Here's the situation - my Panny AE700U is dying and the advice from the people here is to get a new unit. So I'm considering my options.

I just did a major remodel of my condo and have high quality component video (from Blue Jeans cable) running about 50' from my electronics room to my pj. I should have run HDMI there too, but I didn't, so that's that.

My question is - is it worth getting a 1080p pj on the chance that I'll someday be able to watch Blu-Ray or cable HD (over component) at that resolution? My plan is to eventually buy a PS3 (in the next several months), but from what I've read, the firmware upgrade (1.80) will upscale games but not movies to 1080p.

Or should I save money and go with a 720p/1080i pj, foresaking the 1080p video games, since there's no way to watch any better content over component for now? (The assumption here is that a pj with 1080p will be appreciably more expensive than one that does not support 1080p.) That way, I'd save the dough now instead of paying for something I can't currently use and may never be able to use, unless I punch some more holes in my ceiling and run HDMI.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

What's your screen size and viewing distance? If you're more more 1.5x screen width away I'd say 1080p won't give significant advantage over 720p. PS3 has been upscaling DVD to 1080p for a long time. That's not an issue.

IMO if you're closer to the screen and plan to watch Blu-Ray, consider 1080p. Otherwise save some money.

viewing area is 12' from the screen, which is 6.5' wide, so I guess you're saying that 1080p won't give us a significant advantage.

PS3 upscales DVDs to 1080p over HDMI, but I don't think it does it over component due to the copyright restrictions, or am I misinformed?

I think you are right about the PS3. 1080p over component works just fine if you can find a source that outputs it.

1080p may not be visibly different than 720p at the distance and screen size you have but there are two things to consider. The first is if your viewing area or screen will change in the next couple of years. The second is that most of the technology improvements lately have been poured into 1080p machines. They have better contrast, better blacks, better video processing (in some cases worse) and so forth. So it's not just the 1080p you get, you get the latest technology. Sanyo is really inexpensive and very good at 1080p entry level--check out the Sanyo PLV-Z2000.

I was just looking at that Sanyo model - around $1850 with the rebate. Seems like a really good price.

Yup! Not a lot of difference in price from a good 720p. I have had a Sanyo PLV-70 720p for 6 years and it is outstanding--never a problem. It is also very high powered at 2200 lumens. I have no idea if it has any relationshop at all to current models but it makes me feel good about Sanyo. I at least know that they can build one good LCD PJ.