Early Christmas present.

Capital sanction has been given so it's time for my old 28" CRT TV to make way for a HD TV.

I run all my media through a purpose built Media Centre PC.

Question is this,

What to choose LCD or Plasma screen?

37" seems to be about the right size as we will be sitting between 9 and 12 feet away.

Any advice appreciated.

PLASMA Pros: Better, deeper and richer colours, especially black.
Cons: Huge increase in electric bill
Another Pro: No need to turn on central heating.


Edited because I pressed "submit" by mistook.

Lcd....Smaller fuel bills..Less weight...Better if there is a window nearbye (Less reflected light). Differences between the two picture wise are now so close that it doesn't really notice too much and is heavily dependent on specific models.
If you tend to watch TV in the usual lounge situation. i.e lit then LCD would suit you better....If you are watching in a darkened home cinema environment then Plasma would be better.
Having fun choosing is the main thing....:ok:

Cons: Huge increase in electric bill
Another Pro: No need to turn on central heating.

Was true once, but a recent survey showed that the two are pretty much neck to neck. Some LCD's are even more power hungry than the equivalent size plasma;

Solution ? Check the power consumption of the unit/s that interest you.

If you look carefully at many LCDs, you will possibly see the screen flickering when the scenery changes rapidly. Plasmas do better in this regard.

The only other points are to do with Burn-in, where a stationary image on the screen can leave an after image that can take quite a long time to dissipate.
Plasma's are getting much better these days, but the LCD still has the edge. This makes the LCD a better bet if you ever want to use the screen as a LARGE monitor for your computer.

If the question is what specifically would work best for media center, then there is no real difference. Personally, I run all my media through VMC plus an extender, on to a Samsung 32" & a Phillips 26" lcd.

The Samsung is the later model & the colours it produces are rich & deep, the only noticeable negative effect being the prescence of ghosting for around a minute or so when the tv is first switched on and you're navigating in say, the music menu.

One of my pals moves his media center through a monstrous 50" plasma beast & it's also fine, the colours being deeper still, but with the added downside that he has to open a window after ten minutes, or take his clothes off...



The obvious thing to look out for is connectivity - nowadays, most models will have HDMI, which is the best option, but depending on what comes out of the back of your graphics card (HDMI at a guess is the most likely), you will want to make sure you can connect without the faff of adapters. One other thing, depending on how what tv you put through media centre - sky/freeview/freesat etc. you may want to ensure your new telly has an IDTV slot, which lets you add a CAM card, so if desired, you can add say, Setanta or Top up tv etc. I added a Hauppauge cam module & had a devil of a time getting it to work in vmc. An idtv slot would have been far preferable.

Also, rmember that media centre cannot handle hi def tv as things stand, although I would not be surprised to see that change in windows 7, or as an update to the existing package in the next year or so - Freeview is going hi def next year & Freesat already is Hi def in part & if you can get hold of a copy of tv pack 2008, you get access to the red button through media center also.

Thanks, one and all.

It never occurred to me that power usage and radiated heat would be an issue here. Just when you think you have all the info......!:confused:

Looks like LCD is the way to go for my situation especially as I will be using it as a PC monitor too.

As an aside, Parapunter, TV Pack 2008. Is that a free download or do I need to get me wallet out? :)


Off to the shops now to have shufty.

Cheers, T. :ok::ok:

Just to add, I found TV Pack 2008 Here (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/06/hands-on-with-the-vista-media-center-tv-pack/) .

It looks like I'll be leaving it alone until after Christmas. Toooooo Risky!!:ok:

TV pack requires a clean install of VMC hp or ultimate, and afaik, has only been released to box builders & oems, putting many noses out of joint. From a European perspective, I don't think it adds a very greay deal of functionality, but if like me, you build your own boxes, you probably look at it & start getting itchy fingers:)

It never occurred to me that power usage and radiated heat would be an issue here. Just when you think you have all the info......!

No Turin... Read my post. LCD is not always better for power consumption than Plasma. It is model specific....investigate the specs.

A quick update and thankyou to all for the good gen'!

I ended up with this SAMSUNG LE40A656 (http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Samsung-LE40A656/). Got it for less than £700 from Dixons on-line with free delivery and a 5% off e-voucher. :)

Very pleased with it so far and the above link also has a handy setup page for the multiple colour and picture tweaks.

One question though, and Parapunter is probably the Oracle on this.

I've fiddled with the picture size and resolution settings ad-nauseum but I still can't get the Media Centre picture to fit the screen. It looks like it's zoomed in but no matter how I set it up it will not change. It is annoying as any subtitles slip off the bottom of the screen.

Output is DVI into HDMI using a single cable.

Thanks in advance. :ok:

I was only looking at that deal yesterday. Be nice to see how you get on with that set.
Was thinking in future using the Western Digital media centre with seperate Freecom hard drive.

My only gripe is that it has a glossy screen instead of the more usual matt, non-reflective type fitted to most LCD screens.

When I was comparing TVs in the shops this particular model stood out streets ahead of the other makes to the point I upped my budget by £100 just to get it. The reflective screen was not apparent in the shop but at home lights-out viewing is required sometimes.:E:O

Was thinking in future using the Western Digital media centre with seperate Freecom hard drive

Is this the WD TV HD unit? That you can attach 2 USB drives to? I have one, excellent... very happy with it. Currently have a 1TB external harddrive attached to it with 197 DVD quality movies burned to it. The only problem I have with it currently is that it is the same "movie" icon for each movie. So I have a screen full of the same image with only the file name being a way to tell the movies apart. In an ideal world I'd like to put an image of the movie poster in the directory.
But the sound and picture are excellent. I'd go as far to say it's better than my DVD player as I don't get a layer change and it remembers my place in ever movie I watch on it.

Try the 'just scan' setting off the Samsung picture menu. Fixed the same prob yeaterday on me mates 50" Samsung plasma only yesterday with that.

Mmm. I overheard a salesman in a large high street electical chain telling a prospective customer that the major difference between Plasma and LCD was the life of the unit, intrigued I moved closer and heard him state that a Plasma would be good for about five years and an LCD maybe eight! I was shocked. I have a Sony Bravia HD LCD which I bought 'on the crest of the wave' and thus paid a small fortune for it I would hope to get more than 8 years out of it. My old Sony Black Trinitron was bought in 1990 and it is still going strong.
The salesman also told his customer that when the Plasma started to show signs of deterioration they could be 'refilled'?:confused:

Try the 'just scan' setting off the Samsung picture menu. Fixed the same prob yeaterday on me mates 50" Samsung plasma only yesterday with that.

Tried that already. No joy. :(

Thanks anyway.

I take it you've fannied around with the graphics card settings? and run through the media centre set up and played with the zoom thing?

Friend had a Phillips screen - one of the bits on the PCB went recently - he was told that 5 years is your maximum life expectancy. He wasn't too impressed as it cost him about £3k - so it's not just the car that depreciates like hell.

The bigger screens do give off some heat - recently installed some 60" screens for a client they consume 750W - almost a one bar electric fire. Even the smaller 42" ones were consuming 600W. We ended up installing three 60", one 63" and seven 42" screens - all in one house - Premier League footballer - say no more!

I take it you've fannied around with the graphics card settings? and run through the media centre set up and played with the zoom thing?

Yup.

Got a small improvement tonight by setting the screen type as TV instead of Flat Panel. Got the subtitles back-just.

Will continue to fiddle, another day.

Cheers,

T:ok:

One thing on my Samsung, it's native rsolution is 1360x768, which the gpu (nvidia) detects & sets the display to accordingly. This doesn't work well in practice & so I set it to 1024 by something or other & put up with VMC telling me the resolution is incorrect. Bear in mind too that some channels broadcast in 4:3 for some of the time & thus you will get the huuuuge borders on media centre that you describe.

Jimmy-I was more interested in the fact the WD media centre plays .mkv files without having to boot up the computer. But i would then lose the ability to resize through my favourite player (KMplayer).

I've not used .mkv files, just VOB.

But there is an option in the settings where you can force output, or let it do it automatically.


Recently noticed though that an anamorphic movie will get windowed rather than viewed as "widescreen" so I get black bars all around rather than just top and bottom. Zooming the TV, got around this but that has to be only a temporary fix.

It's the blasted zoom function!!!!!!:ugh::ugh::ugh:



After all the buggering about that's all it was. :O

Thanks anyway. :ok:

I take it you've fannied around with the graphics card settings? and run through the media centre set up and played with the zoom thing?

Ha ha, 2nd of February!!:}

Back in Feb I was messing with the TV zoom.

Only just found the zoom on the Media Centre as my remote doesn't have a zoom button I can only access it with a right click of the mouse. Doh!:O

Thanks again.

On MCE remotes, it's the "i" button.

Ah yeees. Mine's a cheepskate Media Lab jobbee that came with the case. Keep saying I'll invest in a puckah MCE remote but..........!:hmm:

If its less than 40" go lcd especially if its going to be used for other media.
Make you get the fastest response time (refresh) ie 3-5 milliseconds for example if you going to be watching sport.

New gen plasma {later this year?} will be much less power hungry but the above still applies in general from all I've read.
Big lcd's are expensive [>42" ] but less than 40 they are the rule and should be a better deal around

One of these fellers...
http://i44.tinypic.com/16irwn9.jpg
Or if you're capexed up, this'll feel good under the hand
http://i39.tinypic.com/r1l84k.jpg

Actually, the ms remote is very well thought out & works brilliantly with media centre, for which, funnily enough, it was designed. 20 wingwangs most places. Money well spent.

Well, I've just posted my tale of woe on JB

http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/366974-light-engines-lemons.html


So far it's cost me nowt but a load of arguing. But DLP gave me the best picture on Earth, now it seems that it's unsupportable, and Sony are really squirming. Some reward for 25 years of promoting their kit.

Well here I go again.

Just updated my ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro graphics card with the latest driver.

Now my media centre picture will not size to the screen.

Fiddled with the resolution ad nauseum, set the TV to "Just Scan". Zoom functions make no difference.

The media centre screen sits in the middle of the TV with a 1.5 inch black edge round all sides.

Any ideas?

Ta.

Does the ATI have it's own software to play with?

In my experience, changing the resolution in media centre will not help, but you could try it in any event - configure the tv or monitor option in tv setup.

The other option of course is to roll back the driver. Seems to me that most GPU driver updates are aimed at fixing problems for gamers, so it's debatable how much of a step forward you take dropping in a new driver for a box being used for media centre.

Does the ATI have it's own software to play with?

In my experience, changing the resolution in media centre will not help, but you could try it in any event - configure the tv or monitor option in tv setup.

Yes I have fiddled with the resolution through the ATI software, lots to fiddle with but I managed in the end to get a good picture by setting both the Media Centre and the graphics card to 1152x864.

This isn't perfect because the TV will now not allow me to set the 'Just Scan' picture size setting. Result is I have to adjust the zoom for each channel depending on how it's broadcast.

Thanks for the help anyway.