Pioneer 428/ 4280 and Panasonic 42PZ85B info/ help please

[Anonymous]

Aw well, if no one fancies answering me I think I'll just go for the Panny 42PZ85 as it's £1200 for the Pioneer v £850 for the Panny and I think it'll be better for the PS3. Screw the Sony 40W4500 I want black blacks!!!!

About time I made a decision for myself! I rely too much on these damn forums anyway

 

[drummerman]

meths:
Aw well, if no one fancies answering me I think I'll just go for the Panny 42PZ85 as it's £1200 for the Pioneer v £850 for the Panny and I think it'll be better for the PS3. Screw the Sony 40W4500 I want black blacks!!!!

About time I made a decision for myself! I rely too much on these damn forums anyway

Hi

unfortunately, for 'black blacks' you really only have two choices ... Pioneer for Plasma, Samsung if it's LCD.

regards

 

[John Duncan]

You've gone all 'telly' on us DM - when are the AVIs arriving so normal service can be resumed?

 

[drummerman]

Evening JohnD

Do you know what, I just thought the same today.

Just a new toy so it'll soon be back to normal. Having said that, I will be looking at some projectors this week.

Oddly enough, I was also in contact with AJ of AVI today, the piano black 9.1s are sold out til after xmas.

Best get back to hifi though, this is becoming embarrasing. I read your Dacmagic opinions with interest by the way. Are you keeping it to use with your pc/AE?

 

[John Duncan]

Yes, that was always the intention - and if it can bring the AE up to a par with the CD player (more or less), then I suspect that will become my main source ('if' still to be ascertained, still looking for toslink cable). Just need an iPod touch for Christmas to work as a remote...

</hijack>

 

[drummerman]

That will probably be what I will use with the AVI's. That or a SB but I don't know enough about those options at present until I really get involved in it. Lovely, that iPod touch though. Someone down here uses it with his AVI set up.

Personally I think the DM is great value, as are most things CA.

 

[John Duncan]

Yup - I've said before, if the 840s were pretty, I'd own them.

 

[Anonymous]

drummerman:Hi

unfortunately, for 'black blacks' you really only have two choices ... Pioneer for Plasma, Samsung if it's LCD.

regards

Am I right in thinking though that the Panasonic is fairly close to the Pioneer for black level?

I'm realistic enough not to expect the same picture quality on SD broadcasts between the two (hence the £350 price difference) but from what I've seen on the shop demos it seems to come pretty close. Based on what I've read, the differences when using a good quality HD input seem to be negligable.

My main reason for opting for the Panny however is that I think the native 1920x1080 resolution will come into its own when using my PS3 for games.

I'm still interested to hear other people's opinions on this but was planning to go pick up the Panasonic tomorrow after work.

 

[Anonymous]

When set up properly, the Panasonic's blacks do come very close to the Pioneer. Certainly far better than any Samsung LCD I've seen.

Pick up any of the current Panasonic 42" range and you won't regret it. My money would go on the PZ81 if you can find one cheap enough.

 

[Anonymous]

Why the PZ81?

 

[Anonymous]

Nicer looking tv, Intelligent Frame Creation if you want it (good on some things) and an HD tuner which will become more relevant when HD channels appear on Freeview i.e. back to set-top boxes and two remotes again for anyone who has a so-called HD Ready tv currently that doesn't have integrated Freesat.

 

[drummerman]

alsina:
When set up properly, the Panasonic's blacks do come very close to the Pioneer. Certainly far better than any Samsung LCD I've seen.

Pick up any of the current Panasonic 42" range and you won't regret it. My money would go on the PZ81 if you can find one cheap enough.

Hi

Nop, some of the higher end Samsung's with dimmable backlighting or whatever you want to call it are about as black as it goes. One test site confirmed absolute black whilst testing one I believe, something not even the Kuro's can do, mainly due to the need to prime cells with minute amounts of electricity even when idling, though they are as close as almost not to make a difference. There are apparently other problems with the Samsung (and other) backlight adjustable sets though, mainly to do with the inability to control the back light for each pixel individually ie. its done on a fairly large area which has its own implications. Perhaps they have solved that problem with the new smart LED sets but as there is no way to have one LED for each pixel I doubt it somehow but I may be wrong.

I did'nt say the picture is better than the panasonics but if its black and LCD you want, there's where my money would go.

The Panasonic's don't come close to black levels/contrast and panel brightness of the 9g pioneers at present, the difference is pronounced but in all fairness, so is the price.

regards

 

[Anonymous]

The big issue for me is that unfortunately Pio don't do a 9g 42 inch. Having looked everywhere over the last few days, it seems that the only remaining 8g 42 inchers available are all ex demo models (eg the ones advertised by Richer) - unless anyone knows where I might get a brand new PDP-428 or 4280?

 

[Anonymous]

Update. I have finally managed to get a Pioneer PDP-4280XD from Currys who say it was returned by a customer who didn't know how to turn it on (!!?), and had been sitting in the warehouse for a long time. The store claims it is unused, and it certainly looks like it to my untrained eye - even the manuals don't seem to have had a page turned. The picture is excellent - again to my untrained eye.

Is there any way I can check how many hours the screen has run? I read elsewhere that you can access a service menu which should show the hours, but I can't seem to do that on this model. The site set out the proceedure including that you pressed the information button below the 9 button on the remote. However, on my remote, the i button is below the 7 whilst there is an HDMI button underneath the 9.

 

[Clare Newsome]

alsina:
Nicer looking tv, Intelligent Frame Creation if you want it (good on some things) and an HD tuner which will become more relevant when HD channels appear on Freeview i.e. back to set-top boxes and two remotes again for anyone who has a so-called HD Ready tv currently that doesn't have integrated Freesat.

Feel that should be clarified - any set that currently has an 'HD tuner' won't be able to receive HD Freeview broadcasts when they eventually arrive: that'll need a separate set-top box, until true Freeview HD TVs go on sale.

What the '81' Panasonics offer right now, however, is access to Freesat's HD content.

 

[drummerman]

rjkbe:
Update. I have finally managed to get a Pioneer PDP-4280XD from Currys who say it was returned by a customer who didn't know how to turn it on (!!?), and had been sitting in the warehouse for a long time. The store claims it is unused, and it certainly looks like it to my untrained eye - even the manuals don't seem to have had a page turned. The picture is excellent - again to my untrained eye.

Is there any way I can check how many hours the screen has run? I read elsewhere that you can access a service menu which should show the hours, but I can't seem to do that on this model. The site set out the proceedure including that you pressed the information button below the 9 button on the remote. However, on my remote, the i button is below the 7 whilst there is an HDMI button underneath the 9.

Yes, you can access the info through the service menu. This should, as I understand it, only be done by a qualified engineer as you could seriously mess up things without having the equipment to rectify any problems. I think it also invalidates the warranty.

If the store has taken it back it was probably within the usual 28days or so. Any hours played would have been minimal.

regards

 

[Sorreltiger]

Well done rjkbe on finding your 8G Pioneer. ÿAs a 4280 owner, I'm sure you'll be delighted. ÿI guess if it works OK - no burn in or dead pixels - it should be fine. ÿI do know that some folk have been perplexed by the on button under the panel on the left-hand side!

Make sure you take care with your set-up, although it will only take you a few minutes. ÿYou could look on one of the specialist forums, but the settings have also just been posted on another thread on this site. ÿPersonally, I find it better to have sharpness at 0 rather than -15, but that's a matter of taste. ÿWhat you will have if you follow the instructions is a screen that's perfectly calibrated for colour and contrast.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Sorreltiger

Thanks for your good wishes. I haven't detected any evidence of burn or dead pixels and, having used the settings that I found recommended on another site, the picture is excellent. I have the contrast at 30 and sharpness at -15 but am a bit unsure whether these are settings for a run-in set, and therefore whether I should turn them down for the first 200 hours. PS. Just ordered a BDP-51FD player so am really looking forward to using that over Xmas.

Regards

rjkbe

 

[Anonymous]

meths:
drummerman:Hi

unfortunately, for 'black blacks' you really only have two choices ... Pioneer for Plasma, Samsung if it's LCD.

regards

Am I right in thinking though that the Panasonic is fairly close to the Pioneer for black level?

I'm realistic enough not to expect the same picture quality on SD broadcasts between the two (hence the £350 price difference) but from what I've seen on the shop demos it seems to come pretty close. Based on what I've read, the differences when using a good quality HD input seem to be negligable.

My main reason for opting for the Panny however is that I think the native 1920x1080 resolution will come into its own when using my PS3 for games.

I'm still interested to hear other people's opinions on this but was planning to go pick up the Panasonic tomorrow after work.

PS3 games on the Pioneer look excellent, don't forget that games aren't 1080p and the only one I know of is GT5.

R

 

[Cliff1]

Clare Newsome:Cliff1:
Clare,

Can i come in here.When you say 'less scaling being involved with the pioneer' are you saying that Full HD sets do not do SD as well as HD Ready sets.Why is that? Do Full HD sets have to down scale ?

It's the amount of scaling involved. To ultra-simplify it, SD is 576 lines, HD Ready sets have a resolution of 720 lines, and Full HD sets of 1080 lines.

So, an HD Ready set, 'only' has to upscale from 576 to 720, while a Full HD set has to upscale from 576 to 1080, which obviously involves a lot more processing.

Thanks Clare

As i was leaning toward the PZ81 which is full HD & i will be watching a lot more SD than HD,is there a noticeable difference in picture quality.

 

[Clare Newsome]

By SD, do you just mean standard-def TV via the Freesat tuner? (In which case the quality will vary greatly: the Panasonics have good upscalers, but even they struggle with some really poor, low bit-rate digital channels).

With DVDs, of course, your player may have a better scaler than that in the Panasonic, so you can get that to upscale to 1080p.

Also consider that - presumably - you intend to be watching your TV for a good few years, and HD content is only going to increase... When you can get a Blu-ray player for @£100, it doesn't seem such a distant prospect!

 

[Cliff1]

Yes i did mean sd tv via the freesat or freeview via the aerial.

Thanks.