Topic: Sharp LC46XD1E (LC-46GD7T)

[Achim]

As mentioned before in another thread I had plans to buy a large LCD TV. Well, yesterday I was "in the mood" and went shopping, successfully.

I ended up with a Sharp (I kept reading they make good ones) LC-46GD7T, which I believe is named LC46XD1E in other markets (hence the indecisive thread title); I couldl only find links in Chinese when looking for the model number and the one linked has the same specs.

While my original intent was to go for a 50" screen I am now glad to have purchased the 46". I am seated fairly close to the screen (around 7'-8'/2.1m-2.4m) and I now feel that anything larger could have been "problematic". It is Full HD, even though I have yet to buy a HD player. The only feature I am missing is the 24fps option; but from what I could see it's basically an additional US$1,000 for that; at least here in Taiwan.

I also bought a Pioneer DVD Player DV-400V LC-60C46U which does upscale DVDs, as my old machine was only capable of 480p output. I have tested it with a duplicate DVD and could notice the difference; nice!

To test the whole setup I watched "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" yesterday. While in some scenes the limitations of upscaling to such a big screen become almost painfully obvious, it is beautiful to see how much detail becomes visible which is not that nicely presente4d on a regular sized TV.

There are loads of setting option in the TV as well as the DVD player which I have yet to read more about in order to optimize the image.


As in money-spending mood and for good measure I also purchased an iPod touch (also bought the software upgrade with Maps; really cool how it is able to find my current location without usage of GPS!).


I also did look at a Blu Ray player from Pioneer, but the price tag was still a little too high and the people in the shop actually weren't that clear whether the player could be upgraded to Profile 2.0 resp. BD Live later on... So I stayed away from that for the time being.


I am a happy man.

[Kathy]

Congratulations...this really is a Happy New Year!

[Achim]

Congratulations...this really is a Happy New Year!

Thanks Kathy! Indeed

Especially since I have a second New year celebration coming up (Chinese New Year), which involves a week off from work. A friend of mine had recommended to get done with the purchase before that; I am very glad he did.


BTW, it appears I may have previouslu linked to the wrong TV model in my post above. As I said, the model numbers in Asia are different and I had to look for the matching one... I double-checked and the one I linked has a different stand and I now found the one that seems to match correctly (I hope...; not all the important anyway). The link has been corrected.

[ninehours]

Very nice, By the way if you want a good Blu-ray player buy a Ps3 i bought one as a temporary measure until i could afford a "proper" Blu-ray player but the Ps3 is that good I'm not sure I'm going to bother now.

[lyonsden5]

Very nice Achim. Congratulations to you.

FWIW I am also happy with my PS3 purchase, although I do not use it to it's full capabilities since my TV is component 1080i.

[Achim]

I have considered the option of buying a PS 3 for the time being. Asked in one store and they didn't have it in stock; they offered to order it but as I was indecisive at that moment I didn't do so (had they had it in store, who knows what would have happened...).

I am not much of a gamer so I'm afraid that part of the machine wouldn't get much workout. Don't even know what games are around that would possibly interest me . Maybe I ought look around for that? Also, I am not sure if English game versions are easily available in Taiwan, so I may have to order them

Just having bought the TV I am o.k. with just enjoying the upscaled DVDs. If the "final decision" regarding the format war is being pushed back again and again by Universal and Paramount holding on to HD DVD I may have to reconsider, provided I can find some games I want to play.

Any suggestions for games a "non-gamer" can enjoy? I used  to play Duke Nukem a lot, so first-person shooters are an option, although I admit I am not very good at those, my overall coordination occasionally getting in the way of successfully navigating through the game Another option could be one of those "car games"; I have seen the demo for Gran Turismo in the store, which looked nice, but I have no idea what that game is about.

[Najemikon]

Personally I could never get on with first person shooters on a console, yet they're my favourite type of game via the PC. I find it impossible to aim and I hear that in PC versus Console network games, the PCs normally thrash the consoles, so obviously there is a fundamental problem there!

I saw my cousin playing a third person based game on his PS3 and that looked much better, with far more natural controls. Assassin's Creed I think it was. Google it for a trailer, but it looked gorgeous on his LCD TV and that wasn't HD.

With racing games, I think the Need for Speed series is very popular at the moment, and I've certainly enjoyed them on the PC. I also like Colin McCrae's Dirt (well, the demo anyway!). That might interest you if there's a PS3 version.

Finally, when I've briefly played on friends' consoles, I always found the extreme sports games quite playable. Things like Tony Hawks skateboarding or the skiing games. I was never interested in either, but when I had a go, it's really quite addictive.

When DVD was first released I used an old PC as a player. Could you buy a BluRay drive for yours? Noise and graphics power are serious considerations. Mind you, upgrade your PC to silent Bluray capability, you'd also have a proper games machine! 

[Achim]

Thanks Jon! That seems like some helpful information and I will look at the games you mentioned.

Of course I always played Duke Nukem on the PC before, I have no idea how such game would come along on a console.

I have heard about Need For Speed before and as there are several entries to the series, they seem to be popular indeed. I'll take a look at Colin McCrae's Dirt as well and if there is one for the PS3.

While I am definitely interested in getting a Blu Ray drive for my computer I am not sure it will turn it into a game machine; I understand gaming on the Mac is a little behind (I'd mainly use it to capture disc-IDs and maybe to burn backups or such).


If I ultimately find that gaming remains not-my-thing, I guess I'll go hunting for a standalone player in summer.

[Achim]

FWIW I am also happy with my PS3 purchase, although I do not use it to it's full capabilities since my TV is component 1080i.

Well, me being me, I ought one today! It's only a 40GB model, but I thought as I am not a heavy gamer it should be sufficient for my purposes. It came with some robot game, which I haven't heard of before (figuring out how to play should be fun, the manual is in Chinese only ; the game is in English too).

At least now I am finally hi-def capable and can start buying a few worthy movies in HD (I have a hunch that I'll start with a double-dip and get Blade Runner Final Cut 2-disc).

I'll probably get one or two games too, so the gaming component of the machine doesn't fell wasted. (Still taking further recommendations.)

[Najemikon]

I picked up Need for Speed Carbon the other day and like it so far, if that's anymore of a further recommendation. It's a lot like 'Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' in terms of story. I particularly like how you can go free roaming and pick up trouble or police or both and then earn points for escaping.

OT but I notice The Yakuza in your banner. What did you think?

[Achim]

I picked up Need for Speed Carbon the other day and like it so far, if that's anymore of a further recommendation. It's a lot like 'Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' in terms of story. I particularly like how you can go free roaming and pick up trouble or police or both and then earn points for escaping.

Yeah, I am thinnking a car driving game should have relatively high replay value and Need For Speed is one of the coices, maybe Gran Turismo when it comes out. The shop where I bought yesterday didn't have much of a choice and I didn'´t want to buy the first car game I touched.

OT but I notice The Yakuza in your banner. What did you think?

Well,, it's "typical" Sydney Pollack fair, which is not a bad thing! I liked the movie a lot; there was a lot to learn about Japanese culture.

The ending was good.

(click to show/hide)

I was worried he'd return to the woman (not that that would have been bad), but when he said "turn around" to the taxi driver I knew he'd go see Ken again and had a hunch he'd show his respect to Ken...

One thing stood out for me, as I was not aware that those things happened so long already: crazy shootings. The way it was presented was kinda cool too: "When Americans go crazy they open the window and kill others, when japanese people go crazy they close the window and kill themselves".