doing better, test both 480p and 1080p modes. If 480p looks better, your TV has the superior scaler. If 1080p looks better, your DVD player has the superior scaler.

Just my personal peasant opinion

1) Panasonic 32LZ800 (expensive) / Samsung 32A650 (cheaper)
2) Sharp 32D30 (good blend of PQ, design, sound)
3) Panasonic 42PY800 plasma
4) Panasonic 42PV80 plasma (the LYN champion!) / Pioneer Kuro 428 (best TV you can buy)

PM iamsobloodysick or htkaki. You'll get good service and prices.

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Added on October 30, 2008, 6:00 pmCATS rock! I love the feature.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Oct 30 2008, 06:00 PM

Turn "Power Save" mode OFF. This mode limits maximum light output and WILL make ECO mode really suck. It will seem a little dark at first but after a while your eyes will thank you. Also depends on where you light sources are. It ambient light is even throughout the room, it will perform okay. If you have light sources behind your TV, it will make your screen look dark. The point is the ambient light MUST be able to fall on the CATS sensor or it's no use.

Smallest new one now would be a 32". Some brands, IMO, are better than LG. What is your budget? 32" LCDs can range from 1.7k to 5k, depending on the features and picture quality. The Sharp 32D30 at 2.3k is generally a good buy, with good looks and features. The Panasonic 32LX800 has better features at 2.6k.

I watch my 32" LCD TV from 5' away and feel it's a little small. Sometimes I even sit at 4' away just to get a more cinematic effect. The purpose of a widescreen is to make it feel more like a cinema screen rather than a CRT TV. I'd go for a minimum 32" even in a small room. A number of our forumers put their 42" Pannys in their bedroom even.

Once you boot up your first movie on a large screen and go WHOA at the size, you'll never return to a smaller screen. In fact, after a while, you'll always have the need to go bigger (hence the growing interest in HD projectors now).

This post has been edited by 99below0: Nov 18 2008, 09:39 PM

Off-topic a bit, but anyone notice once you get used to your home theatre set, how crap our cinemas actually are? I watched Quantum of Solace in Sunway Pyramid and couldn't help noticing how low-resolution, yellow and dull the picture is. The black levels are awful to say the least. And the sound balance between the vocals, surround and subs were totally off. And I was sitting right smack in the centre of the cinema, the sweet spot.

I'm watching my movies at home from now on.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Nov 19 2008, 12:30 AM

Bloody good actually. Where are you getting this offer?