HD AND NON HD TELECAST

As with Audio, most stores don't know squat about hooking up a good plasma. Step on over to www.avsforum.com for a whole lot more on this topic. Pay special attention the the NEC(I bought one of these, the 50XM5) and the Panasonic threads.

Panasonic Plasma EDTV is best for TV and DVD (pixels fit exactly)....it also looks very good (but not the best) on HD.

An HD plasma TV will actually look worse than an EDTV with a regular TV or DVD source....this is because it has to upscale the signal to fit the greater number of pixels on an HD screen. Of course, a proper HD TV with proper number of pixels will look the absolute best with a ful 1080 HD signal ( but beware; many HDTV do not have the full pixels necessary)

The Toshiba HD-DVD player is out today.

http://www.GreatHomeTheater.com/hd-dvd.html

Not that there's any HD DVD product yet, but there will be soon.

Bob Wood

Just got a 37" Panny plasma for the bedroom. I use it strictly for TV viewing I have no DVD/DVR connected. I still use a Sony XBR 36" 4:3 crt for my living room with DVD. On the analog SD channels the Sony still has the better picture. On the SD digital channels the Panny wins and of course the HD channels there literally is no comparison ;-)

Just get the plasma I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Or if you absolutely must have the best possible picture over all other considerations then get a crt-based HDTV like the Sony 34" 16:9 which I believe is possibly the best picture on any format I have ever seen from a TV. Can't hang it on a wall though.

Plasma really have the coolness factor going for them.

We watch movies most of the time (DVD) and very little regular programming. My wife loved the crispness of the Bravia LCD, but I felt the movie experience would be best on the Plasma. It's just more like a window for me... The pioneer elite plasma was just so superior on standard TV... HD it wasn't as apparent... As long as it's great on DVD that's fine with me..:) There is a couple on new Panny's coming out in a couple of weeks that I wanted to look at.... Didn't really want to spend 5K... More like 2.5K

until hd broadcasts are in place, quality still varies by network. the tv's are fine.

I have had two Panasonic 50 inch plasma displays and dvd's are great on both. I suspect the store you went to had poor, and long, cables connecting the displays which does not help at all. If you have a decent dvd player I think you will enjoy the plasma.

Some of us do. It looks great on DVD and on HD broadcasts. On SD (4:3), it is OK and only begins to look ragged if I zoom to fill the screen.

Kal

DVDs look great on my plasma. SD television may look better on other technologies, but this has proved to be a non-issue in my household. We love our plasma and, frankly, I'm surprised that most audiophiles don't prefer plasma (or maybe they do).