Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Suitable Plasma to match my 598 please

Hello all.

On Monday I shall take my 598 down to my TV dealer to try it with the 37 Inch Panasonic PV500E. These are available wall mounted for just under �2000.

BUT.

I also found a shop with a single 42 inch Fujitsu P42HHA30 for just �1350. Does anyone use either of these plasma's with their 598 ?

The Fujitsu has an ALIAS panel andone post here said the ALIAS panel did not like the component output of their Meridian.

any help appreciated.

regards
Shaun

I guess it is ALIS, and I don't know anyone that really likes it. Often mostly seems to be used to be able to spec double the reolusion the panel really has. I would go for the PV500.

It's not component as such, but the prog scan that I previously found not to be good with the ALIS panel. ALIS is interlaced so has to re-process the prog scan.
You don't say whether you have PS or not. Either way, I'd try a few models to see for yourself. ALIS processing may have moved on since I have one 2+ years ago.

ALIS is generally frowned upon. it's an interlace hack. the technology effectively pre-dates today's panels.

as a plasma owner, i advise people to avoid them. imo, they should only be on your shopping list if (a) you can't control ambient light to make a projector work optimally (my problem) or (b) you have a specific interior design issue that only a wall-mounted flatscreen will address. for the same money you can get much better display devices.

that said, they do look pretty damn sexy:
http://gallery.avsforum.com/showphoto.php/photo/640/size/big/si/doody
(though i could have put a really nice screen in that spot if i was able to control the light (two stories of south-facing windows).

g/l playing!

doody.

Aviod like the plague mate, ALiS screens look good in airport terminals and that is it.

A PW8 will do a better job than the PV500, an HD8 will do an even better job.

You will be looking at �1500 for the PW8 with wall mount and component input baord and �2k for the HD version HD8.

try www.av-sales.com and chcek out the special offers on avforums for members.

Hello all.

Thanks for that.
I have 598 with progressive output.

Now www.av-sales.com have a Panasonic TH37PWD8 for �1450. Is this the same as a "PW8" ? Because the TH37PWD8 has quite low resolution of 852 x 480 whilst the PV500 is much higher.

Richer sounds have the TH37PWD7 (thats 7 not 8) for just �900. Are the PW7 and 8 similar in picture quality ?

Are these low res screens up to it ? OK there is no HD ready with it.

Also, 37 inch PV500 now just over �1600 in Dixons/Currys website.

Does anyone actually have one of these PW7 or 8 with their 598 ?

regards
Shaun

The PW6/7/8 are 864x480 screens

they will accept all resolutions over component and vga inclusing the HD ones and downscale them.

The 8 series will also accept them on HDMI, where as the 6 and 7 will only accept them at 60hz, not much good for us in PAL land.

The PV500 is a 1024x768 screen and will accept also resolutions on all inputs (not 1024x768 on HDMI though which is a shame for scaler users). However, there is alot of extra processing in the Viera TV range which is a shame as it softens the image alot.

If you want HD you could get the HD6/7 or 8 screens, again the new 8 series will take the HD resolutions on HDMI, however the HD7 can be had for around �1900 with component input board and a stand or wall mount.

There are also devices to convert dvi/HDMI to vga to get round that problem and they are the same sort of price as the HDMI input board anyway, so ddon't write off the 6/7 series.

I would take the HD6/7/8 first, then a PW6/7/8 second and a viera last, the PV500 is probably the best plasma TV yet, but, the panels are better, even the lower res ones look better than the high res TV.

The RS deal is actually �1050 for the screen if you dont have the extra warranty, then a dual slot input board is �150 to give you component, and a stand is another �150 (wall bracket about �80) so I would go with www.av-sales.com for an all in poackage price of �1150 delivered.

The PW8 may be worth teh extra �300 for piece of mind with the HD 50hz compatability.

All very confusing at the moment!

I have a PHD6 and had a PW6 at the same time, and if I am honest once you get to normal viewing distances you are hard pushed to spot the difference even with Hi_def stuff. But it is nice to know you are not compromising!

Can you spot the CUE error on the 598 at the same distance?

Good afternoon all.

So what is the difference between the PW series and the HD series ?

I thought you got HD by buying an HD input card and plugging it into a PW8.

Does a PW8 become an HD8 simply by plugging in the HD board ?

and what is the 598 cue error ?

regards
Shaun

HD series will privide a native resolution of at least 768 (Physical number of pixel rows) vertically which would enable them to reproduce a HD 720p signal without down-interpolating lines (it seems that the eye is more sensible to vertical rezolution rather than horizontal). With Pannies you would get HD displays in 1024x768 for 37' and 42' diags. and 1366x768 for 50 and 63.
Then it's also a question of total number of distinct colours a display can generate. Older generation HD panels (including my TH-50PHW6) were able to display around 1 billion colours, some other went up to 4 billion. Newer generation panels, especially non-HD go up to between 8 and 16 billion (the TH-37PV500 will display more than 8 billion). Some people can rate this as a better image and they have reason to do so. The difference between a 1 bln col display and a 8 bln col. diplay should be noticeable especially in areas with darker colours, where plasma display exhibit a rather benign form of local flicker.

Im my rather limited experience compared with other fellow forum members, I can say that some Pioneer HD models (they understandably prefer 1280x720) seemed to me to offer perhaps the best overall image quality in their price bracket, having at the same time high resolution, high number of displayable colours and well implemented internal mapping/filtering algorithms.

Ultimately, one ca think of applications first:

Will there be a lot of time spent using the plasma as a PC display (for gaming, browsing, etc) ? Here the HD will have an advantage (just try to read those small fonts on a 852x480 native rez display when attacking it with a 1024x768 -in squeeze mode- 1280x800, 1280x720, or 1366x768 display card output ...). Same would go for a hi-rez gaming box.

Will there be a lot of time spent watching original DVD's in PAL format, or HD sources in 720p or greater ?

Coz' if you mostly watch analog CATV, air TV or NTSC DVD's (480) it's not going to matter a lot ...

Does one value more resolution, or the color richess (sometimes you find them somewhat exclusive in quite a few plasma displays) ?

And do you look at your 1000-2000 quid as a long-term investment?

well ... maybe I did split the hair a bit too much

Hello again.

Will use screen for bog standard DVD's plus digital freeview. Will invest in Sky HD box only after I see it working next year.

So I went to see the 37 inch PV500 with my 598. The dealer did not have a BNC component lead so only saw it in S-video. Used Gladiator and Black Hawk Down to watch. Picture was bright with plenty of contrast even in bright light of showroom.

Colour tones of faces quite nice. No colour banding. No "dot crawl". Detail goodish on stationary shots but slight jerkyness on pan shots which curtailed detail. Picture not as good as my 5 year old Sony CRT in most other respects. Decided this was not good enough for the �1630 price of this model on Dixons/Currys websites much less the �2100 this dealer wanted.

However. . .
Noticed a Panasonic 42 inch PW5 and a 42 inch PW7 in the corner, both playing bog standard DVD's and was pleasently suprised at how good they were. Dealer confirmed the displays were on interlaced input via S-video. Lots of contrast and good colour again even in bright light of showroom. Picture slightly softer than PV500 and more closely resembled my Sony CRT. No really dark shots so couldnt really comment on dot crawl, but no sign of "jerkyness" on pan shots that the PV500 had. Lower res not too bad a problem at 8 feet away. I could be fooled into thinking they were just big CRT's.

Will now . . .
Continue research into Panasonic PW7/8 and HD7/8 the 37inch versions. Low res of PW7/8 37inch should be better than on 42 inch as there are more dots per inch on the smaller screen.

So. Is my understanding correct ...
1. PW6/7 series low res and 60Hz only.
2. PW8 still low res but now capable of Brit 50Hz.
3. HD6/7 series higher resolution( still 60Hz only ???)
4. HD8 series higher res ( capable of 50Hz???)

With suitable input board, all models capable of taking an analogue component HD feed but down sampled. (Yes ??? no ???)

Whats the advantage of the 50Hz on the PW8 or HD8 series panels ? Does it only come in to play when I want progressive scan ?

regards
Shaun