Newbie to HDTV and Blu-ray - few questions.

[ulceration]

Ok a few questions. First is that I have a PS3 and a Toshiba 42RV530U LCD 1080p tv. When I set the TV to "Native" mode I get a green line at the right side of my tv, but when I see it back to "Natural" it goes away. Im wondering what this is, or if its a glitch in my TV.

Secondly, when I see within 6 or 7 feet of the TV i can sort of see blotches or blurriness when Im watching movies or playing PS3 games. If i see back 10 feet or so it looks good. I remember reading that LCD's have a "screen door effect is you sit up close" so maybe this is what theyre talking about? I dont know. I just remember I watched a scene where that was a cloud of smoke and it looked very distorted and blotchy up close. One note i should mention is that I bought a relatively generic brand HDMI cable on ebay for 12 dollars. I read that HDMI cables are HDMI cables being digital and its not like some audio cables that are analog where there is even such a thing as "better quality" cables. I first watched this same movie at my brother in laws and he has a Panasonic LCD 37" and its only 720p that he got a year ago or so and with the same PS3 and hdmi cable it looked great and i didnt notice any of this stuff up close like I am now.

Thirdly, I bought this TV for 1200 bucks and i can return it any time for 3 years because i got the circuit city advantage plan. I hear Plasma's are the best for gaming and sports but i was also trying to save a lil on my wallet. Are plasma's really THAT much better picture? Because i want to be satisfied with my purchase for years to come. Honestly so far id rate this set up a 6.75 or 7 on a scale of 10, which i think is sad because it's blu-ray high definition. Any advice or feedback is appreciated.

[crazzywangger]

There are lots of threads about the +/- of LCD vs Plasma (use the search), this one has some good info.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...194#post831194

As for the green line, no clue, I stay as far as I can from anything Toshiba made.

[ulceration]

whats wrong with toshiba, it got good reviews everywhere i read....im not looking for pro's and con's necessarily i read alot of those and they mostly tell me LCD/Plasma are about the same minus a few features here and there. Im just asking for cut and dry opinions now. Thanks

[kpkelley]

Screen-door effect is about pixelation, i.e. you can see the pixel structure of the image. Kind of like the intersecting threads of a screen door.

[Lucy Diamond]

Watch the threads here closely...double check info on the net and NEVER trust sales people.

Welcome to the greatest sub culture EVER!!!

[WickyWoo]

Yo ushould call their tech support line

[JRPritt]

Originally Posted by ulceration

Ok a few questions. First is that I have a PS3 and a Toshiba 42RV530U LCD 1080p tv. When I set the TV to "Native" mode I get a green line at the right side of my tv, but when I see it back to "Natural" it goes away. Im wondering what this is, or if its a glitch in my TV.

Welcome!

Don't hold me to this info, but I think I might know what you're going through with the "green line". (And, while I'm not a television engineer, the following is my understanding of American broadcast standards as I know them.)

Does it appear when you are playing a movie/game with the PS3? Or only when you're watching HDTV? If it's the latter, the Native/Natural mode switch is, in my best guess, a toggle of how the signal your TV is receiving is being displayed. The "Native" mode portrays every single pixel that you are receiving from your cable/satellite source; and if you have a 1080 television, you can see all 1080 lines. Here's the thing about a television signal - not every single pixel is a picture; some of it is data, some of it is garbage. You're basically seeing every part of the signal, beyond the refined edges of the screen. (For example, on a non-live, taped show, sometimes little flashy pixels can be seen on top of the screen moving around left and right. This is internal time code from a tape, which lives on a scan line; which contains data such as closed captioning.)

By setting your TV over to Natural mode, it zooms the picture in ever-so-slightly, thereby eliminating the chance that you will see undesired pixels/lines which live on the edges.

Now if your little green line shows up while you're playing back a blu-ray, then the problem is not what I descibed above; as blu-rays portray a full picture on all scanlines.

Hope this helps.

[Rabidhunter]

Your problem is simply that your TV is Toshiba. Putting a Sony PS3 and a Toshiba TV is like putting a snake and a mongoose next to each other, they don't play nicely (considering the format war and all).

Honestly though, what do you have your PS3 settings at for video?

[phatbuddy blu]

Member JRPritt is correct about the cable broadcasting issue. It is not your tv. I have 3 flat panels and they are all different brands and when I set them to "natural' or " just scan" modes i get the line on the left side of screen on NBC HD and MHD HD. And changing it to "fit or 16:9" modes corrects this porblem. Hope that helps. Good luck.

[blu-backer]

I've actually seen that green line on a Toshiba set, but this one was running along the top of the screen. When the TV is set to Natural, it sizes the picture ever so slightly larger and the line goes away. This is with HD Cable through an HD TiVo connected via HDMI.

I think, though, that it's the source and not the TV with regard to this green line.

As for the blurry/blotchy screen, I don't think that's the screen door effect. But, I believe that some LCDs are succeptible to clouding, which could be what you have. In which case, you may want to replace the unit.

I have a Philips LCD and it's just fine. I know that there are plasmas that are as good or better, but for the money, it's a great value.

Good luck.

[ulceration]

ok guys, thanks for the input. The reason I picked a Toshiba was because i wanted to try and stay under $1500, my friend had the Toshiba Regza he purchased last year and we played Xbox360 on it and it looked great from what I remember. Mines the same Tv essentially just a newer model and only cost me 1199. That's why I got it, assuming it would only be better than what I had seen a year ago.

My main question now is after all the reviewing ive done the only negatives for me for choosing a Plasma TV is that they were A) Expensive B) Bad in bright environments (my basement isnt bright so i didnt care about this one TOO much but didnt want it to be an issue when I move) C) Burn in (which isnt a problem nowadays i hear)


So i guess what I am asking, all cons aside, picture for picture, plasma is the better choice? I did see a few 40" plasmas at the store for 1500-1600 but they were Panasonics and one was a Zenith I think. I think a Samsung was 1800 and it just goes up from there... what do you think of those tv's?

[dobyblue]

I ususally defer to Gary Merson's (www.hdguru.com) opinion on the importance of how bright or dark a room is as a deciding factor on plasma.

So why are consumers passing on better performing plasma TVs and spending more money (per inch screen size) for poorer performing large screen LCDs? Because they produce brighter pictures and consumers mistakenly believe “brighter is better.” However, unless one lives in a retail showroom or has set up an ultra-bright, high ambient light viewing environment that mimics a showroom, the HD Guru™ cannot understand why anyone would pay more to buy a top-rated LCD set when a less expensive top-rated plasma set will outperform it while still providing up to three times more light output than necessary in any typical home environment.

You can get a 42" 1080p Panasonic Viera plasma for $1379 with free shipping from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00142JKRW/...W&linkCode=asn

[PLASMA-1080P-FULLHD]

Originally Posted by ulceration

ok guys, thanks for the input. The reason I picked a Toshiba was because i wanted to try and stay under $1500, my friend had the Toshiba Regza he purchased last year and we played Xbox360 on it and it looked great from what I remember. Mines the same Tv essentially just a newer model and only cost me 1199. That's why I got it, assuming it would only be better than what I had seen a year ago.

My main question now is after all the reviewing ive done the only negatives for me for choosing a Plasma TV is that they were A) Expensive B) Bad in bright environments (my basement isnt bright so i didnt care about this one TOO much but didnt want it to be an issue when I move) C) Burn in (which isnt a problem nowadays i hear)


So i guess what I am asking, all cons aside, picture for picture, plasma is the better choice? I did see a few 40" plasmas at the store for 1500-1600 but they were Panasonics and one was a Zenith I think. I think a Samsung was 1800 and it just goes up from there... what do you think of those tv's?

a)plasma is not expensive at all. consider LCD are more expensive in smaller size. b)panasonic plasma has anti-refrelective technology so that should take care the issue. isnt tv suppsed to be glass panel so reflextion is unavoiable but can be improve. c)burn in is not an issue so there is no need to mention about it anymore.

u cant go wrong with plasma. like u said, there is no burn in issue. Keep in mind, plasma tv start out with 42" and up.

[ulceration]

went with the Plasma Panasonic Viera 42" 1000000 times better! thanks all!

[dukenukem]

Nice choice,are you gonna be posting pics of it?