Something Must Be Wrong Here...

[DJ Scotty]

Hello Everyone!

Wanted to introduce myself as a new member of the board, as well as a recently drafted soldier over the fence from standard definition optical media to high definition....it took some pondering between HD DVD and Blu ray, but due to, as you all know, a (what appears to be) potent collection of titles available now and to be in the future, my heart seems True Blu -- at least for now....

Unfortunately, my first experiences with this new technology have not been so exciting. I recently relocated with my significant other into a new apartment, and we jumped into Blu ray, as I mentioned, acquiring the Panasonic player and a new Onkyo TX-SR605 with onboard decoding of the new HD audio formats...along for the ride was also a new Sony 50" SXRD rear projection display. Being an absolute home theater hobbyist fanatic, I am thoroughly familiar with the ins and outs of standard DVD and its relating equipment (coaxial/optical connections, bitstream signals for Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks, etc.)...however, I enlisted some help from a private recommended installer to assist me with the setup of the blu ray deck and receiver (and TV). Before I get into the issues I have been having with the software and what I find I don't care for so far, let me explain how everything is connected so perhaps someone could better understand the workings of the system and attempt to figure out if it happens to be anything in the "handshaking" behavior of the HDMI connections....

The Panasonic player is running HDMI OUT to the Onkyo's HDMI INPUT 1, and then there is an HDMI cable running from the receiver's HDMI OUT to the Sony display's HDMI input, so the audio and video can flow simultaneously. I SPECIFICALLY purchased this new receiver because I understand it has all the onboard decoding for the new formats, including Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD and DTS HD Master Audio, and I prefer to have the amplifier/receiver decode and process the audio via a bitstream signal rather than have a player do it -- and, as I will explain later, and of course you all know, these second generation players just wont pass the HD soundtracks via bitstream, so I feel like that was a waste of money. At any rate, here are most of the issues I am having, along with their corresponding connection attributes:

I believe the display I purchased can accept 1080p signals, and the Panasonic's HDMI RESOLUTION control in the setup menu is set to 1080p -- so this should be giving me full 1080p resolution; however, I find that most of the discs that came in the box with the player, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic 4 -- not to mention the two titles I have purchased on my own, Spider Man 3 and John Carpenter's Halloween -- just don't....well....look all that great. I was expecting jaw-dropping detail and resolution from 1080p material, and dont get me wrong -- the colors are rich and fantastic for the most part, and the black levels are spot-on and dark....it's just that the amount of grain and background noise these discs -- or player -- are exhibiting is quite dissapointing. Is there supposed to be this much fine grain running in the background of the films? The whispy, fog-ladened scenes in films like Pirates gets rather "blocky" looking on my Sony, not really exhibiting a jaw-dropping appearance....it seems only the really bright, colorful, outdoor sequences in HD films exhibit the clarity and detail which approaches what I expected of Blu ray; is this normal? Now, I KNOW for a fact that the player is set for 1080p video, so it should be sending the video 1080p to the TV....AND, the Panasonic's picture setting modes (which you owners would know) are set like this:

PICTURE is set to SOFT, which seems to eliminate SOME of the noise and grain from certain scenes....other modes like NORMAL, CINEMA or FINE look much worse in comparison...

The DNR setting is ON (I believe this is for digital video noise reduction), and I can actually see a difference in the background noise of a scene when I freeze it, leaving the setting ON....

I've tried the other settings, like USER, which lets you fine tune things like GAMMA, 3D NOISE REDUCTION and COLOR, but these settings, no matter how many times I play with them, just seem to make the picture worse....should I mess with these?

Now, on my Sony display, I have the picture settings on STANDARD, not VIVID, which is just too sharp and oversaturated, especially for my viewing distance (which I believe MAY be contributing to the grain problem from my sweet spot), and everything else is on factory defaults, like color, sharpness, hue, Picture Contrast (which is all the way up to MAX) and Automatic Iris (setting "2")....I read another thread on here where someone posted the "ideal" settings for a Sony rear projection set, and the numbers were different from this, so perhaps it's my set's levels; they haven't been calibrated. Could this be adding to the problem?

The installer who worked with me set all the Panasonic's audio outputs to BITSTREAM, unaware and uninformed that this player does not pass bitstream audio for the new codecs via HDMI -- more on that in a minute. Standard Dolby Digital and DTS tracks from DVD pass just fine via HDMI through the Onkyo, coming up on the display as "Dolby D" or "DTS" with the HDMI logo lit, as well. So I know that's correct. The problem comes into play with the new HD audio tracks -- I simply do not understand how this all works. It took me weeks of reading the manual and playing with the unit to figure out that the settings made in the DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT menu of the Panny's player actually affect the COAXIAL and OPTICAL jacks -- NOT the HDMI output. But this confused me even more, because under these DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT setting choices are, along with Dolby Digital and DTS, the new codecs -- Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD (but not Master Audio; this unit does not support it at all)....so, my question becomes if these new formats can only be passed via HDMI, which I thought is how they worked, then why on Earth are they listed under the standard DIGITAL audio output that goes through coax and optical???

Alas, all settings were made to BITSTREAM here, and of course, I have DVD audio soundtracks being decoded by the receiver, but not the new HD tracks....when I switch the high definition soundtrack settings to PCM in the player, then it sends the PCM track of the soundtrack (Dolby TrueHD, etc.) through a multichannel signal to the receiver, whose front display then reads "HDMI/PCM/MULTICHANNEL"....the tracks actually sound louder and punchier this way, as I am assuming the player is decoding the track and sending it to the receiver over HDMI via PCM (hearing the actual "lossless" audio), HOWEVER, this is not how I wanted the system to run....I was looking forward to the "DTS MASTER" and "DOLBY TRUEHD" logos to illuminate on the Onkyo, like it does with DTS and Dolby Digital....thus, I keep everything on BITSTREAM now, and choose the UNCOMPRESSED PCM track on a Blu ray disc when given the option.

Case in point: When I watched Spider Man 3 last night, there was a choice for Dolby TrueHD as an English surround audio track -- I tried selecting it, watched my receiver do the flashing HDMI thing as it tried to handshake with the player, and then....just as I thought, the receiver dropped into regular Dolby Digital mode....not Dolby TrueHD. I switched to the Uncompressed PCM track instead. What is the deal with these "lossless" codecs? Are they really worth all this trouble? I know all about the firmware and software updates for these second generation machines, but it just seems so exhausting to go through; would a firmware update correct the issue with the player passing the signals via bitstream? Now, another question I have is regarding these "Uncompressed PCM" tracks...based on the way I have the system set up, with everything running through HDMI, am I hearing the "correct" audio stream when selecting these tracks off the discs? Like I said, I select the uncompressed track from the menu, press play, and my receiver reads "MULTICHANNEL" in the middle of the display, as a listening mode, and above it are the small lights which read "PCM", "HDMI" and "MULTICH"....I assumed this meant the receiver was actually receiving the PCM track and playing it back in a multichannel mode, but I want to make sure because usually "MULTICHANNEL" means you have the ANALOG inputs running to a decoding player, and mine is connected via HDMI. So am I actually hearing these uncompressed PCM tracks correctly like this?

Please see next post for the continuation of this thread...

[DJ Scotty]

DTS Master Audio is another problem. I have been excited to experience this new format, being a diehard fan of DTS audio, but I sadly learned that this player does not even support the format, let alone decode it for playback. So, with Fox titles like Fantastic 4 where there is only a Master Audio track to select, I have to select it and watch as my receiver strips the core DTS track from the disc and play it back as some kind of "enhanced" DTS....the audio is okay, but I was expecting to experience this new audio format in all its resolution. When I switch the "DTS HD" audio selection in the Panasonic's menu to PCM instead of BITSTREAM, Fantastic 4's Master Audio track enters that MULTICHANNEL mode on my receiver (as the PCM tracks do) and the audio gets louder and more vibrant -- suggesting to me that the player is decoding the track and sending it PCM to the receiver. Again, though, this is not how I wanted to run the system...if I wanted to run multichannel signals to the receiver, I would not have invested in the TX-SR605, and instead would have kept my TX-SR600 and just ran the multichannel analog jacks between the player and receiver; I bought this unit for the onboard decoding. And thats another head scratcher: if the Panasonic unit does not even support DTS Master Audio, then why is Fantastic 4's Master Audio signal being processed by the player as "DTS-HD MULTICHANNEL"? Does the player automatically send a DTS HD signal instead of a DTS Master Audio signal, and is this the somewhat "enhanced" DTS mode I was told about that this player will pass instead of DTS Master Audio? And why is the Panasonic's audio display, when I press the onscreen prompt, reading "MULTI" after each HD track listing? With standard DVDs, the display reads "D. Digital 3/2/1 ch" but with Blu ray soundtracks, no matter what the track, it reads "TrueHD MULTICH" or "DTS HD MULTICH" or "LPCM MULTICH".....is this because no matter how I cut it, the player MUST decode the track internally? I assumed because the Onkyo receiver did HDMI 1.3a the Panasonic would be able to talk to it -- but is this Panasonic only 1.2?

Now, UPCONVERTING standard DVDs in another big problem I am having with this unit....as I mentioned, the player is set for 1080p output through HDMI, so that means that even standard DVD should be upconverted for that resolution, correct? Well, when I watch most standard def DVDs, the picture quality can be somewhat....well....atrocious, depending on the disc. Grain, dirt and all kinds of video artifacts wash over my regular DVDs when watching them through the HDMI 1080p selection -- dark, interior scenes look worse than they ever did on my old $100 Panasonic DVD player running 480P Progressive Scan; in dark sequences, there is an annoying video noise that runs in the background -- the only way I can reduce this noise is by selecting the SOFT setting on the player, which softens the picture but also gets rid of a lot of the grain. I have tried switching the resolution to 480P, 720P and even 1080i when watching regular DVDs, and 480p actually makes the films look a bit better than keeping it on 1080p. I simply cannot believe this. Is this because 1080p is magnifying and amplifying all the imperfections on the regular DVD discs? Could it be my seating position to the screen, which is pretty close? I have a 50" SXRD, and the seating position is six or so feet away. Could it be the HDMI cables connecting the system? Could it be the video processing inside the Onkyo which isnt really passing through 1080p and somehow adding some signal degredation somewhere? Some DVDs are really bad -- older films like The Exorcist or Twilight Zone: The Movie are almost unwatchable because of the grain that flickers in the background of the dark scenes when the setting is on 1080p for the HDMI output.

Are grainy standard def DVDs normal when upconverting them on one of these Blu ray decks? It's to the point that I am considering taking the $600 loss on the player and going out to replace it with a good standard upconverting DVD player, of which the familiar, easy and inviting codecs from Dolby Digital and DTS can still put a smile on my face...at least until all these HDMI/firmware bugs can be worked out of these things. If anyone could shed any light on any of these issues I am having, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You, and Looking Forward to Being a Blu ray Forum Member!!

[Manco]

HOLY COW!

Did you copyright that thing??

Welcome aboard. Try to keep future posts to 1OO WORDS OR LESS!!



EDIT: DJ Scotty -- break your post up into concise, discrete questions and post them in the appropriate forum sections. You'll have better luck getting answers. This is just way too long to read through. Just post your salient points.

[bdrex28]

Welcome to Blu-ray!

[Redrox]

Originally Posted by Manco

HOLY COW!

Did you copyright that thing??

Welcome aboard. Try to keep future posts to 1OO WORDS OR LESS!!

LOL that's what I thought. I started reading this, but it is waaaay to long. No way I am going to read this whole thing, sorry.

[Manco]

Originally Posted by Redrox

LOL that's what I thought. I started reading this, but it is waaaay to long. No way I am going to read this whole thing, sorry.

LOL!! I gave it shot just to make sure it wasn't a troll post!!!

[DJ Scotty]

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much for the welcome and the replies....

I understand this post is long, but it encompasses an entire battery of issues I am having with the technology, and if someone could take a few moments to read it over and address some things step by step, I would greatly appreciate it; future posts won't be nearly as long!

Thank You

[alain turgeon]

Originally Posted by DJ Scotty

I'm also assuming, guys, that Sony's VIVID picture mode should never be used, huh?

You're right about this, i have a SXRD set and it looks awfuk in this mode. I suggest you use Avia guide to home theater or Digital Video Essentials dvds to adjust your set. Since there is no Blu-ray versions of these available yet that could help you a lot.

[DJ Scotty]

I apologize in advance if this is not the correct area to post this query; I considered putting it under "Newbie" but was not sure if that was ideal either, so if this is not the suitable area for the questions (moderators) or another member please feel free to move it or point me in the right direction to where it would be more appropriate....

Let me explain the situation from scratch, first, because I had some of these issues addressed in here some time ago but the "conditions" and symptoms were never really resolved. Being a long-time home theater enthusiast and becoming completely and utterly comfortable with the workings of the standard definition DVD soundtracks and connections and such (coaxial/optical connections, Dolby Digital/DTS audio), I was excited to take the next evolutionary jump into high definition and hear these new "high resolution surround codecs" which were supposed to provide audio leaps and bounds beyond what compressed Dolby and DTS tracks could offer; not to mention the gorgeous 1080p video resolution which was supposed to look so real, rich and popping that it would be almost as if the actors were in our laps....so catalogs like "Crutchfield" would have us believe....

At any rate, eager to buy into this confusing and misleading world of HDMI cables and alphanumeric references to codecs and resolutions, me and my better half purchased an Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver, which does all the next-generation formats, and a Panasonic Blu-ray player (the second-generation model, with the "A" at the end of the model code). We also purchased a Sony SXRD rear projection 50" screen to watch it all on. Working with an installer who was recommended to us in this area, he and I hooked everything up and I have been living with this system for a good month or so now, yet I have many questions and concerns about the way this system is behaving...

First of all, let me explain how the system is all set up so someone could confirm for me that everything is connected right. We have the Blu ray player's HDMI OUT (connected with a Monster HDMI cable speed rated to pass the latest uncompressed audio and high def video if I am not mistaken; this was a $100 cable) running right to the Onkyo's HDMI IN 1....from there, we have another HDMI cable (purchased by me from the installer who claimed this was a great, shielded, high performance cable; it cost me 70 bucks but this damn thing is black and THICK) running from the Onkyo's HDMI OUT terminal to my Sony TV's HDMI IN. In the receiver, everything seems to be set right -- the HDMI MONITOR is ON to pass the video, etc; this Sony display can accept and display 1080p images, and the Panasonic Blu ray player can play 1080p images, so I am assuming 1080p, when set that way in the player, is passing RIGHT THROUGH the receiver with no degredation of the signal....yet, discs dont look all that great. Ill get to that in a minute.

Now, I SPECIFICALLY and ONLY bought this receiver because it could decode the next generation surround formats -- I was coming off of an older Onkyo TX-SR600 which worked just fine and would have continued to be the centerpiece of my system if not for the fact that I wanted to hear these next generation codecs...alas, I was misled by salesmen in my area and other media hype that these second generation Blu ray players could pass these new formats via bitstream to the new receivers like my Onkyo, which I found out they cannot. That was after I spent 600 bucks on the player. So now let me get into the specifics of the problems I am having with the gear.

It all seems to be coming from settings in the Panasonic player's menu...perhaps I simply do not have something set right, or it may be plain old fashioned high expectations for this technology, but something is getting me utterly confused. First of all, in the player's SETUP menu, there are selections under the AUDIO menu for "DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT" -- which the MANUAL says are for adjusting audio coming from the player's COAX or OPTICAL outputs -- nothing about HDMI. The only connection I have made is with HDMI from this unit; under this menu are selections for EVERY codec available with this machine: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS and DTS HD -- Master Audio is not supported. Now, I had originally set, along with my installer, all of these to BITSTREAM, but later changed the settings of the high resolution codecs to PCM when I found out the player couldn't pass the bitstream signals to my receiver. So, when playing standard definition DVDs, the audio tracks pass just fine -- I select Dolby Digital or DTS from the disc menu and my receiver lights up "DOLBY D" or "DTS" on the front display, as always...so no problems there. The issues have been coming in with the Blu ray discs and their soundtracks.

On many Blu ray titles, as everyone knows, there are these "Uncompressed PCM" soundtracks to choose from; I was told and informed that these were excellent to listen to in comparison to other lossy legacy codecs. However, when watching titles like Spider Man 3 or Pirates of the Caribbenan, choosing the Uncompressed 5.1 option makes my receiver read "MULTICH" on the display and illuminates the small "HDMI/PCM/MULTICHANNEL" logos above it, making we wonder if the system is operating correctly....am I hearing the uncompressed audio if the receiver is displaying this information? And that leads to another issue. Why don't these uncompressed tracks sound that great to me? I seem to lose LFE level when playing these tracks (I have actually heard that using the multichannel mode of these receivers drops bass by 10dB or so...is this true?) and there seems to be a loss of directionality; like the audio is coming through in surround, yes, with directional information in the surrounds when they're supposed to be...but the overall impact doesnt feel like regular Dolby/DTS surround....like something is missing....is this normal?

Now, here is the next issue: when playing tracks that need to be "downmixed," I dont really understand what is going on or what the best way to play them would be....let me explain. This Panasonic deck does not support "DTS Master Audio," and according to the manual, standard DTS will be used as an alternative here....so, with the few Fox titles I have on Blu ray, like "Live Free or Die Hard" and the "Fantastic 4" discs, the Master Audio tracks seem to behave weird in my system....if I keep the "DTS-HD" audio setting in the player on BITSTREAM when playing these tracks, the receiver and player do the HDMI handshake and then the receiver reads "DTS" on the display while the audio display on the Blu ray player's onscreen information grid reads "DTS HD MULTI"....this suggests to me that the player is extracting the "core" DTS mix from the Master Audio track and sending that to the receiver....if I leave the "DTS-HD" setting in the player on PCM and then play these Master Audio tracks, then the receiver displays the exact same thing it does when playing the Uncompressed PCM tracks -- it reads "MULTICH" in the middle of the display and then "HDMI/PCM/MULTICHANNEL" in small logos above it....what is going on here? The manual suggests that by keeping PCM set for these high resolution audio codecs, the machine is decoding the soundtrack and sending a 2-channel signal to the receiver -- but is that what is really happening? What am I hearing when sending these "Master Audio" tracks from the discs in PCM form as opposed to BITSTREAM? Which is the "better" way to listen to them? To be honest, leaving the setting on BITSTREAM and watching "Live Free or Die Hard" last night, the "Master Audio" track sounded punchier, heavier and better with this "extracted core DTS" mix, or whatever was going on, than by running the mix with the PCM setting from the player and letting the receiver see a "Multichannel" signal....something just seemed to be missing doing it that way....but what the heck is actually going on here? There was DEFINITELY much more bass and punch by leaving the player on BITSTREAM in the "DTS-HD" audio setting. But is this right?

Please see next post for continuation...

[DJ Scotty]

And that leads to another serious question regarding the settings on this player...first of all, if the manual is claiming that this "DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT" menu, under SETUP, is for affecting changes to the coax and optical outs, then WHY are the high definition codecs, which cannot be passed this way and only through HDMI, available to be adjusted in this menu?? In other words, why are Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS HD available to be adjusted (PCM/BITSTREAM) in this "DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT" setup menu when these are only being affected by HDMI audio? There IS an HDMI menu in the SETUP menu, which offers selections of HDMI AUDIO ON or OFF and HDMI VIDEO ON or OFF, plus resolution selections up to 1080p (I keep this setting on AUTO, which chooses 1080p because of my TV it is connected to)....but the main audio choices are in that DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT menu which allows selections for BITSTREAM or PCM for ALL audio codecs supported by this machine....is this weird or am I just missing something? Should I keep the legacy codecs (Dolby Digital/DTS) on BITSTREAM, since these could be passed, and the new codecs on PCM? But then why did "Live Free or Die Hard" sound better when I switched the "DTS-HD" audio selection to BITSTREAM? And nothing needs to be switched or set for these "Uncompressed PCM" tracks, correct? These just get passed as is to the receiver -- no setting anywhere needs to be made for PCM/BITSTREAM, etc? I have heard conflicting opinions on the best way to listen to these tracks -- via the receiver's MULTICHANNEL mode, which mine defaults to when playing these tracks, or through the DIRECT mode, which I have been told actually eliminates the LFE channel and all bass management and such; what mode should be used here?

Now, what is going on with the "SPEAKER SETTINGS" menu under the SETUP MENU's CONNECTION tab? Here, you can set the player to "MULTI CHANNEL" or "2 CHANNEL"....the manual states that by setting the speakers to MULTI CHANNEL, this sends the signal to a receiver or processor that CANNOT do calibration levels, distances, etc (which of course my Onkyo, and almost all other ones do) so the PLAYER handles it internally....by setting the speakers to 2-CHANNEL, this sends the signals to a receiver that CAN decode formats, do levels, etc....but, when playing with these settings, something weird happens on my system. You would think, based on what the manual says, I should keep this setting on 2-CHANNEL because I AM connected to equipment that decode formats and such; but by keeping the player on 2-CHANNEL, this screws with multichannel PCM signals coming into the receiver, allowing me to use those weird DSP modes like "All Channel Stereo" and "Orchestra"....leaving the speaker setting on MULTICHANNEL locks the player into the MULTICHANNEL mode when playing PCM tracks; but this seems backwards compared to what the manual is saying....can someone clarify this for me? What the heck should this be set to.....and why?

Now, if the player is set to MULTI CHANNEL, is this somehow affecting bass management and time delays, etc. at my receiver when playing these high resolution audio codecs in PCM? It seems, as I said, I am losing LFE levels when playing these tracks in PCM and the receiver reads "MULTICH" on the display; is something being affected here, because when setting the player to Multi Channel for speaker output, there is a separate menu there for adjusting the speaker levels, sizes, distance delays, etc....but this was already done in my receiver -- but is anything being affected here when passing the PCM tracks of these sound mixes to the receiver via multichannel PCM with the player set to "MULTI CHANNEL"? I mean, are the sounds from the player's speaker setup (even though I have everything set to ZERO on these) affecting the audio with this setup? I want the receiver to handle all bass management and calibrations. Can someone lend some insight here?

I have a great deal more to discuss, but I'm off with the better half now do to some chores and such, so if someone could please take a moment to read this and assist with at least some of it I would greatly, greatly appreciate it and reply as soon as I get another chance. Thank you in advance!


AMPLIFICATION/PROCESSING:
ONKYO TX-SR605
Onboard Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD, DTS HD Master Audio; HDMI 1.3a

SOURCING:
Panasonic DMP-BD10A Blu-ray Disc Player

LOUDSPEAKER SUITE:
Mains: polkaudio R20
Center: polkaudio CSi30
Surrounds: polkaudio R15
Sub: polkaudio PSW10

DISPLAY:
SONY 50" SXRD Rear Projection

INTERCONNECTS & SPEAKER CABLE BY MONSTER

POWER PROTECTION BY APC SURGEARREST

[Amel]

cliffs?

just to let you know...HDMI cables run for 6 - 10 bucks each, no need for overpriced stuff like monster cables

the 605 can be found for under 400 bucks...

and for the money you paid for the SONY 50" SXRD, you probably could have gotten a great LCD set..

[PS3plus52XBR2]

Yeah. My HDMI cost $9.83 somewhere online. Many retailers are still marketing that "gold plating" stuff on HDMIs as if you were gonna run an analog signal through it. Digital is digital, yes and no's, I's and O's, if the cable is not good, it's not gonna run through it.

Doh! I have to re read your long posts. Be right back with maybe another tip... To be continued.

[clyon]

Originally Posted by Amel

cliffs?
and for the money you paid for the SONY 50" SXRD, you probably could have gotten a great LCD set..

but a sxrd tv is better then a lcd.

[Rup_Muk]

I'm in the market for an Onkyo605 as well. Sure am curious about solutions to OP's queries...

Sir Terrence: Any thoughts?

Rup.

[DJ Scotty]

Originally Posted by Rup_Muk

I'm in the market for an Onkyo605 as well. Sure am curious about solutions to OP's queries...

Sir Terrence: Any thoughts?

Rup.

Do you mean MY queries? Because you said "OP's".....

[Amel]

Originally Posted by clyon

but a sxrd tv is better then a lcd.

yes, if you feel like exchaging bulbs every few months...

its been reported by consumerreports that people with LCD or Plasma sets are better off than peeps with rear projection units..

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by Amel

yes, if you feel like exchaging bulbs every few months...

Rear Projection tv bulbs are rated for more than 8000 hours and some more than twice that. That is an entire year of your television being on 24/7 before the bulb has reached it's halflife. My parents have had a projection tv for twenty years and never replaced the bulb.

[clyon]

Originally Posted by Amel

yes, if you feel like exchaging bulbs every few months...

its been reported by consumerreports that people with LCD or Plasma sets are better off then rear projection units..

CR is for cars NOT electronics. & I have read that report, it said DPL's tv are not that reliable.

Where did you get a few months, I have had my tv for about 8 months same lamp. The lamp will last me about 3+ years with 8 hours a day.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Amel

yes, if you feel like exchaging bulbs every few months...

its been reported by consumerreports that people with LCD or Plasma sets are better off than peeps with rear projection units..

Had my SXRD and used it A LOT for over a year and never had to replace the bulb and the picture is AMAZING. Not all rear projections are created equal, the SXRD is definitely the best one of them all that I've seen.

[J6P]

Originally Posted by Amel

its been reported by consumerreports that people with LCD or Plasma sets are better off than peeps with rear projection units..

At triple the price, I should hope so.