1stly, on the PS3 did u set the Video mode to YCbCr. Also you need to turn on Super White to enable Blacker than Black and Whiter than White. Only then you can adjust the brightness and contrast. Typically, WTW will show more than 235. That's ok, it is important to not show anything below 16 for BTB. 16 ,must blend with the background.

Hi,

To answer the question on how a 1024X768 plasma is a 16:9 display is because they are using rectangular pixels and not square pixels. So if you are viewing a 16:9 movie on it, it will not look wierd. I cannot confirm how the output from a computer will look like for now.

Sorry

Bro,

I was the one who stated that for the 1024X768 plasma the pixels are rectangular pixels, hence the ability to support aspect ratio of 16:9. I did not say that all plasma pixels were rectangular only at this resolution. All 1920X1080p plasma have square pixels. Even 50in HD Ready plasmas of resolution of 1366X768 have square pixels. My suggestion to you as before is whatever resolution, screen size, let your eyes make the decision. If you want to check if it is capable of VGA and if the image is stretched, take a laptop to the shop and test. Check at your viewing distance. This is important. You need to be happy with your purchase for what u r viewing it for. If you want to watch mostly astro and DVD make sure you make your decisions by checking this out, take your reference DVDs and make your mind up.

I use a 42in plasma to view astro at a distance of 9ft. I can tolerate it. But there is a clear difference by even loading up a decently encoded DVD9 copy compared to astro. The compression level for astro is mind boggling. On some channels like Hallmark, it is so bad that there is macroblocking!
It depends on the scalar quality of your plasmas as well. Although a lot of discussions have been thrown about abt pixels and all, all displays are not made equal. Some have better scalar chips, some have inferior chips. Display is all about image processing. There are differences for full HD and HD Ready but it might not be so visibile to some peoples eyes if the display has a good scalar chip. There was a chap that says that full HD material will always look better on a full HD set. There is more to displays than just pixels. Good colour temperature production, grayscale reproduction, Color reproduction, deinterlacing, RGB conversion, noise filtering and image reproduction are also important. I have seen some HD Ready sets put some lower end Full HD sets to shame. Yeah the pixels were more, but the picture was just all wrong.

Sony X series and Pioneer plasmas use chips that do a decent job of making SD material very vieawable.

For displays, if yor viewing room allows it the bigger the better. Your eyes will get used to the image size sooner or later and you will wish you bought the bigger display 99 times out of a 100. If there are space limitations then you have no choice.

---

Added on February 17, 2009, 11:21 amBro,

There are 2 aspects to using bias lighting. The 1st one you stated was to get a 6500K light behind the display. The 2nd aspect is the CRI (Colour Rendering Index) of the light.

Ideal-Lume is best, if you do not want to use that, there are some Philips lightbulbs that are stated as 6500K, you start there (check the Philips lighting website). I can go check the lightbulb that I used to use before getting the Ideal-Lume if it was indeed 6500K using calibration equipment. I checked the Ideal-Lume lighting and it was indeed 6500+/-100K using the EyeOne Pro. Pls remember that your wall colour and type of paint behind the display plays a role as well. Since you want to produce 6500K light source behind your display, the walls should be neutral white or neutral gray. In my case, since the colour of my wall was off white (light beige) the final colour temperature of off the wall was close to 5500K, but thats the best I could do. It was still better than viewing in the dark. Colours were still accurate to my eyes.

Even if you cannot do that, a bias light behind the display will enhance your viewing pleasure. You will "see" enhanced black levels since the iris of your eye does not open too much as it would in a dark room. Only projectors are meant to vieiwed in a dark environment.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Feb 17 2009, 11:21 AM

I believe this is a ALIS display. Hitachi I think. They are slightly different. I read something but it does not come to my mind now. Need to check up. Their technology was slighty different. I believe it was the only interlaced display in the market when it came out. I am not sure.

I believe technically it is 1080. Its just that it is 1080i instead of 1080p.

Unfortunately, permanent screen burn in is not covered by any plasma manufacturer. As long as you vary your content meaning 16:9, full screen, 4:3 you should be ok. Most new plasma's are pretty resistant to permanent burn in. Image retention on the other hand is there, but it is not permanent, and will wear off once the screen starts showing some fast moving scenes.

There are not many plasma panel manufacturing plants in the world. If I am not mistaken, most of them are in Japan except I believe a few in Korea for now.

I thought it was a HD Ready LG Plasma 60"?

Michael,
What do you suggest we do about this? Does anyone here import the the latest LCD, plasma, video gear from UK/US? Actually, I am looking looking for possible solutions since I would like to get newer stuff as well. For smaller items like blu ray players/dvd players, we can get someone to bring it in and risk the warranty, but for bigger and more expensive stuff how does one go about getting the latest stuff? Again, not limited to Pioneer, any electronic gear per se. I've been interested to see if anyone has a workaround..

On another note : Do u have something particular against Pioneer products?

Very interesting promotion. At RM16k for the KRP-500A, seems like a very reasonably price if u can sell of the 508XG!

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 11 2009, 08:21 AM

If you cannot see the difference, then by all means get the cheaper one.

The black levels are different. The colour reproduction is also different. Grayscale tracking on the Pioneer 9th gen is almost ruler flat with DeltaE's below 1 across the levels. Gamma is also very well tracked at 2.2 for the Pioneer. Pioneer reproduces the colour almost perfectly in the HD709 colour space. Even Pioneers 8th Gen has a blacker black and accurate colour reproduction. The Panny are not so accurate. However, you can get the Panny's Grayscale calibrated in the Service Menu with reasonably good DeltaEs. The better black levels in the Pioneers give it a higher contrast ratio after calibration. The Pioneers also allow for a 9 point gamma correction if necessary.

The comparison of the batangs are hilarious! You light up this forum for sure. I am not too sure it is politically correct terms, but I am sure they will disagree as to who has the bigger one!

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 11 2009, 03:18 PM

Hope u enjoy your set.

12G Panasonic (2009) X series initial black level measurements are showing closer to Kuro 8G (2007 models) measurements. Their G series are much closer to 2007 Kuros and the ability to total black for a no output. 2009 Panasonics have the ability to have higher ft/L on a windowed white screen, meaning the contrast ratios will be higher than the Panasonic 2008 models. This means that daytime viewing will be better.

I believe the S series and the V/Z series will be slightly better. Unfortunately, there is still no grayscale adjustment in the user menu (available in the service menu) and the colour points are still out. The other issue is the X and the G series still struggle with the 24p input (G refreshes at 48Hz) and there is still judder. The higher S and V series are supposed to refresh at 96Hz so maybe there is hope yet. The only issue is what are the models that will be marketed here. Also what will be the price range.

Neo PDPs are showing promise to battle the LCDs bright whites and hopefully extending the plasma technology. They already do blacks more naturally and LCD countered that with LED backlighting. This will help the typical attitude of showroom viewing sales. The next 2 years might be a crucial year for Plasma. There are only Panasonic, Samsung and LG plasmas left (I am not too sure of Hitachis plans moving forward). If Panasonic can make more progress with Pioneer engineers I believe in time to come it can survive.

On another note, I have seen some measurements of the new Samsung 2009 LCDs and they seem to be improving as well. So only time will tell. At the end, if LCDs improve to plasma levels for dark viewing, who cares. Competition is important. As Malaysians, we should be able to understand that monopoly is bad. We have too many examples....

What do you plan to use this LCD for? Computer screen? How much is it? Its pretty small, so I believe there is not too much you should expect from it. If u r planning to use it to watch HD movies, I don't think u need to spend so much for a 19in Sony. Better off getting other full HD LCD that are cheaper and probably bigger, Acer, Samsung, Benq, Dell... Pls let us know ur primary use for this monitor

I have seen some calibrated numbers of the 2009 Panasonic X1 and G1s. They are definately better than the 2008 Pannys. The G1s are close to 2007 Pioneer (G8) but still quite far away from the 2008 Pioneers. Blacks levels are close to but not as black as 2007 Pioneer. The S1/V1/Z1 is expected to match 2007 Pioneer blacks. Unfortunately, the colour points are pretty far off. The did fix the red push on the 2008 Pannys though. Contrast ratios can be increased in 2 ways. Increase 100% white level or reduce 0% white level (black). However, if you are viewing in a dark room, the max white level is normally set between 30-40 ft/L. Meaning the only way to increase contrast ratio meaningfully is to reduce black levels. If only they could finally fix the colour issues.. I believe next year they will get it closer.

Edited.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Mar 23 2009, 09:52 PM

I think you will probably be waiting for some time. No one makes plasma at 42in with 1366X768. There are only a handful of PDP manufacturers at the moment. The screen size is based on yields and margins. They cannot make a 42in 1366X768 plasma display with good yields thats why at that size it is either 1024X768 or 1920X1080. If the 1366X768 is what u need , then i suggest u either get a 50in plasma or a LCD that has that resolution.

Question: What do you mean by better whites? Brighter whites or more accurate white reproduction. White is defined in the CIE chart as x: 0.3127, y: 0.33. This is D65 white. All TV/Movie production be it PAL, NTSC or HD is aligned in the white colour points. If you mean by white levels, then in a dim environment, the white levels for recommended movie viewing are in the region of 30-40ft/L. However, in a home environment daytime viewing you might need to boost it to ~ 45-50ft/L. LCD typically can do that since they do not have a APL in displaying a full white pattern. However, a lot of LCDs do that at the expense of a bluish white reproduction. Again for colours, they can be represented in the CIE chart. A lot of LCDs and Plasmas that I have seen reproduce the colours way out of the CIE colour chart and the luminance (brightness) are all way off. A lot of people seem to like this garish colours. Once the general public cares and actually understands this, it is easier to make your decision. Again, if all this does not matter, go for what looks best to you. The produce fantastic colours part, needs to be corrected to produce accurate colours. The only Sammy LCDs that can produce deep blacks that can rival the plasmas are the LED backlighting ones. They have their own set of problems. No display tecnnology is perfect , yet. One day we will all be treated to a perfect display. Till then, we have to choose. Make a educated choice.

Actually the strengths of the Sammy LCDs 650s and above have the ability to correct colour since they have a complete CMS (Colour Management System). Same goes to the Sammy plasmas. Panny 2009 plasmas improve contrast ratios by increasing the white level. Neo-PDP technology allows for that. I believe with New-PDP and 5-10lumens tech in Plasma they will be able to compete with LCDs in the showroom environment. Bear in mind, that they already thump LCDs in home environment. I also believe that LCDs will continue to improve with LED improvements and probably OLED sometime in the future.

Pannys full HD 2009 sets come close to the 2007 Kuros probably their next years plasma will be closer to the 2008 Kuros. Then if they remain in the plasma technolgy their 2011 sets should surpass Kuros. They have been rumored to have hired the outgoing Pioneer engineers.

Not entirely true. Samsung actually unleashed quite a few models in CES 2009. Both for LCD and Plasmas. Their new LED LCDs are already released in the US and are making waves. There is also some excitement of their new 2009 Plasmas that seem to match Panasonics blacks. Panasonic is normally the 1st to release new models in SEA. Samsung will follow soon.

LG seems to have some new models as well. Remember it is still only April.

Panasonic is definately marketing the NeoPDPs quite heavily in the East. Let's see. As far as I know, Panasonic sells the most displays around the world I think. Not sure as I have not seen official figures.

I believe the reason why Panasonic is reducing the warranty from 5yrs to 3yrs is purely due to the current economic situation. Different companies account for warranties differently depending on the accounting methods. The more warranty the more product cost. I believe since they believe that sales will lag this year, one way to offset that would be to increase margins. Reducing warranty immediately increases margin. Numbers will look better....