CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[jbmeyer13]

I stopped into a local electronics retailer to kill some time last night prior to seeing a movie and auditioned both of the current 80” Sharp LED sets.

The 632U was playing a BD of Harry Potter and the image looked so bad I thought it was a behind the scene’s documentary. The image did not look like film at all; more like watching a live video feed. While I realize these sets have various types of picture/motion “enhancement” features that should ideally be turned off, the image was so un-natural that it’s hard to believe this thing carries an MSRP of $5K.

It’s a shame Pioneer got out of the display business because they really set the benchmark with their Plasma sets.

[ecrabb]

[Curt Palme]

and the bottom line for 90% of consumers is:

'LOOK, I GOT AN 80" TV FOR $2500!"

[Curt Palme]

and the bottom line for 90% of consumers is:

'LOOK, I GOT AN 80" TV FOR $2500!"

[ecrabb]

[jbmeyer13]

[jbmeyer13]

I went back last night and switched off the "dynamic mode" and it did yield a better image. As expected, it turned out being rather subtle with the image still lacking a film like quality. The source material was the same Harry Potter BD.

[ecrabb]

Well... It is an LCD, and a cheaper edge-lit model at that. I'm not sure how much you expect it to "look like film".

I guess I feel like I need to point this out at this point... TV-buying 101... You really shouldn't expect these displays to look great in the store environment. It's been this way for years - going clear back to CRT direct-view and CRT RPTV (which really didn't look like film, either...)

Any display is going to require calibration to look good - just like our projectors. The brightness, contrast, color temp, saturation, and a host of other settings are all sub-optimal. They're all set to "torch" mode because everybody is trying to look brighter than everybody else. So, they're too bright, too colorful, color temp is too cool... And that's just the beginning.

Here's an example of how a lot of guys end up tweaking their sets to get them in the ballpark (this isn't even calibrating):

Movie mode
OPC off
Backlight -1
Contrast 30 (I found color sat problems above 30-31)
Brightness -1 (AVSHD disk is most helpful here and this setting is important)
Color 0
Tint 0
Sharpness 3
Hue: 2,8,2,6,5,1
Sat: 1,0,3,-3,13,3
Value: -5,-1,16,-3,-10
Color Temp Low
RGBlohi: 23,1,5,2,0,9
Gamma = 0 (this gave gamma close to 2.2)
black level low
film mode off
digital noise reduction off
color at -7 and tint at +7 seemed about right for SD

So, again... Don't judge how these sets look in a store setting. Most are capable of a much nicer picture than what you saw, and some are even pretty decent for what most of us would consider "critical viewing".

SC

[Curt Palme]

ecrabb, I was being somewhat facetious.

I understand all the pros and cons of the different displays, but to me, the whole CRT thing has always been about playing with big toys and finding out why they break. It's far less about the picture, although I do prefer CRT over any digital. It's what I'm used to. AS I mentioned before, It's been about 2 years since I watched my own CRT projector, but now that I resurrected an HDMI switching Denon receiver, I guess I should fix the power supply and retweak my own system. With teenagers in the house, they'd love the projector for gaming.

My point was though, that 90% of people will throw their flat screen on the wall and call it a day. I can't wait until they start breaking down outside of warranty. The recycling places will be interesting to go to then!

[Curt Palme]

ecrabb, I was being somewhat facetious.

I understand all the pros and cons of the different displays, but to me, the whole CRT thing has always been about playing with big toys and finding out why they break. It's far less about the picture, although I do prefer CRT over any digital. It's what I'm used to. AS I mentioned before, It's been about 2 years since I watched my own CRT projector, but now that I resurrected an HDMI switching Denon receiver, I guess I should fix the power supply and retweak my own system. With teenagers in the house, they'd love the projector for gaming.

My point was though, that 90% of people will throw their flat screen on the wall and call it a day. I can't wait until they start breaking down outside of warranty. The recycling places will be interesting to go to then!

[jbmeyer13]

[ecrabb]

Hmmm... Interesting. Of all the things I dislike about a lot of the newer LCD displays, motion is not one of them.

I also find it interesting that you (or anyone else) would characterize turning off the motion enhancement processors as having a "subtle" impact. On any set I've ever played with, it was night-and-day between having the motion "enhancement" turned on and off.

What, specifically was it about the motion you didn't like?

SC

[WanMan]

If I was serious about dropping $2500 on a flat panel I would be bringing my own source hardware and content. But considering its an 80" for $2500 I wouldn't be expecting much at all.

Flat panels are really the boob-tube replacements and critical viewing isn't applicable.

[jbmeyer13]

[jbmeyer13]

[WanMan]

My bad, I went off what Curt said. The 633 80" model is at Costco for $4500. Because of where the display is sitting the pixel structure is huge. And without the ability to determine how crappy the black level is, there isn't any way I'd spend $4500 on it.