Im in the market for a new tv for my living room. this will be the tv that I watch all my movies on & spend a considerable amount of time using the ps3, x360,blu-ray & hdtv content. I currently have a p50hd vizio.
anyways I don't have any experience viewing any 1080p content in full form and I am really tempted in spending more cash on a 52 inch sharp aquos 1080p tv so I can use my ps3 & blu ray to its fullest potential. however I have a large enough living room where a 60+ in tv would fit better. since the price range of 60+inch plasma 720p tv is around the same price as the 1080p lcd , im having a tough time making a decision.
my question is , will I even notice the 1080p viewing it from about 10-15 ft away & will it be worth settleing for the smaller 1080p tv? :confused:

my question is , will I even notice the 1080p viewing it from about 10-15 ft away & will it be worth settleing for the smaller 1080p tv? :confused:That's a wide range -- which is it, 10' or 15'? At 15', you won't resolve high-definition, or even close to it, on a 50" screen. Assuming average vision, your eyes will only resolve 480p from a 50" screen viewed from 15'.

If you can afford the Panasonic 58" PZ700 1080p plasma, you should absolutely go for it at a viewing distance of 7-10', particularly if you spend a lot of time watching high-definition channels, and expect to buy a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. The experience with Blu-ray is far superior on a 60" at 8' compared to a 50" at 10'. Beyond 12', you should probably just save your money and opt for a 58-60" 768p model.

High-definition was designed for larger screens; the high-definition picture looks better and better as you go larger (to a point). Local channels like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as cable channels like Comcast Sportsnet and Fox Sportsnet, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, FOOD, MTV, Discovery, Wealth, NGC, HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, and TMC are already offered in HDTV, with others like Cartoon Network, CNN, FX, History, SciFi, and the Weather Channel expected to follow later this year. High-definition channel lineups for different providers can be found here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4022698&&#post4022698).

http://comcal.wboc.com/img/resvsdist.jpg
Table assumes average corrected vision, i.e. 20/20 or one arc minute.

Find your viewing distance on the left.

With 1080p displays, the best picture with Blu-ray and HD-DVD is obtained at the red line. For the best experience with a mix of SD and HD content, I recommend a screen size and viewing distance that falls somewhere between the green and red lines, i.e the red shaded area. However, if your viewing is primarily Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and other high-definition, you want to be as close to the red line as possible.

Without a sufficiently large screen, or a sufficiently short viewing distance, you get no benefit from 1080p. At the blue line, there is no benefit to high-definition over a quality SD source. At the green line, there is no benefit to a 1080p panel over a 720p panel. As soon as you pass the green line, you start to see some benefit from 1080p, but the full benefit of Blu-ray and HD-DVD is not realized until you hit the red line. Note for broadcast and cable channels, the benefit you can see with 1080p will depend on the quality of the video processing in the display (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10070516&&#post10070516).Check the pricing on the Panasonic 58" 768p and 1080p plasmas at the forum sponsors (Cleveland Plasma, Plasma Concepts, Invision, etc).

wow, thats cool...I have a very large living room so seating is in between 10 -15ft away.when I play games I always sit 10 ft away.looking at that graph, it looks like I wouldn't benefit from 1080p unless my screen was around 60inches. but a 60 in 1080p is a little out of my price range. so I guess if I bought the 52 in 1080p ,there would not be any WOW factor over my original 720p plasma I guess.....In your opinion, at optimum viewing distances is there that WOW factor from a 1080p like when I first saw high definition years ago.(all technical stuff aside).

In your opinion, at optimum viewing distances is there that WOW factor from a 1080p like when I first saw high definition years ago.(all technical stuff aside).With quality content, absolutely! Some cable and satellite providers degrade the quality of their HDTV, trading quality for quantity. Some providers like Comcast and FiOS do a better job than others and make quality with HD a priority.

Blu-ray can be absolutely breathtaking on a 60" 1080p display viewed from 8', but as with DVDs, the quality varies from title to title. Thanks to threads like this one (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=753726), which rate the picture quality of Blu-ray titles, you can tell the studs from the duds before you buy. Almost everything rated as tier0 or tier1 will give you that WOW factor.

If you do much of your television viewing from 11' to 15', as implied, you'll benefit from 58-60", even in a 768p display. If you can return your Vizio, several of the forum sponsors have some great sales going on the 2006 58" 768p models. If you can't return your 50" Vizio, then I would stick with what you've got now. In a year's time, you should be able to buy 58-60" 1080p plasmas for the same price (or less) as 768p models today. In the meantime, be sure you have calibrated your Vizio's HDMI input with a DVD like AVIA.

If you already have a PS3 and Vizio setup, I would suggest you rent the Chicken Little Blu-ray disk from Blockbuster (or Netflix) to give you an idea of what sort of quality is possible on your TV. I'm not sure, but I believe your Vizio will accept a 1080p signal via HDMI and downconvert it to 768p for display, so I would enable 1080p output on the PS3.

Yes the 58U Panasonic is very reasonable right now. Depending on your budget you can also consider the Pioneer 6070HD which is a great display and depending on your preference the 5070HD is a beauty still.

If you are wanting full 1080P the Pioneer PDP-5000EX are out across the US now.

wow, thats cool...I have a very large living room so seating is in between 10 -15ft away.when I play games I always sit 10 ft away.looking at that graph, it looks like I wouldn't benefit from 1080p unless my screen was around 60inches. but a 60 in 1080p is a little out of my price range. so I guess if I bought the 52 in 1080p ,there would not be any WOW factor over my original 720p plasma I guess.....In your opinion, at optimum viewing distances is there that WOW factor from a 1080p like when I first saw high definition years ago.(all technical stuff aside).

At your viewing distance, my vote is for a 60+"er, preferably the Pioneer 1540, but the 6070 would do nicely. There's 1/2 of the HT puzzle that many on here rarely mention...namely "viewing angle". If you go anywhere close to the Home Theater standards of SMPTE or THX, then you'll want a viewing angle that's from a low 24 degrees to a perfect 36 degrees. For a 60" display viewing from 10', you'll get 24.6 degree viewing angle. Not bad. At least you will not get that "postage stamp" viewing experience, but rather a more immersive home theater effect.

As for 1080p, I think you'll be pleased w/the 768p rez as you did say the max viewing distance was 15'. Besides, you can get a really good deal on those 60" Pios due to the the fact that they have been on the market for awhile and hence the pricing curve has reached an all time low. Check it out.