[mythtv-users] LCD HDTV recommendations (that are Myth friendly)...

[Stroller]

On 9 Apr 2008, at 15:29, Andrew Close wrote:
> ... i'm in the process of putting together a
> small library of content that i'll be taking to various retailers to
> view on various screens.  at the moment i'm planning on taking a
> couple captures from my PVR-500 via Myth on my MacBook Pro to play
> with mplayer or VLC on the HDTV's.  i may take a DVD or two, but
> depending on the dvd player used, that kinda skews the results as
> well. ...
>
> ...
> Sharp Aquos LC52D64U 52-inch 1080p LCD HDTV ~ $2,149.06

Hi there,

I have a Sharp Aquos, and just felt the need to post a "rebuttal" to  
those who have criticised this brand. Mine is a LC-42XD1E - I bought  
it just over a year ago, although a new model was just coming out at  
that time - and it's absolutely lovely. I can honestly see myself  
keeping this TV for many years to come.

I think that posters to places like AVforums - and I guess those  
posting comments on this list - are more fastidious over image- 
quality than most, and it's also my opinion that someone is more  
likely to post if they have problems than if they have a perfect set.  
Thus negative reputations are built.

I use my Aquos with my Wii & my PS3 - I haven't used an SD DVD player  
with it, but the Wii is connected via component, so that should use  
the internal scaler. Picture quality is bright, crisp & clear. The  
PS3 plays games, DVDs & video content under gameos & Linux (using  
mplayer, I still don't have myth-tv set up!) and I am VERY happy with  
the results. I only have one Blu-Ray at present (I was trying to  
avoid fuelling the format war) so can't say I've tested hi-def  
playback as well as I'd like yet, but there's some hi-def landscape  
footage in the videos section of Motorstorm & that looks STUNNING.

So I can't say that I'm an expert, or that I've done scientific tests  
over the quality of this telly, but my inclination is that you'd be  
hard-pressed to find a TV noticeably better than mine. If you sat it  
alongside a model a year newer, perhaps yes, but I think one might  
have to be a bit picky to do so, and I'm sure the difference would be  
unnoticeable during normal viewing. I don't believe my set suffers  
from any banding.

I suspect the distinctions between the TVs currently on the market  
are a lot less than one might believe from a read of AVforums - any  
one of us mythtv-users is sure to do due diligence when buying a TV,  
and scour reports to ensure that we buy the absolute best telly in  
our price-range, convinced that we can distinguish subtle differences  
in hue & colour, but at the end of the day there comes a point of  
diminishing returns. And don't dismiss the Sharp!

Finally, one thing. My Intel-graphics MacBook gives quite poor output  
on this display, at least it does under OS 10.4, and it's not  
representative of what the Sharp is capable of. Using the Mac's mini- 
DVI dongle and a DVI-HDMI cable I was unable to select a "computer"  
resolution, and was unable to avoid over- or under-scan when  
selecting TV-type resolutions. I think this negatively affected video- 
quality, although I haven't done any side-by-side comparisons since I  
got my PS3. I don't know what the (ATi?) video card is like in your  
MacBook Pro, but this may not be the best platform for test-viewing  
with.

Good luck in your search, and with whatever telly you choose - I'm  
sure it'll provide you with many happy hours of viewing.

Stroller.