Best LCD/Plasma TV for DSTV HD?

thewusman said:
Sorry to have p1ssed on your batteries - but if you think your Sinotech is in the same league .... been there done that bought the new screen.

Don't get so defensive chump. I'm not saying the Sinotech is bad.

It's a really good set at the price.

But like all things in life you get what you pay for. I have had both my Sinotech 37" and new 40" series 5 samsung side-by-side and the difference is as clear as night and day. So yes - I know what I'm talking about.

This is not a dick size p1ssing contest.

I'm proving factual information based on reality for a question asked in this thread. For R15999 you can't get better.

If you want to spend R10 000 on the Sinotech - you can't go wrong either. But no - my Sinotech was NO WHERE NEAR as good as the Sammy.

fwiw: it's all about the "engine". Sony and Samsung (and other large brands) spend tens of millions building integrated chips to handle colour and video processing. That's what you're paying for. Fact.

So with your reasoning a "Fukonoshi" 8 megapixel DSLR camera is just as good as my (slightly old but trusty) Canon Rebel 350d ? Bollox.

It's all abou the processing chip (or "engine") as you put it. Canon camera's use proprietary "Digic II or III" chips which make all the difference. handling colour, light, exposure detail etc etc ad nauseam. Fact again. As do Nikon, Pentax, Sony etc.

"Fukonoshi" and the like do not. At best - they use generic chips churned out in Guangdon province, China.

Next time I see a Reuters journo sporting his latest Nikon DSLR full frame I'll tell him his engine sucks from you.

As you were.
Click to expand...

Don't take this the wrong way... I DO agree with you...

But doesn't the "engine" in the context of flat panel TVs refer more to the upscaling of the picture? i.e. Sony's Bravia deals more with taking a picture that is NOT at its native resolution and makes it display as if it were
 
@ sn3rd :

I think the issue is 2 fold.

Firstly, the "engine" is either a chip or set of chips designed to perform specific functions. The DNie on Samsung or Bravia from Sony are designed to handle contrast, colour, light, colour depth and space etc in a certain way. This chip would give them their trademark colour clarity and tone. "colour like no other" as put by the Sony chaps ... good slogan to describe it.

Upscalers are chips built into (usually) most sets. They become more critical on 1080P full HD sets in that they have to "bump" up the resolution of the panel to the native 1920 x 1080. The upscalers have to be good, otherwise you will end up with jaggies, misaligned images and artefacts from the "upscaling" of a SD or 720P / 1080i res.

Some of the best upscalers are made and incorporated onto inegrated chips as well - such as Faroudja, and found in high end home AV receivers, such as Onkyo and Harman Kardon to name but a few. They work well from what I've seen, unless the DSTV picture quality is shocking to start with. Then they make something bad a little bit worse. MPEG artefacts FTL ...

Even the XBOX 360 has an upscaler to handle 1080P etc over HDMI and VGA .... but sadly not component.

The whole reason I got onto upgrading my Sinotech was my dad bought a Sony S series Bravia 37 inch on special about 2 months ago for R9799 and i was blown away by the picture and colour quality and clarity. No matter what I did - I preferred watching everything on his set (such as sport on the weekends) and no matter what I did to my Sinotech I could not match the results. So my eye could not be lying to me - I had to do some more research .... and am now the proud owner of a Sammy Series 5.

Hope that helps ....
 
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For Plasma:

Pioneer, Hitachi and Panasonic - in no order. I still have an HD Hitachi 42 inch
plasma and it's brilliantly good, was the best set on
the market the year it came out. All Nippon made and engineered.

For LCD:

Sharp, Sony, Samsung, NEC, Philips, LG and Toshiba.

Still DSTV is only going to be 1280by720 so getting a full HD set for DSTV
only makes no sense, unless you're gonna watch BD movies.
 
PeterCH said:
For Plasma:

Pioneer, Hitachi and Panasonic - in no order. I still have an HD Hitachi 42 inch
plasma and it's brilliantly good, was the best set on
the market the year it came out. All Nippon made and engineered.

For LCD:

Sharp, Sony, Samsung, NEC, Philips, LG and Toshiba.

Still DSTV is only going to be 1280by720 so getting a full HD set for DSTV
only makes no sense, unless you're gonna watch BD movies.
Click to expand...

All that hype about plasma's fading - with your set did you notice anything ? Or is that down to urban legend ??
 
thewusman said:
@ sn3rd :

Upscalers are chips built into (usually) most sets. They become more critical on 1080P full HD sets in that they have to "bump" up the resolution of the panel to the native 1920 x 1080. The upscalers have to be good, otherwise you will end up with jaggies, misaligned images and artefacts from the "upscaling" of a SD or 720P / 1080i res...
Click to expand...

I dunno why people on this forum continually make this mistake,
1080i is 1920by1080 lines except encoded in an interlaced way.

1920by1080 at 50fps interlaced.
1920by1080 at 25fps progressive = 1080p.

So you don't need any upscaling for 1080i.
 
PeterCH said:
I dunno why people on this forum continually make this mistake,
1080i is 1920by1080 lines except encoded in an interlaced way.

1920by1080 at 50fps interlaced.
1920by1080 at 25fps progressive = 1080p.

So you don't need any upscaling for 1080i.
Click to expand...

Quite right. Typo. The i is for interlaced. Same pixel resolution.

Hope you enjoyed making the correction.
 
So now here's a question for the LCD guru's out there ... what difference does 100Hz technology make for LCD panels ?

I'm struggling to find a good answer.
 
LOl, nah bru. your eyes see something different then my eyes... cuz I don't see any oversaturated reds or greens... and your eyes need to be super cool if you can tell the diff between a 6ms and a 12ms screen, a 2000:1 contrast or a 6000:1.

Only thing you will pick up, is resolution, if you use it for a PC...

maybe you used the wrong inputs / settings ?

My nVidia Card handles all my Brightness/contrast/etc/etc/etc/etc
 
yeldoom said:
Nice recommendation ... I've got the 508XG :D (Sin City looked stunning last night)
I think you could get the 428XG for R28K. Don't let the resolution fool you (1024x768) the picture will blow you away.
Click to expand...

Hitachi plasmas come in 1024 by 1080, 1024 by 1024 and even 1920by1080. :) Try a Hitachi too :).
 
thewusman said:
So now here's a question for the LCD guru's out there ... what difference does 100Hz technology make for LCD panels ?

I'm struggling to find a good answer.
Click to expand...

i have no idea but i know the more you have the better. mine does run on 100Hz tho..
 
Keeper said:
LOl, nah bru. your eyes see something different then my eyes... cuz I don't see any oversaturated reds or greens... and your eyes need to be super cool if you can tell the diff between a 6ms and a 12ms screen, a 2000:1 contrast or a 6000:1.

Only thing you will pick up, is resolution, if you use it for a PC...

maybe you used the wrong inputs / settings ?

My nVidia Card handles all my Brightness/contrast/etc/etc/etc/etc
Click to expand...

Honestly - if my old man had not got his Sony .... I would still have my Sinotech.

Plus - I'm an anal retentive German .... had to investigate it properly.

I think sinotech should be applauded for their competitive pricing to begin with and making the big brands "wake" up and lower their prices. Heck ... a year ago most 37" Sammies and Sony's were well over the 20 grand mark for not much more in the form of features.

fwiw - I think the 42" full HD Sinotech panel looks way better than the 37" I had .... perhaps it was **** luck. Dunno. Happy now though.:)
 
PeterCH said:
Still DSTV is all hype and sucks even in HD, as it will be so terribly
compressed and all....and only half HD anyway. :)
Click to expand...

Well - funny you should mention that.

My cousin in the states said Comcast recently ran out of sat and cable bandwidth for their "HD" channels and came up with a great new invention.

"HD Lite".

Like coke lite. I kid you not. Highly compressed HD with loads of MPEG artifacts which no reasonable person would ever call HD in their right minds.

Apparently half the channels are now "HD Lite". LOL.
 
Ideal advice is to wait till 50 inches at 1920by1080 or even better 60 inches
at that res come down to R20K and below. Otherwise wait with what you've got,
the moment you buy a tech item like a large screen TV, someone else has a better
model at a similar price, then you read the reviews and all of a sudden the
picture isn't so cool anymore :).
 
Meanwhile get a poor man's HD set, a 24 inch HD monitor
from HP for example and sit with your face up close and
that PS3/BD player and enjoy an Imax like experience no
60 or 72 inch set will give you. :)
 
PeterCH said:
Meanwhile get a poor man's HD set, a 24 inch HD monitor
from HP for example and sit with your face up close and
that PS3/BD player and enjoy an Imax like experience no
60 or 72 inch set will give you. :)
Click to expand...

my eyes hurt when I try that....
 
PeterCH said:
Meanwhile get a poor man's HD set, a 24 inch HD monitor
from HP for example and sit with your face up close and
that PS3/BD player and enjoy an Imax like experience no
60 or 72 inch set will give you. :)
Click to expand...

ROFLMAO ..... true true.

Better still get 2 of them .... and you've got Stereo HD :)
 
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