[rockreid]

I'm thinking of getting the Panasonic TH-42PWD7UY for Christmas. My wife and I have been using the same 21 inch RCA since 1992 so this will be a vast improvement. Since I am new to flat panel TV, I have a few questions:

Is the sale price of this item at Plasma Concepts a good deal?


More importantly, Time Warner Digital Cable here in Columbus offers a premium HD service. I believe the Plasma display I'm interested in is a "ED" resolution. Would it be worth it to pay the extra dough a month for HD Time Warner service seeing an ED display cannot handle 1080i?


Also, I already know about Plasma burn-in issues but am taking the chance anyway as I will be playing lots of Halo 2 XBOX. Do I need to buy extra components from Panasonic to allow my XBOX to deliver the full component video? Thanks for any info.


-Rocky

 

[SethS]

I think you will like this TV a lot, it looks awesome. Though it isn't really HD, the HD sources sure look good. I have done side by side comparisons and there is a visible difference but not that huge of one. For the HD games on the X-Box you will need to get the component adapter for the Xbox so that it will plug into the comp inputs on the Panny.

 

[adb]

Find a place to look at HD with this set. I think you will be surprised how good it looks.

 

[sleeks]

In stock trim, the Panny only has one set of component video inputs. It does have a VGA input and you can buy cables that go from component to VGA. They are actually BNC connectors. I know that Visual Apex includes adaptors with the TV. I am not sure about other vendors. Radio Shack does carry the adaptors at about $5/each.


Depending on how you are going to hook up your DVD player, cable box, and XBOX (I would use the HD pack and component cables) you will either need an extra component blade or a component switch.


Do you have a receiver that does component switching?


HD looks great on this panel. I have Directv's HD package and can get my locals OTA and they all look just as good as my 1080i RPTV did.


That TV can accept 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i signals and it will scale to 480p.

 

[qkslvr]

I'm also on Time Warner, and upgraded to HD with the DVR option when I bought the Panny consumer model last month. I find myself watching HD channels 80% of the time now. Even though this is an ED set, the picture detail on HD is incredible.

 

[bdoseck]

All,

We include BNC adapters at no charge with all Plasmas that need them.


Thanks,

Bob Doseck

Plasma Concepts
[email protected]
www.plasmaconcepts.com