50" Plasma Poll: Vizio, Maxent, or Philips?

[trailingedge]

I need your help. Well, my mom does. I'm choosing between the following PDPs:

A) Vizio P50 HDM
B) Maxent MX-50X3
C) Philips 50PF7220a (same as 50PF7320a)

This TV will be mounted over a fireplace (not ideal, but there's nowhere else in the room to put it). She has only a basic cable subscription and is interested only in local HD channels. ESPN, HBO, Discovery, etc are of no use to her. Each of these PDPs are available at essentially the same price.

I like the Vizio's picture quality and overall cool appearance. And the Maxent also seems to get good reviews. But these are both only HDTV monitors (no tuners of any kind). The Philips adds NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners along with a CableCard slot, likely allowing free access to local HD channels without the hassle of an added set top box. And because the Philips and Maxent PDPs have side speakers, it will allow the TV to be placed a few inches lower than the Vizio. But the silver cabinet of these two is perhaps less attractive to my mom than the Vizio's appearance.

I have nearly driven myself insane trying to decide between these PDPs, and now I'm turning to you. Please cast your vote! Thanks for your help!

[NatasNJ]

I plan to look at the Philips on Monday to see the picture compared to the others side by side with hopefully the same feed. If it looks comparable or better to the other units than I am getting the Philips. Otherwise I am tempted to hold off till the new Pioneers make their apperance in a few months at costco.

[trailingedge]

I think I'll do the same thing. I hope I'll be able to do a side-by-side comparison with the Vizio. Which new Pioneers are you talking about? I haven't heard about them.

[mas985]

I saw the Maxent and Philips side by side yesterday and for me, the Philips won out in PQ. It could of been the set up though since the Maxent's color was slightly off. But the Philips was clearly sharper picture then the Maxent. I am leaning towards the Philips since it has the HD receiver.

Mark

[trailingedge]

Thanks. I ended up getting the Philips this morning, since it seemed that they would sell out quickly. It was connected through some crazy coaxial input with the TV set to channel 3, and the PQ looked awful. It's reassuring that you felt that the PQ was better than the Maxent's. I'm assuming the Philips will look better when connected properly. I just hope the QAM tuner picks up the local unencrypted channels like it's supposed to...

[gordongordo]

Unlike Mas, I was out at Costco in Santa Barbara today, and the Phillips was next to the Maxent, and there at least the Maxent clearly had a better picture quality than the Phillips . . . by a long shot. Was it the hook-up? Who can say?

Oddly, it wasn't even the latest Maxent, the 50X3 . . . but the X2, a much inferior model to the X3, at any rate according to the specs on both. Anyone know if the X3 will be coming to Costco soon?

-- Michael

[pdawg17]

I can't imagine the Phillip's PQ being any better than the Vizio (I am of course biased :D)...I think what it comes down to is if you need the tuner or not...

[zot23]

How timely is this post? I am just going to costco tonight to see which of these is on display and maybe make a purchase.

FYI - I get the feeling that once properly calibrated, any of these three plasmas are knockouts.

[Chriš]

I'm surprised so many people are siding with the Phillips. I have been following that thread and many are complaining about the washed out picture and returning it. With the Phillips you get a lot of extras, but what good is all that if the picture sucks?

With the Maxent 50X3 you get a Panasonic panel, with the Vizio you get the new LG panel. With the Phillips you get an OTA tuner and cablecard slot, but what about the panel?

[Docg]

[QUOTE=Chriš]I'm surprised so many people are siding with the Phillips. I have been following that thread and many are complaining about the washed out picture and returning it. With the Phillips you get a lot of extras, but what good is all that if the picture sucks?

With the Maxent 50X3 you get a Panasonic panel, with the Vizio you get the new LG panel. With the Phillips you get an OTA tuner and cablecard slot, but what about the panel?[/QUOTE]

You are getting the Hitachi glass

[trailingedge]

I ended up buying the Philips on the first day of the sale, but I left it unopened in my car while I went back and forth to Costco trying to convince myself that I made the right decision. I finally had to admit to myself that the Philips picture quality didn't measure up to the Vizio. The Vizio looked spectacular at all times, whereas I couldn't shake the feeling that the picture on the Philips always looked hazy. Someone on another thread described the picture as though he was looking through a hazy fog.

So despite the ATSC tuner, the NTSC tuner, the CableCard... I decided that nothing (well, except price) was more important than picture quality. So I went with the Vizio.

[hardd1]

after many trips to costco i too agonized trying to pick the best 50" for the buck........i bought the phillips over the vizio. after tweaking the 2 sets at the store it was obvious to me that the phillips was my choice. i am not knocking the vizio....just stating my opinion. the 50" pioneer was also great but not worth the extra 1500 clams. my 50pf7220 has performed flawlessly and couldn't be happier

[Kevin C Brown]

I vote for ... Panasonic.

[SUPRMIL]

I saw 2 of those at costco. Both the maxtent and vizio looked terrible compared to the pio. that was also dplayed there. I was going to suck it up and spen the extra money on the pio when the online panny deal came out, so i went with that based on reviews here and on other sites. I have not seen the phillips, but the overall opinion of the reviews is that its not that good. Of course, i still haven't even seen my new panny. Oh its there, delivered to my house almost a week ago, but i'm not. I'm about 500 miles away watching some cheap 27" hotel tv. Man, I hate working out of town. Hope to be home for the super bowl. I guess that will be a good time to break it in.

[junaid]

I spent over an hour comparing phillips and panasonic 50" plasmas side by side at costco. They have a special going on the Philly for $2600. I found the Phillips preset picture settings pretty fuzzy compared to the crisp picture on Panasonic. After I tweaked the shrapness and contrast on Phillips it got close to the Panasonic. I didnt check the back to see of the feed was component or coax etc. Also after I tweaked the Panasonic it again far exceeded the Phillips. I also spent some time comparing Phillips , Panasonic and LG at the local circuit city and again found Philiips to be the fuzziest of the bunch. At this point I am not sure if its worth shelling out this much money for a TV that is consistently the least sharp of the bunch. They claim its contrast ratio is the same as Panasonic but my eyes tell me different.

[zot23]

So I ended up buying the Vizio. Some observations for anyone still looking at this plasma vs the others:

When fed a high def or clean signal, the Vizio is pure gold. The picture is so colorful and crisp, it is like looking through a window. I was a Mitsubishi man before this TV, so a detailed and sharp picture is a must. The Vizio does not disappoint.

Now the bad part is that when fed a bad signal (like compressed SD for instance), the picture can really stink. It accentuates any artifact or flaws and magnifies them. This can be minimized with careful tuning, but never fully disappears and it took me 3 days to 'zone' the picture in for SD.

So to judge it on the floor in costco is to do this plasma a disservice, since the feeds in costco can be anywhere from OK to total crap (IMHO.) If you watch primarily 480p and higher resolutions you won't be disappointed. If you watch primarily standard def or other 480i material, I would look at a different TV.

I love it though, now begins the mounting/furniture/??? process that follows every new TV format purchase. Ughh...

Happy hunting!

[savyas]

I originally bought the Philips 50pf7320 from Brandsmart. Their return policy is 5 days, so that didn't leave me much time (almost not enough time to do a 100hr burnin!) to love it or hate it. After installing the philips, I was very disconcerted by the haze/fogginess of the image. I started doing some research and discovered the Pixel Plus processor took the lovely 1080i image and dropped it to 840 to process before stretching it back to 1080 - which immediately threw up a red flag. After reading all the testimonials on the "black screen of death" and witnessing the foggy image, I immediately decided to take the 50PF7320a/37 back before the 5 day return policy expired. I left BrandSmart and went straight to Sams, where I bought a Vizio P50HDM. The PQ of the Vizio (in HD but especially in SD) immediately showed itself to be far superior to the Philips, and the return policy of Sams Club made it an obviously better choice - especially considering it was $200 cheaper than the Philips from BrandSmart (Sams also had the 50PF7220 for $200 more than BrandSmart).

A couple things to note - the Vizio does not have a tuner, so if that matters to you, pick something else - but not the Philips. The Philips does not have a VGA or DVI input, but does have 2 HDMIs (as does the Vizio). The menus are much nicer looking and easier to navigate on the Vizio than the Philips. Philips Pixel Plus 2 processor (in the 9630 and 9830) doesn't downgrade the signal like the 7220 and 7320, but obviously costs more (and includes ambilight, if that floats your boat).

I'm personally very happy to have switched from philips to vizio - and am certainly much more comfortable with the return policy of Sams Club, but as always, your mileage may vary.

Now to convert my DVB DVR box to an HD OTA DVR box.. looks to be a cheap and fruitful conversion :)

[jeff4388]

Hi,

I am not that knowledgeable when it comes to Home Video, currently own a 34" Sony XBR910, and have been very happy with it. The only issue is the size of the CRT, 24" thick... I have the ability to purchase a Philips 50PF7320A through work for $1,799, with $100 shipping, and no sales tax. Is this something I should seriously consider? I don't really need a new TV, but if it really is a great deal... Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Jeff

[slksc]

[QUOTE=savyas]A couple things to note - the Vizio does not have a tuner, so if that matters to you, pick something else - but not the Philips. [/QUOTE]

Just a minor correction: the Vizio P50HDM has now been replaced with the P50HDTV10A which does have a tuner. Same MSRP.

[Voodoo2]

[QUOTE=savyas]I originally bought the Philips 50pf7320 from Brandsmart. Their return policy is 5 days, so that didn't leave me much time (almost not enough time to do a 100hr burnin!) to love it or hate it. After installing the philips, I was very disconcerted by the haze/fogginess of the image. I started doing some research and discovered the Pixel Plus processor took the lovely 1080i image and dropped it to 840 to process before stretching it back to 1080 - which immediately threw up a red flag. :)[/QUOTE]

Sayvas,
I just happened to see this set online and noted that it's a 768p set.. doesn't that make the intermediate scaling to 840 meaningless? After all the set won't display true 1080.

I'd love to see any other details on Pixel Plus vs Pixel Plus 2, as I haven't found any real data on the web.

thanks.