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General discussion

Pansonic Plasmas (ED vs HD)

Jun 24, 2005 11:47PM PDT

I've been researching extensively on this site and others for a plasma TV. The 42" Panasonics seem to be the best bet. There is the EDTV (Panasonic TH42PWD7UY) and then the HD (Panasonic TH42PHD7UY).

The EDTV has gotten great reviews, however, I would think that I'd be out of date really quick and am leaning to gettting the HD just for the future.

CNET hasn't specifically reviewed the HD (Panasonic TH42PHD7UY) so i was wondering if any of you had your opinions.

I know the EDTV is great, but wouldn't the HD be the same except better? Is it worth the money?

thanks in advance

Discussion is locked

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Which Panasonic to get...EDTV vs HDTV.
Jun 25, 2005 7:55AM PDT

Hello,

Depends on how you are approaching this purchase. If you are interested in future proofing as much as possible go with the HDTV 1080p displays. Of course, these are hard to find and cost in upwards of $8000 or more. So you may need to look into a descent 1080i which are usually $6000 and below depending on the Manufacturer. You can always scale back to the 480p resolution of the EDTV displays for optimal DVD quality viewing.

If you are interested in purchasing something that is close to HDTV at a cheaper price, go for the EDTV at 480p. By the way, these EDTV displays are compatible with many of the DVD's currently on the market and actually make the DVD's look like they are HDTV quality. This will give you time to save up for that HDTV 1080p+ display that is currently in the tens of thousands of dollar range.

So to sum up, do you want to put out the most money now for the best or simply purchase something to pacify your desires for now.

Hope this helps.

Take Care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How To Build a Home Theater PC ebook coming soon! visit www.wiresmart.com

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More questions
Jun 26, 2005 5:16AM PDT

Ok.

I too saw these EDTV's the other day at Best Buy and it made me start thinking about getting a new TV again.

I am in a market where lots of channels are not HDTV

So my questions here are some things I would love help on.

If you are watching you standard digitial cable on either TV (ED or HD) how do they look? Do they stretch like the CRT's/projections?

As far as hooking up the digital cable to a tv like this what do you suggest i use? I am assuming the coaxil (sp?) cable is not the best connector.

Thanks

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re:
Jun 27, 2005 12:46AM PDT

well, I do not own a widescreen right now but...
I know that u can change the settings of the TV so when you view regular TV it can be stretched to fit the entire screen or you have the sqaured picture.

As for the picture, I dont think it will be very noticably different (assuming you current TV is halfway decent).

hope it helps

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4:3 on a 16:9 widescreen and connecting digital cable
Jun 27, 2005 2:38AM PDT

Hello,

If you are watching standard 4:3 tv (not widescreen HD content) from over-the-air, cable or satellite sources on a 16:9 widescreen ED or HD display without doing anything you will normally have black lines on the top and bottom of the screen.

Most displays will provide serveral options for viewing anything other than widescreen material.

First, do nothing and watch it the way it was meant to be with black bars around the video.

Second, you can use the displays stretch feature which will tend to make everything look distorted, usually short, fat and wide.

Third, you can use the displays zoom feature to zoom into the video as close as possible to eliminate the black bars around the video.

So there are ways to enjoy 4:3 video on the 16:9 display.

As far as hooking up your digital satellite/cable, at this time it is still transmitted using RG6 Quad Shield coax. Most definitely not the best way, but the only economical way at this time.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact me.

Take care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How To Build A Home Theater PC ebook coming soon! visit www.wiresmart.com

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re
Jul 2, 2005 11:16PM PDT

if you have satellite or digital cable(non-HD)-bets to use s-video if possible gives you more resolution to your tv

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no to 720
Jul 2, 2005 9:03AM PDT

dont buy a ed t.v. if they even make them anymore there is no comparision to a 1080 set also h.d.t.v set are resonable in price