Hi all,

I've been doing some research on which flatscreen TV would be best for me.

The choice I made is a Pioneer plasma, a 42" or a 50".

Mostly because of the excellent colours, but also because they have a very good SD PQ.

Keeping in mind that plasma's are A LOT more expensive here in Belgium (compared to overseas), I have some choices to make and I hope the fine people here can help out making them...


I watch mostly digital TV (in Belgium that means DVB-C MPEG-2 using a set-top box connected to the TV using SCART).


Will a Pioneer Full HD panel have a better PQ watching that kind of digital TV? Or will a HD ready panel have the same quality?

Will a Pioneer Full HD panel have a better PQ watching standard DVD's on a Yamaha DVD-player connected using YCbCr/YPbPr or SCART? Or will a HD ready panel have the same quality?

Will there be a big difference in PQ between HD Ready and Full HD, when HD ever comes available here?


What I'm looking for is sharpness of the image.


A Pioneer PDP-507XA (1365x768, 50") costs 5580 US$ here (incl. taxes), a Pioneer PDP-427XA (1365x768, 42") costs 3500 US$ (incl. taxes).

There is no Full HD 42" Pioneer plasma panel here, but a full HD Pioneer plasma (PDP-5000EX) costs a whopping 11680 US$ (incl. taxes)!
That's "a bit" out of my budget...


So my options:


- get a 42" HD ready Pio plasma now
- wait for a 42" Full HD Pio plasma to come out (will this ever come out?)
- wait for the Pio HD ready 50" to drop in price


All opinions are welcome!


Thanks!


J.

If you're a big black level freak, maybe just wait till the next gen comes out.

I wouldn't worry too much about 'full HD' or not. 1024x768 looks extremely good already. Sit more than 5-6 feet away and the difference in resolution (which IMO a quite small difference to begin with) a true MOOT point.

Watch some HD footage scaled down on a quality EDTV Plasma at 42 inches and then you will understand how much more important contrast and colors are to a good detailed picture.

Will there be a big difference in PQ between HD Ready and Full HD, when HD ever comes available here?


What I'm looking for is sharpness of the image.


A Pioneer PDP-507XA (1365x768, 50") costs 5580 US$ here (incl. taxes), a Pioneer PDP-427XA (1365x768, 42") costs 3500 US$ (incl. taxes).

There is no Full HD 42" Pioneer plasma panel here, but a full HD Pioneer plasma (PDP-5000EX) costs a whopping 11680 US$ (incl. taxes)!
That's "a bit" out of my budget...


So my options:


- get a 42" HD ready Pio plasma now
- wait for a 42" Full HD Pio plasma to come out (will this ever come out?)
- wait for the Pio HD ready 50" to drop in price


I don't know much about european signals, but I'll take a shot. By "full Hd" I assume you're talking about 1080p instead of 768p. I don't believe that pio will make a 1080p screen in 42".

Your difference in viewing between a 768p and a 1080p will be entirely dependent on your viewing distance any your source material. On any material under 1080p (including 720p and standard digital) will not look much different on either set as long as you are not close enough to see screen door effect. On 1080i and 1080p sources, you will see a difference if you sit closer than a certian distance. There's a couple of charts linked in this thread (#6 and #10) that should let you know what the distances are (sorry - you'll have to convert to m).
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=790052

With those costs (wow!) I'd probably go the pdp-427xa & wish I could afford the pdp-507xa. I think you will be waiting 1 year or more for the price on the 5000ex to fall into the 507xa current range.

Ability to provide a good SD picture is due to the processing in the set, not the number of pixels.

There will be a lot of variation on the DBV-C signal, as channels will be broadcast at different bandwidth. Highly compressed programs will look bad on any set, but the larger the screen, the worse it looks. Only solution here is something like the Algolith Flea.

For standard DVD via your Yamaha, there would be little difference between the Pioneer sets. If you planned to watch HD-DVD or BluRay, then maybe you would have more of an excuse for the 5000EX. But Pioneer are likely to bring out their new generation full HD screens in a few months, with better black levels than on the 5000EX. There have been a number of reports that the 507 has better black levels than the 5000 - I haven't seen them together so can't say. But I agree with the earlier post that good black levels and accurate colour are much more imortant than pixel count.

You would be better off with the PDP-507XA, as when HD transmission finally arrives, you will wish you had the bigger screen. And you can get this for just over USD4000 in Germany from on-line sellers. Pioneer's warranty should be EU wide.