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TCL32S1 or TC-P42S1

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Nechen

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Its a tough choice for me right now - trying to get a belated Xmas present for both me and my Father and I was thinking I can either get the single 42'' Plasma for the downstairs living-room for him or get us both 32'' LCD's.

"theocnoob" recommended the TCL32S1 in a previous thread and it seems to get great reviews, anyone here game on this 32'' LCD? (Xbox/PS3/PC/Whatever)

-Thanks
 
Its a tough choice for me right now - trying to get a belated Xmas present for both me and my Father and I was thinking I can either get the single 42'' Plasma for the downstairs living-room for him or get us both 32'' LCD's.

"theocnoob" recommended the TCL32S1 in a previous thread and it seems to get great reviews, anyone here game on this 32'' LCD? (Xbox/PS3/PC/Whatever)

-Thanks

The 42S1 is a much better screen overall.

Is it as great for gaming? No. The TCL/S/ is the best LCD I've ever gamed on. The TCP/S/ will give you a better overall experience. TV/Movies will look way better on it. Games may not be as sharp but you'll appreciate the 600Hz.

Overall the TCP is a much better choice unless you will ONLY use it for video games. If you're using it 50% or more for movies/tv you want the plasma.

Remember-- that TCL3XS1, for its SPECTACULAR picture and razor sharpness has a major flaw-- the black level suffers majorly the further you move away from a perfect viewing angle. That's it's only flaw. It's otherwise the perfect 60Hz CCFL LCD. The color gamut is so rediculously wide that you need to sit there and screw with it for an hour before you can appreciate it. The TCP comes pretty much ready to rock.

Oh- ok I misread.

Ya grab two 32" S1's. You'll like them.
Just remember- you won't like them immediately. Massive tweaking is needed. The color accuracy as a computer monitor on those is rediculously good. I never knew the firefox logo had that many levels of gradiation on it. Once you color correct the screen from a PC with magicolor or something basic like that... good times.

Just remember, obviously, that for TV/movie watching, you're not getting anything near as good as the plasma. But it still creates a GOOD, bright, high contrast, well colored experience. And for gaming its the best 32 I've used.
 
Ah my priorities is gaming first - movies second.

From what I can gather from your post is the Plasma's are purely for Movie/Video viewing and nothing more, I'm aware they've even made strides in the IR/Burn-In problems but I know if I hook a desktop up to the 42S1 it'll burn-in and in this day and age I don't feel like dealing with this crap anymore. :)

Thanks for the help, I'll end up getting the 32 inchers since they're so damned cheap right now.
 
Ah my priorities is gaming first - movies second.

From what I can gather from your post is the Plasma's are purely for Movie/Video viewing and nothing more, I'm aware they've even made strides in the IR/Burn-In problems but I know if I hook a desktop up to the 42S1 it'll burn-in and in this day and age I don't feel like dealing with this crap anymore. :)

Thanks for the help, I'll end up getting the 32 inchers since they're so damned cheap right now.

Plasmas are great for games. I just don't think they're as GOOD as LCD.
Burn in isn't a huge issue these days but it's definitely there.

I agree that for your uses you probably are best off with two 32's.

As always, pick the boxes yourself. Shake em. Make sure it's all well packed in there. Make sure there is no box damage.

Transport the boxes upright. Preferably purchase from a store which stores the boxes upright.

The setup is a one man job for those they're really light.


And don't forget-- it's not an "AAAaaaahh"

out of the box. it's a "HUH? Err.."

(tweak color, brightness, post processing)

"aaaaaaaah"

If you use a PS3 or BLURAY or 360 on HDMI make sure to set the color space to the highest possible range. That TV can take it. use good high bitrate HDMI cables. The cheap ones aren't as good I swear.

Oh by the way the TV has a 'dejudder' function. It works by flashing the backlight in sequence with the frame output. Basically it's seizure enducing IME... But give it a shot and tell me how you did with it.
 
Well I've not really calibrated an HDTV set before - you just talking about the settings ON the TV itself or something else I need to do?

And in reference to the cables, I figure its a bad idea to get them from Big Lots but are you recommending a 12 inch Monster Cable for $9,270.00USD? lol
 
Well I've not really calibrated an HDTV set before - you just talking about the settings ON the TV itself or something else I need to do?

And in reference to the cables, I figure its a bad idea to get them from Big Lots but are you recommending a 12 inch Monster Cable for $9,270.00USD? lol

You can get them for $8 ,323 if you look.
You can use any high end cable. Doesn't have to be Monster. Make sure it's well insulated, has good quality connectors. A quality cable is something you can't miss, with any cables.

I've got a Thunder Cable, a Sony PS3 branded cable, a Nexxtech cable and a, iCon cable. The Thunder is the best followed by the icon followed by the Nexxtech followed by the PS3.

With the Thunder the picture is so much better I can actually make out aliasing lines on Xbox I can't otherwise make out-- I also get a MUCH richer color range.

Ya just calibrate the TV- there's a lot of picture enhancements like XV color. You can tweak the actual color, the backlight, black levels.

Try to tweak on a still image that's in full daylight (in a ROOM that's full daylight)

example: It's noon, you're in California, you're looking at a picture that was taken at noon in california on your TV in similar cloud conditions. Ideally a picture including trees, sand, people, and multicolored clothing.

Tweak until every single detail is as apparent as possible. Don't oversaturate colors. Getting a proper green gradient is the most difficult thing. You don't realize how delicate and complicated the green tones in leaves are until you tweak an HDTV.
 
Thanks for all the help - the 32'' LCD it is then :)

Especially if it has these high-end color options. Although I'm curious as to how this LCD is better than gaming on a Plasma.

In regards to Plasma's I've always heard things like "Its just like gaming on a CRT! However if you play a game on it, the pixels burn in LOL"

Anyway I think 32'' is much better for me - I don't think I have enough room anywhere right now for a 42'' TV with potential burn-in problems.

Also, have you checked this TV with SD Content/Pulldown? I have a lot of ripped DVDs on my PC I wanted to stream to it along with an SDTV Digital Tuner (Charter Cable in my area, their HD Service isn't even worth paying for lol)
 
Thanks for all the help - the 32'' LCD it is then :)

Especially if it has these high-end color options. Although I'm curious as to how this LCD is better than gaming on a Plasma.

In regards to Plasma's I've always heard things like "Its just like gaming on a CRT! However if you play a game on it, the pixels burn in LOL"

Anyway I think 32'' is much better for me - I don't think I have enough room anywhere right now for a 42'' TV with potential burn-in problems.

Also, have you checked this TV with SD Content/Pulldown? I have a lot of ripped DVDs on my PC I wanted to stream to it along with an SDTV Digital Tuner (Charter Cable in my area, their HD Service isn't even worth paying for lol)

No :(

The 720P Video and 1080P gaming/PC picture is a 10/10. The only caveat is the black level losing its edge when you arent in the sweet spot.

It's better for gaming because there is no burn in risk (though that risk is very low these days honestly) and the main reason- brightness and vividness. We play games at high brightness and we like really punchy exaggerated colors and crisp edges. Plasma doesn't do that. You want SHARPNESS for video games. That's what an LCD does.

You'll be happy I really doubt you'll dislike these TV's. just remember you have to tweak the color.

No experience on SD/pulldown
 
Meh I'll check out the SD/Pulldown at Sears - they seem to be the only store in my area that has this model and they have all their TVs hooked up to a freakin' Coax so it shouldn't be that hard.
 
Meh I'll check out the SD/Pulldown at Sears - they seem to be the only store in my area that has this model and they have all their TVs hooked up to a freakin' Coax so it shouldn't be that hard.

Get satellite or something dude. Screw SD.

You haven't LIVED until you've watched wheel of fortune in 720P :bday:
 
Well I got my dad the TCL32X1 (720p) set for $350 at HHGregg and he seems to enjoy it - I basically used him as a guinea pig since I needed to get him an Xmas present anyway.

I'm pretty impressed with the 720p set - its not orgasmic but for the price it was pretty good - I even hooked my PC's GTX 285 up to it and saw no ghosting whatsoever.

So yeah I'm definitely gonna get the TCL32S1 for a Gaming Monitor/TV :)

BTW, do you have any experience with Blu-Ray drives for the PC? I was planning on renting-n-ripping them to the PC and steaming to the Panny 1080p TV
 
Well I got my dad the TCL32X1 (720p) set for $350 at HHGregg and he seems to enjoy it - I basically used him as a guinea pig since I needed to get him an Xmas present anyway.

I'm pretty impressed with the 720p set - its not orgasmic but for the price it was pretty good - I even hooked my PC's GTX 285 up to it and saw no ghosting whatsoever.

So yeah I'm definitely gonna get the TCL32S1 for a Gaming Monitor/TV :)

BTW, do you have any experience with Blu-Ray drives for the PC? I was planning on renting-n-ripping them to the PC and steaming to the Panny 1080p TV
31655.jpg


No idea regarding BLU-RAY drives for PC. It makes sense to me that the quality would be at least as good as a mid-range standalone player, given a good quality HDMI cable, good color settings, and the hardware acceleration of your GPU.

If applied correctly a good PC is going to be a much more powerful video decoder despite not being purpose built or optimized.

I'm pretty sure there's no 1080P cable TV service... at least not where I live, so there's really no need to get someone who's just watching TV a 1080P set unless there are other advantages you're after like framerate conversion better post processing etc in that set.

The S1 looks much better than the X1 with better color and a much much sharper picture-- not just for the resolution, but the picture is just freakin sharp. Like eye blistering sharp.
Did you notice the icky off angle black level loss with the X1?
 
Yeah I did with the X1 - sadly.

I'll just guilt the girlfriend into getting me the S1 for my Birthday lol
 
Yeah I did with the X1 - sadly.

I'll just guilt the girlfriend into getting me the S1 for my Birthday lol

SAMSUNG's LN32B640 is another one you should look at in-store and play around with before deciding. It's more expensive but you get a better refresh and solid black without sacrificing any picture quality or color.

I was really bored one day and spent a huge amount of time looking at all the different TVs from different MFG's in store one day.. that's where I draw the majority of my comparisons from... :p
 
You were actually able to compare in-store? I've found that most retailers have all their sleek 1080p 240Hz sets hooked up to COAX lol...
 
You were actually able to compare in-store? I've found that most retailers have all their sleek 1080p 240Hz sets hooked up to COAX lol...

I go to stores where they are willing to hook things up to a blu-ray player on demand for an interested buyer.

Don't forget-- if the TV has an integrated ATSC tuner, depending on the cable plan in the area you may ACTUALLY be seeing a 720P cable signal decoded by the TV. It does come over COAX.
 
Ahh interesting I didn't know that.

I might look into the Samsung as well but I'm pretty impressed with this X1 set (Considering the price I paid for it :) )


Edit:

Also referring to what you said in this previous post
HDTVs may or may not like default DVI timings. your manual will mention whether or not, for instance, VESA timings at 1920x1080 are supported. You may be surprised. For example, Sharp only supports 1600@ Vesa.

What exactly were you referring to, and also does the S1 support these "VESA Timings" ??
 
Ahh interesting I didn't know that.

I might look into the Samsung as well but I'm pretty impressed with this X1 set (Considering the price I paid for it :) )


Edit:

Also referring to what you said in this previous post

What exactly were you referring to, and also does the S1 support these "VESA Timings" ??

Look in your manual. It may or may not officially support them I'm not sure.~
You can always call the MFG if you aren't sure.

There is a vertical frequency, a horizontal frequency, and some polarity stuff which i don't understand associated with display timings. computer monitors use VESA timings which may or may not be directly compatible with LCD TV's.

Like I said the Sharp LE700's user manual only lists supporting VESA resolutions to 60Hz/1600x900 despite having a 'native' 120Hz refresh (so they claim) and a 1920x1080 resolution.

Does that mean it won't TAKE a 1920x1080 signal via DVI/HDMI converter? Probably not. It'll display it just fine. Can it damage the set? I don't know. You'd want to ask an engineer who worked on the set. Customer service people aren't really trained to answer more complicated questions.. I've been there. Panasonic couldn't tell me if my plasma used the rated power consumption out of the wall at 115V or at 12V, nor could they tell me if I could play video off SD without going and checking.
 
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