HDTV purchase situation question

[Drewster]

I am new to big screen TV’s and HDTV ready as well. I have been doing research on these forum’s and at Consumer Reports….but still would like your input.

I am going to purchase an HDTV ready rear projection set when I settle on the following issues.

My viewing style: I will probably use the set 80% of the time on 4:3 aspect (normal TV, Playstation 2, etc) All the DVD’s I buy I get Widescreen. Some PS2 games also have a “widescreen” mode of play. The HDTV broadcast signal is not important at all to me. Few years down the road when more of it is broadcast and more easily accessable, then I will buy a set top converter and get that….but that is probably several years off for me. Main use will be for DVD’s and PS2, also looking forward to better looking regular cable (I understand still not true HDTV quality).

Based on the above, I have been looking at 2 models. Pioneer SD533HD5 53” Widescreen and the Sony KP51HW40 51” Widescreen. The price difference between the two is not an issue. I have couple other issues:

1. I had a salesperson tell me to be careful of screen “burn in” if I watch too much TV in the normal or 4:3 aspect ratio (in my case probably 80% of usage). This alarms me and wanted some feedback from people who have experience with this. I am also not a big fan of “stretching” the pic to widescreen mode to avoid this. But really want the widescreen for when I do watch the DVD’s and future programming in widescreen.
2. What are peoples opinions of the Sony KP51HW40 vs the Pioneer SD533HD5 based on my viewing style. Consumer Reports rates the Pioneer at #2 but says it lacks Auto Convergence adjustment and its menu is more difficult than most. Are those two things big deals? CR says the Sony lacks Automatic flesh-tone correction and Selectable video noise reduction. Again, are those two big deals?
3. Are there new models of either of these units coming out in next couple months that would be smart for me to hold off for month or so?

Sorry this is so long but wanted to give the appropriate info. Thanks in advance for any opinions!

[drbob]

Don't know if I can help much, but screen burn is a problem with the widescreen, 4:3 viewing as well as a problem with games that have stationary images. My suggestion is to buy a larger 4:3 set, will be better when using DVDs in widescreen format, and your games will put you in there with them. This whole HDTV biz is a nightmare unless you get HD signals form your sat or cable providers, over the air stations are increasing #HD stations but unless you're in the big city... good luck.
Hope I helped a little with at least food for thought.

[drbob]

I've had 3 hdtv sets, 2 toshiba 4:3, 1 mitsubishi 16:9, my DVD is not a pro scan. The DVD picture on the toshibas was much better that the more expensive mit. Toshibas had other problems, a warped main board with cards comming loose, and a main cpu and comvergence memory problem. All 3, as well as everyother set I've seen have that moving image trailing effect, looses detail when moving then catches up a second later. If you are stuck with satellite and DVD like I am, that's what you'll get. High def is great on any set I've seen, but getting a high def signal is not easy unless you live in the big city. The pro scan DVD will help your problem with DVD but obviously not with other non-high def signals. I'm thinking of going back to an analog big screen, lines but still a good DVD picture, and no background image blurring and motion defects. Good luck to us all.

[zarlor]

A couple of comments here that might be of some assistance.

1) Screen Burn-in. It doesn't matter what you watch there is always the possibility of burn-in if you consistently watch only one kind of programming or static image on a screen with the brightness and contrast turned up or left where it was when the set was sent to you. On a 16:9 set it might be side bars, on a 4:3 set it will be the letterbox bars. It just doesn't matter, especially with more and more widescreen programming showing up, even on regular channels. (Just watch Discovery any evening and you should see at least one show a night that is letterboxed and could, therefore, be "zoomed", not stretched, but correctly zoomed on most HD sets.)

At any rate, burn-in should not be a problem at all with most of todays sets IF you properly calibrate the set, as I ahve mentioned many times on these forums. Just get a calibration DVD, such as "Avia" or "Video Essential", which can easily be found at places like Amazon.com, and they will show you how to properly set your brightness and contrast for your viewing environment. Chances are EXTREMELY slim that, with these set correctly, that you would experience burn-in on a 16:9 set which shows even 90% 4:3 programming. It just should not be a problem and I don't get what the scare tactic many salemen seem to use is for. A little education on these two controls would alleviate any need to even bring the subject up.

2) I don't know anything about those sets. But if you do use one of the above DVDs and, especially, if you happen to get your set ISF calibrated then you would actually want to turn off anything like "flesh-tone correction" and SVM and all of that excess stuff which will do nothing more than distort the image on properly calibrated set. I find most of those automatic "featuers" to be more of a nuisance than anything else. Then again a good calibration and in-depth convergance will probably set you back $500 or mores, depending on the calibrator. As for menus, if you are a tweaker then you might be more worried about the menus and if not, then I don't suppose they will matter as much. Then again, if you are a tweaker then any menu complexity probably wouldn't bother you anyway, so I still wouldn't let that be a deciding factor for me.

3) Got me. :) Of course I have a 3-year-old Zenith IQB64W10W w/ 9" CRTs and it still blows away just about every other HDTV I've ever seen, including the newer Zenith's. Besides if you are always waiting for the "next best feature" and new model to come out, you'll be waiting forever to purchase that next set, IMHO.

Best of luck with whatever you decide! And if you want a lot more info on calibrating a set and all of the stuff you can do to make your picture so much better than how you got your set... well, don't hesitate to ask. There is a whole lot of info out there and most of the folks around here will be happy to help you find and use it. :)