My first rear projection TV....

[SamuraiCatJB]

Since I know very little about this particular brand, it is hard for me to talk too much. I know a lot of people who have rear projection TV's and have never heard of some of this....

JVC Iart Pro 48" AV48WP55

First off, this TV has simulated surround sound capability. I have seen Bose's demo, which is the most impressive I have ever seen. Still this one shocked me. Enough so I am considering moving my TV back to the corner wence my previous TV was. There are only two speakers in the base... but I swear in the first movie I watched on the TV, "The Villiage" I heard people walking outside my window. Theoretically, you bounce the sound off the room making it sound like you have speakers there. There is no callibration for this on this TV, so it's presence is a hit or miss. Since it is not centered in the room right now, it is like having only 3 speakers working in a 4 speaker surround sound system. Even more noticeable than sticking with two. Still I may play with this some more, it is definately intreaging, nothing like Bose, and still workable on the cheap. I hope more TV's offer this, though I hope the next gen offer tuning for it.

Second, light direction. Interesting enough, the TV has better horizontal view angles than vertical, I had never heard anyone talk of this in reviews, though I assume this is a rear-projection screen issue. This particular model is NOT one you want to jump up and cheer a football game. Simply standing up from a sitting position drops the light by about 2/3 as most all the light is horizontally directed. It has a good horizontal view of about 170 degrees like they claim, though I might cut off 10 degrees for the drop off area. still industry standard for that. but vertical view angle is probably less than 40 for half the light and the rest drops off in linear light loss to same 170. I don't consider this a problem, you'll never find me jumping up and cheering a game, so aiming at chair height is not a problem for me, Andre the Giant would want a bigger model or a different TV. :) I normally drool over Anjolina Jolee sitting down anyhow....

Love the inputs, 4 AV inputs (3 in back, 1 in front) mean I don't have to buy a receiver yet.... If I bought another TV cheaper, like I intended, that still meant a receiver and at least 2 speakers or more. So I don't expect I paid anymore than I would have with a cheaper set since I was looking at the $800-$1000 range of TV tubes, a $1200 rear projection was near, though still well above TV only. So I can add better components later and save money now. This is very good, for me, though others wouldn't care. only three inputs have svideo... I don't know why they didn't include the 4th with an optional svideo. Seems odd to have RLV&SV and component for 2, the third is just RLV. The forth, up front has RLV&SV to hook up your camera supposedly.

Light is strong and steady and well distributed as you would expect, I would expect no less. Good TV to HDTV upconvert, 1080 verticle scan lines are nice, when all the LCDs have 1080 vertical resolution, I might, might, look again.

If you want to watch the superbowl and play cheerleader, this is not your TV. If you want to just buy a TV and run all your video gadgets into it, this makes a great intro-level rear-projection. It ain't cheap at $1200 plus, still it fit me better than I expected. :) Now I will just have to see how long it lasts.... and decide in 10 days if I want extended warrenties with in-home repair, and how long.... Will I simply replace it in 4 or 5 years? hmmmm... time will tell. time and money.... ;) right now, this is great for me... now back to trying to figure out how to get good sound out of that darn left side audio bounce.... ;) before I watch Tomb Raider... again... ;) :p

[Homie S]

Good read, thanks.

My dad's 60" rear projection is crapping out. I can no longer play PS2 on it because it is totally dim. It just turned 10 years old, so I think it had a good life span. Now he's looking for a 60" plasma, but he hates the sony ones, they have that extra bars on the sides (they could be speakers?) and they look horrible, not to mention it would render it useless in our game room cause it wouldn't fit.

[JackAxe]

Yummy. The viewing thing is pretty much the same for my cousin's 65" Hitachi and my friend's 65" Sony. They both also show convergence distortion on the edges. But at a prime viewing angle, from several feet back, they look great.

10 years old, those projection screens have massively huge King Kong sized pixels. :eek: *vomits on hand and mouse*

Plasma looks great, but I personally wouldn't spend the money on one, because of image ghosting and burn-in which are common issues. They provide ways of countering it, but it still occurs regularly. Your pops should wait until summer when slim CRTs are available and more LCoS screens are on the market. Regardless prices will drop futher on Plasma at that time, because of these techs.

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

My big thing is resolution.... if you are going to combine both HDTV and TV images on the same screen (e.g. you have cable, but not all are HDTV signals), you want better than 765 vertical resolution in pixels. You will be charged blood, and two generations of first borns to get 1080 vertical in an LCD or Plasma still. That was what finally set me back to tube based technology, for now. Everything in my price range was 1280 x 768 in resolution. If you run a TV signal (640x480 or 720x480) you are upgrading by 1/2. Meaning almost every pixel will be blured to interpolate without scaling issues.

1920x1080 means that upgrading a TV signal is over 2, meaning you will have a much clearer picture. It doesn't matter if you are running native resolution on an LCD or plasma, but if you are upgrading or downgrading resolution, I decided to wait.

This TV will do me for a while. :D

[Homie S]

Definitely.

So my dad and I were checking out looking for the new Tivo HD recorders at Circuit City. They had one, going for 1000 big ones. UGH.

Not to mention we would have to buy a new satelite on top of our existing one, or get one of those elipitical (sp?) satellites that can recieve the two signals (which you need to get an HD signal). All this after we were able to hook up 2 signal cables to the Tivo (so you can record one show and watch another live).

I hate to be off topic, but sheesh, these things are expensive. My dad was telling me how a new 60" plasma these days usually run around 7-8 grand. Is this true?

[SamuraiCatJB]

not uncommonly, yes, they go for 7K. You can find cheaper... that are usually "cheaper" if you want. drop a few inches and you can go down to 3k quickly. Again you are talking 765 vertical. request 1080 vertical and you will either not find them, or push the price back up to 9K. The bigger the lower market share, the more expensive. so price climbs rapidly with diagnal size.

Plasmas also run hot, suck up juice more than a TV or LCD. LCD is the most efficient, but still not common enough to bring the price down. They run near the Plasmas cost.

My replayTV cost me $99 plus the standard Replay/Tivo monthly costs. I upgraded the disk drive myself (not recommended, but easily done with replayTV, harder with Tivo). I bought the 40gig model and picked up a 250gig drive from newegg. I saved about $400 off the price of actually buying the 240 gig ReplayTV box.

I suggest you and your father really pay attention to your options, needs, and availability of stuff. My replayTV works with my cable, it is not tied to any satelite or cable provider. Though now my cable company does offer DVR boxes as part of their service, I like having a true 3rd party that works with anything. :) Of course replayTV is a service, not just a unit, so monthly costs are annoying, or you can do a full-term buy-out which I could not afford before now, now I can.

[seraphim_9:11]

SamCat - sorry to hear that your rear is projecting ..:p :D

I've heard about JVC systems - my friend had a sound system but it was not impressive enough for me to prefer that over a SONY. Only thing in a SONY is that even with your eyes closed, you could tell where the speakers are - maybe its just my house... anyways I have a set of Artis 3.1 speakers for my laptop - i honestly thought that it was windy outside when I was playing Max Payne ..:) ... my other pref was an Altec Lansing 5.1 but I got these for 1/3 the price of the AL.

I am considering a plasma but then I will think about it after what SamCat pointed out - I have heard so much about a projection TV. which is better and where lies the difference ??/

[SamuraiCatJB]

I am considering a plasma but then I will think about it after what SamCat pointed out - I have heard so much about a projection TV. which is better and where lies the difference ??/

the difference is brightness. Rear projection has to play surface tricks as mentioned above to get the light contrast up. Plasmas are almost all well above 1000:1 usually on the order of 2000:1, LCDs and projection systems are in the range of 500:1 to 800:1, at best 1000:1. So plasmas get the richest most dynamic color spectrum. DLP improves on projection by about 50% making it better than most LCDs, but also runs up the expense.

If you can wait, there are thinner rear projection systems coming, about half the depth. Brings TV tubes and projection systems closer to the LCD/Plasma advantage.

There are all kinds of new things coming, of course there always is. I wanted the TV now, I have already waited 4 years. :)

[Homie S]

not uncommonly, yes, they go for 7K. You can find cheaper... that are usually "cheaper" if you want. drop a few inches and you can go down to 3k quickly. Again you are talking 765 vertical. request 1080 vertical and you will either not find them, or push the price back up to 9K. The bigger the lower market share, the more expensive. so price climbs rapidly with diagnal size.

Plasmas also run hot, suck up juice more than a TV or LCD. LCD is the most efficient, but still not common enough to bring the price down. They run near the Plasmas cost.

My replayTV cost me $99 plus the standard Replay/Tivo monthly costs. I upgraded the disk drive myself (not recommended, but easily done with replayTV, harder with Tivo). I bought the 40gig model and picked up a 250gig drive from newegg. I saved about $400 off the price of actually buying the 240 gig ReplayTV box.

I suggest you and your father really pay attention to your options, needs, and availability of stuff. My replayTV works with my cable, it is not tied to any satelite or cable provider. Though now my cable company does offer DVR boxes as part of their service, I like having a true 3rd party that works with anything. :) Of course replayTV is a service, not just a unit, so monthly costs are annoying, or you can do a full-term buy-out which I could not afford before now, now I can.


We have just satelite, and it works out pretty awesome. The series 1 Tivo's are supposed to be cake to upgrade on your own, series 2 can get tricky as I've read around somewhere (I think it was an excerpt from that book about 'hacking the tivo' or something like that) My dad bought a series 2 when they released the 80 gig harddrive. One of the things that makes the TivoHD reciever so much is that it must have a massive harddisk inside of it to hold HD recordings. If I remember right it said somewhere around 30 hours of HD programming, and 200 hours of normal programming.

[SamuraiCatJB]

I just found out another reason to keep the TV at a respectable 48"... :) perfect size for a bachelor....

[Gizmo]

SamCat, did the size of the room you have the tv in play any part in your decision? If so, how important was it?

I'm just curious. Viewing distance does play a big role in percieved viewing size doesn't it?

I have a rather small TV room. I thought there were some specs out there that gave some type of ratio for figuring out size equivalentcies.

[SamuraiCatJB]

well size equivalence can be easily figured with triganometry. Solve for the angle. perceptive size is the angular distance in front of your eye. So a drive in theatre is perceptually smaller if you are in the back even though the diagnal is huge....

the size of the room was part of the decision. Money was the primary consideration. And intended use was only me, so I didn't need anything really huge. This is basically the smallest of the projection systems anymore... 46" or 48" is considered small.

[JackAxe]

My TV is soooo much b.. I mean smaller then yours, it only be a 36". :) For my front room that would be huge. I'll probably get about the same size when I finally jump to a HDTV.

You should rig it, so that the 48" projection slides out of the ceiling. :D


Gizmo, ye need to be buying a Mini to experience the Mac world. I recommend going here and checking out this new site;

http://www.byodkm.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1127#post1127

<]=)

[Homie S]

I just found out another reason to keep the TV at a respectable 48"... :) perfect size for a bachelor....

Hey, my dad's got a 48" plasma, and he retired at 50!

But seriously, the 13 incher in my dorm room? Beats anything you throw at it.

[JackAxe]

Including a dead hoarse. :p

[Gizmo]

Gizmo, ye need to be buying a Mini to experience the Mac world. I recommend going here and checking out this new site;

http://www.byodkm.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1127#post1127

<]=)
Alas.... :( Check this out. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6839799/)

Jack, quit trying to lure me to the Dark Side. :p

Edit - Opps. Thought this was the Shuffle thread for a moment.

Sooo... How about them DLP's?

[SamuraiCatJB]

Sooo... How about them DLP's?

trying to end on a bright note? ;)

[JackAxe]

Bummer about the wait. :( Good for Apple, bad for us.

So Sam, how exactly does one watch TV while it's being projected on their rear? :D

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Bummer about the wait. :( Good for Apple, bad for us.

So Sam, how exactly does one watch TV while it's being projected on their rear? :D

<]=)

eyes in the back of my head... and a mirror. :p

[JackAxe]

Bumavision. I wouldn't be interested in watching, the huge crack running down the middle would bother me. :p

<]=)

[Gizmo]

You don't even want to THINK of watching it on a monkey's butt. ;) :)

[JackAxe]

I'll pass. Interactive poo flinging TV just isn't my thing. :p

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Bumavision. I wouldn't be interested in watching, the huge crack running down the middle would bother me. :p

<]=)

I'm an alien, adopted from Roswell... no crack. :p more... owlish.

[JackAxe]

Then is this a picture of you... (http://www.transpoman.com/plog/show.php/2004/12/alien-butt-face.htm) :D

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Then is this a picture of you... (http://www.transpoman.com/plog/show.php/2004/12/alien-butt-face.htm) :D

<]=)

nope, I am from the beevis galaxy. :p