
Customer Review: Simply Superb
This is simply a superb television. We had looked at others in the 52-inch class that cost less and actually were going to go to Costco and buy a Sharp when we went elsewhere and saw this sset. We also have a Toshiba 42" plasma that has been an excellent unit. The thing we miss from our 42" unit is the built-in TV Guide which this set does not have. That's the only down side. We've had it for just over one month and have watched it quite a bit since my wife had major surgery at the beginning of December and we've had to watch more than our fair share of television and movies. I'll admit I was a little worried because we had bought the HD-DVD player from Toshiba 18 months ago and it failed prematurely. We did upgrade our warranty on this TV to 4 years because of that experience and had the store include it in the purchase price.
Customer Review: Excellent Television
There is so much to love about this set. My favorite feature is the SRT which makes even standard definition broadcast look great. I definitely had my doubts about how well the SRT would work since I bought this set without seeing it in person, but this is a feature I am very happy about. I think almost any TV in this class is going to make HD look amazing so the SRT is what really makes this set stand out to me. I do also appreciate the stable sound feature which keep commercials from blaring. Build quality and casing look good. As for Cons with this set, I do wish it were thinner and had a smaller bezel but these are not big enough complaints for me to take off a star. 4" thick and 1.5" bezel is fine. This set does not have any extra memory card or internet connectivity which did not matter to me but it probably is important to some people. Entirely happy with this product - we've only had it for a couple days so these are initial impressions as of the time of this review. We bought from Amazon directly and the delivery service was really nice - I am glad I did not need to load that huge box in my car.
The latest great thing in home theater displays is the emergence of 1080p resolution displays. p stands for progressive, which means the screen fills all at once at 1/60th of a second, versus i for interlaced, which means every other line, then the other half of the full picture, each field displaying at 1/30th of a second.
At this time, there is no source for broadcast 1080p programming. Instead, we have 1080i: two interlaced fields make a frame, at 1/30th second for each field.
Finger it out!
Take your fingers and spread them apart. That's a crude example of interlaced. When you bring the hands together, you combine both fields and you get the whole picture (one frame). It happens fast enough that you don't notice the effect unless there's motion on the screen, then you might see a difference in the smoothness of the motion.
Progressive is all the fingers at once. 720p is fewer pixels, faster: 1/60th second per frame.
1080 = 1920 x 1080 pixels | 720 = 1280 x 720 pixels
Till recently, HDTVs were either 720p or 1080i. Most TV transmissions were 1080i. I believe ABC adopted 720p because it would have shown sports with better pictures. I also remember back when Panasonic Broadcast underwrote ABC (as 720p) - or at least Monday Night Football. Fox and ESPN now also do 720P. The others are 1080i.
The new 1080p sets don't have the front end circuitry to actually receive that resolution. But, again, nothing is transmitting that res anyway. What the advantage is, is how these sets show 1080i - they have the pixel count to do it without trouble. They deinterlace the transmission and present it full frame without throwing away any detail. A 720p set has to downconvert a 1080i signal. In that downconversion you can lose some detail.
(BUT) OH SAY CAN YOU SEE?
But there's a more important issue - can you really see the difference in resolution between 1080i and 1080p? Tests of visual acuity to determine the resolution required of a television transmission system by the BBC's J.O. Drewery and R. Salmon determined that at 9 feet, a 50 inch screen at 720p's resolution will give you all the resolution you can see! At 9 feet, a 56 incher needs 1080i to avoid seeing the pixel structure.
If you sit farther or closer, you may need more resolution.
1080i vs 720p: MOTION CHANGES EVERYTHING
Motion is different issue. If you want to see motion clearly, then live action 720p is what looks best, compared to 1080i. Here's why: the information content of 720p is about the same as 1080i, though what it lacks in spatial resolution, it makes up for in temporal resolution (because the picture is at 1/60th of a second, not 1/30th x 2.) On 1080i, this would show as flickered or jagged edges on bright horizontal objects (like in the background of a camera pan.)
The good news? As the retailers hawk 1080p, you might find a killer deal on a 720p set and not give up anything in what I'll call 'effective' picture quality to get it.
Bob Wood has been heard in over 30 countries as he has created billions of impressions for advertisers in commercials, industrial narrations, and movie trailers. He has been the voice of tv and radio stations across North America. he may be reached at 512 281 6262. http://www.bobwoodvoiceovers.com
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