Richer Sounds after sales TV service, i've had a bad experience so far

Hi again Oldboy

Well back from my first job and will be off to my second one later (and no, variety is most definitely not the spice of life in some situations!)

I wasn’t aware that there was a work-around with the Optimiser on plasma panels as you’ve described. May I ask where you discovered that? Or was it just common sense which I sometimes lack! All of the research I undertook at the time returned that it couldn’t be done, so I would be very interested to learn where/how you came across it.

Is the Sony really that much better than the GT30 for motion etc?  I have no complaints with mine at all, and my gold standard test on this is watching a tennis ball being served at 130mph. I’m not saying it’s absolutely pin sharp but at least I can see where the ball’s landed!

It is an interesting theory you have regarding the motion processing being switched on. I remember when I first switched on and watched my GT30 without changing anything: honestly, the motion was like Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, and if I had genuinely known no different I would have returned the set declaring it to be faulty.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to “The Towers”, and although I appreciate you’re not allowed to reveal what was actually tested are you allowed to mention the subject? I would truly love to put my name forward, Oldboy, but the timeline would be far too short for me to attend if I was successful unfortunately (no idea why it is so short, perhaps I should ask why).

It’s such a shame that you missed the Olympics on your then "proper" telly. The broadcast/PQ quality on the swimming was totally jaw dropping to my eyes, with the track cycling no more than a tyre widths behind. A nice touch the £50 voucher, but what a pity that if your TV had to go wrong it couldn’t have waited until after the games!

Sizzers,

The work-around for setting contrast via the THX Optimiser was something I worked out for myself, it's not come from any source other than my own experience of calibrating a plasma tv with it. I just got frustrated that it was so difficult to get the contrast set with it so I worked out what I was looking for was really just the brightest box on the pattern, you pretty much ignore the others until you get that box at it's brightest without being over bearing then adjust it by a few notches whilst looking at the other boxes so that the shades are consistent.

It's not easy though and often still requires a little adjustment whilst watching a movie to get it to look more natural where as the AVS HD gets it much more accurate on a plasma tv.

Yes the Sony is a significant step up from the GT30 with motion etc, it's night and day stuff. Of course the picture isn't quite as natural looking as a plasma tv but the gap between them here is small but then there are the usual pros and cons with both technologies as has been well discussed before.

I'm sorry but i'm not able to discuss anything about the test because even if I mentioned the subject I would be letting the cat out of the bag so you will have to wait for the issue of the magazine to come out, i'm dying to share my thoughts on the test but I have to respect the wishes of the guys at What Hi Fi and keep it to myself for now unfortunately. Obviously it's not always easy to arrange the time off but if you get the chance go for it and apply, it's a great day out and reasurring to see how much care is taken with the review process.

I didn't miss all the olympic coverage, I got to see a fair bit on my GT30 as I was able to keep it until the HX853 arrive and I was able to watch some coverage on my friends ES8000, I have to agree some of the HD content was superb! I even got to watch the 100metre final at home on my GT30 in 3D, that was a great experience and so was the closing ceremony in 3D so kudos to the BBC for their coverage of the games