So I had to stop by the big plasma LCD box house yesterday....

It was soooo painfully obvious they don't want to sell plasma it was almost painful! ALL the plasmas I looked at, save for those that do not have a LCD equivalent, were set up so wrong, theyt looked like crap compared to even cheaper LCD's.

I sell commercial plasmas, and commercial CLASS LCD so know what the margin is on both, the margin on plasma being about 1/3rd what it is on LCD. So I know what they are doing. PLUS they don't have to answer all the OLD ASS plasma problem questions everyone seems to remember from five years ago that have all now been addressed. AND they don't have to sell a competitive technology against one they make more money on.

I asked the sales man for the remote for the Panasonic TC-P50ST30 so I could set it up right and he looked at me funny then got it. I set it up nice, and the guy with the other sales man walked away form the 55in LED TV he was looking at to look at this plasma...he saw the picture was far superior and started asking about the plasma....the sales guy that was trying to sell him on the 55in LED was pissed since the 55 was about 500 more than the 50in plasma....and the margin thing....

Well, I actually saw the sales guy who got me the remote reset it to their set up whilst I was up at the counter paying for a product! He intentionally set it up to look like shit!!!! And I saw him do it! After paying for my box I went and asked him about it, he said Store policy man. I walked out shaking my head hoping for a better day.

I don't know shit about TV set-up, but a few months ago I bought a 42" 720p 120hz plasma for $400 and couldn't be happier. I can't believe you can get a TV so nice for so little money, it's about 12" bigger than any TV I thought I'd ever own.

I can make a 400 dollar tv look like a 1200 dollar tv....it is all in the set up. The stores on the other hand can make a 1200 dollar plasma look like a 400 dollar LCD......

Hey Sniper X,
What's the "proper" way to set up a plasma TV? I've got a 52" Samsung (seemed very comparable to the Pioneer) that I'm sure needs some tweaking to make a predominantly dark picture more better. I've read about DVD's being available to properly calibrate the set, but what's your take on it? Do what "looks" right? I'm limited in my knowledge of what all the adjustments can do...

when I got my off brand plasma years ago (insignia) it came out of the box set in "torch mode" brightness maxed, color maxed, contrast way off and tint off, had to turn the brightness down by half, same for color, move the contrast, and then adjust tint so people looked like people, not bad sunburn cases

also have a smaller lcd and it came the same way

When I was shopping for mine a few years ago I took my old Pathfinder TSG with a length of co-ax and an RCA adapter into the big box. Patched into the analog, put up bars and adjusted. You'd think I had just healed a leper by the staffs reaction.

There is a lot of personal preference in it. I tend to set up my home units with lower brightenss because I hate the washy look of a standard set up. But there are a lot of things to set up in the menu so best thing to do is look thru the standard set ups and find the best one suited to your likeness and tweak on it a little.

Buying a cd or set up equipment is really overkill because all content is not to a standard, so you would be tweaking all the time anyway.

LCDs seem to come like that and with the sharpness to 100% over max.

I just bought a 42"plasma , the same day my father in law bought his 40" LCD , he is the type of guy that thinks he knows technology , but can't use a calculator. He paid twice as much as I did , was sold on the same type of OLD Plasma problems , and I got twice the TV. He still won't admit it , but the picture from my Plasma is far better than his.
He just bought a new Silverado.....with a backup camera....and backed into his fucking garage door with it.

A dry erase marker will be a good april fool's joke on that back up camera lens...

I wouldn't count on it not scratching or etching the lens.

I was at Fry's yesterday. All the LCD units were in fact set up like shite.

But to most, they look great because consumers (especially we Americans) tend to like things OVERSHARP, and OVER Saturated colour wise. Same reason we like huge steroid trucks and the biggest which is not necessarily the best.

I meet people like him all the time in this industry. Guys like that who have a 5K video camera, and think because THEY have it, that even a 20K HD camera is pure shit. No matter how much in tests or real world display you show them, it just does no good.

BTW I was once in a box store where the sales guy was telling a customer that a TV was real HD. I told him, after the client left, that it wasn't and they were watching ATSC highly compressed HD, and he got all macho and told me this....
Hey BRO, don't try to battle me on knowledge on tv yo, I have MAD SKILLZ Yo! I said sure you do, and walked off. Laughing.

I'm pleasantly surprised that my parents--with no knowledge on the subject--went out to buy a TV and ended up with a nice Panasonic plasma. But then it was a small local retailer vs a big box store.

I saw best buy had a samsung 51" plasma for $899. 1080p 600hz.
shit now on their website its under $799 but i have to jump thru a hoop to see exactly how much.
[edit: nope thats for the 720p one which i do not want]

it would be a nice jump from my 60hz chinese 40"lcd.

only problem is i spend 85% of my time in front of my samsung 25" computer monitor. hard to spend 7 bills on something i only watch when the big bang theory is on.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung...HDTV/2584325.p?id=1218337329459&skuId=2584325

Just a note, since all plasma is 600hz, it doesn't need to be noted. I think this is funny because you HAVE to note that the LCDs are either 20 or 240hz then everyone goes all gaga till they see a plasma is standard at 600hz! Also, all lcd works at 60hz, and is OVERCLOCKED at the processor to run either 120 or 240hz so it is only a smoke screen. It does look a little better in motion than 60hz, but there are also drawbacks to overclocking that are tradeoffs in other areas.

Isn't standard TV broadcast at 60hz, though?

Standard def is boradcast and aquired at 60hz, HD is aquired at either 24P, 30P (progressive) or 1080 60I, but these are frame rates, and progressive is different. But that doesn't matter. The refresh rate on the display is where artifacts come in in digital transmission. So, the higher the refresh rate, the smoother the motion will look. Plasma is ALWAYS 600hz, and ALWAYS displays 900-~1080 lines of information in the motion picture. LCD or LED backlit LCD displays only up to 480 at 60hz, 500 at 120hz and about 600 lines of rez at 240hz. LCD LED is only full 1080 at very slow or NO motion.