HD....on my CRT TV??

[admin_exported]

I have a four year old Panasonic TX32PD50 CRT Television (What Hi-Fi award winner) and I was wondering does anybody know (or have an opinion) on the following.

If I got a cheap Blu-ray player (I have a Samsung BD-P1500 in mind) connected it via the component out to my Panasonic and set the output to 720p...would I get a High Definition picture?

This set upscales off-air and DVD to 1260 x 833 lines at 75Hz Progressive, so in theory it should work!

Panasonic can't tell me (although they are interested to know the answer) and neither can Lakes Audio in Aylesbury from whom I brought it 4 years ago (and again they are interested in the answer).

I read an old thread with interest (on another AV Forum) about an X-Box360 used with this set giving an HD picture but I don't know if it Was that outputting at 720p or 1080i?

I'd really appreciate an answer as I am loathed to throw this wonderful CRT TV away (for me it still has such an impressive picture quality). If anybody out there in AV land has an old Panny and a Blu-ray have you/can you try it out and let me know!

Regards.

Garry

 

[Andy Clough]

Sorry, no, with a CRT such as yours you won't get a proper high-definition picture as it's not an HD-Ready set and the screen doesn't have the resolution required to display high-definition images.

To my knowledge Panasonic never made an HD-Ready CRT, and only one or two manufacturers did (Samsung was one as I recall). I'll email one of my contacts at Panasonic just to double-check, as I wasn't aware the TX32PD50 could upscale to 1260 x 833.

 

[Anonymous]

While waiting for Andy to come back with something definitive:

If you output at 720p then that's the best resolution you will get. (remembering that upscaling fills in missing information to allow the screen to be filled. So it depends on what the TV can do. Can't you borrow a blu-ray player with component video out from a mate. It'll only take 10 mins to find out for sure.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately at the moment I don't know anybody who has a Blu-ray player (not even a PS3!). Its not that I don't have mates with Big Plasma or LCD TVs or decent audio equipment either....which really just goes to show that Blu-ray is still to make any real inroads into the mainstream consumer market (if the cost of movies matched those of DVD's that may have a positive effect).

If there is anybody out there who lives in Buckinghamshire (south of Aylesbury) and would like to pop around with a Blu-ray player to have a go and find out....by all means be my guest (and have a beer too).

Garry

 

[Anonymous]

Andy,

It was your review at What Hi-fi that told us about the up-scaling ability of this panasonic....way back when you described it as the best TV on the planet (which is why I went out and brought one....after getting a demonstration too I must add).

 

[Clare Newsome]

I'm looking at our Awards issues for 2004 and 2005 and can't find it!

 

[Anonymous]

No Kidding Claire..... It was between this set and a similar priced Toshiba....go back to about July / August 2003. I brought this set in Sept 2003....it failed 18 months later and the very helpful dealer (Lakes Audio) replaced it free of charge with a later TX32PD50 (I had purchased originally a PD30). So yet another demonstration of why buying from a reputable dealer as opposed to a Web supplier can be cheaper in the long run!

 

[Anonymous]

The screen itself qualifies as HD Ready (min. of 720 lines, this has 833). So if panasonic didnt call it HD Ready then it probably doesnt accept the 1080i signal or 720p. Try an upscaling DVD if you dont have a BlueRay.

 

[Andy Clough]

OK, dug back through the archives and have found the original review of the Panasonic TX-32PD30, but not a PD50. It was published at a time when I wasn't working on the mag (Nov 2003/p8), so that's why I didn't remember the review.

We didn't give it an Award as the set arrived after the Awards deadline that year, but it did get 5 stars. Yes, it did have a special picture processing mode that increased the number of horizontal screen lines from the standard 625 to 833, but this in itself doesn't make it HD-Ready. As far as I can see, we didn't say it upscaled to 1280 x 833.

To carry the HD-ready logo, and be compatible with HDTV services, a set must be able to display 1280 x 720 resolution with 50/60Hz progressive scan (720p), and at 1920 x 1080 at 50/60Hz interlaced (1080i).

 

[Anonymous]

I have just looked at a review for the TX-36PD30 in the November 2003 issue of What Video and Widescreen TV. They say the Acuity setting alters the scanning to 75Hz and resolution to 2376x833. In the specification side panel it says that the set is HD compatible with modification. I seem to recall the last version of the set were modified so they had a DVI socket. I have no idea if that was the HD modifiction though. Don't know if this is of any help.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Why not save all this worrying about if it will work or not and upgrade the old CRT to a new HD set?

 

[Clare Newsome]

NSYGrinner:
I have just looked at a review for the TX-36PD30 in the November 2003 issue of What Video and Widescreen TV. They say the Acuity setting alters the scanning to 75Hz and resolution to 2376x833. In the specification side panel it says that the set is HD compatible with modification. I seem to recall the last version of the set were modified so they had a DVI socket. I have no idea if that was the HD modifiction though. Don't know if this is of any help.

'HD compatible' is a highly contentious phrase.

I still think it's a non-starter - not least because you're certainly not going to get 24fps support, so you risk bad Blu-ray judder issues.

Yes, it was a superb set in it's day, and it's given five years of sterling service - and i'm sure it still shines with standard-def material - but it's simply not meant for an age of Full HD, Blu-ray, 24fps issues, HDMI and more.

Sorry, we don't make the rules that make superb technology near-obselete in such a short space of time!

 

[Anonymous]

As the owner of this later acuity2 set also,

I can answer this question.

I have a toshiba hd-ep35 connected to mine, and it will not except signals greater than 576i

screen just rolls and flashes, at an angle to boot!

nothing wrong at all running at standard def,

material from the HD-dvd is handled superbly

picture is richer in most aspects, than watching a dvd through the same machine, black levels are fantastic.

theres more detail and realism

occasionally you get very slight edge break up which results from the signal being downscaled, similar to that seen when a

signal is Upscaled.

I'd highly recommend taking advantage of an hd source to anyone with similar crts or even older plasmas, (pre-HD)

until you find the need to replace your set that is.

and then your amp also, as is the way of things in this game

 

[Anonymous]

Hi. You guys seem to have short memories The screen resolution is probably unknown but the Acuity2 processing of this set upscaled the pictures to 833i at 75Hz (not p like some of you said).

As for having HD, you can probably get an higher resolution using the component input but since the set was not sold as HD it wasn't tweaked to match the standard HD resolutions. This means that the only way to get higher resolutions is using a PC with a color transcoder attached to the VGA output (the analogue component signal is the same as the VGA but different color encoding) and using a program like PowerStrip to adjust the frequencies/ resolutions. You can get the Audio Authorithy 9A60 for a teener on eBay if you're patient.

On a final note, this has been tested and worked on other high end CRTs (i.e. check on Google for Toshiba ZP range and Audio Authorithy 9a60 or Thomson VHDC300) but I've never seen anyone giving it a try on the PD50/30. The simple fact that someone above mentions the image is flashing and rolling is already very good, cause it means that it's trying to display it rather than having some circuit at the entry shutting down custom frequencies. Just adjust the frequencies till you get a picture, 833i at 75Mhz will probably work