Brisbane POTN Coffee Club (3) - Everything From Shutters to Cuppas

Morning all,

Everyone having a bit of a slow morning today?

On yesterdays topic of being notified of group meets, please sign me up for PM's.

Cheers,

-Scott

Glenn-san wrote in post #5084629
So I guess if everyone is off to bed, we won't add 200 pages for spammy to wake up to. Bit of a shame really

heh, not even a whole page to read. Something like 6 posts

Scott H wrote in post #5088212
Morning all,

Everyone having a bit of a slow morning today?

On yesterdays topic of being notified of group meets, please sign me up for PM's.

Cheers,

-Scott

Will add you to the try to remember list

wakko wrote in post #5084428
I've narrowed it down to:

1. Samsung LA52F81BDX
2. Sony KDL52XDR

Both 52", both fullHD 100Hz LCDs.

Sorry if you didn't already know this Feng, but If you'd bought the F81 before the end of February, you'd have got a free 26" R71 LCD with it. Samsung had a promo: http://www.samsung.com …omotion/pdf/lcd​_promo.pdf

I've been in the market for a while, and I was this close -->||<-- to buying a 46" F81 on the last weekend in February, but decided I'll get a 50" Pioneer Kuro Plasma instead. For what I'll mostly use it for (movies, etc), I think it'll be the better choice for me. Luckily Harvey Norman in Wagga had both the 46" Sammy F81 and 50" Kuro side by side.

If I were going to get an LCD I'd get the Sammy though - they're a great TV. Awesome panel. The only complaint I have about them is their built-in HD tuner doesn't seem to be all that wonderful.

No rush for me now ... we're planning to build a house this year, so I'll get it when we're in the new place. Assuming I can afford it then :/

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #5088278
If I were going to get an LCD I'd get the Sammy though - they're a great TV. Awesome panel.

My aunty bought a samsung lcd sometime last year and in about 8 months they had the repair guy out 6 times, it went back 3 and they replaced it in the end with a unit that has the exact same problems so its back yet again.

Bugger! I haven't heard of too many problems, though my couple of Samsung-owning friends bought theirs a few years ago, when a 32" LCD was super expensive

I bought a Toshiba 47" LCD early last year and it hasnt missed a beat. Inbuilt tuner, 1080 resolution, and a wicked sharp picture. I would put it against an equivalent X series Sony Bravia any day of the week. When I bought it, just prior to the 100hz revolution, it was just shy of $4500 ticket price. Got it on interest free over 30 months and still managed to get it for just over $3500 with a couple of cables thrown in. I would imagine that with all these 100hz TVs getting around, you could get a bargain on one of these.

And for whoever said that the 42" is more than enough TV for a city apartment, true enough, but you can NEVER go back to a little TV after having a big one. I think that it was prossibly some of the best $$$ I have ever spent - apart from my well used coffee machine...

Also, on the topic of Harmony remotes, I have the Harmony 1000i which is without a doubt the best they have, but can be a little fiddly at times (touch screen and all). Once its fully set up, its a convenience you cant live without. I set my dad up with a Harmony 880 and its an awesome remote too - if you can still find them. You just need to get your head around the 'different' way of controlling your system. These remotes work best on systems that have a lot of buttons, rather than 1 button for several functions. So bear that in mind if you are considering one of these remotes. The Toshiba TV has a single input button for switching(scrolling ) between DTV, DVD, HDMI 1/2 etc. My mate has a Fujitsu Plasma which has a single button for all inputs. That is the much preferred way of switching because you dont have to stand there like a stunned mullet pointing your remote at the system while it scrolls through the inputs.

Hope some of this info helps, as its been a little while since I bought mine.

Cheers,

-Scott

And im happy with the flat 51cm $120 Dick Smith brand TV that i got a few years ago that is in my room...

-spam- wrote in post #5088664
And im happy with the flat 51cm $120 Dick Smith brand TV that i got a few years ago that is in my room...

Morning folks......

We've got a 42" LG hi-def plasma at home and we've also bought a nice Logitech Harmony 10000i remote. The remote is a total pain to set up but once you have it working it's rather geeky and convenient

Bah get the Pioneer 50in Plasma. You can't argue with the included 5 year manufacturer's warranty and included delivery and setup costs. If anything ever goes wrong with the panel that they can't repair onsite, they will bring a replacement for you while yours is being repaired. Very happy with mine so far.

Trumples wrote in post #5088863
Morning folks......

We've got a 42" LG hi-def plasma at home and we've also bought a nice Logitech Harmony 10000i remote. The remote is a total pain to set up but once you have it working it's rather geeky and convenient

Hehehe...we could only afford the 1000i remote! Still just as hard to set as the 10,000i but still "only just" better than having four remotes.

And by the way....our 52" Samsung is two years old now. It was a total bastard of a thing to begin with and Samsung's service is totally "non-existent". More recently, we bought a Samsung fridge...same thing. Arrived scratched. No service from Samsung. The store we bought it from replaced it.

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #5088278
Sorry if you didn't already know this Feng, but If you'd bought the F81 before the end of February, you'd have got a free 26" R71 LCD with it. Samsung had a promo: http://www.samsung.com …omotion/pdf/lcd​_promo.pdf

I've been in the market for a while, and I was this close -->||<-- to buying a 46" F81 on the last weekend in February, but decided I'll get a 50" Pioneer Kuro Plasma instead. For what I'll mostly use it for (movies, etc), I think it'll be the better choice for me. Luckily Harvey Norman in Wagga had both the 46" Sammy F81 and 50" Kuro side by side.

If I were going to get an LCD I'd get the Sammy though - they're a great TV. Awesome panel. The only complaint I have about them is their built-in HD tuner doesn't seem to be all that wonderful.

No rush for me now ... we're planning to build a house this year, so I'll get it when we're in the new place. Assuming I can afford it then :/

Yeah I read about that. The Sony's had the free PS3.

Scott H wrote in post #5088539
I bought a Toshiba 47" LCD early last year and it hasnt missed a beat. Inbuilt tuner, 1080 resolution, and a wicked sharp picture. I would put it against an equivalent X series Sony Bravia any day of the week. When I bought it, just prior to the 100hz revolution, it was just shy of $4500 ticket price. Got it on interest free over 30 months and still managed to get it for just over $3500 with a couple of cables thrown in. I would imagine that with all these 100hz TVs getting around, you could get a bargain on one of these.

And for whoever said that the 42" is more than enough TV for a city apartment, true enough, but you can NEVER go back to a little TV after having a big one. I think that it was prossibly some of the best $$$ I have ever spent - apart from my well used coffee machine...

My budget is sort about 5K ex GST all up. Company will write off whatever, so 52" lies fine.

NerdyNigel wrote in post #5088959
Bah get the Pioneer 50in Plasma. You can't argue with the included 5 year manufacturer's warranty and included delivery and setup costs. If anything ever goes wrong with the panel that they can't repair onsite, they will bring a replacement for you while yours is being repaired. Very happy with mine so far.

Yeah I was going to get that, but I read that the plasmas aren't as good for PC inputs compared with LCDs. I spose I am only watching movies and viewing pics out of the PC... but how does that compare with LCDs?

Also, can you get the new Kura 50" for $5000 ex? not sure if you can.

Meaty0 wrote in post #5089008
Hehehe...we could only afford the 1000i remote! Still just as hard to set as the 10,000i but still "only just" better than having four remotes.

D'oh, tooooooo many 00000000's

I now want to replace the light dimmer with an IR model so I can make a macro to string turning on system, dimming lights etc etc - but those IR dimmers are not cheap

wakko wrote in post #5089152
Also, can you get the new Kura 50" for $5000 ex? not sure if you can.

There are two different 50" Kuros. Models 508XDA and LX508A. Only the LX is FullHD (LX = luxury ), and you should be able to get it for under $5k ex.

The one I looked at next to the Sammy F81 was the 508XDA, and even though it's not FullHD, it looked significantly better than the Sammy playing movies (to my eyes, anyway). You'd really need to find a place where you can see then side by side. For movies, I'd highly recommend having a look at one.

Perhaps you could take a laptop and see how they look connected to a PC? I don't know how good plasmas connected to a PC - though I'd be interested in that too. I had heard that plasmas less than 50" had rectangular pixels, but over 50" were square. Don't know if that's true or not.

Here's a useful resource for pricing, though I'm not sure how up to date it is. Given it's a wiki, it should be reasonable. It was started by a guy from dtvforum.

http://hdtvprices.pbwi​ki.com/FrontPage

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #5089207
There are two different 50"Kuros. Models 508XDA and LX508A. Only the LX is FullHD (LX = luxury ), and you should be able to get it for under $5k ex.

The one I looked at next to the Sammy F81 was the 508XDA, and even though it's not FullHD, it looked significantly better than the Sammy playing movies. You'd really need to find a place where you can see then side by side. For movies, I'd highly recommend having a look at one. Perhaps you could take a laptop and see how they look connected to a PC. I don't know how plasmas are - though I'd be interested in that too.

I had heard that plasmas less than 50" had rectangular pixels, but over 50" were square. Don't know if that's true or not.

Here's a useful resource for pricing, though I'm not sure how up to date it is. Given it's a wiki, it should be reasonable. It was started by a guy from dtvforum.

http://hdtvprices.pbwi​ki.com/FrontPage

Yeah I've had a good look around, and am getting more and more sold on the Sony's XDR range. That's their premium range.

I might just do that.... take my work LT and a HD movie

But yeah... The three models I considered were:

Pioneer Kuro (stupid expensive one)
Sony XDR
Samsung F8

in 50, 52 and 52 inch respectively.

I might go read up on the pioneers, but sorta had my heart set on the new XDR.

The Panasonic FullHD ones are crap as you can't turn off the '100Hz Motion crap" which can cause artifacts... that's in both Plasma and LCD ranges!!

wakko wrote in post #5089249
The Panasonic FullHD ones are crap as you can't turn off the '100Hz Motion crap" which can cause artifacts... that's in both Plasma and LCD ranges!!

Kinda sad though... the 720p ones were great... nice picture quality etc... why'd they have to go stuff up their 1080p ones