mrroylee88

hey fellas...the dvdtalk world has not let me down before, i am in need of your help again...
I have the panasonic TH-42PWD8UK EDTV ( I bought it for a killer price) but I don't know how to maximize the picture...can anyone give me suggestions about setup, what products are good, and some basics about home theatre systems (i.e. what's the best recievers, speakers, etc?) i know that my request is a bit broad, but any info (especially those of you who have the same or similar television) would be greatly appreciated! Thanks before hand!

Brian Shannon

Not sure how to help.

What kind of dvd player do you have? Direct TV/Dish or Cable TV? As for receivers and speakers, have you listened to any speakers? How much is your budget and how big is your room?

Spiky

Fit $16.48 into your budget:
http://search.deepdiscountdvd.com/cl...nd&isort=score

renaldow

I'm assuming this is a new plasma set right? For right now, just get everything hooked up, and don't bother doing a callibration to it yet. It's a waste of time. Just make it look decent. After 200 hours, the set will be broken in and the picture will change, most likely dramatically. Then do the callibration. It's a bit different between manufacturers, but a break in on plasmas take 150-200 hours. Any callibrations you do before that will be useless, and the pic quality will not be as good.

DVD Josh

You've received three excellent pieces of advice from three knowledgeable people.

As for break-in, I highly suggest taking this route - if you are subscribed to HD, turn to Discovery HD and let it run for the 200 hours (as close to day and night as possible, mute if necessary). This really knocks down the hours significantly.

As for calibration, R is right, don't bother until it's broken in.

mrroylee88

Thanks for all the info thus far...definitely opening my eyes up to a lot of things...
I'm having a little trouble with my setup...the tv is a display only. i've been told by the guy who installed my television that with my digital cable box i need a reciever that has an s-video input as well as an output. I have been unable to locate on so far. does this guys know what he is talking about? any help would be great...

Spiky

Um, I think the guys are talking about an expensive ISF calibration that would be worthless to do until a couple hundred hours are past. A user calibration, esp of the contrast/picture setting and possibly aided by the disc I linked or something similar, should be the very first thing you do after plugging it into the wall. And should be updated after a couple hundred hours.

What receiver is he talking about? Virtually every audio receiver made in the last decade has Svideo input/output. And the cable box is your TV tuner/receiver. Not sure what else you need. For HD usage, you cannot use Svideo, you need component/DVI/HDMI.

BobDole42

the cable dude is a moron. You should connect your HD cable box to the tv using component or HDMI/DVI. For audio, connect the digital out (optical or coax) from the cable box to your receiver.

Spiky is right - go ahead and calibrate the set now and then do it again after a few hundred hours of use. Don't waste the money on ISF calibration for this set - you should be able to get it looking great on your own.

renaldow

Callibrating before the set is broken in is a fairly pointless act. It's not going to give him a much better pic, and it's going to be harder to callibrate during this period. It won't hurt anything to do it, it's just not going to help anything either.

BobDole42

I don't understand how it is a pointless act? Calibrating with Avia or VE takes less than an hour. If the break-in period on this set is 200 hours, that could means months, depending on how much tv he watches. Why not calibrate it now and then again when its broken in?

Spiky

One reason for calibrating now is to help protect the set. Today's plasmas are good at avoiding burn-in, but why leave it in torch mode for no reason? Esp since the most vulnerable time is the first couple hundred hours. Proper calibration will help break it in properly.

Plus, it's going to give him a MUCH better pic most likely. Why would it not? Yes, break-in will change that and necessitate more calibrations down the road, but none of that means a calibration at first won't help the pic. This is why you wait for a $400 ISF calibration, to not waste the money before it's broken in. But certainly do your own with a DVD.

mrroylee88

wow...didn't even know about waiting 200 hrs before I calibrated anything. Once again...thanks a million. Can anyone recommend me a audio reciever or home theatre system that I can buy that has both an s-video input and output? That's one of the last things I need to take care of for now, and I'm getting anxious...haha

BDB

I have the same tv, and have the sony str-da3000es receiver which is great, although I'm selling it now, and replaced it with an H/K AVR 340 as the sony is too deep for the new media center we bought.

any decent receiver should be good and be able to do switching between the sources.
When I select TV it switches everything to go to the Tivo, and DVD plays dvds changes the imputs etc.

Spiky

You should give a price range. Otherwise Bob will recommend what he just bought. Which cost more than both my cars put together.

BobDole42

haha - don't pretend like you aren't an audio elitist too

OP - what is your price range? Contrary to popular belief, I do have a few suggestions for affordable gear

mrroylee88

hmmm...i always seem to forget to add the price range...sorry about the vagueness...
anyways, i'm thinking about $400, but to be completely honest, I'm not really sure what a good price range is. Can you help me out?

BobDole42

Maranzt, Denon and Onkyo all makes great receivers in that price range. I prefer them in that order. Accessories4less.com is an authorized dealer for refurbished marantz products and has some killer deals. Here is a marantz 5400 new for $400 http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-.../MARSR5400BLKA

mrroylee88

Thanks Bob...I found a nice Onkyo that is in my price range and fits all the specs I need...I think. Ha...Still, I am keeping my options open as always...Does anyone know of a good wireless speaker system? I am not too keen on wires spilling out everywhere, and I'm obviously not too good in the technical department...I thought that wireless would be the simplest option. I can't seem to find too many of them though...any suggestions? Thanks again...

BobDole42

Unfortunately, there aren't any good wireless speakers. It would be a shame to use such a nice tv and nice receiver with wireless speakers - they are universally awful. You can get flat speaker wire that is paintable to match you decor. I have wires running to my surround speakers and the bedroom system. It was a day's worth of work but there are barely any wires visable.

mrroylee88

Bob....ur the man. Thanks for all your help...love learning something new everyday... I can only imagine what kind of system you have at your place...thanks for the tip on paintable flat speaker wire...i'm going to look into that...

BobDole42

I'm glad I could help. I have over a hundred feet of the stuff running throughout my system. It's pretty cheap - I have the Monster cable flat paintable wire, and I paid about $35 for 100 feet. There are other brands too.

if you're curious about my system, here is a link to some picture of it: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=454937

crabb41

I just bought the tv and the HD channels work great. They come in crystal clear. The problem is all the other channels come in terrible. The picture is off. I get better reception on my 25" tv in my bedroom than on my new plasma. I have comcast hd cable box along with all the cables (HDMI cable, etc.) Any suggestions on how to rewire or the settings I need to switch to make my SD channels come in clearer

Sdallnct

It may not get any better. The better the tv the more it will show how bad sd tv is. The worse the tv the more it will hide how bad sd is.

Once you get use to hd/dvdp on a nice tv, it is hard to go back.

MasterCXtreme

Make sure your Calibrate the tv correctly... there are quite a few DVD's out there that have a "THX Calibrate Feature" on the discs already (Star Wars, I believe the Pixar discs). Should help a little bit.