I'm looking for a new HDTV, and every store I go to seems to give me a different story about the PiP or split-screen capabilities of the last few generations of hardware.

I have a Nintendo Wii, an Xbox360, a PS2, as well as a digital cable service. What I want is to be able to mix and match from these inputs, either in a picture-in-picture or side-by-side view. Lots of TVs we've looked at seem like they'd be able to do this, but it turns out they have only put the TV tuner on one side, and one input on the other. I want to be able to watch TV while a friend plays Madden on the Xbox. Or play the PS2 while my daughter plays a game on the Wii. While I'm doing split-screen stuff, video quality isn't a prime concern for me, and I'm not interested in watching two TV shows at once. It's all about combining video game with video game, or video game with TV (or movie).

Is there an HDTV out there that will let me mix and match two inputs on screen simultaneously, without needing extra hardware? Why do the TVs that seem like they should do this always seem not to work?

I'm hoping that someone here can help me out and point me in the right direction.

Maybe look at TVs from a few years ago. This feature has almost disappeared, unfirtunately.

I wonder why a useful feature would not be carried over to current models. Can anyone think of any models at all, past or present, that can do split-screen across their inputs? It doesn't seem like it would be such a rare feature.

I wonder why a useful feature would not be carried over to current models. Can anyone think of any models at all, past or present, that can do split-screen across their inputs? It doesn't seem like it would be such a rare feature.

I know Panasonic professional plasmas can do PIP. Check out the manual for the 10uk or 11uk series and see if it gives what you are looking for.

If I recall correctly, there were only a handful of 720p native resolution PDPs that could support "classic" PIP/PAP/POP/Split-screen features because they had dual internal NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners.

One PDP that comes to mind is an early entry from Dell, but I cannot remember the model number.

I do not know of any 1080p native resolution PDP that has dual internal tuners. Besides cost, I'm under the impression that:

"Uniquely, the PRO-FHD1 will not be equipped with any sort of tuning capability -- it's simply a monitor and doesn't have the external media centre found on current models. Pioneer's rep explained that tuners were omitted from the first generation version as a cost-cutting measure and also to reduce interference that may result from having RF circuitry inside the panel itself (http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs/plasma/0,239035288,240059410,00.htm)."

Most, if not all, PDPs require two separate input sources (e.g. CableCARD (a.k.a. direct coax --> antenna input connection) & DVR) to support PIP-type capabilities.