Panasonic Plasma 720 vs 1080p?

joni24

Hello, I have a Panasonic th42px80u. I wanted to upgrade to the Panasonic th50px80u 720p or the Panasonic th46pz80u 1080p. I sit close to 8 to 9ft away, sometimes 7ft, if on edge of sofa.

1. How much of a difference will I see on the 50" 720p, compared to my 42px80u?

2. How much of a difference will I see on the 46" 1080p, compared to my 42px80u and the 50" 720p?

If you can tell me percentage wise, I would appreciate it.

I only watch Dish HD.

3. Will the 1080i from Dish look more sharper on the 1080p tv compared to the 720p tvs? How much if there is a difference?

Thank you.

SantaPimp27

i cant give you percentages but i can tell u the panny 46pz80u is a hell of a tv and its worth every cent

iserum

the difference in price is around $500 to $600 in store Online might be cheaper)
the difference in PQ is not that much specially if you viewing distance is 8 ft plus.
I am very happy with my 50PX80U, it is the best for the price. TV accepts 1080p input from Blu ray players, you will not see much of PQ difference. Black levels are a bit better on PZ80u. If you want to see real difference PZ800U is the unit to get, it is few hundred more than PZ80U and worth the extra money (almost double than 50PX80U).

50px80u ($899 local stores, SEARS, BB CC)
50PZ80U ($1499 to $1599 local)
50PZ800U ($1799 to $1899)

__________________
Panasonic 50PX80U/Pioneer BDP-51FD /Toshiba HD A1/Tivo HD
SAMSUNG LNT-4661F/ Pioneer BDP-51FD/Dell XPS, Nvidia 9500 GT
SONY BRAVIA 40V2500/40 GB PS3, WII, Intel Core 2 Duo with Nvidia 6800
Yamaha RXV1700
Def. Tech. Mythos III, V & Gems,
Super Cube III
Harmony Remote One
Power Conditioner: Belkin PF40

newtodef

I know people think that you can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p but at 50 inches you will. If you put those tv's side by side with the same feed you wouldn't think twice about getting the pz80u. Think of it this way the same size screen but the pixels are bigger on the 720p, if your that close you will see them better than the 1080p model which has smaller and more pixels, plus why would you go for the older tech?

iserum

i replaced 1080p LCD with this 720p set 50px80u, i have read reviews and done comparison at store also . in order to see the pixel size you need to be at least less than one foot. Home theater magazine have done a good comparison of tvs with all technologies, they have picked 50 inch 720p pioneer plasma over all 1080p sets (LCD and RP sets). This panny 720p entry level plasma beat my 1080p Samsung LCD in black levels and off axis viewing and picture details is lot better. i had no problem buying a 1080p set but did not see much of difference worth $500 price (Cnet has same conclusion and i don't disagree). my viewing distance is 12 -15 feet.

__________________
Panasonic 50PX80U/Pioneer BDP-51FD /Toshiba HD A1/Tivo HD
SAMSUNG LNT-4661F/ Pioneer BDP-51FD/Dell XPS, Nvidia 9500 GT
SONY BRAVIA 40V2500/40 GB PS3, WII, Intel Core 2 Duo with Nvidia 6800
Yamaha RXV1700
Def. Tech. Mythos III, V & Gems,
Super Cube III
Harmony Remote One
Power Conditioner: Belkin PF40

newtodef

His viewing distance is 8 to 9 feet and thats how far I sit away from my 1080p set and its a 46" 80u and when I lean forward it gets a grain to it, I need to be about 2 feet further back for optimum viewing. Also your comparing an lcd's black level and off axis viewing against that of a plasma, an lcd will never win that battle no matter what the resolution is. I compared the 720p model against the 1080p model in BB and there was a very noticable difference when I stood back at that distance. Some poeple may not notice but I did. Even if the tv accepts a 1080p signal it still won't be true hi def. Again this is just my opinion and Im not trying to attack yours.

joni24

Based on some of your opinions, I will most likely upgrade to the th46pz80u from my seating distance. Plus I'll have a 1080p tv and sometimes I will sit closer. I like to thank you all for your help.

KCWebPlaza

When I evaluated the Panny 80 x vs z models, I could tell a difference at distances of approx 6 feet or less. In my room design with family and guests, people seem to view the TV at 5-7 feet a lot - i.e. they are not sitting down on the couch at the optimal viewing distance.

The farther back from 6ft, the less I could tell. Plus, I don't get tv sets very often, so I wanted to get a set that was a bit more future proof for Blu-Ray. Dish HD which I'm getting also i believe broadcasts 1080p on VOD service. Nothing wrong at all with the 720 model at all - it's still high dev.

From my history using computer monitors, I'm biased towards a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 vs 1,366 x 768 on the same size screen - always better detail with the greater resolution.

PFC5

You must have X-ray vision if you can see "grain" (I assume from the pixel structure) from 2 feet further than 8-9 feet with a 46" 1080p.

I have 20/13 vision and I have a 50pz80u which is also a 1080p display. The only "grain" I see is what is innately in the source when it comes to film.

__________________
Denon AVR-887
Klipsch RP-5 Pwred Towers (mains) (525 watts peak each 12"Subs)
All Klipsch RC-25(ctr),(2)SS1(surr),(2)SS1(rearSurr)
Toshiba (2)HD-A20,PS3,BD35
For SACD/DVD-A Samsung HD-841
Panny 50pz80u plasma SETTINGS
RCA HD50LPW162 50"DLP w/HD2+
SA 3250HD
47" LCD+Yamaha5790+HD-A1(bedroom)
Harmony 680 + (2) 670s (amazing remote/support)
Game room with Onkyo receiver & B&W Speakers
The_Cable_Game
Take the high ground and be happier

mvftw

Just bought the 50px80u (12'-14' away) for $850...very happy...

pappylap

the 1080i/720p set will have 1,049,088 pixels with which to render your video image the 1080p set will have 2,073,600 to render the same image......

__________________

You can checkout anytime you like but you can never leave.."

50"Pioneer KURO 111FD Pro Elite
Pioneer BD320 Blu-ray player
Pioneer VSX-919AH A/V Receiver
32" & 37" Olevia LCDs
Sony DHG HDD 500 gig DVR
Samsung DTBH260 Digital Tuner
One Roll of Charmin Quilted Plus in each Bathroom...

Loves2Watch

This should help -

__________________
Theater 1 - Panasonic TH-85PF12U Plasma TV, 6 Conrad Johnson LP275M Amps, Anthem Statement D-2 Pre/Pro, 6 Thiel SCS4 Speakers, 2 REL T-1 Subs, Infinity Interlude 120S Sub, Simaudio MOON Orbiter Universal Disc Player, ELP Laser Turntable, 2 Dish Network ViP 622 DVR's, Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Player, Onkyo DV-HD805 HD DVD Player.

iserum

from CNet

A couple of years ago, I wrote a column about HDTV resolution and whether you should just buy a "standard" 720p/1080i set or pay the extra bucks for a higher-resolution 1080p set. It was called 1080i vs. 1080p HDTV: Should you care? When I write a column, it usually gets a nice little shot of promotion on the CNET home page, a bunch of people read it, then it finds its resting place in the Fully Equipped archive, where it gets a wee bit of traffic, typically less than a 100 hits a day. The exception is when I happen to come up with a title for a column that jibes well with what people are searching for on Google--and it helps when the column appears at the top of a Google search results list. For example, that old "1080i vs. 1080p" column averages about 4,000 hits a day. Not bad for a two-year-old story that's just lying around. The only downside is when that many people are reading a dated article, it tends to make them e-mail you, requesting that you update it. And so I have, with a little twist: Instead of calling the piece "1080i vs. 1080p" again, I'm going with 720p vs. 1080p because that's the how TV manufacturers tend to market their HDTVs these days to delineate between basic HDTVs (720p) and higher-end models (1080p).
1. What's so great about 1080p?
1080p resolution--which equates to 1,920x1,080 pixels--is the current Holy Grail of HDTV resolution. That's because most 1080p HDTVs are capable of displaying every pixel of the highest-resolution HD broadcasts. They offer more than twice the resolution of step-down models, which are typically 1,366x768, 1,280x720, or 1,024x768. These days, HDTVs with any of those three of lower resolutions are typically called "720p." Nobody wants to remember all those numbers, and "768p" doesn't really roll off the tongue.
2. How much extra does a 1080p TV cost?
When I wrote my original article two years ago, you had to pay a premium of about $1,000 to get a 1080p model at the same screen size as a "720p" set. In two years, the gap has closed somewhat, but in many cases, particularly when it comes to plasma, you have to pay significantly more for 1080p--usually anywhere from $500 to $800. Panasonic's two 50-inch plasmas with antiglare screens are a good example. At Circuit City, the 1,366x768 (er, 720p) TH50PX77U costs $1,700 while the 1080p version, the TH50PZ77U, costs $2,500 (the two sets are otherwise nearly identical). The gap between same-size 720p and 1080p LCD TVs is typically narrower: at Amazon, the 1,366x768 Samsung LN-T4042H costs $400 less than its most affordable 1080p counterpart model, the LN-T4061F.
3. Why is 1080p theoretically better than 1080i?
1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1,920x1,080 resolution but conveys the images in an interlaced format (the i in 1080i). In a tube-based television, otherwise known as a CRT, 1080i sources get "painted" on the screen sequentially: the odd-numbered lines of resolution appear on your screen first, followed by the even-numbered lines--all within 1/30 of a second. Progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p, and 1080p convey all of the lines of resolution sequentially in a single pass, which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content. .
4. What content is available in 1080p?
Today's high-def broadcasts are done in either 1080i or 720p, and there's little or no chance they'll jump to 1080p any time soon because of bandwidth issues. Even the much-vaunted high-def games on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are usually 720p native (if not less), though they can be upscaled to 1080i or 1080p in the user settings of those consoles. Really, the only commercially available way to get true 1080p output--aside from hooking your PC to your HDTV--is to get a Blu-ray or HD DVD player. All Blu-ray players and some high-end HD DVD models support 1080p output, and--more importantly--the vast majority of discs are natively encoded at 1080p. .
5. What kinds of TV technologies offer 1080p resolution?
These days, everything but CRT (tube) TVs comes in 1080p versions. That means you can find 1080p-capable versions utilizing all fixed-pixel technologies, including microdisplays (DLP, LCoS, and LCD rear-projection/front-projection) and flat-panels (plasma and LCD). Of course, as specified above, more affordable entry-level models are still limited to 720p resolution. But whatever the resolution, all fixed-pixel (non-CRT) TVs are essentially progressive-scan technologies, so when the incoming source is interlaced (1080i, or even good old-fashioned 480i standard-definition), they convert it to progressive-scan for display. . At this point, I could just expand on that last point and specify that all fixed-pixel display TVs--all microdisplay rear-projection and all flat-panels--always display everything at their native resolution, which is all they can display. On a 720p TV, that means that all incoming video is displayed at 720p (or 768p, as the case may be); on a 1080p TV, all incoming video is displayed at 1080p. The process of converting resolution is called scaling--sometimes called upconverting or downconverting. A related factor is deinterlacing (see point no. 8, below). How well a TV does or does not handle both of these processes is a big factor in how desirable it is--and something that casual shoppers often overlook, since, compared to the screen size or resolution, it's not as easy to show as a spec sheet bullet point.
I should probably put that whole previous paragraph in bold, though, because the message never seems to get through. So, at the risk of overkill, let's restate it with specific resolutions:
6. What happens when you feed a 1080i signal to a 720p TV?
The 1080i signal is scaled, or downconverted, to 720p. Nearly all recent HDTVs are able to do this.
7. What happens when you feed a 1080p signal to 720p TV?
Assuming the TV can accept a 1080p signal, it will be scaled to 720p. But that caveat is important: many older 720p HDTVs--and yes, even some older 1080p models--cannot even accept 1080p signals at all, in which case you'll get a blank screen. Thankfully, most newer HDTVs can accept 1080p signals.
8. What happens when you feed a 1080i signal to a 1080p TV?
It's converted to 1080p with no resolution conversion. Instead, the 1080i signal is "de-interlaced" for display in 1080p. Some HDTVs do a better job of this de-interlacing process than others, but usually the artifacts caused by improper de-interlacing are difficult for most viewers to spot.
9. Side by side, how do 720p and 1080p TVs match up in head-to-head tests?
We spend a lot of time looking at a variety of source material on a variety of TVs in our video lab here at CNET's offices in New York. When I wrote my original article two years ago, many 1080p TVs weren't as sharp as they claimed to be on paper. By that, I mean a lot of older 1080p sets couldn't necessarily display all 2 million-plus pixels in the real world--technically, speaking, they couldn't "resolve" every line of a 1080i or 1080p test pattern.
That's changed in the last couple of years. Most 1080p sets are now capable of fully resolving 1080i and 1080p material. But that hasn't altered our views about 1080p TVs. We still believe that when you're dealing with TVs 50 inches and smaller, the added resolution has only a very minor impact on picture quality. On a regular basis in our HDTV reviews, we put 720p (or 768p) sets next to 1080p sets, then feed them both the same source material, whether it's 1080i or 1080p, from the highest-quality Blu-ray and HD DVD players. We typically watch both sets for a while, with eyes darting back and forth between the two, looking for differences in the most-detailed sections, such as hair, textures of fabric, and grassy plains. Bottom line: It's almost always very difficult to see any difference--especially from farther than 8 feet away on a 50-inch TV.
I said so much in a 2006 column I wrote called The case against 1080p, but some readers knocked us for not looking at high-end TVs in our tests. But the fact is, resolution is resolution, and whether you're looking at a Sony or a Westinghouse, 1080p resolution--which relates to picture sharpness--is the same and is a separate issue from black levels and color accuracy.
Our resident video guru, Senior Editor David Katzmaier, stands by what he said two years ago: The extra sharpness afforded by the 1080p televisions he's seen is noticeable only when watching 1080i or 1080p sources on a larger screens, say 55 inches and bigger, or with projectors that display a wall-size picture. Katzmaier also says that the main real-world advantage of 1080p is not the extra sharpness you'll be seeing, but instead, the smaller, more densely packed pixels. In other words, you can sit closer to a 1080p television and not notice any pixel structure, such as stair-stepping along diagonal lines, or the screen door effect (where you can actually see the space between the pixels). This advantage applies regardless of the quality of the source.
10. OK, so what's the bottom line: Should I go 1080p or 720p?
First and foremost, some people just want what's considered the best spec on a TV. If you're one of those people, spend the extra dough, you'll feel better in the long run. Secondly, if you're thinking of going big, really big (a 55-inch or larger screen), or you like to sit really close (closer than 1.5 times the diagonal measurement), the extra resolution may make it worth the difference--as long as you have a pristine, 1080i or 1080p HD source to feed into the set. And finally, it's a good idea to go with 1080p if you plan to use your TV a lot as a big computer monitor. That said, if you set your computer to output at 1,920x1,080, you may find that the icons and text on the screen are too small to view from far away (as a result, you may end up zooming the desktop or even changing to a lower resolution). But a 1080p set does give you some added flexibility (and sharpness) when it comes to computer connectivity.
If none of those factors jump out at you as true priorities--and you are working on a tight budget and want to save some dough--a 720p set is going to do you just fine. HD will still look great on your set, I swear. In fact, our current highest-scoring HDTV, the Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080HD, is a 720p, er--768p, model.
11. Wait! What about 120Hz LCDs and how they compare to 720p/1080p plasmas?
This column's just about 720p vs.1080p. If you're interested in 120Hz, try Six things you need to know about 120Hz LCD TVs.

__________________
Panasonic 50PX80U/Pioneer BDP-51FD /Toshiba HD A1/Tivo HD
SAMSUNG LNT-4661F/ Pioneer BDP-51FD/Dell XPS, Nvidia 9500 GT
SONY BRAVIA 40V2500/40 GB PS3, WII, Intel Core 2 Duo with Nvidia 6800
Yamaha RXV1700
Def. Tech. Mythos III, V & Gems,
Super Cube III
Harmony Remote One
Power Conditioner: Belkin PF40

joni24

Again, I like to thank you all on your opinions and help on this. Thank you!