What's an exdem 508XD worth

9designs2

9designs2

9designs2

Soldato
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5 Jan 2003
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Somewhere in the middle
As the title, Pioneer 508XD Plasma TV, at 1500 quid, a good price with 1 year warranty and a wall bracket ?? From a specialist retailer, it's about 2 years old, but since the 5090 came out it's been in storage. So it would have done a few hours in the show room/demo room.... But still the life of Plasma these days is why beyond the upgrade time I guess ;)
 
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Cant really comment on a value.. Whatever its worth to you really, you should compare the TV with the latest V series panasonics, in which case your talking around 1500-1700 quid for a 50incher, mebee less if you get an internet deal, and see if the Pioneer is better in your eyes.

I wouldnt worry about plasma lifespan these days, however for an x-demo set I would demand a demonstration, just get a white screen displayed. If there is any discolouration at all, its probably been left displaying fixed images and permantly burned. But as long as the white screen test is good then there is nothing wrong with the screen.

Some dvd players have the option to show a plain grey or white background when no disk's inserted, handy for testing plasma's for any burn damage :) (OR hook up a PC, and use a white desktop :)
 
Thanks for that, dealer is telling to get a screen to compare it with would be the panny Z series at around 3K.... the others they say don't compare even to the old 508XD.
Plus it looses very little to 5090. But then he is trying to sell it !!!

It's "only" a 720P screen, viewing distance will be about 3~3.5Meters.
 
Personally I think the V series (which is a 12th gen PDP almost the same as the Z series but in a slightly bigger/cheaper phyiscal case) and is TrueHD 1920x1080 and has infinite black (it turns off the pixels completely for true black on a pixel by pixel basis) is more than a match for the last Pioneer plasma panels (the 1080p ones). He's right the Z's are espensive, but the Z's are fashion statements, very very thin design. But the actual display panels in the Z's are not much different to the V10's. (Both the V and Z have the same contrast, which is 2000000:1 when the TV's allowed to switch off pixels for true black, or 40000:1 in normal mode... 40000:1 is very good for a non dynamic contrast.

The Panny G10 and G15's on the other hand are cut down versions of the PDP panel, they are running at 60hz or 48hz, and are unable to do 96hz, which means in some situations 24p will appear to flicker on the Panny G10/G15 series. The V10's are 96hz and offer a fault free presentation of 24p.

If thats a 50inch TV, you'll notice the resolution difference at 3M or so, if its a 42inch then the black levels and colour purity are more important than the TV being "only" 720p.

I stand by my original post, the TV you want to compare is the TX42 or TX-P50V10b, maximum price for the 50inch £1799.

BTW, the V series cheats to get its compact size, the tuner is in a separate box rather than built into the back of the TV. Thats how they make the panel so compact!
 
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Thanks for that, excellent info, been struggling to work out the model range from Panasonic, I'm inclined to go for the *V10 range now. 50 inch is the size I am looking at, though I may drop down to a 46 if buying new. (Though they are not much cheaper than a 50 I think)
At the end of the day, you never have two side by side at home to compare, So any will look great after my 24 inch Sony CRT !!! LOL
 
Corasik said:
snip
Click to expand...

May I just correct you as the V10 has no where near infinate blacks, that is just confusing 9designs!!!!!!!!!! The measured value is at 0.04 cd/m2 for the panny with the 508LX @ 0.015 cd/m2, and the LX5090 @ 0.0031 cd/m2. See below in the 5090 review and scroll down to tthe black level section:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/Calibration.htm

That is quite some difference but most importantly the V10 certainly cannot match the 5090 at all. Not saying it's bad, but although the V10 is an excellent screen, it gets no where near the 5090, and is unlikely to better the 508XD at normal viewing distances. Remember that the difference between 1080p vs 720p is soo tiny and overhyped, it doesn't really play a part unless you sit close enough to the set to resolve the pixels.

OP, trying haggling some more and you MUST go and see the tv setup, try all the inputs, fiddle around, setup with the avforums movie settings, and also search on avforums to find out how to enter teh service mode and check the number of hours on the set. Salesmen can and will lie ;)
 
Well maybe I did wrong or right, but I was "Star gazing" in a high street store that do electricals...... Looking at what I could buy new in the Panasonic range. The sales guy for once seemed quite good, and made some valid points (though he still wanted to tell me HDMI cables made a difference, but that's another story...LOL) .... Any looked at the range, and in the end the better looking screen (slightly) was a TX-P50S11B !!!
The "advantage" being a higher contrast range, 2,000,000:1 compared to the G10's 40,000. Ok it is 400Hz not a newer 600Hz screen. But the blacks and colours looked a little better and more rich.
The advantage was it was cheaper, after haggling 100 quid off, got it for £899.

In the end the Exdem 508XD seemed a bit over priced for a 2 year old TV. Now it probably has a better picture, but 500 quid more ??
This way, and price, in a few years I won't feel bad about upgrading to a 3D set of something similar. So I hope I have the best picture for my pound.

Will be a day or two before I am up and running report will follow ;)
 
/facepalmwin

- Quoted contrast figures mean nothing.
- 400/600/eleventy hz mean nothing and are marketing rubbish.

Major failings, but that clearly doesn't matter as you have got yourself a good set for a good price :D:D:D
 
Corasik said:
The Panny G10 and G15's on the other hand are cut down versions of the PDP panel, they are running at 60hz or 48hz, and are unable to do 96hz, which means in some situations 24p will appear to flicker on the Panny G10/G15 series. The V10's are 96hz and offer a fault free presentation of 24p.
Click to expand...

The G10/G15 range in the UK + Europe both display 24p material at 96hz, the V10 has the added smooth cinema feature for 24p which uses interpolation to smooth out the picture.

In the US the G10/G15 run at 48hz and lack the 96hz feature.
 
-Ad- said:
/facepalmwin

- Quoted contrast figures mean nothing.
- 400/600/eleventy hz mean nothing and are marketing rubbish.

Major failings, but that clearly doesn't matter as you have got yourself a good set for a good price :D:D:D
Click to expand...

Well true all these band around specs mean little, It simply looked the best picture in the shop, better than the more expensive ones, better than the LCD/LED screens, and they were all running the same Blue Ray promo disc.
I don't get built in Sat tuner, but then I need my dish pointed for Slovak TV and an external box anyway !!!
 
-Ad- said:
May I just correct you as the V10 has no where near infinate blacks, that is just confusing 9designs!!!!!!!!!! The measured value is at 0.04 cd/m2 for the panny with the 508LX @ 0.015 cd/m2, and the LX5090 @ 0.0031 cd/m2. See below in the 5090 review and scroll down to tthe black level section:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/Calibration.htm

That is quite some difference but most importantly the V10 certainly cannot match the 5090 at all.
Click to expand...

Snip.

Well I thought I mentioned that infinite black was only available as part of the dynamic mode, in cinema mode it has a contrast ratio of 40000:1 which is probably more honest, but will still be scored by having burningly bright whites :P. HDTVtest naturally disable dynamic mode, and I probably wont too :P

If you read the hdtvtest of the Panny TXP42G10 which has almost the same black level as the V10's, they said this.

HDTVTEST said:
While this may sound like a lot of difference, when there’s full-screen content the black-level advantage of the Pioneer PDP-LX5090 over the Panasonic TX-P42G10 will appear subtle rather than obvious in a subjective side-by-side comparison
Click to expand...

So while it may look like a big difference in numbers, in reality its just a small difference to picture quality. It's also a massive improvement over previous panasonic panels.

I believe I already mentioned how resolution was somewhat secondary to black and colour purity, however resolution still comes into play if the TV is big enough and the viewing distances isnt to far. 3m from a 50inch TV is enough that the average person can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p.

My own TV is a 720p 42inch set, and at 3M it looks pretty nice, but most blurays are 1080p, and its not easy to scale 1080 to 720 with 0 artifacts. With mine the viewing distance is the key, get to close and it becomes obvious that a 1080p would be better. My next set will likely be a 50inch, and I wont accept 720p on a 50inch @ 3m.
 
M0T said:
The G10/G15 range in the UK + Europe both display 24p material at 96hz, the V10 has the added smooth cinema feature for 24p which uses interpolation to smooth out the picture.

In the US the G10/G15 run at 48hz and lack the 96hz feature.
Click to expand...

Is that proven with 100% accuracy... if so Thx, because I dont really care that the V10 looks nicer physically (which it does), I care about the picture quality, and good 24p playback :P. I'll willingly save 600 quid getting a G10 if the 24p support is proper :P.
 
Corasik said:
Well I thought I mentioned that infinite black was only available as part of the dynamic mode, in cinema mode it has a contrast ratio of 40000:1 which is probably more honest, but will still be scored by having burningly bright whites :P. HDTVtest naturally disable dynamic mode, and I probably wont too :P

If you read the hdtvtest of the Panny TXP42G10 which has almost the same black level as the V10's, they said this.
Click to expand...

I really don't understand that review. The 5090 review has all the numbers laid out and from the large differences you can assume the large changes, but then again not all people can. I can say for certain that the difference between the 508 and 5090 black level was massive, which was the first thing I was drawn to when I saw them together on release day (5090 still only about 20hrs on it). The panasonic pf10 was miles behind the 508 too. This is what confuses me by the HDTVTEST review as the difference when calibrated in a dark room was far from subtle! Ho hum, it's not all about black levels though :D

I believe I already mentioned how resolution was somewhat secondary to black and colour purity, however resolution still comes into play if the TV is big enough and the viewing distances isnt to far. 3m from a 50inch TV is enough that the average person can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p.

My own TV is a 720p 42inch set, and at 3M it looks pretty nice, but most blurays are 1080p, and its not easy to scale 1080 to 720 with 0 artifacts. With mine the viewing distance is the key, get to close and it becomes obvious that a 1080p would be better. My next set will likely be a 50inch, and I wont accept 720p on a 50inch @ 3m.
Click to expand...

This I do disagree with especially after my tests of a 508XD vs 508LX where the only difference was the resolution really. Soo many people think they can see a difference when they are most likely seeing other differences or just seeing the pixel structure. Trying to see the difference on some great blus (casino royale + starship troopers) was soo soo hard even at around 7/8ft, especially with detail being lost when there was movement on the screen and panning. But that will obviously depend on what films you watch.

To sum up, I'm still very sceptical about all these apparent differences seen comparing 1080p vs 720p and I have to ask how many people have actually done controlled tests of 2 pretty much identical sets side by side with only the resolution being different? Only a handful is a guess.

Getting too in depth now :p
 
Just been into my local indian takeaway electronics shop and they have their last exdem 508 (not sure which ine exactly) out for sale for £697!
 
I'd of bought it, I had an offer of 697 :eek:

Anyway been out today collecting new pre amp. Left the new Panny on to settle in, with the brightness and contrast down a few clicks on normal mode.
 
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