Anyway - piano has much better contrast ratio than the plus. If the scaler on it is good it should be better for good source material than the plus+skyworth. For bad source material however the Skyworth should deliver a better picture.
I think the important issue is the ratio between contrast and total lumens, this gives us the minimum light which is the black level, for the piano with 700:1 and 450 lumens the black level is 0.64 lumens and for the U3 with 800:1 and 800 lumens the black level is 1 lumen. Now you can make your choice
If you will use only htpc and you are not sensible to Rainbow go with the U3 (in DE it's about 2000-2250$)
If you wandt to use component inputs as well as s-Video AND you are Sensitive to Rainbow go with the Piano (6Segment Colorweehl and a pretty good scaler) (in DE abaut 3500$)
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