Since the new set is a "little" bigger than my last I required a new TV stand. After almost 5 back breaking hours, I finally got everything all hooked up again. That's not including the other 2 hours it took to dismantle it in the first place.
But it was worth it. We welcome to the family the Panasonic TH-58PZ750.
I have not calibrated the TV or the Stereo yet. But after all that work it was time to play a little. Here is what I found so far:
PS3
The picture of some BD movies was a little grainy in spots. The remastered version of Fifth Element was not as good as I'd had hoped. I just got my replacement a few days ago. However, Chicken Little was flawless. We ended up having some last minute company over (to show of the net set) to watch Hitch Hickers Guide to the Galaxy. They were blown away by the new set. The PQ was good, but in some places the grainy problem was back in force. Doea anyone have any comments on that?
I tried the Burnout Paradise demo real quick. It looks amazing. No complaints there.
360
I only tried Halo 3 really quick. Looks great. I still need to throw in a movie. Maybe I'll borrow 300 from someone and do a HD-DVD to BD comparison.
DVD and regular cable television I have not hooked up at this moment. I am thinking of using the PS3 or 360 for DVD playback. Fitting the DVD player into the new TV stand is a little difficult. If anything it will have to sit under the 360. Not something that I like too much.
Centre Channel Placement
My centre channel, though small, posed the biggest problem when buying this new set. In my previous setup the speaker sat in front of my old TV. The speaker did not obscure the screen since the TV sat high enough on it's base. If I keep that configuration the Panasonic would have been too high up for comfortable viewing. I needed a lower profile stand and I had to fabricate a shelf above the Panasonic for the centre channel. I was a little skeptical about having the centre channel that high up. But with a 2.5" spacer to tilt the speaker down all is good. The dialog seems to be coming from the centre of the screen and not above it. Awesome. Now my only concern is the speaker sliding down causing a lot of havock.
Pictures
New Setup.
Screen shot of Chicken Little on BD.