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What We Think
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Like the stock market, plasma pricing tends toward sudden, dynamic dips — the TV you have your eye on today will likely cost even less tomorrow. With this in mind, we called in three plasma HDTVs spotted selling on the Web for around three grand or less: JVC’s PD-42X795, $3,200 ($5,500 list); Dell’s W4200, $2,599 direct from Dell ($3,000 list); and Maxent’s MX-42XM11, $2,000 ($2,500 list). But you can’t assume that all “budget” plasmas are created equal. So we put these low-ballers through our usual rigorous procedures to see well how each stood up. This involves tweaking the TV using both the set’s standard user controls and hidden “service” controls that only technicians have access to. What differences — if any — would we find as we stepped up in price? Let’s now turn our attention to the wall to see what, value-wise, these TVs really get us.
Full lab results on these HDTVs.
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HDTV with all the frills
While many low-cost plasma TVs require a separate digital tuner to watch local high-definition broadcasts, JVC’s PD-42X795 packs in not just a tuner but also many other cool features. That list includes built-in speakers and a separate control box with a complete set of connections including HDMI, VGA, and FireWire (so you can hook up one of JVC’s digital VCRs and record HDTV). A heavy-duty aluminum base that comes with the TV lets you confidently set it up on a table or stand. The remote control is a bit chunky, but it has a generously spaced button layout and a backlit keypad. At its top you’ll find the Aspect button, which lets you switch between four picture-display modes (three can be accessed for HDTV programs).
SETUP Since the JVC has an antenna input for grabbing local digital and high-def broadcasts, my first order of business was to plug in an antenna and let the TV’s Channel Search function rip. The JVC easily grabbed most of the digital channels in my area. The Fox affiliate was the lone holdout, but most HDTVs I’ve tested have had a problem with it.
I initially had my Scientific Atlanta HD cable box plugged into the set’s HDMI input. But the TV proved to have a sharper picture when I used its component-video input for high-def, and test patterns confirmed that using the HDMI input resulted in a softening of the picture. I’d recommend sticking with the component-video inputs. Suprisingly, there are no custom picture memories for each of the TV’s inputs, a common (and valuable) feature today.
PICTURE QUALITY After making service-menu adjustments to the picture, I dropped The Aviator into my DVD player. In the scene of the premiere party for Howard Hughes’s 1930 film Hell’s Angels, colors looked clean, and there was good sense of shadow depth and detail. I could see slight variations in the black shades of the men’s tuxedos, and the evening gowns worn by the starlets had a rich, vivid appearance. A later scene where Hughes test pilots a new plane didn’t fare as well. The picture had punchy contrast, but the highlights had a “burned-out” appearance, and the normally wispy clouds looked ragged and patchy.
The JVC’s clean, natural color and punchy contrast was also evident when I watched HDTV programs like HBO’s Six Feet Under. An opening shot of a mobile home in the California desert showed sharp detail in the exterior decorations and plants. In a later scene where Nate studies his face in the mirror while shaving, his skin looked mostly natural, with only a hint of redness.
BOTTOM LINE JVC’s PD-42X795 is a sharp-looking plasma TV with a solid feature set and decent picture quality, especially for HDTV. But the occasionally patchy image, lack of a custom picture memory for each input, and softened resolution when using an HDMI connection keep it from getting an unqualified recommendation.
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Dude, you’re getting a Dell...plasma
When computer companies first made the jump into the business of selling plasma TVs, I cast a cold eye on the occasion. Weren’t those guys busy enough already supporting the billions of PCs out there with their daily virus updates and blue screens of death? But after receiving Dell’s W4200 plasma HDTV, I started to warm up a bit. The W4200 looks a lot better than your average low-price plasma sold through PC channels. Staring at it, my thought was: I wouldn’t mind hanging this set on my wall.
Other things that add to the Dell’s warm and fuzzy appeal are its built-in HDTV tuner, wide array of back-panel inputs, and well-designed onscreen menus and remote control. The remote has a substantial feel and echoes the TV’s black/silver look. The buttons on its top half are backlit, and the bottom ones are spaced far enough apart that you can easily locate a specific control in the dark. Pressing the Size button calls up a list of five display modes, each of which can be accessed when watching HDTV.
SETUP AND USE After I connected my antenna, the Channel Add feature of the Dell’s digital tuner successfully added the full lineup of digital broadcasts in my area. The set’s onscreen program guide posted the titles of upcoming shows for digital channels, but it unfortunately listed program start times incorrectly — a problem Dell says it is working on. When you press the Display button on the remote, you see a screen that lists the digital channel ID (WNBC-HD, for example), signal strength, and both the digital channel number and its analog “alias” (Channels 67 and 2, for example).
Adjusting the Dell’s picture was a snap thanks to a Personal picture preset that could be customized for each video input. The Normal setting gave the most natural and accurate picture of the four color-temperature presets, but shadows and skin tones looked a bit reddish, so I made adjustments in the set’s service mode. The only real picture problem I saw was that blacks looked too bright via the S-video input, which translated to limited shadow depth when watching movies or TV.
PICTURE QUALITY To check out the Dell’s picture quality, I revisited The Aviator on DVD. In the movie-premiere scene, colors showed a distinct Technicolor punch without looking noisy or lurid. This made it easy to see slight variations in hue between Kate Hepburn’s lipstick and the red velvet curtains in the background. In this and other scenes, skin tones looked balanced, neither too orange nor too red. Meanwhile, details in the partygoers’ black tuxedos and other dark images showed off the Dell’s strong shadow rendition.
HDTV programs like Six Feet Under also looked very good. The sunlit scenes that opened one episode had strong contrast — highlights on the surface of a trailer home looked entirely natural, and I could see fine gradations in the shadowy inner branches of the surrounding trees. Picture detail was very good, which helped bring to life the interior shots of an old woman’s ceramic-frog collection and a finely textured wall-hanging next to it.
BOTTOM LINE The entry of computer makers into HDTV space hasn’t been a totally happy affair, but with Dell’s W4200 things are looking up. This set’s nice styling, strong features, solid picture quality, and reasonable price add up to a winning package.
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At 2k, it’s almost a giveaway
The Web is filled with lots of things, including plasma TV deals that seem too good to be true. But when we confirmed that Best Buy was selling $2,000 plasma HDTVs from a company called Maxent, we had to check one out. With its black screen border and silver case, the MX-42XM11 shares some design elements with Dell’s plasma. It also comes with a reasonably sturdy plastic stand and separate side-mounted speakers.
The Maxent’s lack of an analog or digital tuner means you’ll need your own cable, satellite, or off-air tuner/decoder box to watch TV. In contrast to the Dell, which got a shout-out for its onscreen menu system, this set’s menus get a thumbs-down. The problem is speed: After you press buttons on the remote control, the sub-menus take a painful second or two to render.
The remote control lacks a backlit keypad, but the buttons are big and easy to locate. Direct video inputs (nice!) and the Wide button for selecting display modes are hidden beneath a sliding door — an unfortunate location since it makes the frequently used input buttons hard to get at. Five display modes are available, two of which (4:3 and 16:9) can be used for HDTV.
SETUP The first review sample Maxent sent had all sorts of problems. Adjusting picture controls for one input affected the picture on other inputs, the set wouldn’t display any standard 480i signals, and using the DVI input with my digital cable box resulted in a momentary copy-protection error message every time I changed channels. Fortunately, a second sample TV had none of these issues. The Low color-temperature setting delivered pictures that were reasonably close to NTSC spec except for a moderate blue-green bias in shadows.
PICTURE QUALITY Checking out the Maxent’s picture on DVDs, I noticed a degree of “shredding” visible as breakup on fine diagonal and vertical lines. In the black-tie premiere from The Aviator, shadow depth was solid, and a decent amount of detail was visible in the tuxedos, but the highly saturated colors looked soft and noisy. The skin tones of partygoers also lacked subtlety, tending toward a uniform, reddish-orange hue. And in the shots of Hughes zipping through the sky on a test flight, the clouds had a rough, patchy quality that obliterated much of their detail.
HDTV programs like Six Feet Under looked slightly soft, but they had punchy contrast. For example, in a shot of the trailer home against a desert sky, the TV conveyed the intense quality of the desert light. And though the Maxent tripped up on “Technicolor” scenes from The Aviator, it did a good job here of conveying the less vivid tones of the ceramic-frog collection. But the reddish skin tones that I saw on the DVD also extended to HDTV.
BOTTOM LINE Maxent’s MX-42XM11 plasma TV sells at an amazingly low price, but its limited features and relatively mediocre picture make it something less than a great deal. This is definitely a situation where spending a few more bucks will get you more.
| Dell W4200 | JVC PD-42X795 | Maxent MX-42XM11 | |
| Color temperature (before/after calibration) | (Normal setting before/after) | (Theater Pro/Low setting before/ Standard/Low setting after | (Low setting) |
| Low window (30 IRE) | 5,415 K/ 6,572 K |
5,062 K/6,401 K | 6,818 K |
| High window (80 IRE) | 5,901 K/ 6,492 K |
6,182 K/ 6,575 K | 6,545 K |
| Brightness (after calibration) | 56.1 ftL | 52.8 ftL | 42.9 ftL |
The Maxent TV measured close to the 6,500 K NTSC grayscale spec with its Low color-temperature setting selected, although a greenish bias could be seen at the low end of the scale. Both the Dell and JVC sets required service-level calibration to get their measurements up to spec. (Calibration needs to be performed by a qualified technician, so discuss it with your dealer before purchase, or call the Imaging Science Foundation at 561-997-9073.) Grayscale tracking on the Maxent was poor, measuring ±900 K. The Dell fared much better, averaging around 250 K, while the JVC’s performance was average at ±500 K.
Color-decoder error varied slightly between the TVs. The JVC fared the best here, with 0% error measured on its HDMI input. Unfortunately, that input also showed reduced high-definition video resolution compared with the component-video connection, so I’d use that one instead. The most severe color decoder deviation was a –25% green error on the Dell’s component-video inputs. There was almost no error on its HDMI connection, however. The Dell’s S-video connections clip black levels below 10 IRE.
Picture overscan, which defines the loss of picture information behind the edges of the frame, averaged around 3% for the digital and component-video inputs on all three sets. The Dell fared best here, measuring 0% overscan on its HDMI connection. The JVC, Dell, and Maxent’s 2:3 pulldown processing delivered consistently smooth pictures with 480i programs. On the JVC and Maxent, however, 480i programs looked relatively soft and noisy compared with the Dell.