NEW HDTV advice PLASMA or LCD

[samijubal]

Most people aren't very picky about picture quality, size is probably more important to them. The bigger the TV gets, the worse the picture quality. If you're picky about picture quality, I'm very picky, it just isn't worth the sacrifice in quality. Maybe when I got the 50" home and adjusted it would have been OK, but I don't think so. I've seen too many posts saying the 50" gets blocks and pixellates sometimes. My 42" never does either.

[bmiller]

Getting a large screen calibrated properly makes a huge difference. People spend all that cash on a nice tube, and expect it to operate properly with a quick setup from the factory. That's why you can go into a store with 20 tv's playing the same thing, and they all look different, no matter how the user controls are set. They should have black level set, and colours calibrated to 6500K, among other things. Ive had my last 2 done, and everyone has said it's the best picture they've seen, anywhere.

[jagabo]

I've seen too many posts saying the 50" gets blocks and pixellates sometimes. My 42" never does either.

Sure it does. Just sit closer so you can see it.

[SingSing]

Most large screen TV buying decisions are made on the show room floor, in front of what you like. Stand six feet away from it, then you will figure out you need at least 50" or 56" to start. If price is a couple of $100 different, and picture is bright and sharp, the Bigger the better. SIZE Really MATTER.

After having my large screen TV, the only thing I missed is borrowing the office SVGA projector, and watching movies at 100" diag. Their price are getting better everyday (check with Yoda333), but my new house is full of windows, and I was never a watch the movie in the basement guy.

[samijubal]

Well, I guess I'm the opposite side of everyone else here. For me, picture quality is far more important than size. I could have barely fit a 50" where the 42" is. But to me, it wasn't worth the sacrifice in picture quality to go to 50". I would never sit at the recommended distance either. That's way too close for me.

[sanlyn]

Virtually every post I've seen by Oppo and Toshiba HD-DVD owners all say the same thing, The toshiba is better at upconversion. So again, I don't know why anyone would pay twice as much for an Oppo with no discs. Even if you aren't going to use the player for HD discs, it's still a lot better deal.

The Oppo was $170, no tax, free ship, from Amazon. Oppo has better audio. As upconverters they're both about the same, as far as any tests I've seen, one does one thing better, the other dos something else better, etc., tho tests say the Oppo is more forgiving of poorly coded DVD's. Big objection: the Toshiba interface is clunky as hell, very sloooooww, a Toshiba trademark. Could use the Toshiba on my old HDTV and my new HDTV when I get it, but not on the SD 27". Anyway, I don't have any HD-DVD discs. By the time Blueray prices go down, HD-DVD will be long gone. I've seen no complaints about the Oppo's, except from those who don't read manuals or who ignore firmware updates.

[samijubal]

I've yet to see anyone say any Oppo player is better. But, I've seen many people say Toshiba is better. For $80 with 5 free DVDs, the Toshiba sure sounds like a better deal to me. I don't really care either way. My TV does an excellent job of upconversion and I'm not willing to give up my 4 sets of picture settings on my DVD player.

EDIT:
Well, I went ahead and bought the A2 for $80 with free shipping and 5 free DVDs. I couldn't resist. The A2 is supposedly a lot better player than the A3 and today was the last day to get the 5 free DVDs. Not sure if the A2 has picture adjustments or not. I know the A3 doesn't.

[sanlyn]

I've yet to see anyone say any Oppo player is better...

If you go to Oppo's website (www.oppodigital.com), click on a product, and go to "reviews", you'll see a different story. Try googling Oppo DV-980H or DV-981HD. I think you'll find plenty of good comments about both Oppo and Toshiba in general.

I've seen tests showing the Oppo and the A2 are about equal at upconverting, but the Oppo is better with SD-DVD at 480i. I consider that important, because If I decide to use my player as a base transport for an outboard video processor (that's the ultimate way to go, and their prices are falling), I couldn't use the A2.

No 1080p resolution (1080i only). Your HDTV must do the de-interlacing. If you specify 1080p on the A2, it uses 1080i anyway.

A2's HDMI does not output multichannel or DTS audio (stereo only). No coax audio output (optical only). My Cambridge Audio DTS a/v receiver does not have optical inputs -- I know of no prosumer-grade or audiophile receiver that uses optical audio. Every audio maniac knows that coax audio is better, and my ears agree.

Tests say the A2's Upscaling of SD-DVD is inferior to higher-priced Toshibas. The A2 has artifacts on diagonal lines in SD and HD. The Oppo is better in that respect.

Toshiba and Sony (and others) have a habit of using MPEG decoders with chroma upsampling errors, even in their high-end models. You will see this error explained at:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html

Many players have this problem. But for the price, I'd say the A2 still looks pretty good.

In any case, this thread is about lcd/plasma. I'd say Oppo's doing a pretty nice job of matching players to hi-def monitors. Anyway, my DV-980H is doing a great job right now on both my tv's.

[samijubal]

For every link you can post knocking Toshiba, I can easily find one doing the same with Oppo. Just look at user reviews on virtually any site other than Oppo, where they can choose what gets posted and what doesn't, they pretty much all say the same thing.

I figure I'll sell the free DVDs for $5-6 each and end up with the player for $50. Oppo sure as hell can't beat that.

[sanlyn]

[quote="samijubal"]For every link you can post knocking Toshiba, I can easily find one doing the same with Oppo...quote]

The SD-DVD player I've been using since early 2001 is the Toshiba SD-4800. Problem: I can use it on my 27" CRT, but it doesn't work well on the HDTV. Whenever I auditioned a player I compared it to the 4800; I haven't found one for under $500 that matches its gorgeous color, film-like image, and nice DTS audio. So far, the Oppo 280 on my tv's is slightly sharper and doesn't have the CUE bug, which the 4800's Zoran procesor does indeed have. The 4800 won't pass under-zero blacks or over-110 whites, but the Oppo will; this is a problem with the Oppo on my HDTV, but not on my SD-CRT (apparently the CRT has a blocking circuit for out of spec colors, while the HDTV doesn't ??).

I have another 27 days or so to test the Oppo. On either my SD or HD TV, the 4800 still looks a little smoother and warmer than the Oppo, but I can only tell by viewing the players in a really dark room. The Oppo has cleaner image tweaking controls, tho I seldom use them except for problem DVD's. Audio on the Toshiba is very good, but it's A+ on the Oppo. I gave $50 Toshiba players to my dad and father-in-law last year, and the image and motion handling are terrific at that price (not much for control features, tho, and no coax output for audio).

As for matching to monitors, the Oppo doesn't work as well with my dad's old Hitachi tv. The Toshiba looks better. So player/monitor matching are a consideration. The Toshiba has a problem with some SP discs recorded on my Panny ES20 DVD recorder, but the Oppo plays them ok. I don't think enough is said about poor rap between players and monitors. I see tests where some work better on LCD, others on plasma. Many HD-DVD players don't seem to work well on some HD CRT's, reportedly because many players oversharpen the image to compensate for the heavy-handed filters on LCD's. All these variables can drive you nuts, which probably explains why one buyer thinks a player looks terrific but another thinks the player is garbage, and then published tests say something else.

I guess, then, that the choice between LCD or plasma, players, etc., depends on this: find the LCD or plasma you like, then play roulette with players until you get one that works for your monitor.

[samijubal]

My plasma is a little on the soft side and the Toshiba is supposedly sharp and vivid. I'm hoping it will be as good as everyone says it is. If not, at least it was only $80. I paid $300 for my first DVD player back in 1998. Long before I could even rent discs to play in it. It was another year or two before rentals really started showing up around here. That $300 was 1998 dollars, not 2008 dollars. Money went considerably further back then.

[sanlyn]

From tests and user comments I've seen, Toshiba's A2 ain't perfect but it's a good buy and should work for most users. I did give it a lookover but it didn't have the coax output I need for my 5.1 DTS setup. I'd also like to have some extra picture and audio controls for problem discs -- under-$100 players just don't have those features. At least it seems good enough to match most hi-def monitors out there today.

I shudder to contemplate the decisions and $$$ required to match a player to some of those 100-foot hi-def setups. Even if I won the NY lottery, I don't think I'd allow myself the angst of going that route.

[samijubal]

When it comes to electronics, nothing is perfect. There's always sacrifices. On good equipment, the good outweighs the bad. Even more true in a digital world.

The 12 bit JVC player I use that sold for about $70-80 new, I bought 1 on Ebay for $40 I think it was, then another 2 for $10 each, after I knew how well they performed, has 4 sets of picture settings, 2 pre-set and 2 user adjustable. Maybe newer players don't have the picture settings anymore. That was back in 2004-2005. I use the player every day, usually a few hours a day. It still works like new.