Anyone familiar with the X360 Samsung LCD?

[Carl B]

I picked up the UK equivalent of the KDL-V32XBR1 (KDL-V32A12U) a few weeks ago.. it's a great set (only gripe would be that the audio is a little weak) so now I just need to get some HD content on it. I've still got my fingers crossed that my X360 shows up this year.. although that's sounding less likely by the day..

Hey that's awesome - I don't suppose you guys get any sort of discount on those sets do you? I really have felt compelled by the Bravias, but as my initial post stated I don't see myself leaving my current projection set anytime soon, even though the picture quality on those Bravia's is super-impressive. Also I wish you luck in getting your 360 sometime soon-ish. For my part I'm glad that the employees of SCEE are willing to give a competitors product a full sampling; afterall it can only get the ideas swirling in those heads of yours all the more, right?

On the side, what games are you most looking forward to at the moment?

 

[DeanA]

Hey that's awesome - I don't suppose you guys get any sort of discount on those sets do you?

Yeah.. pretty good staff discount. Managed to pick it up for £1100..

For my part I'm glad that the employees of SCEE are willing to give a competitors product a full sampling

I've had most of the consoles that have been out since I was a kid. The best games are spread out pretty evenly across the current 3 units (GC/XBox/PS2), and so I go where the good games are..

On the side, what games are you most looking forward to at the moment?

Hmm... Shadow Of The Colossus has got to be a must-buy title (when it's out in PAL territories). I'm currently playing the PS2 version of RE4, which is genius. For the 360, I've got PGR3 on order, but - strangely - I'm more interested in playing Geometry Wars 2.. Oblivion looks pretty nifty, as do some of the titles on Xbox Live Arcade.

---
Opinions I share here are my own, and should not be incorrectly interpreted as the views of SCEE, SCE, or Sony Corporation.

 

[London Geezer]

All Sony employees get discounts on hardware. Another member here works for Sony here in London. Not a programmer, he manages the PAL games conversions business. Won't say who it is and he doesn't post very often. But basically he offered lots of stuff with cool discounts (i think it's a standard 20%? Not sure). PSP's and other things. Shame i was broke at the time and still today!

 

[rabidrabbit]

I'd like to hear from you people who have LCD TV's, how does your set handle black when viewed in a dark room.

I have a crappy Hyundai 17" 4:3 monitor/TV and in the daytime it looks ok, but at dark the blacks appear very washed out.

Are the "real" LCD TV's better in this respect?

 

[Carl B]

Yeah.. pretty good staff discount. Managed to pick it up for £1100..

Psssh! That *is* good!

I've had most of the consoles that have been out since I was a kid. The best games are spread out pretty evenly across the current 3 units (GC/XBox/PS2), and so I go where the good games are..

Can't argue with that philosophy - just be sure to syphon off and expand on some of those cool ideas you might come across! (though I know you're not on the direct development side of things)

Hmm... Shadow Of The Colossus has got to be a must-buy title (when it's out in PAL territories). I'm currently playing the PS2 version of RE4, which is genius. For the 360, I've got PGR3 on order, but - strangely - I'm more interested in playing Geometry Wars 2.. Oblivion looks pretty nifty, as do some of the titles on Xbox Live Arcade.

Well I just meant on the 360 really, but I can't argue with your current PS2 choices either.

 

[jvd]

meh , the 27inch will be 500$ by june mark my workds

 

[London Geezer]

I'd like to hear from you people who have LCD TV's, how does your set handle black when viewed in a dark room.

I have a crappy Hyundai 17" 4:3 monitor/TV and in the daytime it looks ok, but at dark the blacks appear very washed out.

Are the "real" LCD TV's better in this respect?

Even today, the best LCDs shouldn't be viewed in completely dark rooms. there should always be a light on, even faint.
Philip's Ambilight might sound gimmicky but it really makes such a huge difference i would buy one in a heartbeat if i had the money.
By Q1 2006 Philips LCDs will have 2 new technologies which will greatly improve on LCD's flaws, blacks and motion blur. They have licensed the tech so other manufacturers will be taking advantage of them.

Eventually we'll have HDR LCD displays at decent prices. Before that we will have SED's. Both will have great blacks and much improved image quality.

It all depends on how much you want to wait, in the end if we keep waiting for "the next big thing" we will never buy anything.

 

[London Geezer]

Are you referring to the Sammy LN-R328W model?

Missed that.

Yes that's the model i think. It has a different model number in the UK, it's called the LE32R51BDX, but it's the same model save from the SCART connections which i don't think are in the US version and will never be used by me anyway, and a Freeview tuner which will be different from the US version, which i guess has a HD tuner included instead (Europe don't have HD broadcasts over terrestrial aerials)

 

[MrWibble]

(Europe don't have HD broadcasts over terrestrial aerials)

Trials might begin in London next year for that...

 

[London Geezer]

Trials might begin in London next year for that...

I KNOW!! I'm in posh and expensive Islington so i DEMAND good services and will do anything to be on the trial!! Can you say WORLD CUP IN HD!!!

 

[ihamoitc2005]

Black

I'd like to hear from you people who have LCD TV's, how does your set handle black when viewed in a dark room.

I have a crappy Hyundai 17" 4:3 monitor/TV and in the daytime it looks ok, but at dark the blacks appear very washed out.

Are the "real" LCD TV's better in this respect?

I use a 32 Inch Hyundai 16:9 wide-screen LCD manufactured by LG. Contrast ratio rating is 1000:1, response time is 8ms, and black reproduction is best I have seen from LCD monitors but resolution is only 1366x768.

Specs are here. Perhaps some other sites have even lower price.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1457786&Sku=H54-3202

 

[seismologist]

23" is pretty small. If you plan to use it for anything that's not widescreen there will be black bars on the sides and your viewing area goes down to like 17"

I had this problem with Morrowind on Xbox my 32" HDTV was just too small to read the text from across the room.

 

[London Geezer]

23" is pretty small. If you plan to use it for anything that's not widescreen there will be black bars on the sides and your viewing area goes down to like 17"

I had this problem with Morrowind on Xbox my 32" HDTV was just too small to read the text from across the room.

23 or 32???

It all depends on the viewing distance really, but 32" is hardly small...

 

[Smak]

In the end these sets work mighty fine with 720p sources, with no problem whatsoever with regards to 1:1 pixel mapping. When downscaling 1080i/p material, they have the potential to show more detail than native 1280x720p sets because they have 127488 pixels more to pack detail in. Hardly a big difference i know, but that's one of the "reasons" the manufacturers come up with.

Assuming you are refering to LCD's with a native 1366x768 resolution will have 1:1 pixel mapping from 720p input sources? How will this work, black border to reduce resolution?

When using my 19" Samsung LCD monitor (1280x1024) with DVI connection I can run different resolutions but lock pixel mapping so 1024x768 would have borders around it not scaled to fit screen.

 

[London Geezer]

Assuming you are refering to LCD's with a native 1366x768 resolution will have 1:1 pixel mapping from 720p input sources? How will this work, black border to reduce resolution?

When using my 19" Samsung LCD monitor (1280x1024) with DVI connection I can run different resolutions but lock pixel mapping so 1024x768 would have borders around it not scaled to fit screen.

Well, i'm pretty sure 1366x768 panels always scale the 720p image to fit the screen. I don't think there is an option to have a black canvas around the image so as to have 1:1 pixel mapping. Or at least, the option is not there on most LCDs cause i've never heard of such an option.
All this panic over native 720p or 1366x768 is very unnecessary, these sets handle 720p images like a bloody charm.

 

[Master-Mold]

Well, i'm pretty sure 1366x768 panels always scale the 720p image to fit the screen. I don't think there is an option to have a black canvas around the image so as to have 1:1 pixel mapping. Or at least, the option is not there on most LCDs cause i've never heard of such an option.
All this panic over native 720p or 1366x768 is very unnecessary, these sets handle 720p images like a bloody charm.

I specifically remember after I adjusted the Samsung in Best Buy to Widescreen mode there was little if any black borders or empty screen space. When I first got there it was set to "Panoramic View" and there were about 2" borders, but after my adjusting it looked woderful.

In other words it seemed very happy to be running at 720P and the image seemed no worse. As a matter of fact it looked damned good and was using almost every bit of the screen for the image. I hate black borders and I would have noticed if there were any.

 

[London Geezer]

I specifically remember after I adjusted the Samsung in Best Buy to Widescreen mode there was little if any black borders or empty screen space. When I first got there it was set to "Panoramic View" and there were about 2" borders, but after my adjusting it looked woderful.

In other words it seemed very happy to be running at 720P and the image seemed no worse. As a matter of fact it looked damned good and was using almost every bit of the screen for the image. I hate black borders and I would have noticed if there were any.

Heh that's what i've been saying all along!!!

 

[MrWibble]

Well, i'm pretty sure 1366x768 panels always scale the 720p image to fit the screen. I don't think there is an option to have a black canvas around the image so as to have 1:1 pixel mapping. Or at least, the option is not there on most LCDs cause i've never heard of such an option.
All this panic over native 720p or 1366x768 is very unnecessary, these sets handle 720p images like a bloody charm.

Actually for FWIW, I dislike the fact that the image is not the "correct" resolution - it's quite noticeable (to me) that the image has been scaled.

Both my plasma and LCD tvs are this resolution, and it's something I've basically just had to accept.

In the case of DVD playback or watching TV I don't really care too much - the sources are lower-resolution and rarely have such an abundance of sharp detail that I need to see pixel-accurately. It doesn't concern me overly regarding PS2 stuff either, as that's also relatively low-res and although the picture I get from scaling it isn't pin-sharp, I can live with it.

I've even shelled out for a reasonably expensive external video scaler to make sure I'm getting the best possible picture, so it's something I do want to be as good as possible.

However with next-gen games I think it's going to bother me - I know it bothers me at work that most of the screens are not correctly set up.

If/when 1080p becomes the norm and both TVs and devices to connect to them support it natively, I'll be looking to upgrade.

It's just unfortunate (but necessary) that we have to go through a generation of devices that all have fairly random support for different "HD" modes while we wait for the market to stabilise.

 

[macabre]

From the 768res LCDs Philips have probably the best quality in scaling. I guess the Loewes are nice as well but also pricey.
Has anybody seen the BenQ DV3750 (http://benqsenseye.com/SenseyeProduct/Display/DV3750.htm) which has 1080res ? I`ve seen them in online shops for €1300 and I wonder how the quality is. There is also a 1080 set from Acer on the way.

 

[London Geezer]

From the 768res LCDs Philips have probably the best quality in scaling. I guess the Loewes are nice as well but also pricey.
Has anybody seen the BenQ DV3750 (http://benqsenseye.com/SenseyeProduct/Display/DV3750.htm) which has 1080res ? I`ve seen them in online shops for €1300 and I wonder how the quality is. There is also a 1080 set from Acer on the way.

The Philips 37" 9830 is also a 1080 display. Amazing set but SO much more expensive than the competition, they make Sony look cheap.