I've had a Panasonic EDTV for about a year and a half now (TH42PD50U). Got it originally because Consumer Reports said it had a better picture than some of the (then) much higher priced true HD sets and in the storeroom my wife and I couldn't tell much of a difference between how it handled an HD broadcast and the HD sets of similar size next to it. And, at the time, we only received SD broadcasts and were looking for a relatively big set that wouldn't make SD look like complete crap.

Well, about 6 months ago I got Directv to give me a really sweet deal on an HDDVR (HR10) and then a few months later another really sweet deal on the HR20. And I really love the picture on this tv with HD broadcasts. But I've started to get the itch for real HD. So, my question is, for anyone familiar with this tv, do you think it would be worth it to upgrade to, say, a 50 inch Panasonic plasma that most places are selling now for about two grand (which is what we paid for the EDTV!)? I mean would it be a noticable improvement and, if so, would it be strikingly noticable or only noticable to someone really looking for the difference? The reason why I put this last question this way is that when I first got HD from Directv, I went back to the store and did a comparison again between my tv (which they still had at the time; they don't anymore) and another true HDTV. Most of the time, I couldn't tell much difference. But there was one shot of a scene in a Buddhist temple (I think) where you could see details in the background on the true HD set that you just couldn't see on my EDTV. On the other hand, I was right up against those tvs and generally watch at home from about 10-11 feet back.

So any insight you could bring to my question would be appreciated. I just don't know if I should be satisfied with what I've got (which I really, really like) or be looking for something a bit better.

Thanks.

at 10-12 feet I dont think you will notice a dramatic difference. The only thing you will like better is it will be a 50" tv vs. a 42" :D I am not sure you will will notice much gain in PQ in HD content on a new 50 HDTV vs. your old 42 EDTV. But I will gaurantee you will lose PQ on SD content if you upgrade to a 50 HDTV. So if you are happy now you might want to wait a year or 2 and let the Tvs get better and cheaper too :D

I have both and from ten feet I cannot tell any perceivable difference between the ED and the HD.

Thanks. Though I'm curious to see if there are other viewpoints, I was starting to wonder whether my drive for an upgrade might be a bit unfounded. The Panasonic 42 inch EDTV really does give a very nice picture. Also my wife will be pleased with this judgement as well as she thinks I'm going a bit overboard with this HDTV thing!

I agree, get it a couple of years later when displays are even bigger, cheaper and better. 1080p for sure. You dont want to move from EDTV to a 720p display, when the new standard is 1080p.

FYI i have the 42pd50u too and i think about upgrading from time to time. But for the size 42" - EDTV is quite enough. And it STILL looks better than a lot of the plasmas they are selling out there.

I agree, get it a couple of years later when displays are even bigger, cheaper and better. 1080p for sure. You dont want to move from EDTV to a 720p display, when the new standard is 1080p.

FYI i have the 42pd50u too and i think about upgrading from time to time. But for the size 42" - EDTV is quite enough. And it STILL looks better than a lot of the plasmas they are selling out there.

Yeah, I've wondered about waiting for 1080p sets to come down in price before upgrading. That does seem like the way to go. It'll be interesting to see how far the prices fall in the next year to year and a half. The 50" Panasonic 720p set is now $500 less - some of the time, anyway - than I paid in April 05 for my 42" 480p. And, as you said, I really love the picture on my 42pd50u!

I am in the same boat as you - quite happy with my 42PD25U but looking for a bigger screen. The 1080p Panasonic plasmas should be out this summer but I am not sure if they will be a good value price-wise if they ask for twice the price of the same size display in 768p. And if you sit 10-12 feet back most of us can't tell the difference between 768p and 1080p. The 1080p models may have better processing, but you could argue the price difference is better spent on a separate video processor such as the DVDO VP30 that will improve PQ on all sources, not just HD. But the new Panasonic 768p sets will have all black bezels and that alone will be an improvement for many. If the 1080p sets accept their native rate at all frequencies over both HDMI and component that would be great - but I doubt if they will unless you pay $10k for a Pioneer. I may just settle for a black 50" Panasonic for about $2k and let it do until OLED or SED becomes the next video miracle display technology in about 5-6 years. By then we may be talking about 80 inch 2160p displays!!

I too have a ED 42" PM50, i thought about the 50" but i now have a 106" screen, Optoma HD70 PJ in my basement and all i can say is a 50" aint S$#*!

I have both, and the difference is not dramatic, not from 10ft. 42" Panny ED and 50" Panny HD looks about the same from 10ft. The only time the HD set is noticeably sharper is on computer-generated text and graphics.

That said, there is a big difference going from 42" to 50", at least at first (I'm used to it now). I would go ahead and upgrade. If you're always waiting, you're never enjoying. There's no reason to keep waiting for something new to come over the horizon because you never know how far away that horizon is. It's only money anyway, can't take it with you in the end. Besides, if you plan to sell the ED set to recoup some losses, better do it now because their value is plummeting with HD sets selling $1000 or less.

I decided to take the plunge and have no regrets!

I have both, and the difference is not dramatic, not from 10ft. 42" Panny ED and 50" Panny HD looks about the same from 10ft. The only time the HD set is noticeably sharper is on computer-generated text and graphics.

That said, there is a big difference going from 42" to 50", at least at first (I'm used to it now). I would go ahead and upgrade. If you're always waiting, you're never enjoying. There's no reason to keep waiting for something new to come over the horizon because you never know how far away that horizon is. It's only money anyway, can't take it with you in the end. Besides, if you plan to sell the ED set to recoup some losses, better do it now because their value is plummeting with HD sets selling $1000 or less.

I decided to take the plunge and have no regrets!

So you're saying that even though the picture quality is not a dramatic improvement, the bigger screen is, yes? I had wondered whether the extra 8 inches would be that significant as it's hard to make side by side comparisons of different size tvs in the stores where they usually segregate them by size. But I'm also concerned about picture quality on SD programming (which I still watch quite a bit of considering the limited availibility of HD programming). Would you say the 50" HD Panny does as good a job with SD as the 42" ED Panny does? On that note, I was surprised to see that Consumer Reports just rated the 58" HD Panny as better than average (I believe) on SD images while giving the 50" only an average score. That really surprised me as I've always heard the bigger the tv the worse SD will look on it. Jeez, maybe I should get myself a 58" Panny!

Yes, the 8" bigger screen was a definite improvement, especially from my 10ft viewing distance. When it comes to TV's, size does matter! One benefit is no sharpness or clarity was lost because my new 50" has smaller pixels than the 42" ED.

I'm not sure I'd be a good judge on SD. I don't use the TV's built-in scaler. Since I use an HTPC, it outputs native resolution (1366x768) and the PC does all the scaling. It looks really good on mine, but I don't know how it'd look with the TV's scaler. One thing that may be the case is the 42" being smaller, will probably look sharper. SD's resolution isn't that great, so making it bigger makes it look a bit softer and less sharp. I think it's true that the bigger the TV, the worse SD will look. BUT, any HDTV content you watch will be breathtaking so that makes up for it! HD will become more popular, all the newer network shows are already recorded in HD.

So what price would/should a used 42" Panny Plasma EDTV command on the market? The 42" Panny Plasma HDTV sells for $1700. Do you think I might be able to get $1000 for my EDTV? This is more of a question of idle curiosity. I'm still not convinced I should upgrade yet. But if I could get a grand for the tv I have that would mean the 50" Panny HDTV would just be a grand.

I've had my 42" Panny EDTV Pro plasma advertised on local message forums, Craigslist, and the local TV station's classifieds for $800 since mid-December. Lots of interest, no buyers yet. I do have a guy coming to look at it Sunday.

$1000 might be kind of hard to get. All the hype in the news about HDTV has everyone wanting "HDTV" despite the difference not being that great. On the local msg board, there was a guy selling a Viore (Wal-Mart) 42" plasma for $700 obo. He put down it was an EDTV. Zero responses to the thread. Then a week later, he mentions he made a mistake and it's really an HDTV. Suddenly there were 2 pages of replies and he sold it the same day. I think it'll only get worse, which is one reason why I put mine up for sale rather than keep it - a year from now it might be difficult to get even $400 for it.

I've had my 42" Panny EDTV Pro plasma advertised on local message forums, Craigslist, and the local TV station's classifieds for $800 since mid-December. Lots of interest, no buyers yet. I do have a guy coming to look at it Sunday.

$1000 might be kind of hard to get. All the hype in the news about HDTV has everyone wanting "HDTV" despite the difference not being that great. On the local msg board, there was a guy selling a Viore (Wal-Mart) 42" plasma for $700 obo. He put down it was an EDTV. Zero responses to the thread. Then a week later, he mentions he made a mistake and it's really an HDTV. Suddenly there were 2 pages of replies and he sold it the same day. I think it'll only get worse, which is one reason why I put mine up for sale rather than keep it - a year from now it might be difficult to get even $400 for it.

Thanks for the response. That makes sense. I thought I might be overreaching a bit. And, from a buyers' point of view, I guess it makes sense. With prices on HDTVs dropping as fast as they are, it hardly makes sense to buy an EDTV now, except at a very sweet price.

I plan to move my 42" ED to the bedroom when I get a bigger display (viewing distance is about the same). BTW, if you think the 8" extra screen size (moving to 50") makes a big difference, keep in mind CR rated the larger 58" Panasonic as their top plasma, so maybe you should consider adding 16" for your next move.

As soon as I got the new CR I started thinking the same thing. But the 58" Panny is a bit of a reach pricewise for me. My wife was incredulous when I mentioned it as just a possibility.

But, for now, I'm still not sure what the heck I'm going to do. Though I suspect if Directv adds all of the HD channels they claim to be adding this year and my split of HD/SD viewing moves from app. 50/50, as it is now, to something more like 70/30 AND we get another big price drop come next Christmas (especially that day after Thanksgiving when I first say the 50" Panny selling for 2 grand), I'll probably have a hard time resisting taking the plunge. And that 58 inch set does sound nice!

The 42PD60U is selling for just under a grand now on clearance at Tweeters (just so you're aware of the going price). The 50PX60u is also on clearance there for a good price. And the 50PX600U is going for a REAL good price there, too. You might wanna check that model out, as it's bezel is better-looking, and it includes some extra features, like enhanced sound w/subwoofers, cablecard slot, PIP and TVGOS. They also carry a very inexpensive lower end 50" Pioneer model that you might want to check out, too.

Also, the 50PX6U, which has a similar design to 42PD60U (& 42PD50U), and is a bit better looking, bezel-wise, to many people than the 50PX60U model, is going for a real nice price at Sam's Club.

In answer to the question of "How well do the 50" Panny's do with SD?":

I just got the TH-50PX600U, and although I was assuming SD wouldn't be quite as good as it looks on my brother-in-laws TH42PD60, I was pleasantly surprised to find that at looks every bit as good. I find that it all depends on the quality of the source material. The better it is, the better it looks, naturally. My SD OTA channels DO look noticably better than my over-compressed, SD Dish ones, though (to no one's surprise).

If you're really that concerned with SD quality, maybe consider that lower-line 50" Pio I mentionen from Tweeter. Many people around here seem to hold the Pio's in high regard when it comes to SD.

I noticed SD on Dishnetwork is not so good on my Panny TH-50PH9UK. Lots of false contouring and general fuzziness.

SD upconverted to 1080i by the local broadcaster, however, looks spectacular for SD. I am very impressed with how good the SD looks on the local HDTV channels. I guess their extremely expensive upconverting equipment does a really, really good job.

I would expect that in the future, when all receivers are HD and all SD has to be upconverted by the networks, the SD quality on an HDTV will no longer be an issue.

I noticed SD on Dishnetwork is not so good on my Panny TH-50PH9UK. Lots of false contouring and general fuzziness.Yeah, for sure. If only they were all as good looking as the few Asian-based channels (CCTV, CCEF, KBS & TVJapan) I get from Dish, I'd be more than satisfied. It looks like we could really learn a few things from them over there - they certainly seem to have better standards.

I actually get into some of those Korean dramas on KBS, because they look good, PLUS they's subtitled in English. (And the chicks are major dolls!)