Cloudy Burster Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 I have a good flat screen panasonic CRT 100Hz. But as I watch a lot of video streaming on the net, and my deteriorating eyesight, I have been thinking of a bigger TV which I can also plug the lappy into. Price wise around $1000. I nearly purchased a 50ST50 the other day until a few people told me that SD channels and net video will not look good on it (maybe worse than my CRT). I went to the store and looked at the TV in action on FTA, it wasn't good. The staff member laughed at me and said "You don't buy this to watch FTA TV". Of course not. So I need two TV's in my lounge room then, I thought. I've been really confused. Why would I buy a new TV that is worse than my old CRT to watch FTA channels? I would appreciate any straight out advice.
nbound Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 You get a bigger picture, of course stretch a low res image bigger and it wont look as good, if u want a good trade off get something in the 32"-40" inch range.
pgdownload Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 AS nbound says. One of the trade off of getting a bigger screen is that it shows up poor quality video more. IMO HD wasn't invented so much to create fantastic picture quality. It was created to allow material to be blown up to a large size and still look pretty decent. If you can't / won't change your video quality then you shouldn't look to increase the TV size too much. IMO a 42" would be about as big as you'd want to go for predominately SD and streaming online video. That's still a pretty big TV IMO (and its the size I have at home). That said, SD FTA should look pretty decent on a 42" TV. You'll find in store observations don't really match the at home experience when your eyes adjust to a new TV and you have time to tweak the settings. Regards Peter Gillespie
SLE3551503562118 Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 Even though you watch FTA and low quality downloads i'd still go as big as you can on that budget, unless your sitting very close to it.
Owen Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 (edited) I own a 86cm HD wide screen CRT and would happily replace it with ANY Plasma TV. I would only take a 42" if the viewing distance was less than 2.5 metres, any more and it would have to be 50" plus. I normally view a 70" from 3 metres and its way more enjoyable than my 86cm (34") at 2 metres, the small screen has no visual impact and is boring to watch. Edited December 9, 2012 by Owen
Jliang70 Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 I have a 59 inch plasma screen and prior to the current screen I had a 50 inch plasma screen. I had a few DVDO video processor since 2004 and now Lumagen video processor to go with my HD plasma and HD projector. I do view a lot of SD stuff from c-band satellite, local FTA, Foxtel and sometimes stream videos from the internet. To be honest on my current 59 inch panel with Lumagen good quality SD stuff can look very impressive, it is sharp, clear and definitely better than what I saw on my old CRT projection TV or the old german Leower TV I used to own. But 1 thing I know is that if I feed poor quality SD stuff and stream video into my TV I get poor quality video, in other words rubbish in rubbish out.
Cloudy Burster Posted December 9, 2012 Author Posted December 9, 2012 (edited) Ah well thanks everyone for the advice, although some conflicting, I really appreciate it, especially when I'm sure hundreds have probably asked the same thing before. In any case, my distance away from the TV is 2.5m to 3m. I was only mentioning the 50 inch as it was the smallest on the Panasonic's Neo Plasma range, a model that was highly recommended. But I really don't want the 3D. It won't be long before we'll look back on this and laugh. Bah, I'm still confused. Put it this way, would the 50ST50 display ABC iView OK at 2.7m? Otherwise what model would you recommend? Doesn't have to be the latest either. Edited December 9, 2012 by Cloudy Burster
pgdownload Posted December 9, 2012 Posted December 9, 2012 Bah, I'm still confused.The 50ST50 is a good TV however as you've noted you're pushing the limits of what is a reasonably good image quality. Watching iView downloads on a 70" screen (even at 3m) is not my idea of an enjoyable experience.FWIW iView is broadcast at 640×360 pixels with a bitrate of 650 (Compared to I believe around 640v576 with a bitrate of about 900 for FTA SD) Ultimately only you can decide what is acceptable. The problem here is not the quality of the TVs (they all put out pretty good PQ these days) but more how to deal with the lower quality of the data being feed. Start by accessing in store TVs at the viewing distance (2.5m) and not getting up too close. Also if you can make a DVD of an iView show, you might be able to play it in store and get a better idea of how that looks. FWIW don't just a TV FTA SD by how sport or cartoons look (the former will look blah, the latter great) On the plus side, a 'smaller' TV like a 42" will save you a few $. If you want to try a smaller TV then perhaps look to getting a LCD. Sansung LCDs are well thought of. As for the confusion, that's pretty natural. Even here you'll get conflicting advice but its all well meant. Everyone has different priorities (price, PQ, screen size, plasma / lcd, etc.), you just need to work through yours Regards Peter Gillespie PS You may not new aware but many of these new 'smart' TVs stream iView direct. So that might be something you look for.
Owen Posted December 10, 2012 Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) Ah well thanks everyone for the advice, although some conflicting, I really appreciate it, especially when I'm sure hundreds have probably asked the same thing before. In any case, my distance away from the TV is 2.5m to 3m. I was only mentioning the 50 inch as it was the smallest on the Panasonic's Neo Plasma range, a model that was highly recommended. But I really don't want the 3D. It won't be long before we'll look back on this and laugh. Bah, I'm still confused. Put it this way, would the 50ST50 display ABC iView OK at 2.7m? Otherwise what model would you recommend? Doesn't have to be the latest either. My father replaced his 23" CRT with a 42" Panasonic Plasma and only days after purchase regretted not getting a 50" for his 2.5 metre viewing distance. Plasma's almost always outperform LCD-LED TV's for picture quality with poor source and the ST50 is a good Plasma. Edited December 10, 2012 by Owen
Jliang70 Posted December 10, 2012 Posted December 10, 2012 Ah well thanks everyone for the advice, although some conflicting, I really appreciate it, especially when I'm sure hundreds have probably asked the same thing before. In any case, my distance away from the TV is 2.5m to 3m. I was only mentioning the 50 inch as it was the smallest on the Panasonic's Neo Plasma range, a model that was highly recommended. But I really don't want the 3D. It won't be long before we'll look back on this and laugh. Bah, I'm still confused. Put it this way, would the 50ST50 display ABC iView OK at 2.7m? Otherwise what model would you recommend? Doesn't have to be the latest either. The thing is you should not expect good television to polish off bad broadcast or bad videos you stream from internet. A bad video clip will be bad regardless of how good the TV is or how good other associate equipment is. As I said in the other post it is rubbish in and rubbish. If you are feeding your TV with bad quality viewing material and you should expect bad viewing experience, Of the modern TV plasma is probably more forgiving to poor quality sources. If you want recommendation I still recommend a panasonic ST or Samsung E8000 or 60 inch ST if you want something bigger.
Owen Posted December 10, 2012 Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) Actually the display can make a very noticeable difference to how poor quality source is displayed, both the display technology and the implementation play a role. Unfortunately flat panels are pretty much all compromised, but some are noticeably worse than others. Edited December 10, 2012 by Owen
Cloudy Burster Posted December 10, 2012 Author Posted December 10, 2012 Plasma's almost always outperform LCD-LED TV's for picture quality with poor source and the ST50 is a good Plasma. Thanks, this at least helps me narrow it down to plasmas (love ya cat btw). The thing is you should not expect good television to polish off bad broadcast or bad videos you stream from internet. I understand that but a draw card is watching youtube, for example, on it. It even advertises this! I guess they refer to HD youtube. If you want recommendation I still recommend a panasonic ST or Samsung E8000 or 60 inch ST if you want something bigger. I'll pop in tomorrow to DSE and see what I can get the ST50 for.
Cloudy Burster Posted December 10, 2012 Author Posted December 10, 2012 Off topic, but I can't get a clean answer from anyone on this. The 50ST50 can access the internet. Got that. But how? Is it like a browser on your PC? Could I check my hotmail on it? Not that I would but just trying to understand the scope of this smart TV thing. Can I access any video site? Can I read news? Cheers.
IgglePiggle Posted December 10, 2012 Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) You will get a screen something like this.....but obviously with Australian content such as iView To do normal browsing u would plug in your lappy and use the TV as a second "monitor" Get them to demonstrate the internet when u go to the store...........and DONT listen to the sales guy about what u should and shouldnt buy! Dont take any notice of how the quality is instore for FTA or anything.....its all a beatup.........when u get it home it will be more than impressive.(except for the obvious such as reruns of the Love Boat) If possible shop around for the best price at Good Guys and Bing Lee etc .........even check their prices on their websites. Edited December 10, 2012 by Baboy
Cloudy Burster Posted December 11, 2012 Author Posted December 11, 2012 Get them to demonstrate the internet when u go to the store...........and DONT listen to the sales guy about what u should and shouldnt buy! Dont take any notice of how the quality is instore for FTA or anything.....its all a beatup.........when u get it home it will be more than impressive.(except for the obvious such as reruns of the Love Boat) If possible shop around for the best price at Good Guys and Bing Lee etc .........even check their prices on their websites. Ha, but I like the Love Boat. I also like BJ Mackay. Well I went to the DSE. They had their own video running and it looked terrible. It was stuck on 3D mode or something. The sales guy was a bit hopeless, so was his coworker. They couldn't work it out, plus there was no net connected to it. Right next to it was the cheaper UT50 and it looked fantastic with the same video running. More funny was that the cheap $500 DSE TV next to that looked even better than the UT50! I wasn't put off though, as you stated Baboy, to not take notice of it in store, plus when i realised I thought the cheap TV looked better, I didn't trust my eyes anymore. I had my wife with me and was hoping to see some wizz bang HD movie playing on it or something, not some blurry DSE video, which also had some horizontal line issues (honestly brought up by the staff member). They didn't seem to care if I bought it or not. Anyway, she wasn't impressed. So I will sleep on it and maybe bring in a movie on USB to play on it tomorrow.
Owen Posted December 12, 2012 Posted December 12, 2012 If you want "smart" functionality I recommend you go for a decent media player set top box rather than put up with the limited functionality of not so smart TV's.
Cloudy Burster Posted December 12, 2012 Author Posted December 12, 2012 If you want "smart" functionality I recommend you go for a decent media player set top box rather than put up with the limited functionality of not so smart TV's. I will. Shame I can't buy a ST50 without 3D and smart technology and get it for under $1000.
Owen Posted December 12, 2012 Posted December 12, 2012 or a HTPC Yep, no bettering a PC for functionality or quality.
pgdownload Posted December 12, 2012 Posted December 12, 2012 Yep, no bettering a PC for functionality or quality.Agreed, if those are your primary considerations.Regards Peter Gillespie
JSmith Posted December 13, 2012 Posted December 13, 2012 I would appreciate any straight out advice. Why don't you get the bigger screen, and start watching some HD on it... like HD .MKV files, Blurays and Foxtel/FTA HD? JSmith
IgglePiggle Posted December 13, 2012 Posted December 13, 2012 (edited) Isnt there a model under the 3D version that will be cheaper? Edited December 13, 2012 by Baboy
Cloudy Burster Posted December 13, 2012 Author Posted December 13, 2012 (edited) Why don't you get the bigger screen, and start watching some HD on it... like HD .MKV files, Blurays and Foxtel/FTA HD? JSmith I will but I also want to watch FTA TV like the football and cricket, ABC news etc. Isnt there a model under the 3D version that will be cheaper? There is the UT50... reading some threads on this, it may be the one to go for. Reflection is supposedly the worst thing about it but I have windows behind the TV so it won't be a problem. As long as the picture is the same, maybe I'll look again into this. EDIT: Ha, this is 3D as well. Edited December 13, 2012 by Cloudy Burster
Digital Penetration Posted December 13, 2012 Posted December 13, 2012 EDIT: Ha, this is 3D as well. The U50A isn't 3D. Refection can be annoying, if you can't control it, otherwise a good choice for the money - it's the cheapest of the Pannys.
Cloudy Burster Posted December 13, 2012 Author Posted December 13, 2012 (edited) The U50A isn't 3D. Refection can be annoying, if you can't control it, otherwise a good choice for the money - it's the cheapest of the Pannys. Didn't know about this one. But I can't find many prices that fall much below the UT for $897 http://www.videopro....television.aspx I think this is my best bet. Thanks all for the help. Off topic, and maybe an unanswerable question, but the question now is do I wait till after xmas sales or buy this online. I have never bought at post xmas sales. So I don't know. I believe this price is discounted at videopro so I don't expect much else off. Edited December 13, 2012 by Cloudy Burster
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