£813 for 42" High Definition Plasma, top brand company (albeit not in Plasmas!)

welshblob

If I was looking for a HD ready TV at the moment then it would have to display the real HD resolutions 1920x1080 or 1280x720 and this one doesn't. I haven't been looking at TV's and so I don't know whether this is a good deal or not for what it is. But the HD ready logo just seems to be confusing the situation more than its helping it. For a definition of what HD Ready means see -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready
Btw I'm sticking with my 32" JVC CRT for the time being.
Rob

Baz_2

welshblob wrote:

If I was looking for a HD ready TV at the moment then it would have to display the real HD resolutions 1920x1080 or 1280x720 and this one doesn't. I haven't been looking at TV's and so I don't know whether this is a good deal or not for what it is. But the HD ready logo just seems to be confusing the situation more than its helping it. For a definition of what HD Ready means see -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready
Btw I'm sticking with my 32" JVC CRT for the time being.
Rob

This set is HD ready. All plasma 42" set will have the same resolution. 1024*768 so this set is no worse than any other plasma in this size and that includes the expensive ones from pioneer et al.

The HD ready standard states that the vertical number of lines needs to be 720 or more, the horizontal number of lines is irrelevant.

The most important thing you need to look at with regard to picture quality is not resolution but the picture processing software within the set. A good 1024*768 plasma withh good picture scaling will produce a better picture than a 1920*1080 plasma with no or poor picture scaling.

The budget plamsas tend to fall down on this very point, i.e poor picture proccesing and scaling, which I assume will be the failing of the set if any.

HankMcSpank

Baz wrote:

As a side note I find it ironic that the OP mentions his dislike for brand snobbery but makes a point of emphasing that this plasma is a "top brand" by posting that in the thread title.

Oh dear.

My ref to 'top brand' in the subject title was to differentiate it from the junk brands we see posted available at Woolies - see my post a couple of threads ago re define premium brand.

This is not brand snobbery...if someone came to my house I wouldn't be saying "Hey look at my Fujitsu-Siemens plasma" cos i'd get a reactions of "Huh, who are they?"

I do understand it's not a Fujitsu General plasma but I also completely understand it's at least two thousands pound less (this is a moneysaving forum - right? Or have I morphed to https://www.analaboutexpensiveplasmas.com ?)

re pixel mapping ....this is a TV for watching Loreal adverts on (:D) NOT to play space invaders or surf the net, so it's irrelevant. If you want it to be a PC display buy an LCD!

Listen people go & burn another £1,000 on a Panny, Fujitsu General & be safe in the knowledge that you paid all that extra money for no apparent reason

wywywywy

Baz wrote:

A 42" plasma cannot do 1:1 pixel mapping as such as its pixels are 16:9 shaped. So to display a pc picture your pc needs to output 1024*768 which is a 4:3 aspect ratio and let the TV stretch it to 16:9. As its stretching the picture it can never really be described as 1:1 pixel mapped. Even outputting a 4:3 image would require some stretching.

Yes I understand that, but I don't care about the aspect ratio because MCE handles that, and I just want it to accept 1024x768 in 1:1 pixel mapping so that the text is ultra sharp.

Baz_2

You sound like the majority of people who post on the avforums who get very annoyed and defensive when people dare to post saying that their new plasma may not be as good as what they though it was. It can get very funny when they just right out ignore and refuse to accept any fault at all no matter how small.

Good value for money? Certainly, the top spec performing plasma you make out? Certainly not. Any better than a Tevion? Probably but as yet unconfirmed.

No need to spend an extra £1000 for a top brand 42" plasma, an extra £400 would be all that is needed. If you know the relevant codes and have an egg card you can get a panasonic PX60 for £1247 from Dixons. Now thats moneysaving on a "top brand" 42" plasma.

Baz_2

wywywywy wrote:

Yes I understand that, but I don't care about the aspect ratio because MCE handles that, and I just want it to accept 1024x768 in 1:1 pixel mapping so that the text is ultra sharp.

Fair enough, but as the set is stretching and scalling the text you could never really describe it as ultra sharp.

But to answer your question, Ive no idea if it will 1:1 match the 1024*768. Posting your question on the avforums thread linked to earlier would be better.

cpjackso

Just in case anyone is considering buying one - you might be interested to know that savastore.com has them for £888.28 inc VAT and delivery.. Obviously thats £15 more expensive than NicePC - however it's next day delivery and they don't seem to suffer from the same delivery delays as have been reported about NicePC.

I realise this is moneysavingexpert.com, but the extra £15 might turn out to be well spent!

... just realised that the quidco cashback from savastore (3%) would work out at £26 too - so it's cheaper (=£861.64)

OTOH - it's unclear whether the screen from savastore comes with the 2yr collect+return warranty... The manual does say it comes with the 2yr warranty tho:

"Fujitsu Siemens Computers offers you a two-year warranty with Collect & Return service if you have purchased the device within the European Union, Norway or in Switzerland." (thx to celticdaz@avforums.com).

gromituk

HankMcSpank wrote:

Listen people go & burn another £1,000 on a Panny, Fujitsu General & be safe in the knowledge that you paid all that extra money for no apparent reason

Hmmm. These sets can only handle 8-bit RGB (16 million colours) as opposed to 11-bit on the Panasonics (billions of colours), which is more than an academic difference with a plasma panel and will lead to noise in darker parts of the picture.

So that's one reason why spending £1k more may be worth it; I'm not saying these sets are bad value though.

TMirf

HankMcSpank wrote:

Man you guys are annoying me now!

Tmurf - most sets released/bought to date can only display 720p or 1080i ...*only* the latest LCD coming out now have 1080p ability (& the larger plasmas) ...and they cost a whole lot more . You're statement "so you're not going to get full hi-def on this tv" is misleading - you most certainly *are* going to get it over HDMI or DVI!!

I realise that most tvs can only display 720p or 1080i and I wouldn't recommend buying a tv with 1080 vertical resolution anyway as from all accounts 720p signals look iffy on them and 720p is the bulk of what is currently broadcast. Equally 1080i doesn't actually give you much more resolution than 720p due to the de-interlacing. I can assure you, you will NOT get full hi-def tv. Horizontal resolution DOES matter as the signal will have 1280 horizontal lines. therefore, mapping that to the available pixels will lose you some resolution. I've never seent his panel and so I'm not saying it won't look good and that SD signals don't look lovely, just that it won't give you as good a picture from a 720p signal as a screen that can display 1280 horizontal.
This tv is probably a very good deal and if you want a 42" tv it'll be a plasma and it'll be XGA but I just want people to know the facts.

Baz_2

TMirf wrote:

I realise that most tvs can only display 720p or 1080i and I wouldn't recommend buying a tv with 1080 vertical resolution anyway as from all accounts 720p signals look iffy on them and 720p is the bulk of what is currently broadcast. Equally 1080i doesn't actually give you much more resolution than 720p due to the de-interlacing. I can assure you, you will NOT get full hi-def tv. Horizontal resolution DOES matter as the signal will have 1280 horizontal lines. therefore, mapping that to the available pixels will lose you some resolution. I've never seent his panel and so I'm not saying it won't look good and that SD signals don't look lovely, just that it won't give you as good a picture from a 720p signal as a screen that can display 1280 horizontal.
This tv is probably a very good deal and if you want a 42" tv it'll be a plasma and it'll be XGA but I just want people to know the facts.

Hmmm you could easily work in comet......

Firstly what is broadcast now is all in 1080i.

Secondly its not resolution that matters but how well the screen scales the picture, even 1280 * 720 will need to be scaled to a 1366 * 768 TV just the same as 1280 * 720 will need to be scaled to a 1024 * 768 set. Its the way the set scales the image that counts, not always the resolution. Dont fall into the trap that the higher the resolution the better the picture as thats not right.

And last you will never notice the difference between a HD feed on a 1024 * 768 plasma set and the same feed on a 1366 * 768 LCD set. You just wont as your eyes are not that good, the pictures on the 42" plasmas are just as good as similar feeds on LCD's with 1366 *768.

Plus it's easier to scale by dropping pixels than by adding them.

As for 1080i and 720p thats a complicated subject but 1080i on a 1080 TV will be much much better than 720p on a 720p set as long as the set is deinterlacing the signal correctly.