Sports and HDTVs - May 11, 2006
Somebody asked me the other day which plasma I would rather own – a Pioneer or a Panasonic. What everyone needs to realize is that choosing a TV ain’t that easy. So settle down chiefs!
But seriously, if I were going to get a plasma, Pioneer and Panasonic would be 2 of the top 3 HDTVs I would consider purchasing. Why you ask? Well, before I get into the details of plasmas, let me ask you a question: How much time do you spend watching sports, watching movies, and gaming? My preferences go something like this: 40% sports, 40% gaming, 20% movies. Then tell me where you plan on watching your new TV. Is it going to be in your basement? Or will it be in your brightly lit family room? Having a solid understanding of how you will utilize your new TV makes a big difference. For example, if you spend 80% of your time watching sports and 20% gaming in your large brightly lit living room, you may want to consider an LCD. But if you spend 70% of your time watching movies and 30% gaming, you may want to consider a plasma. If you are going to put the TV in your basement, you may want to consider a DLP.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the basic breakdown described above – sports, movies, gaming. The most important requirement for watching and enjoying a sporting event is a high refresh rate. A high refresh rate, simply put, is how fast your TV can accept the feed from your cable box or satellite box, reprocess the image, and display it on your TV. You can imagine why this would be important for watching sports – the action is fast with people always moving and cameras often panning. As such, televisions with slow refresh rates tend to cause motion blur or ghosting. Essentially, this is when you seen a slight trail or ghost of a player as he moves quickly across the screen. Although faint, this effect, for me at least, is highly undesirable.
In general, plasmas, due to their gaseous nature, have the quickest refresh rates. DLPs and LCoS sets have refresh rates slightly slower than plasmas. LCDs typically have the slowest refresh rates. As the technologies continue to converge, higher quality LCDs are getting better refresh rates. From what it seems, top end Samsung 1080p sets have the best refresh rates for LCDs. With that being said, still realize that a high end Samsung will run you over $2,500 whereas a comparable plasma will cost you $1,600.
A second consideration with sports is the brightness of the TV. LCDs, without question, are the brightest sets. Even the crappiest brand LCDs, like Westinghouse, are brighter than the fanciest Pioneer Elite plasma or Samsung DLP or Sony SXRD (a kind of LCoS). Brightness is great for those who live in rooms with lots of natural light for it allows you to easily discern the image on a daytime Sunday football game. (Keep in mind, however, that while brightness is preferred by some sports fans, to others it can be fatiguing, especially at night. Imagine sitting in front of a bright computer screen all day with the lights off.)
One final consideration with sports, albeit inconsequential, is viewing angles. The viewing angle of TV is the degree (literally) to which you can move to the side of the TV and still see the image clearly. Plasmas have the greatest viewing angle, while LCD, DLP, LCoS, have significantly worse. (If you want to test this, just got to Best Buy and walk to the side of an LCD and see if you can see the image. Then do the same on a plasma.) While in most cases this doesn’t really matter, for those few times that you have a large gang of people over to watch a sporting event, it ensures those poor souls shoved to the sides a clear view of the TV.
So what should I get? Well if you are that much of a chaunce that you haven’t seen my preference, let me spell it out for you. Plasmas won’t ghost but have a harder time than LCDs in bright rooms. They will combat this consequence, however, by not fatiguing your eyes. LCDs, unless you shell out a ton of cash, will blur and will hurt your eyes. DLPs and LCoS sets? They work best in your basement when you want a huge cheap TV. But even then, I’d still probably get a plasma.
But Maven, you didn’t answer the question – what kind of plasma should I get, a Pioneer or a Panasonic. If you want the most bang for your buck, get a Panasonic. You want the best plasma made, get a Pioneer. And if you game a lot, get the darkhorse (sort of), a Samsung. But more on this, along with a similar analysis of movies and gaming, in the near future.
April 20, 2007
Maven’s Introduction to Home Theater
Maven spends a lot of his time researching home theater. Today, you’ll get an introduction to high definition television.
Before you head to a Best Buy and throw down mad cash for super pretty 40 inch Samsung LCD with 1080p resolution, you’ll need to know the basics between the four main types of HDTVs. Two of them, LCD and plasma, are super thin displays ranging in size (approximately) from 23 inches to 50 inches. DLP and LCoS offer the largest screens, typically 50 inches and bigger, yet are a bit thicker than LCD and plasma TVs.
LCD: LCD TVs are made by placing a screen of pixels in front of a light source. They can be made in various sizes ranging from the screen on a video iPod, to a 20 inch computer monitor, to a 50inch display in your living room. They’re also very bright. One of their biggest appeals it that they can achieve insane levels of detail. That is, it can fit a ton of pixels on a screen resulting in super high resolution.
Plasma: Plasmas work by exciting tiny gas bubbles which results in the emission of light. Plasmas can be considered the original HDTV. They can’t be made as small as LCDs (37 inches is the minimum in most cases) While they aren’t as bright as LCDs, they achieve better blacks (more on this later). They also sport wider viewing angles (more on this later).
DLP: DLPs are maybe the most versatile and cost effective HDTV (with the exception of their size). They can display very bright, like an LCD, yet still display good blacks like a plasma. They’re made in huge sizes (45 inches and up), but they are also the thinner of the large TV sets.
LCoS: LCoS is a form of LCD that uses a mirror to tighten up the pixels and achieve super fine resolution. While they aren’t as bright as DLPs, they can achieve superior blacks. They are a bit more consistent and reliable DLP, yet they aren’t as cost effective.
With that quick overview, you can get excited for the next installment when maven will help you decide which type of HDTV is best for you.
April 15, 2006- THEY CALL ME MAVEN:
The Elite
After reading through some articles and mailbags on IGN, I've realized something. While the Elite's not out, the jury is. And here's the verdict: the Elite sucks. Yet there appear to be two different camps hating on the Elite and together they prove just the opposite – the Elite is a good move by Microsoft and a tempting to purchase to up and coming next-gen gamers.
One group of haters claims the Elite doesn't offer enough new features to justify the $479.99 price tag. They would've preferred to see built-in wireless or even a built-in HD-DVD drive. Hillary Goldstein of IGN goes so far as to suggest that "the lack of an HD-DVD drive is a sign that Microsoft's lost confidence in the format." I'm not sure how Hillary justifies this point. Considering the HD-DVD add-on, which by its very nature will be cheaper to produce, costs $200, how could they have added the drive yet made the machine price competitive with the PS3? Plus, they've already seen that the add-on is a success by itself and that it doesn't need to be integrated into the machine at this early stage. (Should I even mention the large contingency of folks who believe that Sony made a mistake forcing Blu-ray into the PS3?) Lastly, the format war has gone on a total of 6 months – when was the last time Microsoft gave up on something after 6 months?
And while I agree that built-in wireless would have been nice, I trust that, by not putting it in, Microsoft made the right decision from a business standpoint. Like the HD-DVD harddrive, if people really want it, they can go buy it. I'm also quite sure it's a luxury that few, fewer than most realize, utilize.
But let's break down the Elite piece by piece. First, the HDMI. HDMI is a sexy feature that people chub their chubby to and are willing to pay a premium for. This feature, in and of itself, is a bonus for those who crave "the best." In addition, considering the PS3, which is also HDMI compatible, doesn't include the pricey HDMI cable (yeah, yeah, I hear you folks out there saying only idiots pay $100 dollars for HDMI cables. But the cheapest still run at about $25 or so), the Elite immediately legitimizes itself with the inclusion of the "pricey" cable.
Second, the larger harddrive. To me, this is the Elite's piece de resistance. While not everyone needs the extra space, the videophiles out there are going to love the ability to store even more hi-def movies on their harddrives. Levi Buchanan of IGN makes a great point by saying that "digital distribution is a great way to get hi-def content without being nailed at retail for buying physical media…" at $25-30 a pop.
And lastly, the blackness. That's just awesome if you are into aesthetics and all. Personally, I think it looks better than the glossy black finish of the PS3, which shows more fingerprints than Pacman's police file.
But let's look at the other group of haters. These tend to be the folks who already own 360s. One gamer, in an email to IGN, claims "I don't appreciate getting told that my reward for being an early adopting Xbox fan is an inferior system. …[Instead] of spending five hundred bucks on ANOTHER 360 I spent it on a PS3." Wow, you are in idiot. First, you get pissed off that a new and improved console, the Elite, is announced. (I'd hate to see your reaction every three months when a faster computer comes out.) Second, you go out and spend more money on a PS3? I mean, if you were so frustrated by the lack of HDMI on your 360, why not sell your 360, buy an Elite and an HD-DVD add-on and be happy that you spent less money than you would on a PS3?
Another clairvoyant gamer believes he read Microsoft's thought process regarding the Elite: "'Well we know there's HDMI TV's out there, and we know people want to play games on HDMI, so we'll sell the fans of our games a sub-par system, but tell them it's the top of the line, and a year later release a more capable system.'" I'm sure that's what they thought chief. Like the previous reader, you must hate every company that releases a better product in the future. In fact, you must hate innovation. Why don't you go live in cave you clown.
The point is that for those of you who own 360 Pros you still own a great console! You get 1080i compatibility, better games than a PS3, and the ability to add on an HD-DVD drive. What are you missing? A bigger harddrive, which may piss off videophiles, (these are the only people that have the right to be pissed off, by the way) and HDMI compatibility, which offers you 1080p resolution. A little lesson to everyone who wishes they had 1080p compatibility – go read everything you can find on the internet and please let me know if you come across one article that suggests you can discern a difference between 1080p and 1080i on a TV smaller than 50 inches. I'll give you a hint – you're not going to find any! Every expert agrees that 1080p is only worthwhile on TVs bigger than 50 inches. In addition, most videophiles in focus groups can't even tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p on most TVs larger than 50 inches!
So we've got one group of haters claiming the machine isn't worth an extra 80 dollars and we have another group of haters who are angry because the Elite's features are so sick they cannot stomach the fact they own an "inferior" machine. So what's the deal Maven? I couldn't care less about HDMI compatibility for the time being, and I don't download enough movies to get excited about the 120gb harddrive. But everything in black? I might buy it just for that…
