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Pennywise plasma
WITH ITS YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, COULD NEC BE THE BRAND TO MAKE PLASMA
PERFECTION AFFORDABLE? JOHN ARCHER CONSIDERS THE 'ENTRY-LEVEL' 42MP3
As any good football manager will tell you,
while dazzling youthful ability is all well and good, when it comes to the
crunch you can't beat experience. And in the world of plasma, experience
doesn't get much more venerable than NEC. The company was one of the first to
develop a plasma screen, and has since been both one of the most prolific
plasma manufacturers, with a surprising number of its screens actually finding
their way into other brands' products.
But of late, things have started to get
ultra-competitive in the plasma world, with Pioneer and Panasonic in particular
taking the technology to the next level. So will experience be enough to ensure
that NEC's new panel will be able to keep up with the Michael Owens of the
plasma world, or will it be left trailing in their wake?
VINTAGE STYLE
Aptly enough, the 42in PlasmaSync 42MP3's
aesthetics are distinctly old school. Where most screens these days prefer
silver, the NEC surrounds its screen in matt black - and looks all the more
robust and classy for it.
The 42MP3's inputs are side- rather than
bottom-mounted, making them much easier to get at than those on the majority of
plasma panels. They're impressive in quantity, too. In common with 95 per cent
of plasma screens there are no Scart jacks, but there are plenty of decent
video alternatives in the shape of composite, S-video and component video
jacks, as well as two RGB inputs via a 15-pin PC-style jack and separate R, G
and B BNC connectors. NEC doesn't particularly design its screens with the home
user in mind, but at least there's now a TV tuner option available for the
42MP3, costing around £150.
Features on the 42MP3 are for the most part
pretty standard - reasonable enough given that the 42MP3 goes for the
attainably cheap price of £4,000. Accessing the 42MP3's features is
simple, courtesy of a pleasingly uncluttered remote control and some
staggeringly bland text-only menus. The only tricks worth noting here are three
levels of noise reduction and an impressive number of methods for tackling the
evil of screenburn.
FIRE SAFETY
Screenburn occurs when a vivid part of an
image is left in the same place on the screen for too long. You end up with a
permanent shadowy remnant of the offending image part - usually one of those
darned channel logos everyone uses these days. Plasma screens are particularly
susceptible to this in their first 50-100 hours of use, so NEC's inclusion of
screen wipe (which cleans off screenburn via a vertical pure white washing bar
across the screen), orbiter (which shifts the picture periodically around the
screen) and Image Inverse (which presents the picture as a burn tackling
negative) is a very gratefully received measure.
Firing the screen into action with a tough
initial diet of digital TV, the 42MP3 immediately impressed. Our old
ultra-vivid stalwart channel Sky News looked terrific, with exceptionally
vivid, smooth, sharply delineated colours arising from an impressive black
level talent. There was a decent amount of fine detail information too, which
combined with the good black resolution to give an involving depth of field. In
short, even given its 42in dimensions, the picture looks as good as many a CRT
TV - and you can't say fairer than that.
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LAB RESULTS
Colour: Very good - practically no bleed or tizzing, though minor
ghosting and edge softness
Geometry: Perfect as ever with plasma
Frequency response: Very good - detail visible at 5.8Mhz, but some
moire interference over 4.8MHz |
Switching to DVDs reasserted the talents
I've already recorded - but also, unfortunately, highlighted slight weaknesses
that I'd started to become aware of during the latter stages of my broadcast
viewing: solarisation and grey pixel noise. There were occasional but definite
bands of colour in some dark scenes instead of the desired smooth gradations of
colour, and many a supposedly black screen spot looked alive with grey dots as
the panel fails to suppress the charges in all the necessary plasma pixel
chambers. To be fair, you're probably only aware of these hitches for around 10
per cent of your viewing time, but we know from other recent plasma screens
that they can be handled better.
Sound can be delivered from the 42MP3 via an
optional, pleasingly powerful pair of matching speakers. These show impressive
dynamic range, fine for most casual viewing.
The 42MP3 display is another step forward
for plasma technology. NEC has undoubtedly made great strides with contrast, to
the point where the 4MP3 delivers comfortably the best 42in picture we've seen
under £4,500. So if NEC can pour as much effort into cleaning up the
noise for its next screen as it clearly has into the contrast on this one, we
could be just one generation away from the first budget plasma superstar.
Fingers crossed.
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FEATURES
Screen size: 42in
Connections: Composite video input; S-video input; three stereo
audio inputs; component phonos; 15-pin RGB input; BNC RGB inputs; HD BNC; VD
BNC; remote control hardwire jack; RS232 jack
Specifications: 16:9 screen; inverse image, Orbiter and screen
wipe anti-screenburn modes; three NR levels; 2x 7W audio output; Pointer; off
timer; multiple aspect ratios; tint control; colour temp control; picture
positioning; gray level adjust; cinema mode; 480P, 480I, 525P, 525I, 720P,
1035I, 1080I (all 60Hz); 1080I, 576P), 576I, 625P, 625I (all 50Hz); HD/DVD/DTV;
Class A screen; NTSC3.58/4.43MHz, SECAM PAL-M, PAL-N playback; true 852 x 480
resolution
Dimensions: 1,048(w) x 648(h) x 89(d)mm; Weight: 28.5kg |
Home Cinema Choice, June 2002 |
£4,000 (approx)
