swimfan

After spending months researching DLP, Lcos, LCD, etc. I was about to spend $2500-3000 on a large screen 55'+ projection television. A friend of mine had purchased a 42" Toshiba HD plasma a couple years ago and was immediately put off by the picture. Moving into my new house resulted in a medium size living room that was dominated by my 36" Sony Wega SDTV. It wasn't until I realized that mounting a plasma on the wall would result in a lot more floor space and an over-all spacious feel that I decided to look into plasmas (i still don't understand why one would buy a plasma without indending to mount it on the wall).

Reading reviews (cnet, etc.) and looking through forums like this one, it seemed like the Panasonics were the first place to look. I was immediately drawn to the commercial models. I'm an Apple computer purest and I am always looking for a sleeker minimalist design. Not only do I think silver is going to date TV's like the awful wood framed TV's of the 70's and 80's, but I think the dark charcoal/black frame of the Panny commercial model looks way better.

I ordered the Panasonic 42" EDTV TH-42PWD7UY from an online retailer for $1600 plus about $200 for shipping. I don't remember which company it was. There are about a million selling this TV. I also ordered the tilt wall mount found on ebay for the panasonics. There are a couple reason why I chose the EDTV over the HDTV version. I've read several times that the differences between the two become almost non-existent past a 10' viewing distance. In looking at the native resolutions of these two TV's it doesn't make sense to me why the HDTV is actual called an HDTV. 1024x720. Considering it doesn't actually display the full 720p picture without scaling down was a major issue for me. Another interesting thing is that if you divide 1024 by 720 you get, 1:42 (like SDTV) but if you divide 852 by 480 you get, 1:78 (like HDTV). It also happens that if you do the same for the 50" Panasonic HDTV you get 1:78 (1366x768). Now, looking at these three TV's, which two seem better suited for DVD and HDTV material? This is nothing more than an observation I've made and I'm sure plays a very little role in picture. The question has to be asked though, why spend $1000+ more on a TV that is basically enhanced-enhanced definition TV. With more than 200 lines being cut off the HDTV horizontally, it isn't too far from the 852 of the EDTV. Anyways, enough rambling.

I spent a week with the TV without HDTV waiting for comcast to deliver the new box. SD material immediately jumped out to me. My parents own a Sony Wega Tube HDTV and SD material looks awful due to the low resolution on a high resolution TV. I remember when they brought that TV home and turned it on they thought it was broken. SD just plain looks bad on HDTV. SD material on the Panny EDTV looks fantastic. No pixelation or noise. This is worth money if you ask me. Most TV you'll be watching is SD and if you want it to look its best, you'll have to go with an EDTV. DVD's look insanely good. I remember watching a DVD on my friends Toshiba plasma and being really bummed out. It wasn't as bad as SD TV material, but it had some of those problems. Due to the fact that the resolution of the EDTV basically matches that of the DVD format, the picture is great. I always loved my tube Sony Wega for DVD's and I didn't think this new TV would be able to hold its own against that, but it does.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this 42" plasma EDTV beats other 42" plasma HDTV's displaying high definition material. Color definition, deep blacks and detail are a sight to behold. I honestly didn't expect this TV to look this good in HD. I've had the TV for a couple weeks now and I have to say that the $1000 I saved was the best decision I could have made. That is $1000 toward a REAL high definition 50" plasma.