New TV time, but none are good enough !

My 28 inch 4:3 tube TV is well overdue for replacing and I've been
carefully comparing and contrasting LCDs and Plasmas in the sheds.

Looks to me like, at the moment anyway, plasma wins hands down and
I've come the conclusion that when you compare them side by side the
LG models are far superior, particularly in terms of colour rendition.
So there I am, in Curry's. I ask for the remote so I can have a play.
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them
I notice that when it displays a 4:3 picture the borders are grey. Not
black. Not even a very dark grey. Thinking there must be something
wrong with it I try another LG model and it does the same. I go
through the menus and see nothing to make it change. It's very
distracting. This gorgeous, jet black, shiny TV with very, very good
contrast ratio obviously achieved at not inconsiderable expense (the
blacks are deeply black), sits there with a dirty great mid grey
border each side.

I ask the group; what sort of incompetent pillock ever thought that
was a good idea ? How can someone intelligent enough to design a TV do
something so ridiculous that completely spoils the end result ?

Curry's bloke says most people watch 4:3 with it stretched but agrees
it seems stupid.

Well LG, you've lost a sale. I'm going to hang on and see if the
others catch up on picture quality or you get your software in order.


And by the way......isn't the picture quality on Freeview appalling ?
How do people put up with that ? Emmerdale, hardly renowned for its
fast action sequences, just looked totally dire on ITV2 and that was
on all types of set. Sky has its dodgy moments, but this was truly
****e.

norm

"norm" wrote in message
news
My 28 inch 4:3 tube TV is well overdue for replacing and I've been
carefully comparing and contrasting LCDs and Plasmas in the sheds.

Looks to me like, at the moment anyway, plasma wins hands down and
I've come the conclusion that when you compare them side by side the
LG models are far superior, particularly in terms of colour rendition.
So there I am, in Curry's. I ask for the remote so I can have a play.
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them
I notice that when it displays a 4:3 picture the borders are grey. Not
black. Not even a very dark grey. Thinking there must be something
wrong with it I try another LG model and it does the same. I go
through the menus and see nothing to make it change. It's very
distracting. This gorgeous, jet black, shiny TV with very, very good
contrast ratio obviously achieved at not inconsiderable expense (the
blacks are deeply black), sits there with a dirty great mid grey
border each side.

I ask the group; what sort of incompetent pillock ever thought that
was a good idea ? How can someone intelligent enough to design a TV do
something so ridiculous that completely spoils the end result ?

Curry's bloke says most people watch 4:3 with it stretched but agrees
it seems stupid.

Well LG, you've lost a sale. I'm going to hang on and see if the
others catch up on picture quality or you get your software in order.


And by the way......isn't the picture quality on Freeview appalling ?
How do people put up with that ? Emmerdale, hardly renowned for its
fast action sequences, just looked totally dire on ITV2 and that was
on all types of set. Sky has its dodgy moments, but this was truly
****e.

norm

Dare I venture to suggest (given your adoration of plasma) that the grey
border is about nothing more that preventing burn-in on 4:3 pictures (that
is to say burn-in at the vertical borders).

Curry's bloke depends on pillocks watching 4:3 stretched on plasma panels,
cos anything else will result in returns with complaints about burn-in. I
have intelligent friends who watch their plasmas with distorted pictures
just to avoid burn-in problems.

Strikes me that the pillock who invented plasma is the one to blame, not the
one who has to make it work in a mixed ratio environment.

Take another look at good LCD. No such problems.

Cheers

Chas

On Sun, 5 Nov 2006 18:00:32 -0000, "Chas Gill"
wrote:



Dare I venture to suggest (given your adoration of plasma) that the grey
border is about nothing more that preventing burn-in on 4:3 pictures (that
is to say burn-in at the vertical borders).

Curry's bloke depends on pillocks watching 4:3 stretched on plasma panels,
cos anything else will result in returns with complaints about burn-in. I
have intelligent friends who watch their plasmas with distorted pictures
just to avoid burn-in problems.

Strikes me that the pillock who invented plasma is the one to blame, not the
one who has to make it work in a mixed ratio environment.

Take another look at good LCD. No such problems.

Cheers

Chas

Cheers. I hadn't thought if that. I'll take another look at some
LCDs. They looked OK in general, but the blacks aren't exactly inky.

norm

norm wrote:
My 28 inch 4:3 tube TV is well overdue for replacing and I've been
carefully comparing and contrasting LCDs and Plasmas in the sheds.

Looks to me like, at the moment anyway, plasma wins hands down and
I've come the conclusion that when you compare them side by side the
LG models are far superior, particularly in terms of colour rendition.
So there I am, in Curry's. I ask for the remote so I can have a play.
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them
I notice that when it displays a 4:3 picture the borders are grey. Not
black. Not even a very dark grey. Thinking there must be something
wrong with it I try another LG model and it does the same. I go
through the menus and see nothing to make it change. It's very
distracting. This gorgeous, jet black, shiny TV with very, very good
contrast ratio obviously achieved at not inconsiderable expense (the
blacks are deeply black), sits there with a dirty great mid grey
border each side.

I ask the group; what sort of incompetent pillock ever thought that
was a good idea ? How can someone intelligent enough to design a TV do
something so ridiculous that completely spoils the end result ?

Given plasma's serious susceptibility to 'burn in', I suspect it's a
deliberate attempt to minimise the effect on prolonged exposure to 4:3 images ?

With broadcasting's obsession with DOGs, I'd be very wary of buying a
plasma. I've seen burn in occur after just a couple of hours.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

norm wrote:
On Sun, 5 Nov 2006 18:00:32 -0000, "Chas Gill"
wrote:
Take another look at good LCD. No such problems.

Cheers. I hadn't thought if that. I'll take another look at some
LCDs. They looked OK in general, but the blacks aren't exactly inky.

I saw the new Sony Bravia X Series this week. Best LCD I've seen so far, and
the blacks were very inky. 1920 x 1080 too, so it genuinely is 'HD ready'.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

norm wrote:

I go
through the menus and see nothing to make it change. It's very
distracting. This gorgeous, jet black, shiny TV with very, very good
contrast ratio obviously achieved at not inconsiderable expense (the
blacks are deeply black), sits there with a dirty great mid grey
border each side.

My Panasonic Viera was the same but a bit more searching found the
ability to set it the way I want it (black).

BTW, modern 1st line plasmas are no more susceptible to burn in than
CRTs.

Beautiful picture. I'm glad I went with plasma.

All the best,
Tom
--
With or without religion,
you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

norm wrote:
So there I am, in Curry's. I ask for the remote so I can have a play.
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them

The sets in stores are often set to be over-bright and saturated,
presumably in the delusion that this is "impressive"

There are enough prcessing options on most current
LCD/Plasma TV's that getting every thing set "right"
(or "according to preferance") is quite a long exercise.

Sadly, the upshot of this is that try to compare
picture quality in store is almost impossible
or pointless.

Which is a major problem.

BugBear

On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:42:03 +0000, norm
wrote:

And by the way......isn't the picture quality on Freeview appalling ?

Depends on the source material and the bit rate it is being broadcast
at. Some things look horrible, but something like CSI Miami on Five
looks fantastic on my Samsung 32" LCD, far superior to what my CRT was
capable of.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

Chas Gill wrote:
"norm" wrote in message
news
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them
I notice that when it displays a 4:3 picture the borders are grey.

Dare I venture to suggest (given your adoration of plasma) that the grey
border is about nothing more that preventing burn-in on 4:3 pictures (that
is to say burn-in at the vertical borders).

My old Hitachi LCD had fairly light grey borders by default. You could
change them to black, but the manual recommended leaving them as grey.

Though they looked a bit odd at first, I got used to them within hours
of getting the TV home and never thought of them again when watching
stuff in 4:3.

--
Xbox Live Gamertag: That Rev Chap
http://www.inverty.com

On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:42:03 +0000, norm wrote:
My 28 inch 4:3 tube TV is well overdue for replacing and I've been
carefully comparing and contrasting LCDs and Plasmas in the sheds.

Looks to me like, at the moment anyway, plasma wins hands down and
I've come the conclusion that when you compare them side by side the
LG models are far superior, particularly in terms of colour rendition.
So there I am, in Curry's. I ask for the remote so I can have a play.
When cycling up and down through the Freeview channels on one of them
I notice that when it displays a 4:3 picture the borders are grey. Not
black. Not even a very dark grey. Thinking there must be something
wrong with it I try another LG model and it does the same. I go
through the menus and see nothing to make it change. It's very
distracting. This gorgeous, jet black, shiny TV with very, very good
contrast ratio obviously achieved at not inconsiderable expense (the
blacks are deeply black), sits there with a dirty great mid grey
border each side.

I ask the group; what sort of incompetent pillock ever thought that
was a good idea ? How can someone intelligent enough to design a TV do
something so ridiculous that completely spoils the end result ?

Curry's bloke says most people watch 4:3 with it stretched but agrees
it seems stupid.

Well LG, you've lost a sale. I'm going to hang on and see if the
others catch up on picture quality or you get your software in order.


And by the way......isn't the picture quality on Freeview appalling ?
How do people put up with that ? Emmerdale, hardly renowned for its
fast action sequences, just looked totally dire on ITV2 and that was
on all types of set. Sky has its dodgy moments, but this was truly
****e.

norm

My brother-in-law bought an LG LCD TV last year, which had the borders in
white for a 4:3 ratio picture. There was nothing in the standard menu to
change it, but after a quick google I found out how change to black via
the engineering menu. Perhaps this is a possibility for the plasma you've
been looking at.