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Visual Displays 101
Monday, 24 May 2004 2:57:00 pm Australia/Melbourne
Ahh, visual displays. Is there anything more confusing for the consumer? Even here in the store often rage fierce debates on what is the best way to watch your favourite movies and tv shows. My opinion?
There are a number of factors to consider: firstly, your room.
If you intend to, or already have an existing, dedicated ‘home theatre’ room then there is no doubt in my mind that front projection is the way to go. For the price of your average Japanese plasma monitor you can secure a DLP projector to your ceiling and have a picture that is far superior in terms of size, contrast (perceived depth of your picture) and overall image quality. I say DLP because you’d be nuts to buy anything else – DLPs absolutely slaughter any LCD on the market, I don’t care how much they cost – LCDs cannot deliver an acceptable contrast ratio, suffer poor colour accuracy and are no where near as seamless or film-like.
Then there are CRT projectors. If money is no object still the best form of projection technology – but be ready to pay in excess of $30K to really take it beyond the best DLPs on the market at only half the price.
Of course, this is all well and good, given that you can cut out the light in your room. Large amounts of light in your projection room will significantly impede the projector’s ability to produce black (or not produce it, whatever) because the level of black is ultimately determined by how much light is falling on your screen. This said, however, most people will watch their movies during the evening so being able to completely black out your room may not be so much of a concern, but - blacker the better.
Ok, so not everyone has an ‘ideal’ room, or even a room in which a projector is viable. So where does that leave you? If you’re still after a large screen then there are a number of alternatives: rear projection, plasma and traditional CRT sets. Firstly, rear projection – I have never seen a rear projection I have liked. Even the new high-definition DLP and LCD based units. Even if you ARE sitting in the very narrow ‘sweet-spot’, rear pro’s still suffer from very poor picture uniformity, are ugly-looking boxes and always seem to have this clinical, over-intense, terribly uneven and inaccurate image that I find, even after looking at it for only a couple of minutes, very tiring. Harsh you think? Carlton Audio don’t stock them so you’re just saying that? You only need to take a trip down to your local JB or Harvey Norman and I think you’ll soon cotton on to what I’m talking about.
Plasma. Plasma is good. If fact, the new Japanese monitors hitting our shelves are very good. I still feel that plasma is best described as a lifestyle product, yet most people are prepared to sacrifice a bit of image quality for the wow-factor and convenience of having a slim, sexy looking display device on their wall. You’ll note I said Japanese monitors. These include: Fujitsu, Hitachi, Pioneer and Marantz. There are sub $5k chinese-made plasmas available around the traps and if you think you’re going to get something decent then you’re sorely mistaken. They look nothing short of terrible.
LCD is the newest large screen format on the market and my bet is that it will soon eclipse plasma as the dominant, lifestyle screen choice. LCDs not only last longer than plasma, they are cheaper to run, lighter, do not suffer from screen burn and posses an image quality that is as good if not better. Having said that screen burn (where intense images ‘burn’ the phosphors in your panel or TV so as to leave a permanent, well, burn) is of only real concern if you are using a computer of games console where static images are often left on the screen for long periods of time.
Being a newer technology you are still paying a premium when compared to similar plasma but I think the benefits are worth it. The Sharp AQUOS LCDs are unequivocally the best on the market. Sharp spends enormous amounts of money and resources on LCD technology and the results are very impressive. 37” is the largest of their screens with a 45” available late in the year with an astonishing 1920 x 1080 pixel count – if the 37” is anything to go by then this baby should look amazing!
Lastly, poor old, run-of-the-mill CRT tellies: quality is still there, no doubt, still in my opinion the best display technology available. But people are getting greedy, harder to please – they want BIG, and with good reason, too. With home theatre audio systems now at a price where quality isn’t necessarily the mortgage of your home, people want that big movie image to complement their big movie sound. The average household telly, even the newest and greatest German and high-end Japanese sets, pale into insignificance when compared to a moderately sized plasma, rear pro or front projection system.
So my advice? Find your local specialist store and ask what would be most appropriate for you. Don’t buy from a supermarket or ‘box-mover’ – one, they don’t have the product knowledge, and two, their only interested in selling you something rather that selling you what’s right. You are buying a product that is going to be a part of your life for years to come: more than just a bit of electronics – quality audio and video gear has an emotional and psychological value that is hard to explain - a worth much greater than the sum of it’s parts. Buying a visual display doesn’t just stop when you leave the store – it’s in the setup, calibration, wiring, backup and service. Anyone can stick a couple of wires in a box and make it go – not many people can do it properly. I can not overstate the importance of doing your research, talking to the experts and ultimately dealing with someone, not only you are comfortable with, but who will make sure your system is installed and calibrated to absolute perfection.
There are a number of factors to consider: firstly, your room.
If you intend to, or already have an existing, dedicated ‘home theatre’ room then there is no doubt in my mind that front projection is the way to go. For the price of your average Japanese plasma monitor you can secure a DLP projector to your ceiling and have a picture that is far superior in terms of size, contrast (perceived depth of your picture) and overall image quality. I say DLP because you’d be nuts to buy anything else – DLPs absolutely slaughter any LCD on the market, I don’t care how much they cost – LCDs cannot deliver an acceptable contrast ratio, suffer poor colour accuracy and are no where near as seamless or film-like.
Then there are CRT projectors. If money is no object still the best form of projection technology – but be ready to pay in excess of $30K to really take it beyond the best DLPs on the market at only half the price.
Of course, this is all well and good, given that you can cut out the light in your room. Large amounts of light in your projection room will significantly impede the projector’s ability to produce black (or not produce it, whatever) because the level of black is ultimately determined by how much light is falling on your screen. This said, however, most people will watch their movies during the evening so being able to completely black out your room may not be so much of a concern, but - blacker the better.
Ok, so not everyone has an ‘ideal’ room, or even a room in which a projector is viable. So where does that leave you? If you’re still after a large screen then there are a number of alternatives: rear projection, plasma and traditional CRT sets. Firstly, rear projection – I have never seen a rear projection I have liked. Even the new high-definition DLP and LCD based units. Even if you ARE sitting in the very narrow ‘sweet-spot’, rear pro’s still suffer from very poor picture uniformity, are ugly-looking boxes and always seem to have this clinical, over-intense, terribly uneven and inaccurate image that I find, even after looking at it for only a couple of minutes, very tiring. Harsh you think? Carlton Audio don’t stock them so you’re just saying that? You only need to take a trip down to your local JB or Harvey Norman and I think you’ll soon cotton on to what I’m talking about.
Plasma. Plasma is good. If fact, the new Japanese monitors hitting our shelves are very good. I still feel that plasma is best described as a lifestyle product, yet most people are prepared to sacrifice a bit of image quality for the wow-factor and convenience of having a slim, sexy looking display device on their wall. You’ll note I said Japanese monitors. These include: Fujitsu, Hitachi, Pioneer and Marantz. There are sub $5k chinese-made plasmas available around the traps and if you think you’re going to get something decent then you’re sorely mistaken. They look nothing short of terrible.
LCD is the newest large screen format on the market and my bet is that it will soon eclipse plasma as the dominant, lifestyle screen choice. LCDs not only last longer than plasma, they are cheaper to run, lighter, do not suffer from screen burn and posses an image quality that is as good if not better. Having said that screen burn (where intense images ‘burn’ the phosphors in your panel or TV so as to leave a permanent, well, burn) is of only real concern if you are using a computer of games console where static images are often left on the screen for long periods of time.
Being a newer technology you are still paying a premium when compared to similar plasma but I think the benefits are worth it. The Sharp AQUOS LCDs are unequivocally the best on the market. Sharp spends enormous amounts of money and resources on LCD technology and the results are very impressive. 37” is the largest of their screens with a 45” available late in the year with an astonishing 1920 x 1080 pixel count – if the 37” is anything to go by then this baby should look amazing!
Lastly, poor old, run-of-the-mill CRT tellies: quality is still there, no doubt, still in my opinion the best display technology available. But people are getting greedy, harder to please – they want BIG, and with good reason, too. With home theatre audio systems now at a price where quality isn’t necessarily the mortgage of your home, people want that big movie image to complement their big movie sound. The average household telly, even the newest and greatest German and high-end Japanese sets, pale into insignificance when compared to a moderately sized plasma, rear pro or front projection system.
So my advice? Find your local specialist store and ask what would be most appropriate for you. Don’t buy from a supermarket or ‘box-mover’ – one, they don’t have the product knowledge, and two, their only interested in selling you something rather that selling you what’s right. You are buying a product that is going to be a part of your life for years to come: more than just a bit of electronics – quality audio and video gear has an emotional and psychological value that is hard to explain - a worth much greater than the sum of it’s parts. Buying a visual display doesn’t just stop when you leave the store – it’s in the setup, calibration, wiring, backup and service. Anyone can stick a couple of wires in a box and make it go – not many people can do it properly. I can not overstate the importance of doing your research, talking to the experts and ultimately dealing with someone, not only you are comfortable with, but who will make sure your system is installed and calibrated to absolute perfection.
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