I currently have a 36-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV (flat screen tube), and DVD’s look great on it. I’d like to upgrade to plasma, and I’ve been looking at a few 50-inch models, specifically the Samsung PN50B450 (720p). I was told that my DVD's won't look as good on a 50-inch plasma TV as they do on my CRT. To test this theory, I tried playing a DVD on a friend's 42-inch Akai PDP4290 plasma TV. To be honest, I though the picture looked terrible - very grainy, bad pixelation, etc. Maybe it's because this particular model plasma TV is several years old, but if this is what I can expect (maybe even worse) from a 50-inch plasma, I'd probably do better to just keep my CRT.

So my question is do standard DVD's played on a standard DVD player look fine on most 50-inch plasmas? I'd love to go bigger with a widescreen, but if I'm going to be sacrificing picture quality, I don't want to spend the money.

By the way, I will not be connecting my computer or playing video games on the TV. I also have no plans to upgrade to Blu-Ray anytime soon.

Thanks!

I currently have a 36-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV (flat screen tube), and DVD’s look great on it. I’d like to upgrade to plasma, and I’ve been looking at a few 50-inch models, specifically the Samsung PN50B450 (720p). I was told that my DVD's won't look as good on a 50-inch plasma TV as they do on my CRT. To test this theory, I tried playing a DVD on a friend's 42-inch Akai PDP4290 plasma TV. To be honest, I though the picture looked terrible - very grainy, bad pixelation, etc. Maybe it's because this particular model plasma TV is several years old, but if this is what I can expect (maybe even worse) from a 50-inch plasma, I'd probably do better to just keep my CRT.

So my question is do standard DVD's played on a standard DVD player look fine on most 50-inch plasmas? I'd love to go bigger with a widescreen, but if I'm going to be sacrificing picture quality, I don't want to spend the money.

By the way, I will not be connecting my computer or playing video games on the TV. I also have no plans to upgrade to Blu-Ray anytime soon.

Thanks!

Standard DVDs (unless it is a poor master) look very good on both my plasmas (a Pioneer Elite and a Panasonic).

I think what you saw on the Akai was more of a product of it's ability to process a 480i/480p signal, or the DVD player's lacks, than a general indication of what to expect from any 42" plasma.
I'm sure you can find a 50" Plasma that will do a decent job with that resolution, signal processing seems to get better every year, especially in the entry level. SD PQ does vary from model to model, though, so I would take a test DVD of your own, and give the prospects a try, first hand.
That being said, "decent" to me may not be "decent" to you and a 42" may tend to better hide any flaws.
If the Samsung B450 comes up short in this regard, try the Panasonic X1, or the Lg PQ20/30.

I don't know if this an option but, you can always try taking the dvd to BB and playing it on the actual set you plan to buy.

If your only reason to purchase the Samsung is to play DVD's then maybe you should wait. The Sony is working fine and provides and excellent picture for you. Personally, the only reason I bought my HDTV's was to watch HD material. Everything else was a secondary viewing material.

i've watched about a half dozen dvd's on my 58B560 with my ps3 up scaling them and they looked acceptable. not like a blu-ray but very decent.

I currently have a 36-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV (flat screen tube), and DVD’s look great on it. I’d like to upgrade to plasma, and I’ve been looking at a few 50-inch models, specifically the Samsung PN50B450 (720p). I was told that my DVD's won't look as good on a 50-inch plasma TV as they do on my CRT. To test this theory, I tried playing a DVD on a friend's 42-inch Akai PDP4290 plasma TV. To be honest, I though the picture looked terrible - very grainy, bad pixelation, etc. Maybe it's because this particular model plasma TV is several years old, but if this is what I can expect (maybe even worse) from a 50-inch plasma, I'd probably do better to just keep my CRT.

So my question is do standard DVD's played on a standard DVD player look fine on most 50-inch plasmas? I'd love to go bigger with a widescreen, but if I'm going to be sacrificing picture quality, I don't want to spend the money.

By the way, I will not be connecting my computer or playing video games on the TV. I also have no plans to upgrade to Blu-Ray anytime soon.

Thanks!

Dvds look great on my Sony Trinitrons but not as good on my Pioneer Elite 111-FD. I think it really depends on the DVD player. If you have a DVD player with really good 1080P upconversion, then they'll look fine on a Plasma, if you just have a regular 480I or 480P dvd player, then they'll look a lot worse than they look on a CRT.

DVDs look pretty awesome on my 42" and 50" Panasonic plasmas. As far as your experience watching on your friend's plasma, bear in mind that the quality of the DVD and the player can make a huge difference. Also note that the Akai plasmas are not very good quality products, their LCDs are pretty bad as well.

I currently have a 36-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV (flat screen tube), and DVD’s look great on it. I’d like to upgrade to plasma, and I’ve been looking at a few 50-inch models, specifically the Samsung PN50B450 (720p). I was told that my DVD's won't look as good on a 50-inch plasma TV as they do on my CRT. To test this theory, I tried playing a DVD on a friend's 42-inch Akai PDP4290 plasma TV. To be honest, I though the picture looked terrible - very grainy, bad pixelation, etc. Maybe it's because this particular model plasma TV is several years old, but if this is what I can expect (maybe even worse) from a 50-inch plasma, I'd probably do better to just keep my CRT.

So my question is do standard DVD's played on a standard DVD player look fine on most 50-inch plasmas? I'd love to go bigger with a widescreen, but if I'm going to be sacrificing picture quality, I don't want to spend the money.

By the way, I will not be connecting my computer or playing video games on the TV. I also have no plans to upgrade to Blu-Ray anytime soon.

Thanks!

If you have a good DVD player that does upconversion I think you will get a nice picture. If not, I'd stick with what you have. Also, it doesn't seem like you are at all unhappy with your current situation. Prices will continue to drop and technology will get better. Something to consider.

My Panny plasma is used exclusively for DVD's and if the DVD is well mastered, it looks excellent, but just about every disc looks good to great. Buy a Panasonic or Pioneer or Samsung and a quality player, hook them up with HDMI, and you'll be fine.

I currently have a 36-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV (flat screen tube), and DVD’s look great on it. I’d like to upgrade to plasma, and I’ve been looking at a few 50-inch models, specifically the Samsung PN50B450 (720p). I was told that my DVD's won't look as good on a 50-inch plasma TV as they do on my CRT. To test this theory, I tried playing a DVD on a friend's 42-inch Akai PDP4290 plasma TV. To be honest, I though the picture looked terrible - very grainy, bad pixelation, etc. Maybe it's because this particular model plasma TV is several years old, but if this is what I can expect (maybe even worse) from a 50-inch plasma, I'd probably do better to just keep my CRT.

So my question is do standard DVD's played on a standard DVD player look fine on most 50-inch plasmas? I'd love to go bigger with a widescreen, but if I'm going to be sacrificing picture quality, I don't want to spend the money.

By the way, I will not be connecting my computer or playing video games on the TV. I also have no plans to upgrade to Blu-Ray anytime soon.

Thanks!Standard DVDs (480i) played back on a progressive scan (480p) DVD player look great on a 50" 720p or 1080p PDP.

Blu-ray discs (generally 1080p) look great on a 720p (still high-def) or a 1080p native resolution display.

Both scenarios will apply when using either component or DVI/HDMI connections.

PS3 does an excellent job of up-converting DVDs on my Pioneer 5080. The DVD player is also a factor for example Xbox 360 also up converts DVDs but its not as clean as PS3.

I have a 36" sony crt and a 50" pio plasma and you are correct your crt will look a lot better than the HD flat screen for SD and DVD resolutions. Ive used a few different dvd players trying to get the same quality on my plasma that i got on my crt and it just aint gonna happen. You can get it to be acceptable but it never really approached what i got on my crt. If you think about it, your crt is pretty much playing the dvds at their native resolution or pretty darn close to it where as your HD panel or dvd player is going to not only have to upscale to a higher resolution but also stretch the picture to the larger screen size. Ive yet to find a fixed pixel hd tv that can display SD images as good as my 36" crt tv can.
Just my opinion though.

Check out the $20K+ forum on what makes a DVD "transport" sing. They are not all equal. It has to do with the DA converter.

A calibrated PDP has the richest color and best picture you can buy. But, it first needs to be fine tuned.

Watching a dvd on a good 50" plasma/lcd I have never said 'boy i wish i was wathcing it on a 36" crt'.

Watching a dvd on a good 50" plasma/lcd I have never said 'boy i wish i was wathcing it on a 36" crt'.

LOL, Well I would have to assume you didnt go from a nice 36" tube to your 50" plasma, cause it is a very common theme for people to be less than excited about the quality of dvds and standard def content on new HDTV's. Im not saying its awfull or anything but its similar to taking your computer screen lcd off its native resolution. I will say though that having the two screens(36" and 50") next to each other is the best way to observe this difference.(obviously there are other factors that might affect how drastic the difference is such as, seating dist, calibration, etc)

I have a 36" Toshiba CRT and good quality anamorphic wide screen DVD's look much better on my 50" Plasma.

A couple of years ago I had a 36 Sony CRT, and a 34 Sony HD CRT. Then I had an offer too good to refuse on a 58" 1080p Pannasonic Plama, and could only keep one of the CRT's. This was before Blu-Rays, or at least before they were affordable, and the 36 DID look better with SD DVD's. So I kept that one.

We recently moved, and I didn't really feel like moving the ~300 pound TV up from my basement and then back down to another basement on a new house. So I told my youngest brother if him and a friend came and got it, he could have it. ;)

I went into Best Buy to buy a 720p cheap plasma for the basement, but was offered a great deal by a friend that I didn't even know worked there. I left with a 50s1 (another 1080p pannasonic) and a Blu-Ray player, I had never bothered watching standard DVD's on my Blu-Ray player upstairs since they hadn't looked good on a normal DVD player. Big Mistake. On my TV downstairs I have been going through a bunch of my DVD's and they look even better on the 50 than they did on my 36.

Even if you don't plan on switching over to Blu-Ray, having the option to buy one or two of your favorite new movies on that, and making your old DVd's look better than ever is a nice bonus for $250. But if you really don't want to do that, I'm sure you can find a great upconverting DVD player for probably less than half of that. Just don't think of it as a seperate purchase, think of the new DVD (or Blu-Ray) player as part of the cost of your plasma, just like HDMI cables or something.