Buying new TV - Go LED or wait for 3d?

[patsu]

Depends on whether you can find a good deal. I almost bought one because they were selling at the same price (or just $100 more) as what I paid for my HDTV.

The 3D experience will depend on the content and individual comfort level. This set will likely last for years ? If there's not much premium, I usually leave a door open. The 3D format/protocol has been standardized anyway. So you should be able to view future content.

If there's a significant enough price difference, then it's another story. If you have seen the Coral Reef demo and are not moved, then may be 3D makes no difference to you. But if you have not seen that particular demo, find an opportunity to do it. It's the Litmus Test for me. But that's just me.

 

[Billy Idol]

Hm, just found this at AV Forums:

http://www.avforums.com/review/Panasonic-V20-TX-P50V20B-50V20-HDTV-Plasma-Review.html

a review of the V plasma. this is the part about scaling:

The one area where the 2010 range of Panasonic plasma screens has improved the most is with their scaling and de-interlacing.
...
However the plus points here is the scaling performance, resolving excellent detail levels without adding ringing to fine edges or blur. The now common tests run on the HQV and FPD benchmark discs (barring cadence) all passed with very few issues. There is good diagonal interpolation which suppresses jaggies in most content to a high degree.
...
HD performance is also exceptionally good with both interlaced and progressive formats. We saw no major issues to detract from your HD viewing and no back door processing being added to the image. 24p playback is again at 96Hz, on the V20, which offers no interpolation and smooth looking images with no induced judder. The inherent response of the Plasma technology also manages to display a good 900 lines of motion resolution, on the FPD test, which is three times better than an average LCD TVs performance. This means that the V20 is not only excellent when fed HD film content but watching fast moving sports material is a delight. As I mentioned earlier in the review, if you add on Intelligent Frame Creation (24p Smooth with BD sources) the motion resolution improves but with the drawbacks of adding in processing errors and making film content look like a ‘Soap Opera’, so its best left off.

@Joker: do you have a 2010 Pannasonic Plasma and still the issue with scaling?

 

[Billy Idol]

Depends on whether you can find a good deal. I almost bought one because they were selling at the same price (or just $100 more) as what I paid for my HDTV.

The 3D experience will depend on the content and individual comfort level. This set will likely last for years ? If there's not much premium, I usually leave a door open. The 3D format/protocol has been standardized anyway. So you should be able to view future content.

If there's a significant enough price difference, then it's another story. If you have seen the Coral Reef demo and are not moved, then may be 3D makes no difference to you. But if you have not seen that particular demo, find an opportunity to do it. It's the Litmus Test for me. But that's just me.

Yep, I saw the Coral Reef demo - and it was indeed very impressive! That is indeed the only reason why I even think about getting a 3D TV...

 

[patsu]

Okay, at least I know someone else share the same opinion. My wife prefers the beach volley ball demo ("It's like watching the match live" says her), but I don't really see much 3D-ness in that segment.

 

[joker454]

@Joker: do you have a 2010 Pannasonic Plasma and still the issue with scaling?

Mine is a 2009, and I forgot that it's an 'S' series, not 'G' series, it's the TC-P65S1. 720p scaling is pooptacular on mine, but judging from that avsforum blurb you quoted maybe it's no longer an issue on 2010 models. That would be great because aside from scaling, the Panasonic plasma's are really nice to game on.

 

[Billy Idol]

Okay, at least I know someone else share the same opinion. My wife prefers the beach volley ball demo ("It's like watching the match live" says her), but I don't really see much 3D-ness in that segment.

The problem is that the 3D demo BD is kind of cheating: because when showing only slow moving landscape stuff - you never experience the 3D performance of fast moving stuff and thus I don't know if ghosting is an issue comparable to the cinema?

 

[patsu]

Not really true though, since 3D games are available on the market. I'm sure you can bring your content there to try out. They usually have a PS3 nearby (as a BR player). You can try gaming for yourself.

EDIT: Sony Style usually have 2-3 3DTVs for 3D game demo.

 

[homerdog]

Mine is a 2009, and I forgot that it's an 'S' series, not 'G' series, it's the TC-P65S1. 720p scaling is pooptacular on mine, but judging from that avsforum blurb you quoted maybe it's no longer an issue on 2010 models. That would be great because aside from scaling, the Panasonic plasma's are really nice to game on.

I tested some 720p content on our P50S2 today. I wouldn't describe it as "pooptacular", but it was definitely a little softer than the Samsung C550 Plasma, which has a very nice scaler. Hell, the Samsung looks pretty good even at 480p, where the Panny absolutely falls flat.

I would try it on a G20 but currently I don't have access to one.

And still, I wouldn't count this as a huge issue as the Panny has less input lag, which for gaming is a trump card.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Do you have any way to do an input lag test? There isn't enough input lag info out there on Samsung plasmas.

Nope, sorry. Supposedly it's 10 ms in game mode (or maybe it was 20 ms) Either way, it's damn fast. Actually a noticeable improvement over my Toshiba LCD. I read somewhere that the input lag in the 2010 models as unfortunately increased.

 

[homerdog]

Nope, sorry. Supposedly it's 10 ms in game mode (or maybe it was 20 ms) Either way, it's damn fast. Actually a noticeable improvement over my Toshiba LCD. I read somewhere that the input lag in the 2010 models as unfortunately increased.

Interesting. I couldn't even find the Game Mode setting on the Samsung PN50C550. Unless I was brain farting, I think they've removed it this year (at least on this model). Perhaps they've gone the route of Panasonic, with input lag low enough that Game Mode isn't necessary. Just a theory.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Interesting. I couldn't even find the Game Mode setting on the Samsung PN50C550. Unless I was brain farting, I think they've removed it this year (at least on this model). Perhaps they've gone the route of Panasonic, with input lag low enough that Game Mode isn't necessary. Just a theory.

On my Samsung LED its under the plug and play settings. You have to switch to that input to actually change it or it will be a grayed option.

 

[tuna]

My Panasonic pz70 get a lag of 26 ms according to the Rock Band lag tester. If anyone is interested....

 

[Sigfried1977]

On my Samsung LED its under the plug and play settings. You have to switch to that input to actually change it or it will be a grayed option.

Same on my tv. You have to assign game(or PC)-mode to specific inputs in the plug and play menu.

 

[homerdog]

On my Samsung LED its under the plug and play settings. You have to switch to that input to actually change it or it will be a grayed option.

I'll look there today.

 

[homerdog]

I found it, but it was grayed out since it was running off of the TV tuner.

This site has some great television reviews, and they are one of the only sites I've seen that actually tests input lag.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/

Panasonic VT20 has only 17ms of lag. G20 measured "0-16ms" . Unfortunately they don't test Samsung plasmas. I would really like to see some results from the Samsung C8000 as that TV is completely beautiful, and now after seeing one I'd say it's easily on par with the VT20.

 

[djskribbles]

Samsung's usually have terrible lag outside of game/PC mode, Plasmas included. Fortunately, their game mode has improved since my older A650 LCD... you can't adjust the picture settings at all in game mode, and it looks terrible. Panasonic (LCD and Plasma) are usually very good (among the best). Apart from the rising black issues, Panasonic PDPs are always among the best in performance, but are fairly basic (IMO) in terms of aesthetics/design compared to other brands (LG and Samsung in particular). My 2009 LG 55LH90 (LED local dimming) is respectably low at ~30ms in ISF mode with local dimming ON (game mode doesn't seem to reduce it).

 

[homerdog]

Samsung's usually have terrible lag outside of game/PC mode, Plasmas included. Fortunately, their game mode has improved since my older A650 LCD... you can't adjust the picture settings at all in game mode, and it looks terrible.

It's the same on my A550 LCD. Game mode locks the picture into what appears to be "Dynamic", and it is fugly (and still too laggy to be useful).

 

[Sigfried1977]

Game mode looks great on my Samsung Plasma. It locks you out of a couple of fine-tuning options (PC mode locks advanced color controls, Game mode locks stuff like white balance if I'm not mistaken), but most of them are still there. I use PC mode for gaming because it lets me use the beautiful Warm2 picture setting. Totally happy with the scaling, the colors and the contrast. PC mode in particular is actually the polar opposite of the ugly dynamic setting.

 

[Billy Idol]

Ok, I just ordered the "Panasonic TX-P 42 VT 20 E".

I am not this much interested in 3D, but I read that it has a better panel tech involved...and thought that it is a good idea to invest this money for my new gaming environment with 3D being a nice bonus.

I am also looking for a PS3 bundle with 320GB HDD...the only one I can find is the Move Starter PS3 Bundle - I am not sure if there is something better available at the moment. I was interested in GT5 bundle but I better wait for Duke Nukem bundle
Problem, I don't have really interest in Move...but, who knows?!

The same goes for Xbox, I know that the Slim features 250GB, but I am not sure if I should wait for a bundle, propably Kinect bundle - again, problem is I don't really have interest in Kinect...but who knows?!

After this purchases, my second bat cave should be complete and ready for gaming

 

[patsu]

I was interested in GT5 bundle but I better wait for Duke Nukem bundle

It's okay. You're just being reasonable.