VX2000 -- various topics

[David Hurdon]

Some months ago I posted about my delight in seeing my own DVDs through component cables to a new flat screen TV set. Today I trumped the experience, asking a store manager to demo a disk of mine on a 50" rear projection LCD Sony Wega. If I had the tiniest doubt about the image quality standing up to virtually any SD material I've seen it's gone now. I just had to tell somebody and you're it. When I left, reluctantly, to return to the office, he gave me a blank and asked if I'd burn him a copy for demo purposes - he was that impressed with the saturation of colour and overall look of the material, a travel piece on an island off the west coast of British Columbia. I can assure you he was nowhere near as impressed as I was. It's time to check under the sofa cushions. I must have lost $5000 there by now.

If you aren't familiar with the DLP technology that drives rear projection LCD, visit www.dlp.com and view their demo. It's amazing.

David Hurdon

[Gints Klimanis]

David,

Which model WEGA is this? Are you talking about the RP LCD Sony GrandWEGA, Sony Grand WEGA KF50XBR800 50 in. Projection Television ? DLP is cool, but I didn't see any units
on the Sony website that actually use DLP. Please let me know.
I'd like to check out the model you're raving about.

I was looking into TVs last year and found the greatest joy in
the picture quality of the Sony WEGA 40" CRT. It's 300 lbs, but the color range, viewing angle and motion response wipe any
LCD or Plasma product.

[David Hurdon]

I'm sorry, Gints, I didn't make note of the model. It just happened to be the only rear projection Sony with a DVD player attached. In fact, my mention of DLP in relation to it results from my assuming that it was, given how shallow the screen section was - about 16". The only units I'm sure are DLP rear projection are the Samsungs and this store didn't carry them.

David Hurdon

[Gints Klimanis]

David,

That's cool. I'm looking forward to the DLP and LiCOS TVs.
Let us know if you see anything good for $5000.

I'm glad your videos looked great on the 50" Sony WEGA. Mine didn't, although I did shock a few Good Guys customers with my
stick fighting footage. On the 50" Sony WEGA, I noticed an annoying yellow fringing around everything, espeically edges between white and other colors. I think this was due to the store setting the TV to extra sharp and extra bright .

Gints

[David Hurdon]

Now that I've gone past the wow factor and begun to look into rear projection widescreen TVs I realize it's a complex area, with competitive and developing technologies vying for share. Could someone explain to me what rear projection LCD consists of when it's not DLP? Also, if a unit is monitor only what choices of hardware are realistic for the tuner function? I understand that even a VCR could provide the TV tuner functions but something tells me I'm not going to get the promise of these sets that way.
I guess this post has strayed outside of the forum's intent. I hope there's a place for relocating it if it has to move.

David Hurdon

[Tommy Haupfear]

David, I've got the 50" Grand Wega LCD rear projection you were looking at.

LCD rear projection consists of a transluscent LCD panel with a 100w (or 120w) lamp shining through, hence rear projection. DLP is a Texas Instrument chip that has over one million mirrors that reflect light onto a screen and it also uses a lamp. DLP has been around for decades but mostly for military applications. I believe the T.I. DLP chip is on its 2nd or 3rd generation but there are still complaints of the dreaded rainbow effect which effected my last TV purchase after my wife complained about a 50" Samsung DLP.

The DLP 'rainbow' is a visual effect unique to DLP projectors. The rainbow appears as a prism 'after-image' or colour streak, that viewers notice for a millisecond when changing focus from one part of the screen to another. It appears as a ghost-like image that can't be seen directly, but is at the edge of the viewer's peripheral vision. Reading on-screen credits or sub-titles can also result in viewers seeing the rainbow artefact.

Curiously, some people appear more sensitive to it than others. And some films, high gain screen types and processors appear to accentuate/minimise the effect. There is no consistency with the DLP rainbow other than it appears to be more prominent with single chip DLP projectors and with the early colour wheel models that rely on slower processing speeds of the video signal. The slower processing speed allows the eye to 'catch-up' and synch to the digitally constructed image and in doing so, effectively deconstructs the on screen image into its primary colours.

BTW - the 50" Grand Wega retails for about $3299 and my family has thoroughly enjoyed over the last six months. This is about our 7th HD set since 1998 and is definitely the best so far. Panasonic and Hitachi also make 42"+ LCD RPTVs.

Here is a pic

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/pro...E610-f_MT.jpeg