This question is actually for my boss. He is determined to get a 720p plasma, and even with my coaching, will not budge on going 1080p. Oh well. He asked me the other day if it's even worth getting a blu ray player, or just get an upconverting dvd player. I'm thinking a blu ray player would play blu movies pretty well even on 720p, but not sure how much better than SD-DVD upconverted? Anyone been in this situation and seen for yourself? Thanks.
This question is actually for my boss. He is determined to get a 720p plasma, and even with my coaching, will not budge on going 1080p. Oh well. He asked me the other day if it's even worth getting a blu ray player, or just get an upconverting dvd player. I'm thinking a blu ray player would play blu movies pretty well even on 720p, but not sure how much better than SD-DVD upconverted? Anyone been in this situation and seen for yourself? Thanks.
The simple answer is yes. I have a 720p (really 768p) Pioneer Elite Plasma and love it. I decided to go for a quality display and lower resolution, over a lesser display with higher resolution. Blu-ray will look better than SD-DVD upconverted on any resolution.
Yes, blu-ray is much better than up-converted dvd's on a 720p display. I currently have a 720p plasma and blu-ray's look fantastic. DVD's do look nice, but cannot compete with the quality blu-ray offers.
I definitely recommend getting a blu-ray player. Your boss will not be disappointed.
The simple answer is yes. I have a 720p (really 768p) Pioneer Elite Plasma and love it. I decided to go for a quality display and lower resolution, over a lesser display with higher resolution. Blu-ray will look better than SD-DVD upconverted on any resolution.
This is the correct answer! My Pioneer KURO eats up 1080p LCDs all day long. Its not just about resolution! Its about black levels, real-world contrast, motion performance, and color accuracy. A good plasma gives you all of those things. Most other sets fail miserably in several of these areas. They can have their 1080p and all the other shortcomings!
I hate to just reiterrate what has been said above, but it needs to be said. Resolution is NOT all there is to a picture. BD on good 768p sets (I've got 2) looks incredible and blows away upconverted DVD. Folks need to stop with the "1080p or you won't see the benefits of BD/HD" mentality.
This is the correct answer! My Pioneer KURO eats up 1080p LCDs all day long. Its not just about resolution! Its about black levels, real-world contrast, motion performance, and color accuracy. A good plasma gives you all of those things. Most other sets fail miserably in several of these areas. They can have their 1080p and all the other shortcomings!
Go for it!
Amen! My 720p Panny plasma kicks the crap out of all my neighbors 1080p LCD sets with their "upconverted" SD-DVDs with my blu-ray. A quality set wins every time
I dont know who it was, but somebody posted a link on here comparing plasmas and lcd and I want to say that one of the Top 2 was a plasma with a 768. I might be wrong on this and just linking multiple posts into one. I hope not.
I will say this though. I have a Panny 50px80u and a Panny bd30, all my friends and family just love the display when it comes to mvies and especially Sunday Ticket with Directv. You football fans who dont have a plasma yet really need to get one especially with the Superbowl around the corner.
I did have a friend over with my brother and we were watching Survivor. Well they started to broadcast the show in HD and my friend actually said my tv looked better than my brothers Samsung 1080p LCD. The colors and contrast and all around everything else just looks awesome.
This is the correct answer! My Pioneer KURO eats up 1080p LCDs all day long. Its not just about resolution! Its about black levels, real-world contrast, motion performance, and color accuracy. A good plasma gives you all of those things. Most other sets fail miserably in several of these areas. They can have their 1080p and all the other shortcomings!
Go for it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricshoe
I hate to just reiterrate what has been said above, but it needs to be said. Resolution is NOT all there is to a picture. BD on good 768p sets (I've got 2) looks incredible and blows away upconverted DVD. Folks need to stop with the "1080p or you won't see the benefits of BD/HD" mentality.
Well said. I'll take black level/native contrast over resolution every time.
You've got a Panny plasma, one of the most well respected plasma HDTV's on the market. Regardless of 720/1080, imo you're not going to notice that much of a difference. Thats just my opinion, as i'm sure someone here will challenge that. Either way, you have a great tv and a great starter for blu ray!
This is the correct answer! My Pioneer KURO eats up 1080p LCDs all day long. Its not just about resolution! Its about black levels, real-world contrast, motion performance, and color accuracy. A good plasma gives you all of those things. Most other sets fail miserably in several of these areas. They can have their 1080p and all the other shortcomings!
I have a 720p Samsung. And while it's LCD and not plasma, I would NEVER recommend an upconverting player. Blus on my PS3 still look outstanding and upconverted DVDs (the PS3 is a great upconverter) just don't compare.
I'll pass all of this along to him. He's a tight wad, so maybe he'll go for that 150$ blu player at Target. To ngkf7: I kind of feel my PS3 sucks at upconverting SD-DVD? Maybe I'm just picky.
Yes - Blu-ray looks stunning on 720p. I never liked the look of DVD on my TV from day one. Blu-ray is much, much better and the sound is incredible too (esp. lossless).
lol parents just got a blu player for our 480i crt and the difference is still very noticeable. it's not the resolution but rather the color that gets amazingly better
I dont know who it was, but somebody posted a link on here comparing plasmas and lcd and I want to say that one of the Top 2 was a plasma with a 768. I might be wrong on this and just linking multiple posts into one. I hope not.
But there was no doubt about itplasma is king.
~David Birch-Jones
Deep blacks and a viewing angle that allows more than one viewer to watch are big sellers for me, which explains why I was drawn to both the Pioneer and the Panasonic. Go with either, and you'll be happy.
~John Higgins
I kept going back and forth between the two plasmas: Pioneer and Panasonic. I knew they both looked the most natural and pleasing to me, with excellent blacks as well. I couldn't decide which I preferred.
~Maureen Jensen
David Ranada
The LCD had less accurate color overall, and the grayscale the range of tones between full black and full white was less pure. On the whole, I greatly preferred the less exaggerated imagery of the plasma set.
Al Griffin
Compared with the plasma, the LCD's picture lacked subtlety. Its greater native resolution should have been readily apparent with high-def programs, but it tended to wash out detail in bright and even medium-bright pictures. Compared with the plasma, the LCD also lacked color accuracy, and it couldn't handle noisy images like those on analog cable channels. LCD has a bright future, but for now I prefer plasma.
David Katzmaier
Overall, I preferred the LCD picture, although the Sharp TV's greenish grays gave me pause. The high-contrast look of the picture, and greater detail with high-def sources, won me over.
Al Griffin, Technical Editor
A fresh comparison of flat-panel TVs is something we've had sitting on the back burner for a while now. Why? Because it took Samsung's 46-inch LN-T4681F to give us the confidence that a current LCD display could hold its own against plasma, much less the best plasma TV on the market.
After tweaking both TVs, I was awestruck by how closely matched their pictures were the Samsung's really looked that good. It was only with detailed comparisons that we noted some of the LCD's flaws a reddish cast to faces in Black Book, slightly toxic greens on the golf course in Happy Gilmore, a yellow tinge to snow-capped peaks in Vertical Limit (prompting the inevitable Frank Zappa joke from Mike Trei). In comparison, the Pioneer's color balance was close to perfect.
The Samsung set delivered the deepest shadows of any LCD I've tested. It's just that the Pioneer's blacks were appreciably deeper. In fact, the Pioneer's all-around knockout performance found us nodding to each other in the darkened room, uttering "Kuro" in hushed, reverent tones. Samsung has dramatically raised the bar for LCD TV performance, but the technology still has further to go.
Michael Trei, Contributing Technical Editor
From the minute I walked into the room, I was impressed by how closely Al had matched the images on these two very different sets. Particularly with brighter scenes, the differences were subtle enough that they would be tough to spot under any circumstances except in a side-by-side shootout like this one.
With most material, the Samsung LCD had a bit more punch in bright areas, but at the same time it tended to hype the color a bit especially reds and greens. The Pioneer plasma couldn't quite match the LCD's dynamic pop, but its colors were clearly more subtle and realistic-looking. Once we moved to a few night scenes, though, it soon became clear that the plasma could deliver a substantially darker shade of black. The LCD was particularly sensitive to viewing angle as well, and the image quickly washed out as you moved off axis. While I clearly preferred the image the plasma could deliver in our light-controlled video lab, the LCD's added punch would probably be a plus in a room with a lot of light that is, if the TV's shiny reflective screen surface weren't such a problem. Add it all up, and there's no question that plasma won the day.
Rob Sabin, Executive Editor
As you've read, by the end of our several hours of evaluation, Al, Mike, and I all agreed that the plasma handily beat the LCD especially in the key area of contrast. I'd also have to agree that LCD as a technology has plenty more growing to do, and hasn't yet shown us the best of what it's got.
But I think our results here have to be viewed in the context of the tremendous feat that Pioneer has accomplished with its new Kuro sets. The three of us evaluate HDTVs for a living, and we were all blown away by how virtually perfect this 50-inch Elite set was in its execution of every torture test we threw at it. "Best TV ever" was a phrase heard more than once that day as it began to sink in just how good the darn thing was.
We have to throw a big bone to Samsung in fact, a really big bone for driving forward the state of the LCD art in a significant way, and for bringing a critical new advance (LED backlighting) down to an affordable price. That said, Samsung and all other flat-panel manufacturers in both disciplines now have a new gold standard by which to measure their work going forward. Kudos to Kuro.
HD Guru Gary Merson:
So why are consumers passing on better performing plasma TVs and spending more money (per inch screen size) for poorer performing large screen LCDs? Because they produce brighter pictures and consumers mistakenly believe brighter is better. However, unless one lives in a retail showroom or has set up an ultra-bright, high ambient light viewing environment that mimics a showroom, the HD Guru cannot understand why anyone would pay more to buy a top-rated LCD set when a less expensive top-rated plasma set will outperform it while still providing up to three times more light output than necessary in any typical home environment.
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worth getting blu with 720p panny?
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