February 2006

A Tale of Two TVs

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times” (with apologies to Charles Dickens).  In over a half century of “thing acquisition” I have never been so pleased on the one hand with a piece of equipment and so disappointed on the other hand.  Let me weave my tale of elation and woe in the narrative that follows.

After I returned from CEDIA 2005 I decided to replace the Sony XBR 27” set in my bedroom with a 37” Panasonic Plasma HD set. Once that had been done the 16 year old SD TV in my Home Theater, a Pioneer Elite PRO-75 CRT rear projection monitor, became practically unwatchable by comparison.  It was clearly past its prime and its age was beginning to show.  Therefore I decided that I should upgrade the “regular” TV in the Home Theater to something with HD capability.

In September at CEDIA 2005 the focus of attention was on 1080p displays in various formats. There were DLP models and LCoS models in various guises (such as JVC’s D-ILA and Sony’s SXRD technology.)  The pictures all looked great and several of them looked spectacular.  It became apparent that a 1080p set was what I should focus on when considering a replacement TV for my Home Theater.  The general consensus of many friends at the show was that the best looking picture of all belonged to the HP 1080p “Micro displays” which were being fed native 1080p source material from a PC server.  And, better yet, the HP was one of the very few 1080p displays that could actually accept a 1080p native signal. The only others that our staff could find were a $10,000 SXRD front projector from SONY and an LCoS RPM from Brillian, which generally sells through non-retail channels. Unfortunately, all the other 1080p displays would only accept a maximum resolution of 1080p through the HDMI inputs.

The usual party line on this lack of 1080p input capability was something like, "Well, there really isn't any significant 1080p source material at the moment." While that's generally true (don't tell this to HTPC people!) the situation is bound to change in the next year or so. Lots of 1080p source material is rumored to be on the way. Blu-ray? HD DVD? Who knows? But it is definitely coming. And since I don't make a major purchase like a large screen monitor every two years it seems reasonable to want to "future proof" my next set to include 1080p input. I fully expect at least 5-10 years out of such a set (my Pioneer Elite Pro-75 has given me 16 years of trouble free service!).

But there's another, more immediate reason to consider 1080p input on a 1080p set even if widespread 1080p source material is a bit longer that two years off (not that I think it is). Let's say you have a 1080p source available to you. Even though the 1080p set is capable of displaying a 1080p signal, if it doesn't accept the input natively then you have to downscale it to 1080i for acceptance and then the set scales it back up to 1080p. Not only does that introduce two stages of signal processing that just invites a bit of image degradation but it also limits you to relying on the internal scalar of the monitor. With 1080p input you bypass the monitor's internal scaler entirely. I'm not knocking the scalers in the current sets - they are probably pretty good by today's standards. However, we are all aware of the nature of this common affliction. Technological progress is something that comes at us in waves. If a better external scaler is introduced, or if you find one right now (there are several out there), nothing stops you from using it to generate the 1080p signal for your 1080p display - nothing, that is, as long as your set can handle 1080p input! Otherwise you are stuck with what you have.

There are those who say that the difference between the look of 1080p and 1080i, especially at the distances usually viewed in the home, probably isn't that great. After all, most of us don't watch a monitor with our noses touching the display (maybe some of our kids or grandkids do.) I tend to think that this argument, while possibly practical, still doesn't address the fact that 1080p is a higher resolution than 1080i and can look far better if all goes well.

Others have stated that they don't know if they should trust HP as a TV provider since they are relatively new to the HD home display field and don't have a proven record in this area of home entertainment. I find that a weak argument since HP has been making computers for a long time and others, like Dell, are finding the TV monitor area to be just as profitable as and even more so than their computer business. Besides, even though Texas Instruments has the patents on DLP (I believe) HP actually invented the wobulation that is used to create the 1080p image so the whole argument, to me, is a bit shortsighted.

So what's did I do? I liked the specifications and the potential of the HP MD5880n so much that I ordered one.  While the stand (at 115 pounds) was readily available from hpshopping.com and arrived in two days the set, two weeks before Christmas, was back ordered.  Fortunately (or so I thought) a friend of mine who is a custom installer was able to locate a distributor in the state of Washington who had the units in stock.  When I expressed a concern regarding the possibility of getting a bad unit I was assured that the HP national support network would handle any warranty issues so I forged ahead with my purchase.  And that’s where this tale turns from anticipation to aggravation.  Rather than usurp these pages with an amazing (and detailed) series of events let me direct you to the full account of my HP Service Experience HERE (click on the link). After you finish reading it, head back here for the rest of the story. I’ll wait….

I see that you’re back.  A rather amazing series of events, right?   And not something that I would wish on my worst enemy. But, as I stated elsewhere, the promise of this set was so good (and the other options were so limited at the time) that I chose to stay the course to see if my experience with TV #2 would be as good as my experience with TV #1 was bad.  And now that I’ve had the display in my house for just about one month as I write this I feel a bit more qualified to offer some first hand opinions.

I've had time now to play around with the various setup items I'm dealing with regarding my new HP MD5880n and the DVD0 iScan VP30 scaler.  It’s a given that the image on this set is excellent.  That's what sold me in the first place and why I pursued getting a working set with such determination. And many of you know the capabilities of the recently released VP30 1080p scaler. However, it is the combination of the two units that really proves how important it is to have 1080p input capability on a 1080p set. While the internal scaler of the HP does a nice job, the VP30 is noticeably better in just about every circumstance. Here's what I did. Instead of connecting all my sources directly to the HP and letting it do the scaling to 1080p I now have connected everything to the VP30 and let it do the scaling. My eyes tell me that the VP30 does a better job producing 1080p than the HP does. Don't get me wrong - the HP does a good job, but the VP30 does a great job.

When I feed native 1080p from the external scaler to the HP (as indicated by "1080p" appearing on the INFO bar on the TV) the picture is better. This is especially true when the scaling jump is greater, i.e. going from 480i to 1080p shows a bigger improvement than going from 1080i to 1080p when comparing the VP30 scaling to the HP scaling.

I'm not surprised that the VP30 scales better than the HP. It should since it, alone, costs about 2/3 the price of the entire HP display! But that's not the point. I've always contended that if you have a 1080p set you should at least have 1080p native input or you are locked in to having to use the internal scaling of the set. That's just common sense and there's no way around it unless you somehow open the set and make some major circuit modifications (not recommended for the average person.) And while all these 1080p sets, regardless of brand, produce great pictures today, what happens when scaling technology improves? Yep. If your set doesn't let you input 1080p then you are stuck! At least by choosing the HP MD sets you are able to adapt to the future without having to get rid of the set (until displays with higher than 1080p resolution become available).

I'm not suggesting that people rush out to spend $2000 (MSRP) on an external scaler (street is less), especially if you are satisfied with the job the HP is doing. It will do just fine when Blu-ray or other 1080p sources become available. But you always have that option - to incorporate an external scaler all the way up to 1080p without worrying about improved scaling at that resolution. And since the DVDO policy in the past has been to offer a generous upgrade allowance toward new equipment I consider my money spent on the VP30 an investment rather than an expense. They were already talking about their next generation scaler at CES 2006 (the VP40?) and I'm positioned to make my scaling even better when that happens.

I could go on and on about the tremendous flexibility that the VP30/HP MD5880n provides me but this is not the place for that. Suffice it to say it's a tinkerer's dream! The bottom line is that in my opinion, one of the strongest selling points of the HP MD's is the acceptance of 1080p and after I've seen what this means up close and personal there is absolutely no way that I can recommend a 1080p set that does not accept native 1080p. Those people who go on and on about the lack of 1080p content at present or who continue to argue that the average person can't tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p at normal seating distances just don't get it. My advice to them would be to just purchase a 720p set and be done with it. The prices of these 720p sets have come down so much that they can save a lot of money if they truly believe what they are saying and they can save a lot of energy if they stop preaching about the over-hyping of 1080p.

As a follow-up, I connected my laptop PC directly to the HP MD5880n (a very capable top of the line Dell M170 running WinXP Media Edition 2005 with an NVidia 7800 GTX Ultra card) and viewed some native 1080p WMVHD material -- the 1080p version of Step into Liquid. Jaw dropping! And yes, the INFO display verified that the HDMI2 input was accepting 1080p. Those who dismiss lack of 1080p native input capability as something trivial "because there just isn't any 1080p source material" are in denial, plain and simple.  Just take a look at the WMVHD link for more information.

I even did some A/B comparison with the "regular" DVD of this same title - 480i upscaled to 1080p through the VP30. While this upscaled disc looked better than a "normal" disc, it still wasn't as nice as the native 1080p version. I'm not planning to use the laptop connected to the MD5880n on a regular basis, but it does give me a preview of things to come in a few (?) months with Blu-ray, etc. And with well over 3000 SD DVDs I've already justified the cost of my DVDO VP30 since it definitely makes them look better with up scaling. Without the 1080p input capability of the HP MD sets a lot of this would not be possible.

There are many, many more features of this set that I could discuss, such as the unique cable management system that gives you full ready access to all inputs or the nicely designed remote and controls but rather than continuing let me refer you to the links to the specifications and the manual elsewhere.  I’ll bring this to a close by saying that the other night I had the opportunity to watch American Idol for the first time in High Definition and with 5.1 digital sound on FOXHD.  (Dish just started broadcasting our locals here in NY in HD this month and my MPEG4 equipment was just installed). I can state that I watched in complete amazement. This is not a editorial commentary on the content of the show but rather on the quality of the picture.  Hands down, I’ve never seen a better picture on any television. And I’ve seen a lot over the years. The new unit has actually exceeded expectations and I’m very happy with it. And I can state that all the pieces of the puzzle have come together to provide me with what I feel is a state of the art visual and aural experience.

So, what’s my recommendation regarding the HP MD5880n set and its sibling, the slightly larger HPMD6580n?  I’m reminded of something read in a consumer magazine several years ago regarding a BMW SUV.  The magazine raved about the vehicle’s performance in just about every area, giving it top marks across the board. However, it turned out that the vehicle had a horrendous repair history so despite being a great car in every other way it was rated “ NOT ACCEPTABLE” by the publication.  I have similar feelings about this HP display.  In other words, The only way that I would recommend this set is if you can guarantee that your dealer will handle any replacement in the event that you get a faulty unit! My mistake was relying on HP Service to handle service and replacement efficiently and promptly (not an unreasonable request). The resulting ordeal was something that I shouldn't have gone through. While my dealer relied on the premise that HP would support their product (something I can't fault him for) HP let him and me down big time. I would strongly suggest that you find out upfront if your dealer will replace a faulty unit from his own stock and handle the details with the manufacturer himself. If he won't agree to this then I would definitely wait and look elsewhere for a set from a different manufacturer.

The HP display is outstanding. HP's direct warranty replacement process is not!  To repeat what I quoted at the beginning of this report, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

Click here for more information about the HP MD5880n Display

Click here for some pictures of all the new equipment in place