Viktor--
From your description, I would agree the problem is the quality of the deinterlacer in the Thomson plasma. It's not surprising that you're seeing more artifacts with video-based material than with film-based (DVD and satellite movie channels) material.
Deinterlacing video-based material is quite different (and much more difficult) than deinterlacing film-based material. I would think of it this way--with film-based material, there is an original complete frame which can be reconstructed. For video, though, there is no original; the deinterlacer has to create a new frame from two interlaced half-frames which approximates what a single full frame would look like. Although people on this forum tend to concentrate on what scalers/deinterlacers look like with DVDs (which are generally film-based), video-based material is the real torture test.
I suppose your possible solutions are to use an external scaler, or to get a plasma with a better built-in deinterlacer. The Panasonic's is generally good, although you'll still see quite a bit of artifacts on video-based material. I'm not familiar with the Thomson, so I can't really say how the Panasonic compares to it.
As for the sound, no fan can be "totally silent." I guess different people have different levels of acceptance of noise. As for the Panasonic being buzzier, some units have had a defect which leads to a buzzing noise. The 42 inch Panasonics have no fans, and should be very quiet if they're free of the defect.
From your description, I would agree the problem is the quality of the deinterlacer in the Thomson plasma. It's not surprising that you're seeing more artifacts with video-based material than with film-based (DVD and satellite movie channels) material.
Deinterlacing video-based material is quite different (and much more difficult) than deinterlacing film-based material. I would think of it this way--with film-based material, there is an original complete frame which can be reconstructed. For video, though, there is no original; the deinterlacer has to create a new frame from two interlaced half-frames which approximates what a single full frame would look like. Although people on this forum tend to concentrate on what scalers/deinterlacers look like with DVDs (which are generally film-based), video-based material is the real torture test.
I suppose your possible solutions are to use an external scaler, or to get a plasma with a better built-in deinterlacer. The Panasonic's is generally good, although you'll still see quite a bit of artifacts on video-based material. I'm not familiar with the Thomson, so I can't really say how the Panasonic compares to it.
As for the sound, no fan can be "totally silent." I guess different people have different levels of acceptance of noise. As for the Panasonic being buzzier, some units have had a defect which leads to a buzzing noise. The 42 inch Panasonics have no fans, and should be very quiet if they're free of the defect.
