Buy Microsoft Office Home & Student
- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 7 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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8 out of 9 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Everything more is overkill"
Pros: 480p resolution
Cons: Drab casing
Summary: Ok if you are getting hot over 720p 1080p and other mambo-jumbo then go and spend your money. Just remember that 720p 1080I and 1080p signals are not coming to your TV from anywhere.
1. 99% of broadcasts are not HDTV therefore your HDTV will show worse picture then analog sets.
2. Progressive-Scan DVD signal is 480p, therefore HDTV with 1080p resolution will have exactly the same quality picture as EDTV.
3. HDMI or Up-converting DVD players do not make 480p signal into HDTV (1080p or 720p) they simulate higher resolution by line doubling. The result is better picture in professional tests. Almost undetectable difference for your eyes.
4. But, but what about those 6-7 channels that supposedly broadcast HDTV? If you are getting them through cable or dish they come to you compressed 40 to 65 times, so much for HDTV. Networks cannot afford so much bandwidth on their cables to stream uncompressed signal.
So there you have it folks. Good luck with you high resolution sets they will be obsolete in 3 years when TV finally converts to 100% digital and may be 50% HDTV. But even then only fiber-optic cables could potentially provide actual HDTV signals and that is of course if cable company decides not to compress the heck out of them to fit more channels. Meanwhile continue to spend thousands of dollars on TVs resolution of which is useless due to lack of actual signal.
- 6 replies to this review
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I have this set in my home near the shore and a 50" HD DLP (Akai made by Sumsung)at my primary residence. I can tell any of you FROM EXPERIENCE that this set takes an HD signal and produces a picture of a quality equal to or better than my HD set - I DID IT - SIDE BY SIDE - on numerous channels with a Comcast HD signal!
For all of us who have HD tv's we know that the bulk of programming is non-HD and I believe that it will remain so in the forseeable future. And we HDTV owners know that HD's dirty little secret is that SD signals don't look very good on an HD set - and guess what? - thats most of the broadcasts. Now I'll be the first to admit that an HD picture is stunning and a joy to watch.
So it really boils down to $200-$400 difference in cost. This model does give a slightly better picture with a non-HD signal than an HD model.
So you'll have to decide which to do:
Spend the extra money to get a "technically" HD picture or
save a few bucks and get a quality picture no one else will know is not HD unless you choose to tell them.
As the reviewer who "saw this set at a friends house and could tell that HIS set has a far superior picture" or whatever, well I think he's seeing what he wants to see. As I've said, I have HD and I still spend most of my time watching non-HD programing and dvds and that's what this model is tailor made for. -
I guess a kia is better than a mercedes in your world too. After all a kia tops out @ 65mph; anything faster than that would be overkill since the max speed limit is 65mph in most of the U.S. (I don't think so pal)
Bottom line - HD is far better than SD and ED. You don't get the best possible picture by going backwards in technology. If the technonlogy is obselete for today's HD; then its definetly obselte for SD and ED right as we speak. And when that time comes, I'll buy the latest and the greatest plasma out.
Folks, buy and enjoy HD!!! When its obselete buy another. The price between HD and ED is minimal. Next he'll be telling you to buy a VCR becuse DVD's will be obselte in the future. THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!! EVERYTHING WILL ONEDAY BE OBSELETE!!! -
I happened to come across this review and I just had to reply.
I have a 50" HD plasma monitor (50ph9uk). Forgot about the televisions you see in the store - questionable feeds, unknown picture settings etc. - too many variables into play.
My set is linked up to a DirecTV box (HR20) via HDMI. If I showed you the picture of a HD vs SD picture for an NFL game, you would have no further questions - the HD picture is so superior that it would be ridiculous to argue the point. And this is at 14 feet, my typical viewing distance. Step up to 7 feet and see a more pronounced difference. I cannot even watch a SD NFL game anymore. To see all of this progaganda for an ED set over an HD set, well, it kind of makes me uneasy.
Sure, there are not too many HD feeds at present. I get three local feeds, showtime, hbo, nfl package and a few other stations - over 10 main feeds total + nfl games. Let me tell you that it is worth it to get the HD, esp if you enjoy football. Price difference between ED and HDTV is not that much, take the plunge and you will not be dissapointed. -
Sorry to post a question here, but I'm considering buying this TV and need your advice. My wife and I watch alot of DVD movies, and through our cable company only 5 local channels, HBO/Starz/Shotime and one ESPN channel are in HD. We mostly watch spike tv and SciFi channel. If I understand all this correctly, this tv will give me a better picture quality watching DVD's and regular cable channels than a HDTV plasma would. But on the HD channels, this tv will give me a picture quality only slightly less than an HDTV, not enough to make a difference. One catch...I'm plannin on buying a playstation 3 next month, will a HDTV give me a better picture while playing? Any advice would be great...Thanks
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I have made this exact argument to my friends/family/co-workers/etc. for over a year..lol They just dont get it. There's no need for buying the $5000+ HDTV with the super high resolution. Also factor in that most people have poor eyesight anyway! SO HOW are they going to notice a difference between 490p and 720p??
I love the LOOK of HDTVs and yes some of them have what I would say are beautiful colors and sharp pictures when DVD's or XBox 360 are played on them. There nice. But I'm not going to go out and spend THOUSANDS of dollars that could be a nice vacation or even a NEW CAR for many people on a stupid TV.
Americans need to smarten up and STOP spending so much money on every new thing the corporations come up with to take our money. HDTV is simply the latest new High-Tech scam to make money off the backs of stupid people with money who can't wait to go out and buy the Next New thing. Get real. -
I have a TH42PD50U, the preceding and substantially similar model. I agree that this is the way to go at a 42" size. The Pany in particular, compared to other brands, does a great job displaying standard definition TV which is still the great majority of programming on the air. However, I have compared the Pany PX60 (HD) to the PD60 (ED) side by side and the HD is slightly but noticeably better with an HD signal. Not enough to justify the price difference in my opinion, but the implication that an HD set is totally pointless is wrong. It is also incorrect that we will never get full HD signals to the home until someone installs fiber. A full uncompressed HD signal fits easily in the same 6 MHz bandwidth used for an old analog channel. This is proven by the fact that broadcasters send these signals out over the air using regular channel numbers. A standard coax cable system has plenty of bandwidth to deliver these signals (an HD signal uses no more bandwidth than cable Internet service like Road Runner) and at least in the case of Time Warner they do not use excessive compression to do so -- I see no difference in the HD signals that I get over cable to those that I get over the air. However I can't comment on satellite -- there dkzzzz may be right since bandwidth is much more constrained on satellite than on a wired system. So I agree that this set is a great value and is recommended, but full HD is not pointless for those who want to spend the money or who want something larger than 42".
