Christmas Came Early For Me

[David Meek]

Short version: I brought home a Pioneer Elite PRO-1140HD plasma today! :dancenana:

Longer version: Jen and I were taking the ferry across to the mainland this morning to do a little shopping, catch a movie and have dinner when she says "Why don't we take advantage of this trip and go on down to Magnolia A/V and get your TV?" I was wondering who this woman was and just what had she done with my wife. Regardless, about 3 hours later I became the proud owner of my very own 50" plasma and matching BDI Icon 9425 stand. We just got back home so it'll be tomorrow before I can start to have fun.

More later. . . .

[bigburner]

Jen and I were taking the ferry across to the mainland this morning to do a little shopping, catch a movie and have dinner when she says "Why don't we take advantage of this trip and go on down to Magnolia A/V and get your TV?" I was wondering who this woman was and just what had she done with my wife.

"Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" should be your first movie.

[Ovation]

Congratulations. So, really, what did you slip in her drink to bring her onside?

[Kevin P]

That wife is a keeper! And the TV is nice too!

Got an Avia/VE/DVE disc handy? :B

[RobP]

Congrats David! So how did you do it? Subliminal messages posted on the fridge? Please share the techniques used.

[John Holmes]

Very cool David. :T Congrats.

[Brandon B]

Jen and I were taking the ferry across to the mainland this morning to do a little shopping, catch a movie and have dinner when she says "Why don't we take advantage of this trip and go on down to Magnolia A/V and get your TV?"

Because you have always seemed like such a nice guy on the forum here, we'll all just assume you were NOT holding her over the ship's rail by the ankles when she said this.

BB

[aud19]

:rofl: congrats David :T

[John Holmes]

Because you have always seemed like such a nice guy on the forum here, we'll all just assume you were NOT holding her over the ship's rail by the ankles when she said this.

BB

:rofl:

[David Meek]

Got an Avia/VE/DVE disc handy? :B

Absolutely, Digital Video Essentials is waiting on me to finish setting it up. Initial DVE will be pretty straightforward, but I'm going to run it through the first 100 hours or so on a VERY low contrast setting. This seems to be one of the best ways to minimize any potential burn-in issues associated with plasmas (well, other than not gaming on it). Then I'll do a full calibration.

Nope, no ankle-holding was necessary.

I've spent all day re-arranging the room, moving the equipment rack, etc. Hehe, it sure looks good just sitting there! Jeez, now I need longer component cable and HDMI cable, too.

Okay, all comments about how great my wife is can be dispensed with. She's sitting here staring at me from about a foot away, waiting on me to finish up things so she can watch the new TV. Later. . . . :

[aud19]

Jeez, now I need longer component cable and HDMI cable, too.

Doug will be happy to hear that :B

[David Meek]

Ya think? :W Already sent the e-mail. . . .

[Chris D]

Yeah, baby. :banana: Yeah.

Just don't play Wii sports right in front of it!

[David Meek]

Oh, I promise Chris. I promise.

[Blindamood]

Short version: I brought home a Pioneer Elite PRO-1140HD plasma today!

Hey David, I'll trade you my Olive Musica for it...?

[David Meek]

Nice try Brad. But, sadly. . . no. . . :

[David Meek]

The trip I took to Magnolia Audio Video to purchase my TV was most interesting. I went in with some basic guidelines already established. I wanted a 16:9 set, minimum resolution of 768 x1365, between 42" and 50", a contrast ratio around 10,000:1, HDMI input, and preferrably plasma due to their better blacks and thinner profile. I still wanted to look at DLPs in depth, especially to see if I'm susceptible to the rainbow problem, and also LCDs just to make sure I wasn't dismissing them arbitrarily. Also, I didn't really pay any attention at all to the audio capabilities of the sets as I'll be using my home system for that.

Their Everett location had 25-30 big screen HD on display and all were active with the same video feed. In this case the HD-satellite feed of the Dallas Cowboys/New York Giants football game. Being a serious Cowboy fan this was serendipity at its finest. The display room was discreetly lit with multiple "mini rooms" set up for viewing their better TVs in the center - half-height walled areas with TV stands, comfortable chairs, surround speakers and remotes that allowed me to check and/or fiddle with settings. The rest of the TVs were on the three side walls in two rows. This gave the ability to look at multiple sets at the same time - instant visual A/B evalutations for tons of sets!

After looking around casually at Hitachis, Samsungs, Pioneers, Panasonics, Sonys, Fujitsus (and another couple of brands I don't recall) for 30 minutes or so, I focused in on 3 sets consisting of 2 plasmas and 1 DLP - the Pioneer 1140HD (plasma) that I wound up with, the Samsung HP-S5053 (plasma) and the Samsung HL-S5088W (DLP). Let me restate that I had gone into the menus and adjusted the settings to try and level the field as much as possible between the sets (as best I could without my DVE DVD). I did not see any rainbow effect after watching the football game on the DLP. The Giants were in their brilliant red jerseys with deep blue helmets and there was no evidence of the effect at all - static shots, regular movement and fast movement all looked normal to me. However, the picture wasn't quite what I was looking for. Even with a higher pixel resolution than the plasmas I couldn't get the crisp, clean view I wanted. The Samsung plasma was better at resolving detail than its DLP cousin and had a bit better color saturation also. Then I sat down with the Pioneer. It had a very noticable lead in resolving detail especially in the "Pure" setting - like the faint stippling in the silver paint on the Cowboys' helmets. This was easily visible on the Pioneer but not on the other two sets, at least until I had seen it and then gone back to them to compare . The texture of the turf they were playing on was more noticeable, too. This extra detail was not at the expense of a natural color palette or helped by any ehancement setting. The colors were deeply saturated but not blown out or crushed together. About the second time I'd made the rounds of the 3 sets, the sales guy came up and asked me to come look at his favorite and venture an opinion. He took me over to a Fujitsu model with a price a full $1,500 more than the Pioneer, telling me it was the best set they had in resolving detail. He was right about that - the detail was there, but it was so severe looking it appeared etched into the screen. It was not a natural or comfortable image to watch even after dumping the contrast and brightness and verifying as best I could that no enhancement was going on. I politely commented that it was out of my price range and headed back to the other sets. On the remotes, the Pioneer had the worst. I liked the feel and arrangement of the Samsungs fairly well, but the Pioneer's is long skinny and has the most necessary buttons (for me at least) at the very top and very bottom of the remote.

On a more prosaic note, build quality on all the sets was pretty similar. None of them looked cheap or felt flimsy. I've always been a fan of Pioneer's Elite TVs finish. The piano gloss black (called Urushi black on my Elite 710 from the past) is elegant and inviting. The Samsungs were nicely done but it wasn't that "oooh" fit and finish of the Elite. To finish up my ramblings, I have to say that most all of the sets I saw put out an impressive image - especially compared to what was available just a couple of years ago. I could have been very happy with the Samsung plasma, and that if I was more interested in gaming the DLP might have weighed in more heavily. But on that day, in that location, with the available lighting and set-ups the Pioneer was the best of the TVs I saw.

As always, this is just my 2 cents.

[aud19]

Nice summary David :T

[Dean McManis]

Congrats on your new purchase!
I hope that you are thoroughly enjoying your new TV.

[Azeke]

That's a great story David and nice summation. I also enjoy Pioneers Elite product line, having owned a couple of Elite electronics, and they're build quality.

Go Skins, I digress, have fun and enjoy.

Peace, blessings, and Merry Christmas,

Azeke

[David Meek]

Go 'Skins indeed.

How 'bout them Cowboys!

[Lex]

$omebody $ay $omething about cable$???

This is good stuff, haha on the ankle hold. David hopes she'll be holding her own ankles soon too, ROFL. :leghumper:

I think it's all about isolation, you have to move them to an island, take them away from civilization and the malls, in order to conduct mind wharping brainwashing techniques. Now all David has to do is play a tape of the waves crashing on the island, and he gets exactly what he wants. :lol:

Great TV David!!!

[David Meek]

Darn. You figured it out. Quick, delete the post before it gets all over the 'net!

Yeah, I'm really thrilled with it so far. Even with the contrast & brightness dumped, just the detail available from DVD is well above what I expected. :dancenana:

[George Bellefontaine]

50 inches huh ? I thought I felt a Texan creeping up behind me. Will he eventually overtake my 106 inches ????? :P After all, in Texas, size is everything.

[Burke Strickland]

After all, in Texas, size is everything.

But David's not in Texas, even though he may have fooled you by gushing over the Dallas Cowpies. :>)

Burke

[David Meek]

'Bout the only thing that gushed THIS Sunday was the Cowpies' broken bodies as the Saints Express rolled over them.
:td:

[David Meek]

106"? Not hardly Big John.

[Dean McManis]

Big is definitely relative.