Over here in Malaysia, it looks like it will be a while before we get HD broadcasts. So a panel that is good with SD signal from broadcasts and DVD's (via the n-vi) is what I look forward to.

Pioneer is a popular brand here but SD looks so so on it. The one that impresses me is Philips with Pixel Plus, I and II. Any recommendations?

Continued from my first post, I believe the feature that specifically cleans up the SD signal is "Clear LCD".

You would be better off buying a 'monitor' i.e one wihout a tuner the mass of connections etc, and a seperate scaler (with all the connections) like a DVDO VP50 or similar. These are FAR superior to the scalers built into the sets.

A flat panel with a good built in scaler is a product that doesn't exist.

richard, i agree with what you are saying, but when i demoed the n-vi via dvi to hdmi into 50" pioneer xde plasma , the picture looked very good to my eyes,

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
richard, i agree with what you are saying, but when i demoed the n-vi via dvi to hdmi into 50" pioneer xde plasma , the picture looked very good to my eyes,

Oh, it is, very much so. It produces a good SD signal. If you feed a poor SD signal like freeview or Sky, its a different scenario.

As the Nvi sends a non scaled SD signal, a large amount of the picture quality is due to the Pioneers internal scaling, which is poor compared to a VP50 (or similar). If you fed the Nvi's signal into a VP50 and then a pixel mapped resolution into the Pioneer, it would be significantly better.

can't comment on that one richard never seen it in action, do know that the picture on the pioneer upscaled, was slighly better than on my panny which is downscaled to 480 via component, to my eyes though there was not much in it.

I have to say that I'm really impressed by the video processing inside the Fujitsu sets. On my last generation (ALIS 1024) screen the AVM processing really does make the picture from SD interlaced sources via SCART look really good. Interestingly, on my other plasma, a Hitachi which also uses an ALIS panel, the picture via SCART is only average.

I would guess it is the superior processing electronics in the Fujitsu that account for this.

This may also explain why, with a really well executed analog video output such as you'll find on the DVD5 and n-Vi, I favour the component input to the digital one by quite a margin on the Fujitsu plasma.

If you are concerned about standard-def broadcasts, it's worth pointing out that the quality of the built-in tuner is paramount–for example, I use a Samsung DTB-H260F HD over-the-air ("freeview") tuner (via YPbPr analog component in) in place of the built-in unit on my Visio GV47LF 1080p display, as it picks up local stations with fewer artifacts than the built-in tuner.

However–most SDTV broadcasts are interlaced, and you may not find a reasonable built-in scaler that doesn't wash out the signal–the degree to which this is noticeable to you will affect what you'll ultimately spend....

Actually I am not as concerned with broadcasts because I am really enjoying the DVD picture quality from the n-vi on my CRT.

I just want to find a flat panel that matches very well with the n-vi. It sounds like with most HD ready panels, I might get a better picture from the Component input instead of the HDMI input.

SCART picture from my n-Vi is awsome on my Sony CRT.

(pity you cant fit a 50in CRT in my front room).

I must say I'm more than satisfied (and sometimes impressed -> Batman Begins DVD) with the way my Pioneer plasma screen handles SD via components or Scart RGB. never compared to what a 50k€ scaler can do though