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SILICON
CHIP
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD
Production Manager
Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.)
Technical Editor
Peter Smith
Technical Staff
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Ross Tester
Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO
Reader Services
Ann Jenkinson
Advertising Enquiries
Lawrence Smith
Benedictus Smith Pty Ltd
Phone (02) 9211 8035
Fax: (02) 9211 0068
lawrence<at>benedictus-smith.com
Regular Contributors
Brendan Akhurst
Rodney Champness, VK3UG
Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed,
Grad.Dip.Jnl
Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK
Stan Swan
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Publisher’s Letter
Standard definition
plasma TV sets are not
the best proposition
This month, one of our correspondents to
Mailbag (page 7) draws attention to the fact that
some plasma TV sets being sold on the Australian
market have 852 x 480 pixels. This is fine for the
American market because NTSC broadcasts have
480 visible scanning lines (out of a total of 525
lines). But it is inadequate for PAL broadcasts
which have 576 visible scanning lines (out of a
total of 625 scanning lines). The set has to scale the incoming video signal
to suit the number of vertical pixels so inevitably, you lose vertical picture
resolution. Putting it another way, the picture on such standard definition
plasma sets can never be as detailed as on a good CRT set.
But the situation is actually worse. Rather than just some plasma sets being
only 852 x 480 pixels, it appears that ALL standard definition wide-screen
plasma sets conform to this standard. Why? Because they are all designed
to suit the American market. Sure, some of them might be HD-ready, able
to accept a signal from a HD set-top box via a digital HDMI cable or analog
component video (with progressive scan) but they can never display HD
signals with anything more than 852 x 480 resolution.
Plasma sets (HD or SD) also use a lot of power, typically between 300
and 500 watts, depending on screen size. Just check out any plasma set
in your local retailer – you can feel the heat radiating from the screen and
from the top of the cabinet. That may not be a problem in winter, when it
just contributes to your room heating but it is a lot of heat in summer. If
you are running an air-conditioner, it will have to work that much harder
to get rid of the excess heat.
I also feel that any set producing that much heat must present a long-term
reliability prospect. All the electronic componentry behind the screen is
subject to much of that heat.
Temporary image burn-in of station logos also seems to be a problem,
even on the current generation of plasma TVs. While this may not do any
permanent harm, it can be extremely irritating to see a channel logo still
there, maybe days afterwards you watched several hours of a sports broadcast.
One cannot deny that plasma TVs are initially very attractive when you
see them on display in the stores. They are very bright and colourful and
when shown with any cartoon features, they seem even brighter. Our advice? Look carefully before you leap. Consider a high-definition LCD set or
even a rear projection set over any SD plasma set. If those models seem too
expensive, just wait a year – they will be much cheaper then.
And don’t be conned by extreme claims for contrast ratio. A press release
for a new SD plasma set that arrived while I was writing this very editorial
claims a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. This is ridiculous.
Leo Simpson
ISSN 1030-2662
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