choices choices....HDTV what kind of player would you buy?
so of course everyone is getting pulled into the hd world but a huge question seems to plague us all.... what should i get to view it on?
my parents just bought a few HD LCDs for the house. i was thinking of going plasma. then there are the HD rear projection or just plain old front projection..
how to choose?
of course they all have advangtages and drawbacks but what would you choose if you were looking to put a set up in a garden variety living room and had about 10k to do it with. since there dont seem to be any true head and shoulders stand outs , what reasons would make you decide for which product?
my parents just bought a few HD LCDs for the house. i was thinking of going plasma. then there are the HD rear projection or just plain old front projection..
how to choose?
of course they all have advangtages and drawbacks but what would you choose if you were looking to put a set up in a garden variety living room and had about 10k to do it with. since there dont seem to be any true head and shoulders stand outs , what reasons would make you decide for which product?
Comments
Funny you should ask, but I am looking at a Canon Realis S50. A 1440x1050 projector. I hope to see one or get a discount at NAB.
My whole wall is my TV. 8)
1. plasma:
2. lcd-HDTVs are sweet. have you seen a 1080i 42" Sharp Aquos? Nice
3. alternatives to lcd-highdef displays are LCD or DLP projectors as above poster suggested
4. other alternatives which would be bulkier than 1, 2 or 3 are Sony-3-lcd-rear projection TV or DLP-rear-projection-TV. regular rear-projection TVs are rubbish
5. i would suggest get to know what really 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p really means, and which of these HDTV signals both (a)your tv will support and (b)you are likely to receive from cable/satellite/computer sources
6. lastly, think very strongly about whether you are going to be hooking this beastly display up to your computer within now-to-5-years down the track. some "HDTV" labelled screens can handle HDTelevision signals okay, but plug in a Mac or PC, and some crumble (as in text looks shite) trying to display 1280x720 or 1920x1080 resolutions from the computer. also i don't know why some of these screens as well, when hooked up to a computer, the screen is strangely stretched a bit and all that.
enjoy
ps. i will be posting some resolution comparisons, which has 720p, 1080p, and 23"apple-cinemaHD and 30"apple-cinemaHD resolution uncompressed still images for peoples to compare in my other "hdTV" thread...
download, unzip (the file, you pervert!!) and enjoy
rendered in lightwave3d of a modified version of DanAblan's superb tutorials.
http://www.phatcraft.com/high_res_examples.zip
Get a feel of 720p and 1080p high-def compared to DVD resolutions. then fire up the 23" and 30" apple cinema hd -- to use as a background to show off your display or for others, to realise what their missing.
especially for images bigger than your screen res,
i would suggest, open the file in preview, hit command-0 (view actual size), maximise window to full size, then hit command-1 to get the 'hand' tool, and click and drag to scroll around....
all .tga files are rendered and anti-aliased at high-res natively out of lightwave 3d, and uncompressed, so you get a real good comparison out of all of them
Plasmas: Better picture and less expensive than LCD, does not last as long (but latest good ones last 60,000 hours, which for me is about 30 years). Good viewing angle, does not reflect light from windows like other screens.
Front projectors: Great, but only suitable for unlit rooms.
CRT front projectors are a bit fiddley, but they have the best picture. I bought mine used on Ebay for $1400 - it is an 8" CRT that cost $22K new. If you don't want to fiddle there are many other front projector choices (D-ILA, DLP, LCD).
Rear projectors: Uniformly horrible, IMHO.
CRTS: Picture as good as plasma, but reflects light from windows a lot more. Less expensive and much bulkier.
My choice is 1) CRT front projector for theater room (no windows) and 2) Panasonic Plasma everywhere else.
Originally posted by e1618978
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Rear projectors: Uniformly horrible, IMHO.
....
yup, but the new sony 60" 3-lcd-wega rear-projection TV is worth its salt, definitely all other rear-projections are dodgy...
In regard to LCD Projection sets, my friend bought the 55" Sony Wega LCD Projection, and the picture looks like ass. I wouldn't recommend it.
It's true that the units marketed for "home theater" require a darkened room, because they are engineered to maximize contrast (black). One way to do that is to keep the lumen level low to begin with.
However, there quite a few projectors in the 2500-3000 lumen range that will give a vivid, compelling picture in ambient light (not full daylight, but then, that's true of direct view displays). With a screen designed to enhance contrast, you can get a great looking picture in moderate light.
Manufacturers are just starting to add HD native panels to this class of projector. They've been slow because the primary market is for corporate presenters, who don't care, but they're figuring out that there is a market for a 2500 lumen, 1400x1024 widescreen "theater' projector with a perfectly serviceable 2000x1 contrast ratio.
Or, you could go with one of the the ubiquitous XGA boxes which will do 720p native just fine.
I've seen units ranging from $2500-$5,000, street, that would shame the $50,000 big boys of just a few years ago.
Projectors are really where the bang for the buck ratio is exploding, but they've been woefully under-marketed outside of the corporate presenter/education market.
Take a look at offerings from NEC, Canon, Panasonic, Sanyo or Sharp.
as an aside, there was a thread at a video site that talked about possibility of apple entering that market.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=3
Originally posted by macfly
i would like to learn more about projectors. sounds like they really look great and i would be into it. the only thing was having to replace expensive bulbs all the time.
as an aside, there was a thread at a video site that talked about possibility of apple entering that market.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=3
Bulbs don't really have to be replaced "all the time"-- they're typically rated for 2,000 hrs, which is a year and a half at fours hours a day. Plus, with a really bright projector you can usually use the "economy mode" when watching at night (added advantage of better contrast and reduced fan noise), which extends bulb life quite a bit. A few manufacturers have come out with mega-life bulbs, that get around 4k hrs.
Realistically, you can expect to drop about $400 every two years on a bulb. It's not nothing, but it's not horrible.
Oh, and Apple will never make a projector. It's far too competitive an industry, with far too many entrenched players who have far too much specialized expertise for Apple to pull an iPod in this market.
I know there are those that disagree, but they are wrong, and are bad people.
It's true that the units marketed for "home theater" require a darkened room, because they are engineered to maximize contrast (black). One way to do that is to keep the lumen level low to begin with.
You can't fight physics. Front projectors represent black by a lack of light - in a lit room, you won't get black, but white in the spaces that are supposed to be black.
You can have the brightest projector in the world, but it will still look washed out if you don't have a dark room. The only way that you can fight this is with the new Sony black screen, which is about as expensive as the same sized plasma tv.
Originally posted by e1618978
You can't fight physics. Front projectors represent black by a lack of light - in a lit room, you won't get black, but white in the spaces that are supposed to be black.
You can have the brightest projector in the world, but it will still look washed out if you don't have a dark room. The only way that you can fight this is with the new Sony black screen, which is about as expensive as the same sized plasma tv.
Well, sorta.
High contrast screens well short of the marvels of the Sony thing do a good job of rejecting off axis ambient light, that, combined with the apparent contrast boost of really bright whites, ala high lumen projection, make for a pleasing image in ambient light, in my book.
Are the blacks velvety jet black? No, but neither are they on most displays, and the human eye is more interested in apparent contrast than absolute lux levels.
Originally posted by addabox
Well, sorta.
High contrast screens well short of the marvels of the Sony thing do a good job of rejecting off axis ambient light, that, combined with the apparent contrast boost of really bright whites, ala high lumen projection, make for a pleasing image in ambient light, in my book.
Are the blacks velvety jet black? No, but neither are they on most displays, and the human eye is more interested in apparent contrast than absolute lux levels.
plasma screens will continue to have a strong emotional draw though, because of those rich velvety blacks. not sure about the psychology about it but there is something about the black aesthetic that attracts people to plasma screens
edit: on a similar note, while projection does appeal and has improved and offers strong cost benefits, there is also some aesthetic differences between reflected light reaching your eyes (ala projection) vs. direct light being shot straight into your retinas (ala CRT, LCD, plasma)
Originally posted by sunilraman
plasma screens will continue to have a strong emotional draw though, because of those rich velvety blacks. not sure about the psychology about it but there is something about the black aesthetic that attracts people to plasma screens
edit: on a similar note, while projection does appeal and has improved and offers strong cost benefits, there is also some aesthetic differences between reflected light reaching your eyes (ala projection) vs. direct light being shot straight into your retinas (ala CRT, LCD, plasma)
I agree completely.
The psychology of reflected vs. direct light is really fascinating, mirroring as it does our experience of the moon and sun.
Personally, I think reflected light projection helps "sell" the experience of watching a movie by dialing back the "videoness" of DVD source material.
Originally posted by addabox
I agree completely.
The psychology of reflected vs. direct light is really fascinating, mirroring as it does our experience of the moon and sun.
Personally, I think reflected light projection helps "sell" the experience of watching a movie by dialing back the "videoness" of DVD source material.
actually i looked at some plasmas again the past few days, and a nice 720p/1080i one without too much 'blockiness' is for me, more aesthetically pleasing, versus a similarly HDTV-spec'ed LCD.
plasma is far from dead and gone due to some emotional impact LCDs currently don't quite deliver...
it's always evolving, tomorrow there'll be some new model that in some way contradicts all we've discussed here
If you have a very dark room, go for reflected light, if you do not have a dark room, go for direct light (LCD, CRT, plasma).
For watching a direct view tv in the dark, you can help things out a lot by putting a splash light on the wall behind the tv.