Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gsxr750r]

I have an LCD TV. It's an LG XCanvas 42" Full HD model. HD looks incredible on it, although regular resolution looks pretty crappy (expected). Black levels on the LCD are good on the HDTV channels, but sucky on the regular channels. Wondering if I should have gone with PDP instead (although I wanted the full HD resolution to use on computer). All things done again, I might have gone with the PDP version that was just 1080i, instead of full 1080p.

My big worry with the PDP was that it looked pretty dark in anything but a low-light room. PDP black levels are supposed to be better, though.

Thoughts on your TV?

[rocklee]

Not sure about PDP but I love my Full HD TV, the videos on it looks incredible and I double it as a second monitor for my computer. I got it last year before people even heard of Full HD (I just wanted a bigger monitor at the time).

While I already have a number of demos and a couple of HD movies, there isn't enough and their file sizes are astronomical (I don't own a Blue-Ray DVD player just yet). This basically means that not every one can take advantage of Full HD (1900x1080) because not everyone has a blue-ray DVD player nor the means to find HD movies.

Nevertheless, I still feel that people should skip the HD TVs and go straight to Full HD. The new generation rental movies will be either be in Blue-Ray (as supported by Sony) or HD (Microsoft). Downgrading from 1080p would be a mistake.

[gsxr750r]

My problem is that I've spent so much time in front of the thing for the last 3 days, my eyes are tired and nothing looks good!

I read something online, and now I noticed it... the black levels aren't good. I'm disappointed in this.

Now that I've purchased this, I wish I had taken a better look at PDP (Plasmas), which were less money (although 1080i and not 1080p). The black levels on PDP are said to be so much better.

As far as using it for a computer monitor: Yes, the 1080p is the way to go for that. Wins hands down. The bummer is that the thing is so darned bright! I have to dial it waaay down, or my eyes about burn out when looking at white pages!

LCD's seem to look better in stores. I wonder if PDPs look better in homes? The PDPs in the stores seemed to have a sort of "white haze" over them, which I have read has more to do with reflections on their screens. I guess you don't have such reflection problems at home, in general. Hmmm...

In any case, they both blow the standard definition TV images up so darned big, they look like poop. The HD signals (which are maxed at 1080i anyway) look great, although can have a bit of a "digitally-painted" look with LCD.

I also do see a bit of ghosting in fast movement, as well.

I am anxious to view movies with 1080p through the proper player, once they come down in price. I have a feeling that HD DVD is going to win. It sounds like they're getting the nod from porn, which traditionally has driven the video industry in terms of hardware (funny, but very true). They both look the same in quality, but Bluray discs can hold more. PS3's aren't flying off of the shelves, either.

And of course, in Korea, the players are either unavailable or twice as expensive. You can't even buy the HD DVD add-on for the XBox here, and you know full-well that's because they're protecting local bloated-priced sales of the LG and Samsung HD players.

Good news is, I read the HD DVD players for the Xbox are region-free. PS3 discs are not region-free. Hmm... too bad there isn't HDMI out for the Xbox yet!

[gsxr750r]

Well, I was becoming disatisfied, so I went to the store to compare it with PDP sets. I'm no longer disatisfied, in general. Actually, I would consider last year's PDP models to be a great bargain, if anyone is thinking of buying.

I am coming to enjoy using my LCD as a TV and a coputer monitor.

I also picked up the Star Wars Attack of the Clones DVD with the THX Optimizer. That seems to have helped me with the screen issues I was bothered by, at least on movies.

[Sister Ray]

I was thinking of buying a new flat panel. Checked out the range at Emart the other day and they're pretty cheap.

However I do not want Korean language on my new tele. Is it possible to get one with an English remote and labeling on the TV itself? I thought it may be difficult to get a Samsung in English, how about a Japanese TV?
I can read Korean, but would really prefer English.

[gsxr750r]

Look into the Sony models, then. They sell them at Lotte Dept. Stores. I bet they have English, although I never looked.

I should have looked more closely at Sony.

Something to keep in mind: Buy a slightly older model (not too old) and save some money. You can save as much as 40% if you do this. If it can do 1080i resolution, and has a resolution HIGHER than 1024x768, then it's OK. To be honest, the HD TV signal is just 1080i, anyway. My set is one of the new, more expensive "Full HD" models that's 1920x1080p or whatever. Honestly, you don't need it. I feel I overspent. If you want to use it for a computer monitor (which I did, but it's not entirely practical all the time), then you should go 1080p. There is a difference with computer signals, but not noticeable enough with just TV signals. Oh, and if you plan to watch more basic/normal TV, then go with a PDP. That's my take.

To give you an idea, my Full HD LCD 42" XCanvas cost 2,700,000 or so. You can get last year's older PDP models in lower resolutions for as low as 1,200,000 (although the lowest models are the 1024xwhatever instead of 1366xwhatever). The 1366xwhatever models are good enough for a great 1080i signal.

The store guy told me we're still at least 3 months away from buying HD DVDs here. Not sure if it's true, but I can't seem to find them anywhere around.

You may notice that LCDs seem to be much brighter, but have a sort of "digitally painted-on" look to them. Examine this closely, and see if you can live with it or not, in return for more vibrant colors.

Oh, and be careful... brightest does not mean best. You lose all the details in the blacks and dark blues (which will drive you nuts at home) when the image is so hot. You really need to dial the brightness down and pay attention to black level as much as brightness before you buy.

Also, notice that these TVs are in areas with fewer lights, and they really bloom the levels to make the picture look vibrant on the showroom floor. And you'll notice that they LOVE to show you the SLOW HD footage that looks so gorgeous. This footage is NOT a good judge of what you'll probably be using the TV for. And these TVs perform very differently between different types of footage. Check out a DVD, regular 480 TV signal, HD signal, and whatever else you can throw at them in a side-by-side comparison.

In all likely-hood, you'll come to the same conclusion I did: Standard 480 TV signals look like utter crap on just about all of these sets. Movies are better, but you should feed the TV with an HDMI signal, or at the very least, a VGA signal.

I'll clue you in on something -- when HD footage starts moving fast, and has lots of people/things moving in the images (like a crowd shot or blowing wheat) it craps out big-time due to compression and amount of bandwidth available. Different sets handle this better than others. I can't stress this enough. This is EXACTLY why the showrooms aren't showing you soccer games and motorcross. They show you slow picturesque scenes that always look great on about any TV.

Sony seems to have good ratings (although Pioneer and Panasonic are the best). You pay more for those here, though -- obviously.

[corroonb]

I just bought a Samsung PAVV 32" LCD for 1.2 million and its awesome. Its HD (720p, 1080i) but not full HD (1080p). SD TV looks pretty awful but as it doesn't look too hot on a standard def TV, I don't care. The HD channels look sort of weird so I think I'll have to learn Korean to calibrate it correctly. My Xbox 360 looks awesome. It has 2 HDMI cables so its sort of future proof.

[rocklee]

[gsxr750r]

1080i looks so great, it's almost not worth going to 1080p -- unless you use it for a computer monitor too. I've become somewhat addicted to that, as of the past few days. There's a lot of video real-estate available for stuff on the desktop. I imagine a 37" TV in 1080p would be a better bet if you're planning more computer-type work with it.

Actually, the only time I ever saw true 1080p in action was at Costco. They had a Blueray player hooked up, playing an animation flick of some kind. I'll have to go back there and check it out again.

[rocklee]

I think you're showing some dissatisfaction because you're not able to take advantage of Full HD.

Give it some time and the movies will come out. Those demos at the stores are great and all but you should try and get some HD stuff from the net if you can't wait. I haven't looked back considering that I use the TV every day as a second monitor and for watching movies regardless of whether they were 1080p or not.

[rocklee]

This is DIVX quality which is not bad (looks a lot softer, not as detailed as 1080i) :






This is 1080i quality :

[gsxr750r]

Well, I do feel a lot better.

I'm also finding that if I go in to Picture-in-Picture mode, I can shrink down the standard definition channels to about 1/3 size and watch them very clearly, like a regular television. There happens to be a "black channel" on cable TV, so I just put that up on the other side of the screen. I end up with a video window which looks very good (although much smaller than the TV itself). I am in a small room for now, and am sitting too close to the TV as it is.

Sitting so close to my TV is half of the problem I've been having, because that brings out every minute issue in resolution.

I can say that I'm liking this more and more -- especially after my comparison trip back to the store. My only real regret now is that I didn't look harder at Sony TV's. I happened to go to the LG store with my girlfriend to show her this TV, and they also dropped the price for a sale the next day (about 700,000 won). I jumped at it, but really should have waited. There was no hurry. Impulse fool, I was.

But maybe not too foolish, It's really becoming enjoyable.

Do you feed your video using HDMI? I'm currently coming out of my HP notebook via VGA. I bet HDMI looks tons better, but I don't have a machine which outputs it.

Star Wars -- Clones looked awesome yesterday! I'll put up some screenshots soon..

[Thunndarr]

One thing you need to make sure you do is calibrate your display (assuming you haven't done so yet.)

You need to adjust the brightness (which is actually the black level) and contrast (white level) because the out-of-the-box calibration can vary and your particular lighting situation and personal preferences will require different settings.

Anyway, here's a quick link if anyone's interested:

http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs/lcd/0,239035307,240003563,00.htm

[gsxr750r]

Yeah, I did that with the Star Wars DVD, and it was very good.

I read that CNET article (I think) on Saturday. If that was the one which told me to rent a DVD with the THX symbol on it, so you can find the video test on there.

Good advice. It worked.