Once demanding tens of thousands of dollars, gas-plasma flat-panel displays have entered the realm of current real-world HDTV prices. One such newly affordable plasma display is SVA's widescreen HD4208TIII, a 42-inch set using a Samsung plasma screen with 852 x 480 native pixel resolution. The set gives you true EDTV (480p, progressive-scan) resolution as well as inputs compatible with full-resolution 720p and 1080i HDTV signals (optional set-top box decoder/receiver required) as well as analog PC signals up to 1,600 x 1,200 through a VGA input.
A plasma screen gives you vivid colors like you've never seen before, extremely wide viewing angles (wider, even, than those of most LCD screens), and easy placement due to a plasma monitor's slim profile--the HD4208TIII is a mere 3.9 inches deep, perfect for desk or wall mounting. Brightness tends to be extremely uniform across plasma screens, which are also impervious to the picture distortion and negative color balances that afflict CRT monitors when placed near lighting or sound systems. The HD4208TIII offers 160-degree viewing angles, high 700:1 contrast, and typically luminous 600 cd/m2 brightness.
On this display, SVA uses a dissymmetrical unit structure from Samsung for the optical elements, which greatly improves tricolor illumination balance over previous models. Moreover, the set's advanced plasma AI system can automatically increase the discharge frequency on gray and dark scenes to precisely control brightness levels. Thus, images become clearer, more natural, and generally more vivid. The set also features a pure-black driving system to enhance black-level regeneration and pure-gamma rectifying technology, which produces 1,024 gray levels for extremely detailed home theater viewing. The 24-bit real-color display can realize 16.7 million colors with good reducibility.
SVA's 72 Hz line-by-line scanning technology thoroughly eliminates any flickering of 60 Hz NTSC TV pictures. And, unlike many plasma sets, the HD4208TIII doesn't need an RF commutator between it and your cable box; you'll be able to enjoy pristine, high-contrast cable images (at standard cable resolution) right out of the box. The unit's stereo speakers are powered by a generous 12 watts per channel.
Inputs consist of the above-mentioned VGA computer input, one each composite, S-video, RF (for antenna or VCR/cable box signal), and HD component-video, and four accompanying stereo analog (left/right) RCA inputs for your associated source components (DTV set-top box, satellite receiver, PVR, VCR, DVD player, etc.). An composite-video based audio/video output lets you feed an SD (standard-definition) interlaced video signal to a PVR or VCR.
There are only two words to describe the SVA Plasma: "High-End". The 42-inch (HD4208TIII-PDP) HD Plasma TV combines stylish design with the excitement of HDTV compatibility (1080i), integrated Home Theater audio, with a built-in TV tuner, a futuristic developed panel, widescreen viewing, high brightness, wall mountable compatibility and a superior contrast ratio (700: 1). Additionally, this plasma television has true native 852 x 480 resolution with a 16: 9 aspect ratio, Progressive scan, and 160 degree viewing angles. The elegant design of the HD4208TIII-PDP enhances the decor of living rooms, network control rooms and will be the envy of all high-tech home theaters. The products' distinguished separate AVC (Audio, Video and Computer) system - holds all inputs and outputs, and a PC connection - reducing the cables around the panel itself. At just about three inches deep, this Plasma TV can be wall-mounted or placed on a table utilizing the included sleek custom designed stand. The SVA HD4208TIII-PDP model is compatible with existing optional wall mount brackets, providing seamless wall-mount installation and making it the obvious choice for High-Tech Home Theater systems, Network Control Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Executive Offices, Corporate Lobbies, Updateable Signage and Video Conferencing.
1 Only EDTV, poor contrast, questionable reliability
SVA is a large TV manufacturer based in China, while the "heart" of this plasma screen, the plasma panel itself, is made by Samsung of South Korea. This means two things: 1) questionable build quality and durability, and 2) subpar image quality.
You may be attracted by the attractive price on this set, but believe me, there's a reason why it's so cheap. Unlike state-of-the-art plasma planels from Pinoneer and Panasonic, the SVA exhibits poor contrast, no matter how you try to adjust the settings. There's also significant pixelation when viewing fast-action scenes, such as sports. The exterior also feels rather flimsy, which is not surprising given the low-cost market the company builds its "reputation" in.
For two grand, you only get EDTV meaning the resolution tops out at 480. A little more money will get you HDTV entries from Gateway. Given 720p is pretty much a must given how fast the HDTV industry is evolving, I recommend against an EDTV no matter what. So what if you have a 42" screen? Remember the concept of "dot pitch" from the computer monitor world? A low resolution looks especially bad on a large screen. An older-technology-based screen like this SVA-Samsung is really not worth the savings, because in the long run you suffer, as you find yourself having to upgrade to true HDTV, not the least because all your friends have HDTV!
Recommendation: stay away from this cheap set with poor screen quality and unknown reliability. I always think that if you are going to spend a lot of money on a TV, you might as well go with a good one. Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Gateway, ... you have many choices that are much better and give you more bang for the buck.
2 RE: Amazon Plasma TV Listings & Prices too good to be true
Amazon isn't cleaning up their listings so here is a heads up to all--
Below is some email correspondence I had with someone who checked into these Amazon sales. If Amazon's "used and new" section has Plasma TV's for $1000+ below market price BE WARE!
http://www.storm-lake.com/amazonfraud/
3 Not HD
Native resolution of this display does not reach HD so that means that any source you think is 720p actually is downscaled to 480p. If EDTV is what you want then this might be a good buy but don't buy it thinking you're getting HDTV.
4 On balance, quite a great way to spend 2k
I have owned my SVA for about three months now. It is on for at least 8 to 12 hours a day. We have not had a single issue at all so far. I run a replay dvr unit into this plasma and it looks great. DVD's look great at 720.
I have friends who have much more expensive units that they bought last year, including Sony and Dell. They are all very impressed with the picture quality.
The replay has a slide show on 'pause' and it looks great on the screen. The static picture (10 second slideshow) gets excellent reviews with no flicker or dead pixels. It really looks great. Even in fast action scenes in adventure movies do not cause image issues on the screen.
I almost bought a Sony or a Fujitsu since I didn't really want to think or do research about the quality of the unit. One of the costco home workers said that over a 100 had left the warehouse and only one was returned (and it was not returned for a failure). I cannot speak to other issues about customer service since I have not had to deal with them.
I have been saving a lot of money by buying dvd's and watching movies at home with this plasma and the surround sound. It is really awesome and I wish I had bought this thing last year when I first saw it.
The only issue I have is the component video input via the 15 pin dsub. One of the two silver retaining screws (just like any pc card has) fell out. Therefore the vga connection is not super tight but it still works. As another reviewer mentioned, this unit is heavy and I have it about 5 feet in the air on a hearth. So, only when I have someone help me lift it down will I replace it. Other than that, it is pretty cool.
Buy this unit and save the money you would spend for a name brand!
5 Bang for the buck
If you are looking for a low end plasma i.e 5k and below then this one is your best bet. There is no reason to spend 3500 for a panasonic or 5g's for a sony because the quality of this screen is top notch and the low price makes it that much better. I do agree with one of the other reviewers in that the screen is uncharacteristically heavy, something to take into consideration if you want to wall mount this unit. Other than that there are only two drawbacks and the reason for the 4 not 5 star rating is that its EDTV and no DVI input.
6 Great deal so far
Ok Let me say that I have only had the plasma for 3 days now and absolutly love it. The picture is great the computer looks great the price was great at 1999. Lots of inputs and comes with the stand and all the cords for every input. Xbox looks great on it my dvd player hooked up via rgb or composit looks perfect. I will keep updating this as time goes bye. But cant imagine anything better for the price. I am used to a 32" sony trinitron so I know what a good picture looks like. Willl keep you informed. Ps And if there is humming I cant hear it and I dont usually watch tv with out the sound on. I dont use the tuner so I dont know how well that works.
7 Very Impressed Great Product
Well I had to write a review. I have been in audio/tv sales for 15 years. So im quite up to date on all products and tends. Upon reading these reviews for those who have had issues. Sorry to hear that and if u feel spending 2k more money on a brand name makes u feel better then go ahead.I'll keep the xtra money I saved in the bank by buying this product SVA (basicly a rebadged Samsung). I own this Plasma as well and find it's performance is unmatched by any other product at this price point or more and Yes it does use a Samsung plasma screen. The unit is well built. Picture quality is fantastic with DvD and Tv is actually good for cable signals better then CRT DLP or LCOS. Unlike other projection units DLP LCOS and so on this unit has even brightness and colour not seen in rear projectors as well as it doesnt have a beamy picture like dlp and LCOS
As for the other reviewer saying he cant turn it on after shutting it off . It says in the manual DO NOT TURN ON WITHIN 2 MINUTES AFTER SHUTTING IT OF! Might be why u have a issue U need to read the manual This is why they have it. Sure the manual isnt the best but it covers the most important features. Anyway I think u all should give this unit some consideration. In a few years this comapny SVA will be just like Samsung. Remember a few years ago they where noone. Now they are a major player
8 Super Product ..Best Buy for the Money...SVA HD4208TVI-PDP
This is for the new model SVA HD4208TVI-PDP
SVA assmebles this product in China but uses Samsung Plasma screens among other manufactures for assembely of this product. For your money u cannot beat the value of this unit.
DVD and TV looks far superiour to my 4 year top 36inch Toshiba CRT. As well this unit was among various other plamsa screens from all the makers in the store all playing the same dvd. Honestly at a distance of 6ft and over from screen you would have a hard time telling the difference between this and any other manufacture. Oh wait there is a difference The money U save can be spent on a better DVD player or audio equipment u might need as well as the Wife factor Take her out for dinner with the xtra money u save. Seriousy this is a very nice well made and performing product.
Sure theres better stuff out there but is it worth the extra 1000's of dollars????
9 can't recommend it
general impressions - good:
1. picture quality for dvds and games (480i) were pretty good
2. complete - stand, cables, tuner included. get everything for $2000
bad:
1. makes a humming noise in bright scenes - annoying
2. no HDMI/DVI input
3. 2 components in - no 480p support - one is only 480i, the other 720p/1080i
4. terrible manual
5. remote very flimsy/cheap (but, i wasn't expecting it to be great) - no oneforall remote code for SVA.
i actually bought this thru Target.com's amazon link and they took it back b/c after 1 day of use, it died.
while it worked, the picture was acceptable. but, whenever a scene was bright, it made a buzzing noise (i assume from driving the white pixels). it started to get quite annoying b/c it would oscillate from quiet to buzz.
it also got very hot. the top back of the tv was almost too hot to touch and it warmed up the room nicely.
but, i got this tv to use with my xbox and was very disappointed it didn't support 480p at all (despite what the specs and description says). the couple of 720p games i tried looked great but i couldn't see the dashboard thru that component in.
despite it's limitations, i was going to keep it... until it DIED. the tech support thinks a transistor failed.
overall, the quality level is not up to par w/ the other makes. i highly recommend spending $500 more for the panasonics or buying it locally so returns/exchanges are simpler.
10 Just bought.
I recently bought this tv acouple days ago. I had been wanting a plasma screen television for quite some time, and when I seen the price of this for alittle bit under $2,000 in a local advertisement I had to take a look at it.
When I went there I was quite impressed with it, visually it looked great, the design of the case and the picture quality itself. I asked the sales person alot of question but he didn't really know too much about it so it made me question the integrity of SVA, a brand which I had never heard of at the time.
I went online to try and find some reviews and information about it, but could only find these same reviews below on abunch of other websites, which didn't really help at all since you have 2 people saying they like it, and 1 person that posted twice about how it sucks and not explaining a reason why. After abit more research I read that the picture tube is made from a Samsung picture tube. I heard of this before where other companies like Dell import pieces of plasma screen tvs and construct them in one of their factories to keep the price down.
After visiting the store again, this time with my brother to decide on final purchase, me and him went over all of their plasma tvs and gave them our own bare eye inspection. Both of us thought that the SVA had a great picture quality compared to all of the other plasma screen tvs they had on display, and in alot of cases it looked even better than alot of the tvs on display.
When I bought it, the only thing that was bad was the stand was broken on it (which we recieved another stand) and for being a plasma screen tv and how thin it is, it is very heavy. The other thing is that it has no controls on the tv itself, there is no volume, channel, video select or even a television power on! (Although there is a main power turn on/off) So if your remote control breaks (and you don't have a universal remote programmed for it) it sounds like you'll have to order a new remote.
I read from a different review that someone was having problems with the remote control and that it had a "mind of its own". I haven't came across this problem at all, either that person had a faulty remote control, or was talking nonsense.
But still, like I mentioned before, I have recently bought this plasma tv, I haven't had any problems with it yet, and I had been looking up information about preventing burn-ins since I hear it plagues plasma tv's and I play alot of video games and intend to use it as a pc monitor as well.
Also another nice addition was that included ALL the hook ups you need. I am not sure about the exact amount of cords, but it include acouple of the same ones like 2 a/v cords, 2 normal left/right audio cords, 1 component, 1 s-video, 1 pc cord, 1 pc to component (which is really cool), 1 analog(?) cable, and 1 audio (you know like a head phone jack) to left/right audio cord. I thought that this was very cool since alot of tvs I had bought and other people bought didn't include, or only included maybe 1 or 2 cords.
I gave this a rating of 4 because like I said, I had just recently purchased this tv and still am testing it out. I wrote this review to help people get alittle bit more knowledge about this tv since I couldn't find much help about it online either. My biggest suggestion for anyone interested in this tv is to go to a store and take a look at it and compare it to other plasma tv's, make sure to check for burn ins and everything. When I was checking it out at the store they did not have the audio set up, only the picture cables were hooked up, when I got it home and tested out the audio, I was quite surprised at the quality of it since I heard alot of plasma screens with speakers didn't give good quality. But still I run all my audio through my reciever for surround sound, which the majority of people that purchase plasma tv's do as well, so you wont be worrying much about the audio on this... which I believe by looking at it, it has 4 sets of speakers, I could be wrong... but it did give off some nice sound for when I was testing it out.
11 DON'T BUY IT
HAD NOTHING BUT TROUBLE SINCE I BOUGHT IT.PICTURE IS NOT GOOD. MY IO YEAR OLD SONY TV HAS A BETTER PICTURE.MAKES A CLICKING NOISE EVERYTIME YOU CHANGE THE CHANNEL. RETURN IT FOR A NEW ONE, GOT THE SAME NOISE, GIVES YOU VERY LITTLE INFO ON SETTING IT UP. AND IF YOU WANT TO PUT IT ON YOUR WALL, YOU MUST BUY TWO BRACKETS THAT COST 150.00 EACH.ALSO THE REMOTE HAS ITS ON MIND. YOU HIT THE PICTURE BUTTON YOU'LL GET THE SLEEP TIMER.
12 Best Buy
I bought the SVA Plasma 2 month ago from buy.com and so far I have not complain at all about this unit. First of all, the picture quality is sharp and nice unlike some of those reviews saying it has bad picture quality. You can easily spend $1000 more for the same picture quality for big brand names. Second, it comes with everything, you don't need to spend extra money buying necessary part.
I use it a lot as my PC monitor with the PC comes with wireless keyboard and mouse. The Picutre on PC is excellent and exceeding my expectations. 42 inch monitor for my PC, it is cool.
The unit also has nice design. You can't go wrong with the product.
13 Best priced EDTV plasma with everything you need.
First off, I'm not new to plasma's. I bought my first HDTV plasma more than a year ago! It is the Pioneer 433cmx with approx 1072x760 pixels. This is true HD, but although the Pioneer works great, it cost me $4,200 total. So now I've learned that the difference between the EDTV units and the HDTV units is the pixels. When you watch a DVD on a EDTV plasma like the SVA unit, it will look slightly better than a HDTV plasma because the pixels on the EDTV unit closely match the DVD and when you play HDTV signals on a HDTV plasma, the HDTV will show a slightly better picture than the EDTV. So is the HDTV worth $2000 more?? I used my eyeball test and compared the SVA Plasma to the other EDTV plasmas in a local store and decided on the SVA. Amazon has a great price and the unit comes with everything, cast iron desk stand, great speakers with base and treble controls, a tuner for cable or RF signals, 2 composite video inputs, 1 component and 1 15pin computer monitor input. I don't use the PIP feature but its there. I use this in the bedroom and its great! comes with a 1 year warranty. Thanks Amazon! I gave this a 4 only because of its weight. With the stand it weighs 135lbs and I needed help lifting it on to its viewing table.
14 This tv is great
i dont know what these other people are talking about, this TV is great. the picture quality is awsome, maybe they should sit a little farther away from the tv, the recommended is 1.8-3 meters. the only lacking thing about it is the PIP (picture in picture) dont buy this at target though, go to BJ's because I got it there for $2200, not 2899 or what ever it is.
15 I hate this TV.
I bought this TV a few months ago, and the picture quality is aweful.
16 Not a good one.
You can get a better one at this price.
17 Great Value and Design........
I happened across this unit in a local store and was amazed by not only the quality of the picture but also the cosmetics of the unit.
i don't know much about SVA, but i do understand that most of the plasma screens on the market come from a few overseas manufacturers and that all of the individual brands just design the case and put their labels on the product.
That being the case, this ones a winner.
