Lazy Q: Plasmas: Pana 50" 1080p, Pio 4280, or what?

[Mintmaster]

The Kuro is still king. Here's a recent HDTV faceoff featuring the 5080HD:
http://hometheatermag.com/lcds/208hdface/index7.html

When I first started putting together this Face Off, I had an amusing thought to include this TV, more because it was 768p. I was curious to see if anyone would notice, from normal viewing distances, that it had half the pixels of the rest of the competitors. As the pricing solidified, I realized that it would fit in perfectly, being roughly the same size and price as the other flat panels. Sure, it was half the resolution, but would anyone notice, or more importantly, would anyone care? Nope.

It went up against the PZ750, though, and not the most recent Pannys. Looking at the hdtvtest numbers, if you can get a PX80 for substantially less than the 4280 or maybe even at 50" for the same price, then go for it. At over 10' away, you'll definately appreciate the size. I went rear-projection because despite the reduction in image quality, I wanted 60", and good plasmas in that size were around $8K back then.

 

[Pete]

Well, I did think I noticed slightly more detail on a 1080p Panny vs. a 768p one in certain in-store-loop scenes: namely, the branches and leaves in moving overhead shots of trees. But, again, imperfect environment, I was 6-12' away (vs. 16' in that test), and that one sense of more detail was countered by the Pioneer clearly dealing with compression blocking better in a different, fast-panning grassland scene.

Thanks for the article. It jives with the general advice (which you all have been so kind to remind me of in this thread), that I passed along: size, then contrast, then quality (processing), and basically forget res beyond a certain distance. The end result was a pretty good compromise: one of the new 46" 1080p Pana. Quality's probably still not really comparable to Pioneer, but contrast should be even closer (dunno if it was the 20k:1 Z80 or 30k:1 Z85), and I'm not going to argue about the extra res when the set's considerably cheaper than the 5080. I can't wait to see reviews of the 85s, considering that hdtvtest review that put the 15k:1 X80 as a close second to the Pios. Home Theater's #s make the Z750 look far behind, but Pana only rates it as 5k:1. Impressive progress.

I notice the 5080 had better default (pre-calibration) color temp, which probably should be taken into account given the price range. $2300 for a 5080 isn't cheap, but I wonder how many ppl will pay an extra few hundred for calibration (or know how to try to calibrate it themselves). I could be reading too much into those #s, though, as I don't know if those are review panels or store-bought.

And the 42PX80u went for $900 at CC last week, vs. $1500 for the 4280 @ BB (on clearance, I think). Pretty easy choice if value's king.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

The reason to get the new PX85 Panasonics is that they're supporting 24p (that is, a multiple of 24Hz) playback for Bluray movies. I'd not get a Tv without it any more, now that BR's the winner of the format war. Without 24p, movie playback will have a small jitter because of the 3:2 pulldown.

You can also choose between 42", 50" and even 46" with the new Panasonics, and every review so far agrees that they're pretty much the second best next to the Kuro plasmas, at a fraction of the price.

 

[Mintmaster]

The reason to get the new PX85 Panasonics is that they're supporting 24p (that is, a multiple of 24Hz) playback for Bluray movies. I'd not get a Tv without it any more, now that BR's the winner of the format war. Without 24p, movie playback will have a small jitter because of the 3:2 pulldown.

24p has pretty much the same advantage whether you're talking about BluRay, HD-DVD, or even newer DVD players. Jitter is pretty subtle, too, and eliminating it is not something that deserves higher priority than getting the best contrast you can, IMHO.

 

[kyleb]

Well the Kuros have the best contrast ratio, and have a 72hz cinima mode as well. I don't see much value in the latter though, 24fps is choppy regardless, 3:2 pulldown or otherwise, and we've all had a long time to grow accustomed to the judder of 3:2 pulldown.

 

[Mintmaster]

Well the Kuro's have the best contrast ratio, and have a 72hz cinima mode as well. I don't see much value in the latter though, 24hz is choppy regardless, 3:2 pulldown or otherwise, and we've all had a long time to grow accustomed to the judder of 3:2 pulldown.

So there we go. I also agree that 24p is overrated, but the Pioneer plasmas all have it anyway so that point is mute.

The only reason not to get a Kuro is price, IMO. The 50" was $2000 at Best Buy two months ago, but after the Pioneer announcement of ending production the price went up from what I could tell.

Pete, if you want the Panasonic to save a bundle (which is looking like the best option now), consider Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00142HLV4/ref=nosim/?tag=fatwalletcom&linkCode=as1
$1024 shipped for the 42", $1520 shipped for the 50".

 

[kyleb]

I also agree that 24p is overrated, but the Pioneer plasmas all have it anyway so that point is mute.

Heh, it is a "moot" point, for some of us anyway.

I picked a TH-50PH10UK over the Kuro, despite the fact that the Kuros have better contrast, simply because I wasn't going to pay more to loose the ability to run basicly any resolution I want to the display, which the commercial Panasonics support though the VGA port. Granted, most users wouldn't benefit from such functionality, but as a PC gamer I apprecate being able to turn up the rendering resolution as high as I can and still have the game run well, and being able to run older games rendered at resolutions as high as 2560x1440 and 2344x1758 is something I grew to apcreate with the 42" Panny I previously used.

 

[Mintmaster]

Heh, it is a "moot" point, for some of us anyway.

Man, if I read my post over before submitting I would have kicked myself for such an ugly error.

I picked a TH-50PH10UK over the Kuro, despite the fact that the Kuros have better contrast, simply because I wasn't going to pay more to loose the ability to run basicly any resolution I want to the display, which the commercial Panasonics support though the VGA port.

Interesting. So you get automatic supersampling, but that's a rather specialized advantage that's only really useful for PC gaming on a TV. That's the previous gen Panasonic, right? I'd expect the Kuro to have quite a substantial advantage there.

 

[kyleb]

Actually mine is the 9UK, I don't know how I typed 10, so chalk me up for a silly mistake too. And, yeah, the Kuros do have notably better blacks, but I'm pleased with the contrast of this display and I didn't want to be limited to the few resolutions the Pioneer supports. Oh, and technically it is oversamping rather than supersampling when not running at a multiple of the display resolution, but all the same it comes in handy, though it doesn't clean up edges as much as it sharpens textures, since the scaler tries to persevere the detail rather than blend away the jaggies. Mixed with some multisampling it works great though, and is also nice for games that don't support AA.

 

[Mintmaster]

It's a shame that neither ATI nor NVidia ever thought to put such a feature in their drivers.