Teac PLMSDM1060 under 3K Review

[nsdn]

Thought I would have a bit of a troll and do a review on a real cheapy Plasma Monitor.

A bit of brief background, spent many years in the TV industry and used to align/calibrate broadcast cameras...I am very particular about picture quality, but damm I know how to tweek the best out of anything.

Dick Smith are currently selling this panel at under 3K, I have been looking around at panels now since the beginning of the year. To date I just have not been able to justify spending 4-5K on a panel....I have a life!!

When I saw this guy for under 3K, I started some serious research, before I purchased it.

I compared it to the various top end models, Panny, Fujitsu, both HD and SD...as well as to other low end models.

First of all anyone who buys a plasma TV cuz its got a inbuilt ANALOGUE tunner its nuts.....no matter what plasma you buy if u poke analogue FTA its gonna look like crap.

That said, the Teac comes with no tuner.....and has a LG panel inside, and it does not have butt ugly speakers at the side. (it has them in the back of it) so the panel itself is VERY nice to look at even when its turned off.

Purchased a TEAC SD set top box, pluged into the component input via **** quality SCART (which I made)....Will fork out for a good quality one later.

1. Sound quality with internal speakers is OK, good for TV but does lack bass, even with bass extensions turned on. Panel has subwoofer out connector which could rectifiy this...however for TV its fine....for movies use home theater anyway

there are NO issues with lip sync, although sometimes particularly ch 10 seems to loose it a bit but this is a function of the transmission (OR stb)....not the panel....the panel is definitly processing the images in real time with no decernable buffering, otherwise using the home theater audio would present a problem!!! DUH!!

2. Composite video in......just don't use it, it looks like total crap, This panel does not do a good job with composite in period....it seems to really upset the panel processing engine, and it looks worse than it should.

3. S-Video looks great. With a 2000:1 Contract ratio (not too shabby for the price) it is hard to pic flaws when a well encoded DVD is played. Unfortunitly this home theater DVD player only has S-Video not component so the only component signal this panel has seen is off FTA digital.

It does appear that the processing engine of the panel looses the plot slightly during high movment on certain colours, it is not MPEG artifacts from the DVD, its more like interferance lines... static aliasing....BUT I will make the point...you REALLY have to be looking to see it. Subjectively the panel is very acceptable, there is no way anyone would pick this flaw with an untrained eye. My kids and wife can't see it even when I point it out to them....(which is good because doing this REALLY pisses my mrs off hehe)

I will make the point that I picked this flaw up in the shop before I bought this unit....ALL the lower end panels in the shop including Samsung, Sony and LG exibited this flaw in the SAME degree. It was NOT apparant on the Fujitsu Panel or the Panny...once again...although it does bother me from a perfectionist point of view...its not worth 2-3K to me to eliminate it!!

I also note when I plug a separate DVD player into the panel that has progressive scan, this seems to all but eliminate this flaw, unfortunitly the home theater DVD player does not have progressive scan

4. Component in via digital SD set top box. I actually already had one, but since this pannel only has ONE S-Video input (which sucks)...and I am using it for the home theater DVD, I needed a SD box with component (panel has 1 composite, 1 S-video, TWO component inputs, RGB via VGA and DVI)...The Teac STB is one of the few SD STB on the market with component out. The panel does accept RGB but only via a VGA connector...so it needs the H-sync and V-sync signals...so adapter won't work.

Picture quality from FTA digital varies dramaticly dependant on what the TV station is transmitting, wether the program is offline encoded or if ...for example for sport it is being real time encoded. real time encoding always look like crap....unless no one is moving of course...lol (again however to the untrained eye most of the time its fine)

Yes U can see errors, however for certain program feeds the picture is virtually perfect save for the same flaw you can see off DVD. Not surprisingly however the worse the source the worse the flaw, as is true for MPEG encoding processing. Generally however (when the TV station is not transmitting crap) the result is excellant, picture is sharp, there is NO noise @ black level...I just wish what was transmitted was more consistant.

5. grey scales are very good, as with detail in dark areas with dark movie scenes., i would be willing to bet that the laws of dimminishing returns apply when your already talking 2000:1 compared to the Panny 4000:1

6. Colour accuracy once tweeked is very good, although the unit is shipped defaul with the picture way over saturated

7. over all brightness, nothing lacking here, at night its actually too bright and needs to be backed off a touch.

8. Zoom/stretch modes, This was actually important to me when I was looking around at panels, but since having it, it has become actually completly redundant. The panel zoom/stretch modes work...that pretty much sums it up. I do not think it does a particularly good job here, however for DVDs I found I like to leave it in the original aspect, and the DVD player has auto aspect correction and zoom modes anyway. Anything worthwhile on digital FTA is txed in 16:9 nowdays....so this is really a non event

Summary, for the price this panel is unbeatable, it comes with a 3 year warranty, by the time this panel's warranty is up I expect for the differance I paid between this panel and ...say a Fujitsu...I will be able to buy a second Plasma....and it WILL be a HD!! (BY THEN @ 3k)

The key message is make sure your source is clean...making comparisons in the shop are extremely difficult since crawling around the back of the panels to see how they are connected might raise some eyebrows....and DON'T use composite video on this panel!!

P.S. With Dick Smith (not that I like them) you can buy it, take it home, and they have a 14 day no questions asked return policy...so take it home and have a play with it and decide for yourself. BUT....I found that one dick smith said they would only give a CREDIT on return....this is not consistant...I checked with the Dick Smith shop I ultimately bought it from and verified this before I purchased it. I would not have bought it otherwise...however their policy pays dividends cuz I am keeping it

[dilligafocau]

My brother-in-law bought one & is very happy with his purchase. The salesperson told him the 3-year warranty was an advertising mistake, but that DSE are honouring it anyways. As you say, give it a wee while & the 50" HD screens will be in the reach of us mere mortals

[FrozenPea]

Is this the same panel in the LG RT-42PX10, or a different one?

[ijd]

Thought I would have a bit of a troll and do a review on a real cheapy Plasma Monitor.

<snip>

...however their policy pays dividends cuz I am keeping it

EXCELLENT review dude!!! I like it when all the warts and good points are brought to the front to also allow an informed decision by others. Sounds like a great recommendation is now available for SD plasma seekers - at just half the price of the outstanding NEC 42" semi-HD!

[nsdn]

No problems....

Although I continue to notice stuff.

Again to do with the fact that all interlaced material is converted to progressive, it seems there is also a bit of a problem when you have very bright diagonal edges on a dark background, the edge can look a bit ragged. It appears as tho the deinterlacing algorithm spits it a bit in this situation. it is more than a pixel wide so its not the panel resolution. Its not a big deal cuz I only just noticed it, and it really depends on the scene and again the source material.

I suspect although I have not confirmed (tho I am pretty sure it wasn't there when I put the other DVD into it that does have progressive) if its fed a Progressive source this would go away....still only notice it cuz I am looking for flaws....would like to bung a HD progessive STB into it via the DVI input to really see what it can really do....again however the SD STB I got was only worth 200 bucks from tricky, off ebay decent HD ones seem to be going for about 4-500 ish when u include postage, and the fact that it IS a SD panel it seems a bit pointless. I think i would rather put up with it and get a PVR when the manufacterers sort out all their bugs (which will most probably be SD anyway but hopefully will have a VGA/progressive output)

really nit picking now...subjectively it looks great

Tho tomorrow when I get a chance I might dig out the other DVD player and try it

BTW I do not think it is the same as the LG 60K hour panel....as that panel is 3000:1 this panel is 2000:1

OK I dug it out.....This DVD player is better than the other one on interlace anyway.....but put it in progressive mode...and wow...what a differance does that make!!!...its all good

[FrozenPea]

BTW I do not think it is the same as the LG 60K hour panel....as that panel is 3000:1 this panel is 2000:1

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's what i suspected. I was only asking because you say that the s-video-in looks pretty good, whereas on my LG RT-42PX10 any interlaced signal fed into it (on any input) looks terrible. Foxtel and fta analogue are unwatchable. My old non-progressive dvd player also looked crap.

As for the brightness... i know what you mean, it seems to get brighter the sleepier you get

[nsdn]

That's what i suspected. I was only asking because you say that the s-video-in looks pretty good, whereas on my LG RT-42PX10 any interlaced signal fed into it (on any input) looks terrible. Foxtel and fta analogue are unwatchable. My old non-progressive dvd player also looked crap.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are of course right, although again it would seem not all interlaced sources are created equal, the original SD set top box I had was a 140 buck Digicrystal off ebay, and it really looked acceptable in the S-Video, the teac using component does not look as good (to be fair I need to get some decent cables for it), I have very little doubt if they were progressive it would look much better & as I said above my better DVD looks better in interlace mode than the home theater does, but its another step better in progressive mode....that said the problems don't bug anyone except for someone that looks for errors...lol

Analogue IS unwatchable, and what I hear about foxtel is that they have no where near enough bitrate for large screen TV viewing

I assume that once u are sending progressive, the media engine does not have to do the deinterlacing any more so it free to do a better job resizing etc. Also since DVDs are generally progressive (although MPEG2 does support interlace), to convert it to interlace and back again your bound to loose detail. This would be true for any panel tho.

[JosephA]

I brought the Teac plasma today. I must say after a few hours of using it, it has great picture.

I have checked DVI, Component inputs (there are 2 of them) and 1080i pictures are fantastic. In the store I compared against others around 4K+ and this screen seemed much better and wasn't loosing frames on HD.

Did check the composite input and it's ok (but not great). But on a 42" plasma screen surely no-one would use standard composite input anyway.

I think for under 3 big ones, it's a great buy. It'll be good for the next few years until the HD versions hit a street price around the same.

The speakers are on the back; sound is ok for standard TV viewing. I generally use my home theatre anyway.

There is no tuner inbuilt, so a set-top box is a must.

now I need the wall brackets......

[I am Murphy]

... Dick Smith are currently selling this panel at under 3K ...

[unquote]

Help - which DS, where? For example, I am in Brisbane.

Since your post I have looked in Harvey Norman ("we don't sell TEAC'), Good Guys, RetraVision, Clive Peeters, JB Hi-Fi, Encel, and a DS.

Cannot find a store with the item.

Have previously contacted TEAC branch in Brisbane & also Melbourne in effort to find a supplier/s in Brisbane.

Weird, Melbourne office refused to say anything other than contact the Brisbane office. Brisbane office IVR wanted my dealer code before it pass me to a human. But, I am consumer, not a dealer.

Almost given up the search

robokopp

[digitalhome]

Try JB HIFI. Time is running out though, as it is a runout model. A HD model will be availible from Teac hopefully for XMAS.

[PaulP33]

... Dick Smith are currently selling this panel at under 3K ...

[unquote]

Help - which DS, where? For example, I am in Brisbane.

Since your post I have looked in Harvey Norman ("we don't sell TEAC'), Good Guys, RetraVision, Clive Peeters, JB Hi-Fi, Encel, and a DS.

Cannot find a store with the item.

Have previously contacted TEAC branch in Brisbane & also Melbourne in effort to find a supplier/s in Brisbane.

Weird, Melbourne office refused to say anything other than contact the Brisbane office. Brisbane office IVR wanted my dealer code before it pass me to a human. But, I am consumer, not a dealer.

Almost given up the search

robokopp

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think I've seen these in Target as well?

[nsdn]

It does not look like they are in Brisbane, in fact it appears they are running out in other places as well.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...duct/View/G4238

Shows which stores have stock.

[ChrisM]

I went looking for one of these plasmas today, but no-one had any in stock. DJ's had one on display and said they could order them, but weren't sure if it would be a new model or not.

Anyway the salesman reckons it will still be about 2999 and offered to give me the 10% off when he can source it.

Looking at the Plasma in the store I thought its PQ was pretty good. It looked a little low on contrast, but not too bad (it was next to a Panasonic)

For $2999 with 10% off and two years interest free (which makes it really about $2500) It seems like a good deal, esp with DVI and 2xcomponent inputs.

[I am Murphy]

I went looking for one of these plasmas today, but no-one had any in stock.  DJ's had one on display and said they could order them, but weren't sure if it would be a new model or not.

Anyway the salesman reckons it will still be about 2999 and offered to give me the 10% off when he can source it.

Looking at the Plasma in the store I thought its PQ was pretty good.  It looked a little low on contrast, but not too bad (it was next to a Panasonic)

For $2999 with 10% off and two years interest free (which makes it really about $2500) It seems like a good deal, esp with DVI and 2xcomponent inputs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ChrisM,

After my earlier post I found a helpful person at TEAC (QLD) who told me, to the best of my recall that:-

1. "the 1060 SD panel is phasing out. Some warehouse stock remains and the last shipment is arriving. When sold, is gone forever. Certain retail stores have limited stocks. DJ is a national account for TEAC."

So, if you have an offer of $2999 less 10% then you are on to the best known street price to-date. For an extra 10% off I would buy a lunch for the sales dude!

In Brisbane, I spoke to a RetraVision store and was told they have some warehouse stock (small qty) and some more arriving.

2. the 1065 HD panel was suggested as being "December into stores pre-Xmas, with RRP 5999".

Summary, stay with your DJ "newly-found friend" or try RetraVision if you want the 1060 SD, at or under $3,000 - but NOT for long ...

Good luck,

robokopp (in BrisVegas)

[dan76n]

I purchased the teac plasma through Djs and am very happy. I got a DVB800 HD setop box from JB to match as I wanted Dolby Digital and found that SD stb Image isnt as good? (mabye because it isnt progressive?) anyway I tried to use DVI but the plasma DVI input is for PC use so it doesnt work, also tried RGB but picture was not as clear as component. S-video is pretty darn good but not as clear as Component. PS2 is awsome through component. DVD in progressive scan is great. anything interlaced (except 1080i) isnt up to scratch. My main concern is it has 2 component inputs but I have PS2, DVD and HD setop to plug in. anyone got a suggestion ? Also I would love to know what settings you are using to get the best out of the picture!

[DannyR]

HiFi Supermarket in Melbourne has this advertised for $2688 ATM.

Dan76n, why doesn the the DVI conenction work?

Danny.

[dan76n]

HiFi Supermarket in Melbourne has this advertised for $2688 ATM.

Dan76n, why doesn the the DVI conenction work?

Danny.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Im not sure, I think the plasma may not support the format from the hd setop box

[ChrisM]

DJ's told me today that the new shipment wouldn't be availiable until December. They also said the SD had been discontinued and would be replaced by an HD model for $3999.

[DannyR]

DJ's told me today that the new shipment wouldn't be availiable until December. They also said the SD had been discontinued and would be replaced by an HD model for $3999.

Wow, now that really is some kind of breakthrough price.

Danny.

[digitalhome]

No, I believe the HD model will be priced at $5999. MMM, seems like I can see a couple of PLM1060's in my shop when I walk in each morning....

[ChrisM]

post deleted

[ChrisM]

Spoke to Teac today and they confirmed the HD plasma would be $5999 and was the model 1065 (1024x1024) on their website. The guy from Teac said he had a 1060 with a Teac HD box connected via DVI and it worked a treat.

The 1060 sounds like the go, so unless someone knows of a better deal I'll go with the DJ's order, (but I'd love to get it sooner than December).

[delbz]

My brother in-law just bought the Teac SD plasma and a Teac 800 HD STB from Target (I know... I know).

I hooked it up with composite, component and DVI.

The best picture I could get was with 576P component. The 1080i component output was shimmering and unwatchable. The DVI output showed as "Not support" on the Plasma unless I selected 576P format - which had awful aliasing.

To top this off Target gave him the remote control for a Teac D500 STB instead of the Plasma's!!

To make it easier for his family to switch b/w foxtel etc from his amp he ended up choosing composite video output - which again looks awful (washed out).

I was really unimpressed by this combination. Can someone with the same setup give me some pointers?

[glenncol]

[ at just half the price of the outstanding NEC 42" semi-HD!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey Ian

What is a Semi HD?

[glenncol]

Thought I would have a bit of a troll and do a review on a real cheapy Plasma Monitor.

A bit of brief background, spent many years in the TV industry and used to align/calibrate broadcast cameras...I am very particular about picture quality, but damm I know how to tweek the best out of anything.

Dick Smith are currently selling this panel at under 3K, I have been looking around at panels now since the beginning of the year. To date I just have not been able to justify spending 4-5K on a panel....I have a life!!

When I saw this guy for under 3K, I started some serious research, before I purchased it.

I compared it to the various top end models, Panny, Fujitsu,  both HD and SD...as well as to other low end models.

First of all anyone who buys a plasma TV cuz its got a inbuilt ANALOGUE tunner its nuts.....no matter what plasma you buy if u poke analogue FTA its gonna look like crap.

That said, the Teac comes with no tuner.....and has a LG panel inside, and it does not have butt ugly speakers at the side. (it has them in the back of it) so the panel itself is VERY nice to look at even when its turned off.

Purchased a TEAC SD set top box, pluged into the component input via **** quality SCART (which I made)....Will fork out for a good quality one later.

1. Sound quality with internal speakers is OK, good for TV but does lack bass, even with bass extensions turned on. Panel has subwoofer out connector which could rectifiy this...however for TV its fine....for movies use home theater anyway

there are NO issues with lip sync, although sometimes particularly ch 10 seems to loose it a bit but this is a function of the transmission (OR stb)....not the panel....the panel is definitly processing the images in real time with no decernable buffering, otherwise using the home theater audio would present a problem!!! DUH!!

2. Composite video in......just don't use it, it looks like total crap, This panel does not do a good job with composite in period....it seems to really upset the panel processing engine, and it looks worse than it should.

3. S-Video looks great. With a 2000:1 Contract ratio (not too shabby for the price) it is hard to pic flaws when a well encoded DVD is played. Unfortunitly this home theater DVD player only has S-Video not component so the only component signal this panel has seen is off FTA digital.

It does appear that the processing engine of the panel looses the plot slightly during high movment on certain colours, it is not MPEG artifacts from the DVD, its more like interferance lines... static aliasing....BUT I will make the point...you REALLY have to be looking to see it. Subjectively the panel is very acceptable, there is no way anyone would pick this flaw with an untrained eye. My kids and wife can't see it even when I point it out to them....(which is good because doing this REALLY pisses my mrs off hehe)

I will make the point that I picked this flaw up in the shop before I bought this unit....ALL the lower end panels in the shop including Samsung, Sony and LG exibited this flaw in the SAME degree. It was NOT apparant on the Fujitsu Panel or the Panny...once again...although it does bother me from a perfectionist point of view...its not worth 2-3K to me to eliminate it!!

I also note when I plug a separate DVD player into the panel that has progressive scan, this seems to all but eliminate this flaw, unfortunitly the home theater DVD player does not have progressive scan

4. Component in via digital SD set top box. I actually already had one, but since this pannel only has ONE S-Video input (which sucks)...and I am using it for the home theater DVD, I needed a SD box with component (panel has 1 composite, 1 S-video, TWO component inputs, RGB via VGA and DVI)...The Teac STB is one of the few SD STB on the market with component out. The panel does accept RGB but only via a VGA connector...so it needs the H-sync and V-sync signals...so adapter won't work.

Picture quality from FTA digital varies dramaticly dependant on what the TV station is transmitting, wether the program is offline encoded or if ...for example for sport it is being real time encoded. real time encoding always look like crap....unless no one is moving of course...lol (again however to the untrained eye most of the time its fine)

Yes U can see errors, however for certain program feeds the picture is virtually perfect save for the same flaw you can see off DVD. Not surprisingly however the worse the source the worse the flaw, as is true for MPEG encoding processing. Generally however (when the TV station is not transmitting crap) the result is excellant, picture is sharp, there is NO noise @ black level...I just wish what was transmitted was more consistant.

5. grey scales are very good, as with detail in dark areas with dark movie scenes., i would be willing to bet that the laws of dimminishing returns apply when your already talking 2000:1 compared to the Panny 4000:1

6. Colour accuracy once tweeked is very good, although the unit is shipped defaul with the picture way over saturated

7. over all brightness, nothing lacking here, at night its actually too bright and needs to be backed off a touch.

8. Zoom/stretch modes, This was actually important to me when I was looking around at panels, but since having it, it has become actually completly redundant. The panel zoom/stretch modes work...that pretty much sums it up. I do not think it does a particularly good job here, however for DVDs I found I like to leave it in the original aspect, and the DVD player has auto aspect correction and zoom modes anyway. Anything worthwhile on digital FTA is txed in 16:9 nowdays....so this is really a non event

Summary, for the price this panel is unbeatable, it comes with a 3 year warranty, by the time this panel's warranty is up I expect for the differance I paid between this panel and ...say a Fujitsu...I will be able to buy a second Plasma....and it WILL be a HD!! (BY THEN @ 3k)

The key message is make sure your source is clean...making comparisons in the shop are extremely difficult since crawling around the back of the panels to see how they are connected might raise some eyebrows....and DON'T use composite video on this panel!!

P.S. With Dick Smith (not that I like them) you can buy it, take it home, and they have a 14 day no questions asked return policy...so take it home and have a play with it and decide for yourself. BUT....I found that one dick smith said they would only give a CREDIT on return....this is not consistant...I checked with the Dick Smith shop I ultimately bought it from and verified this before I purchased it. I would not have bought it otherwise...however their policy pays dividends cuz I am keeping it

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dude

Great review should help people out looking for this model