Too many f#*kin' choices!!!!  

Or you could just buy one today and be happy watching it tonight.

You can't go wrong with any of the choices you mentioned.

The Sony XBR's are great plasmas, but do you REALLY need to pay that premium for a plasma that is NOT $3000-$4000 better then any of your other choices.

Pioneer 5040 (5045 coming out-adds CableCARD)
Panny 7UY
Panny 50PX25U/P

If you have $8000 to burn, you might want to add a Fujitsu to your list.
You can't really find a better all around plasma then that. (could find a couple people to argue with that statement maybe, but not more then a couple).

I say if you have the cash and you are ready right now, then just make a choice. Flip a coin. You'll LOVE either of your choices.
Shite, for $8000, you might be able to get 2 50" plasmas.

hope this helps...

Yesterday I stopped in the Tiger Direct store and they had the LG 50PZ41B (with Faroudja DCDi) and it looked incredible...you could buy 2 of them for what you're looking to spend.

Like others on this thread suggested, you can buy one anytime and just enjoy it. I don't think you can go wrong with any major name brand... Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, etc...

Or you can do what I'm going to do which is wait a little longer and you can probably buy two 50" PDP's with that $8000.

I have a feeling with the proliferation of displays coming to market, these prices will drop substantially during the next year or two.

For that amount of money you are close to being able to buy a Pioneer Elite or Fujitsu 50" plasma. These are about as close to "no compromise" designs as you are going to find. Some folks are comforted by buying "the most expensive" under the theory that they don't have to worry so much about whether a critical corner has been cut somewhere. As it turns out, these two sets are perhaps almost worth what they cost. You'll still have to suffer with the problem that better displays will come out about every 6 months, but if you are tired of doing research, and have the cash, going for a high end unit might be your "peace of mind" answer. And if you don't quite have the cash yet, waiting until you can build up the kitty might be the excuse you need to delay now so that you can do more research without getting frustrated and without suffering the pangs of "pocket burn".
--Bob

FWIW I just read a post from someone who said that their new 50phd7uy blew away their 50PX20. I have a 50phd7uy, so I am biased toward it, but I think it's a small but significant leap forward over the consumer and earlier industrial Pannys, IMO.

The 7UY has a bounded pixel structure that IMHO is quite a substantial improvement over the earlier panels.

It is the bounded cell structure along with deeper cells that help give the Pioneer panels those vibrant colors.

The bounded cells help in 2 ways.

1. There is now 5 phosphor faces to create more intense color, vs 3 in the older structure.

2. Light bleed from to neighboring pixels is eliminated allowing even better contrast and crispness.

Again IMHO this alone makes a substantial improvement.

Now if only panny would move to deeper cells and 1080p. ;)

Guess we are never satisfied.

In addition to the super PQ of the Fujitsu, from all reports it displays SD as well or better than anyone else. You might ask some of those that have the 50" Fujitsu what they think. Ken Ross has written about his. There currently is another thread going about the integrated tuner. From what I read there are several drawbacks to it.

All of the sets you list are very good. I'd say if you plan on viewing in ambient light situation go Pio. high light output, if in the dark go Panny high contrast ratio.

In general I really like the PQ quality of the Sony as well. Strangely enough, in store I've always prefered the Sonys, the seem to have a more solid picture to them. Due note the Sony is the most expensive and the new XS sets are rather heavy 150 lbs for the 50 inch!

In the end, I don't think you can go wrong with any one of these sets.

Mike

Bounded Cell Structure was introduced on the Panasonic Consumer and Industrial 6th Generation HD Models.

Just grab a Panny TH-50PHD7UY and save the rest for a 1080p plasma when they become more afforable.

Agreed. Especially when price had dropped so much lately, approaching $4.5k from the Forum sponsors.
Buy the DVI blade too, and HD tivo. Do it !!! Enjoy !

Not natively, no. It comes with 3 configurable input slots and one fixed slot.

1 is empty, 1 is a s-video/RCA input (one or the other AFAIK), one is a composite/RGB slot. All connectors are BNC, so if you have regular cables you need BNC->RCA converters (VA will throw 4 of these in for free to cover your 3 component + 1 RCA connections).

Fixed slot is a VGA/RGB + rs232.

The optional slot can be any of the optional blades sold for the panny 6 and 7 series commercial displays. DVI is one option, as are many others. HDMI will be out in a month or two. Note that you can replace any of the other included slots with other connections as desired (to get multiple digital inputs for example).

I'm sure Bruzzi will jump in and correct me if I missed anything.

Ackk! You are right.

Man I'm an easy mark for marketing.

So why exactly does the 7uy get rave reviews.
Better electronics?

To put it simply, if you buy the basic 7UY, you only get one set of component inputs. That's not enough input if you plan to connect DVD and HD receiver.
Therefore most people buy the DVI blade with the plasma, to be inserted into empty slot 1. Costs about $150. Usually HD to DVI, DVD to component.

Hurry up, why bother with Sony's and Fujitsu's at near $8k. Your eyes can't tell any difference.

The DVI blade allows the signal to remain in the digital realm...there is no D/A (digital to analog) and A/D (analog to digital) conversion in the signal resulting in, argueably, a cleaner/better signal. An example of this is a DVD player connected to a digital display device via component cables. As the DVD is encoded digitally the DVD player must perform a digital to analog conversion to get the signal to the display via the component cables. Once the signal reaches the digital display device (plasma eg :)) the signal is converted again from analog back to digital.

Many STB's (set top boxes) have DVI outputs. Sat/Cable/DVD come to mind.

I believe you can use the PC input for component inputs via a cable adapter.

Michael

I believe you need a VGA to component converter...like this one:

Component to VGA converter

Nice layout.

Shouldn't you be out buying a set instead of posting on here? :)

IMHO, I don't think you will go wrong with either brand that has been mentioned. It's a personal preference type of thing after all.

I do agree with the "black bezzel" though, FWIW.

To further confuse you ;), there are auto switchers on the market that will switch both component and digital audio based upon the source (audio authority makes one, the AA1154). I have used the AA1154 and it worked flawlessly. I don't use it any more as all the switching is done via my AVR.

Good luck and post some pics when all done.

Try the forum sponsors as they have some very competitive pricing and their customer service is second to none, IMHO. Do a search in this forum for "PC/VA", never mind here's the thread

RE: DVI or HDMI...Just my .02 but I would stay with DVI as, today, there are more DVI's capable STB's than HDMI ones, although you can get around that with the right cable. Again personal preference, or you could ask from the vendor you decide to go with.

I am a firm believer in the "K.I.S.S." approach. No need to muck up the waters even more, eh?

Now you have to post pics when done...no ifs, ands or buts!!

:D

Don't mean to muddy more, but in my investigations, the NEC 50" is worth the look.

It has the same resolution as the Panny, good in dark or bright rooms and comes with all the inputs you need already -- no extras for "blades", Aurora',s etc. According to others, it has the vobrant colors of the Pioneer products but better resolutions.

I'm on the fence with these three now...............

No! The Panasonics do not need an expensive transcoder. They simply need a component to D-sub cable (a VGA to 5BNC cable will work also if you happen to have one lying around). There is a menu option for selecting RGB or Component for both the VGA and BNC inputs. Something like these:

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...les/SCVM3R.asp

Thanks DJRob,

I wasn't really sure but do remember that as an option on my 5UY ED unit.

You closed a synapse on this oldish/tired brain!! :)

FYI: The Panasonic "5UY" and previous models don't accept Component Signals on the VGA input.