Home Theater best of show: HP?
It's true. The Digital Life 2005 Best of Show in the Home Theater category
was won by the company started in a garage: Hewlett-Packard. HP won with
their 65-inch DLP set, the HP Pavilion MD6580 Microdisplay TV. This one
is so surprising that even the cartoon character in the set appears to be
scratching his head.I'm not suggesting that the MD6580 is a bad set by any means. On paper, it's got some decent specs with a 12,000:1 contrast and 1920 x 1080 resolution. I'm still not sold on the whole "1080p via wobulation" thing but that's probably because I hear the "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" jingle whenever someone says "wobulation."
Is anyone else surprised by this Best of Show winner? Any MD6580 owners out there that want to defend this set winning the award?
Filed under: DLP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin @ Oct 27th 2005 1:25PM
I don't understand why you or anyone else cares about whether a TV uses wobulation or not. What do you care if the TV looks the same as a non-wobulated set? You wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. If you have a car that performs perfectly would you care that it does so with a turbocharger, or naturally aspirated? No.
The proofs in the performance, you should not care how it does it as long as its reliable...which it is.
And no one should be surprised as HP invented wobulation, and has been in the DLP business (projectors) for a while now. And thats not even taking into account the good reviews in Oct. Sound and Vision and on AVS forums. The only sets out there that can run with the HP are the Qualia and the Sony SXRD. The Qualia is $13,000 and only marginally better. The SXRD is similarly priced and may even have a slightly better picture but will not take a 1080p signal over HDMI which does not matter a lot right now but will be a crippling feature for many over the next few years thanks to home theater PCs, playstation 3, external video scalers and possibly Blue Ray.
Nick @ Oct 27th 2005 2:42PM
Here's the official owners thread at avsforum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=592933
It's quickly gained steam (800+ posts) as most new TV's do. The difference is that everyone that's getting it seem to love the TV. Cabinet, design, ALL front hookups, great picture, tuned out of the box, features, design consideration for regular and HTPC usage. It appears to be a killer TV.
Time will tell if bulbs start popping, but it's been one of the more impressive threads I've followed over there. You don't get much more critical than the AVSFORUM members and there's been very little b**ching.
Nick
Todd @ Oct 27th 2005 9:55PM
Simple terms:
SXRD/LCOS chip resolution 1920 x 1080
Wobulation chip resolution 1960 x 1080 (can we say horiz. interlace)
SXRD/LCOS = 3 chip displays
DLP = 1 chip with a color wheel. (look at all the pretty rainbows!)
And 800 people posting on AVS (I do like the place) only means that they have opinions, not the experts test results. I'll give you an example...ask 800 Bose speaker owners how they like their speakers... Most will tell you they are the best...the reason is they now the name and bought them with out fully looking at their options...Same applies here.
I do not have access to the HP set at this time.
I do have a Qualia projector, Qualia Rear PJ,SXRD RPJ, some LG DLP junk, Pioneer Elite plasmas to play with on a daily basis. Oh and 16 years in the TV service/sales business. Even an SXRD set is only OK next to the Qualia. Yes I have put them side by side connected to the same source with the same type of cables, I needed to find out if the set is worth the money. It is. Plain. As for the turbo comparison, as an STI owner I think you need to spend some time in the forced air forums before......blah,blah,blah you get the point.
James Varghese @ Oct 28th 2005 8:07AM
By the way, HP does a good job on their plamas too. Actually, I should say that Panansonic does good plasmas since HPs just seem to be rebadged Panasonics...or so it would seem. Just FYI for people who are on the lookout for a bargain - a Panasonic plasma for less (theoretically).
More info for those who are interested:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=585216
adam green @ Oct 29th 2005 6:44AM
Wobulation, bobulation!!! Some people say that 1080p wobulation isn't true 1080p, but the proof is in the pudding! I've seen the set, both with HD source, and DVD....It's terrific! Am i ready to say it matches the Qualia...Maybe not, but it looks very good, as does the new 50 inch Sony SXRD for 4 grand...