One of the dealers that I service finally got one of these sets for demo. I have not been able to make any measurements yet but did get to play with the set some and have some subjective observations. I will report measurements and calibration results later.
First of all, before the set was turned on, I noticed the glow in the lower center of the screen. This is clearly ambient light reflected back to the screen by the aspherical mirror at the bottom of the screen. Turning off lights in the room eliminated the problem. This may be a problem for some applications, but that will be an individual decision. I think it is far less objectionable than a reflective screen.
The first thing I observed with a picture is that no matter what picture mode is used, the reds are far too intense. The odd thing is that even when turning down the color, the reds seem to remain more saturated and the color control seems to affect the intensity of other colors more than red. I will have to make some measurements to sort this out, but it is pretty obvious that the color processing is quite different than other sets.
The whites are blazing and seem brighter than the lamp based sets. Of course, the OOB settings are hideous, just like other sets. Blacks seem to be slightly better than the lamp based sets. Most of the controls seem to operate similarly, with the colors appearing to be significantly more saturated. One interesting thing that I noticed is that turning up the maximum contrast in the service menu allows your to really get a lot of brightness out of the set, but the whites do crush when you do. What was interesting is just how intense they can get.
My initial impression is that the set is likely capable of slightly better performance than the lamp based sets. Calibration will inform that opinion with more specific results, and I need to throw some more challenging sources and test signals at this set. It is not going to be a knockout difference, however. I think it will be competitive with similarly sized sets in performance, and will likely be brighter than PDPs with no possibility for burn-in. Certainly it has a place in the market, and when the second generation sets come in at substantially lower prices, I think it will be clear that there is a market for the technology. That is, if they can make it work without problems, and make it more field serviceable.
I will report more info as I collect it. This week is busy and next week I will be camping with scouts, so it will be a couple of weeks before I get to make any measurements or a more in-depth evaluation.
First of all, before the set was turned on, I noticed the glow in the lower center of the screen. This is clearly ambient light reflected back to the screen by the aspherical mirror at the bottom of the screen. Turning off lights in the room eliminated the problem. This may be a problem for some applications, but that will be an individual decision. I think it is far less objectionable than a reflective screen.
The first thing I observed with a picture is that no matter what picture mode is used, the reds are far too intense. The odd thing is that even when turning down the color, the reds seem to remain more saturated and the color control seems to affect the intensity of other colors more than red. I will have to make some measurements to sort this out, but it is pretty obvious that the color processing is quite different than other sets.
The whites are blazing and seem brighter than the lamp based sets. Of course, the OOB settings are hideous, just like other sets. Blacks seem to be slightly better than the lamp based sets. Most of the controls seem to operate similarly, with the colors appearing to be significantly more saturated. One interesting thing that I noticed is that turning up the maximum contrast in the service menu allows your to really get a lot of brightness out of the set, but the whites do crush when you do. What was interesting is just how intense they can get.
My initial impression is that the set is likely capable of slightly better performance than the lamp based sets. Calibration will inform that opinion with more specific results, and I need to throw some more challenging sources and test signals at this set. It is not going to be a knockout difference, however. I think it will be competitive with similarly sized sets in performance, and will likely be brighter than PDPs with no possibility for burn-in. Certainly it has a place in the market, and when the second generation sets come in at substantially lower prices, I think it will be clear that there is a market for the technology. That is, if they can make it work without problems, and make it more field serviceable.
I will report more info as I collect it. This week is busy and next week I will be camping with scouts, so it will be a couple of weeks before I get to make any measurements or a more in-depth evaluation.