HDTV Community

ALAN - "As another example, you will likely choose to set your sharpness to near zero for any HD programming."

The assumption is that zero is adding no sharpness. How do you know that? If the 50% mark (mine has the mid-point at 50%) is in fact, no change to the input signal, then you may think that you're advising no change, when in fact you may be advising a gross change - that is neither necessary nor warranted.

Reviewers spout that advice all of the time. However, I've seen LCD TV performance change over the years, and little ever truly explained. I think that this is information recycling, without respect to brand or model or generation.

It's entirely possible that setting sharpness to zero is defocusing a perfectly good signal. And I'm of the opinion that that may be exactly the case on at least the B750 that I own. In fact, setting sharpness to zero seriously seems to screw up the color range.

There's also a "Color" setting - out of the box, it's...

Thomas - "Plasmas are already up to 600 HZ. No LCD can match that."

And it would be wrong to try. LCDs are using overdrive at 120 or 240 Hz because the better panels - without motion artifacts - simply require that drive.

Plasmas are using short-persistence phosphors to get rid of burn-in, and consequently, need to redisplay the frame 10 to 12 times per cycle to eliminate flickering.

The V10 is indeed a very nice sounding set. Might be the "best."

But if so, it has absolutely **zero** - zip, dink, nada - to do with the Hz ratings.

"The reason plasmas are cheaper is because they are cheaper to manufacture than LCDs."

If you know something that I don't about fab operations and TV manufacturing costs, I'm happy to hear more. I'm serious.

What **is** publicly known is that Panasonic is losing BIG money - as in billions per year - producing plasmas. Buy now at a low price if the V10 suits your pleasure.

"Watch a fast action film or sporting...

Dynamic contrast is not very important, both because manufacturer claims to it are not standardized and because you will not want to watch your set on Dynamic or Vivid for any length of time (or really ever). Choose standard or movie mode. The more important number is native contrast, though that too may be largely a manufacturer's hype. Just take your set off of dynamic, set brightness and contrast to reasonable amounts as your eyes see fit, and you will be fine. Especially on LCDs, brightness is never hard to come by (you can add more backlight too if you want), though you will be better off getting used to an image that is not too bright. Today's decent sets all have numbers that are "high enough," really, and in fact most people wind up with settings that are far less than the set can produce as a maximum. As another example, you will likely choose to set your sharpness to near zero for any HD programming.

"...please let us stop with the pre-2000 apocalyptic talk about the death of plasma panels."

So, you're not waiting on any the next sequels - "Mad Max: Beyond Plasma Dome?" "Escape from Los Plasmales?" "Plasmas of the Apes?"

OK, please, we gotta at least see this one: "Apocaplasma Now!"

Finally, and this is most important: if you have money to burn, do not buy either a plasma or an LCD.

Send it to me.

Last financial reports in English that I saw was that Panasonic was losing significant bucks on plasma production. That needs to turn around for plasma survival, I should suppose. It could happen - I'm not a doomsay sayer.

"My worry is that this talk will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if people quit buying plasmas due to fear of burn in or believing that 27 years of panel half-life is not enough."

I presume that when you say worry about self-fulfilling prophecy there, your point is the demise of plasma due to an...

I don't know about you , but I don't keep technology for (10) ten years. The V10 Panasonic plasmas are sounding real nice. I am waitring for the 65" to be released and tested. LCDs rather straight LCD or LED backlit still have at best a 240 HZ refresh rate. Plasmas are already up to 600 HZ. No LCD can match that. Watch a fast action film or sporting event on an LCD and a Plasma and you will see the difference. The Plasma will win every time. Also, I beleive that the plasmas have the truer to life tones in the color schemes. The reason plasmas are cheaper is because they are cheaper to manufacture than LCDs. So, don't be fooled by the lower prices.