Plasma Help Needed Please

Kenny_D

I am thinking of buying this plasma:

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/View...&ProductID=4093

I have never bought a plasma before and was just wondering if someone could help me with my setup. Here's a few questions

1: Is this a good screen. Pros / Cons

2: What extras will I need to connect the following:
Playstation 2
PC (Radeon 9800 Pro All in Wonder GFX)
Creative DDTS-100 Decoder ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE )
and Creative GigaWorks S750 7.1 Speakers ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE )

3: Will the picture quality be good enough to replace my Samsung Syncmaster 710N monitor

My gfx card has a built in tv tuner so I can watch tv on my monitor. So I'm guessing that if I can use this plasma as my monitor then I wont need a tuner. Like I said I am new to this and that is the setup I am thinking of getting. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

fcukme

That link is dead shows no product!

I have a felling your refering to the panny screen for €1,800 that is available in richersounds. Tell us the screen you are looking at and i'll tell you the pros and cons.

fcukme

Looked up the richersounds website and with the product number and found out you are talking about the panny screen.

Pro's

One of the best standard definition plasma's around at a really good price. Hook up your pc and get good dvd software player like winDVD 6 and the pic quality will be very good. The turner in your pc will indeed allow you to look at tv on the screen. dScaler is a very FREE good program for tv viewing, i'm not sure if its compatabile with your card. Check the website.

Looks the piece unlike some of the cheaper screens.

Con's

It's not high definition, this will cause two problems for you. When you connect your pc it will be at a very low resolution (852x480), this results in very small desktop with large icons and not ideal for playing pc games. Also in the description given on richersounds they claim it can accept hd dignals 720i/720p and 1080i/1080p but you will not see the benefits on a low reslution screen the same as you would on a high res screen.

This brings me onto another problem, connections. That screen is sctually a monitor and so comes with a vga connection (no dvi). You will need to purchase a scart board (€200) to hook up your playstation. These boards are in short supply at the moment. I don't know if you have any interset in sky's hdtv service that is due to air in 2006 but you will need a hdmi or dvi connect will panny said they are not releasing for this screen.

Thats a short pro's and con's. It boils down to the question of whether to pay more and future proof for hdtv, prob cost twice the price of this screen or buy this and enjoy it for now knowing that you may need to change to take advantage of hdtv, which i believe in reality is about five years away before it becomes main stream and by them you'll prob get the lastest large screen tv for ~€2,000, which would be better than one you pay more for now.

Decisions, Decisions......Good Look. Any other quations just ask.

Kenny_D

It was the Panny PW6 from RS. But after having a look around I can afford either the PW6 or PW7. Not sure which is better or what would suit my setup more. Havent much interest in the HD end of things at the moment

unklerosco

www.avforums.co.uk

PW7 is the screend to go for... Im getting myself a PW5 next month(second hand) but it has a tonne of extras with it, its the extras u end up spending a tonne on. The screen will be about €2000, then u'll need a wall mount n then u'll need the boards to hook all ur gear up. I'd say ur looking at €2500 if not more...