HD Ready Or Full HD .... Confused.... Pl Help

[sandip_d]

Hi Friends,
I am Sandip from Navi Mumbai. I wish to purchase Flat Panel @ 42'' size. Budget 50-55K. Many on forum suggested Plasma, so i zeroed on two models Panasonic 42PV80D(51K) and Samsung PS42A450(54K). Both are HD ready. my room size 20 X 12. The viewing distance >10'.
My concern is, should I wait for full HD Plasma, Say Panasonic 800 series/Samsung 5 series, but they will cost more. I can increase my budget but is it realy worth? My source will be Tata Sky/Oppo Blue Ray Player(Sourced from US when released there) and PC having very good graphics card with DVI out. I have a collection of more that 300 DVDs. At present I am using Philips DVd player without any upscaling feture.
Now the problem and where I need your help is, with the given options shall I go for HD ready Plasma or wait & spend more for Full HD Plasma.? Will there be any noticable difference in PQ? Pls guide .......
For Venkat .... I have been reading many of your posts since long and would take this opportunity to thank & appreciate you for your detailed and fundmental guidence. I guess you have Electrronics/Electrical Engineering background. Myself Civil Engineer, studied electronics upto 12th only & hence confused.
I am waiting for Venkat's comments reagrding performance of Madbullrun's Panasonic PV8 on his Oppo 983H. It will give the correct comparision. I guess Venkat is using full HD panel at home. Venkat Sir, Pls Help.
Other thought comes to mind is that why not LCD? I am totally confused. Members please give some of your valueable time for my troubleshooting. I would realy appreciate you, from my heart for any of your guidence.
Warm Regard, Sandip

 

[spirovious]

For plasma,HD ready is enough option.
Full HD meens more pixels.Though full HD contents will look nice,SD vid(cable/settop) will look dull.

So fo plasma HD ready is ok.

 

[gobble]

Beware of HDReady TVs - they might not have hdmi input connectors - which means most copy protected HD content cannot be played on it as it will not be viewable over component out of DVD.

Regards

 

[venkatcr]

My concern is, should I wait for full HD Plasma, Say Panasonic 800 series/Samsung 5 series, but they will cost more. I can increase my budget but is it realy worth? My source will be Tata Sky/Oppo Blue Ray Player (Sourced from US when released there) and PC having very good graphics card with DVI out. I have a collection of more that 300 DVDs.

The critical factor here is your plan to get a Blu-Ray player. If you have firmed up on that, you must get a FullHD. All Blu-Ray output is 1920X1080 pixels which only a FullHD TV can handle.

Now the problem and where I need your help is, with the given options shall I go for HD ready Plasma or wait & spend more for Full HD Plasma.? Will there be any noticable difference in PQ?

If you are using a TV of size 42 inches or higher, and you play a 1080P signal, you will certainly see a marked difference. Pictures will be sharper, colors will be brighter, blacks will be darker, and contrasts will be very vivid. The best advantage will be smoother motion

For Venkat .... I have been reading many of your posts since long and would take this opportunity to thank & appreciate you for your detailed and fundmental guidence. I guess you have Electrronics/Electrical Engineering background. Myself Civil Engineer, studied electronics upto 12th only & hence confused.

Thanks Sandip. I will keep my educational background a secret. Any how all these things about TV and resolution are not very difficult to understand. And we are all here to help you.

I am waiting for Venkat's comments reagrding performance of Madbullrun's Panasonic PV8 on his Oppo 983H. It will give the correct comparision. I guess Venkat is using full HD panel at home.

Sandip, I am out of station till 15th. As soon as I am back I shall contact Madbull and set up a time when we can watch his TV together using my 983.

Other thought comes to mind is that why not LCD? I am totally confused. Members please give some of your valueable time for my troubleshooting. I would realy appreciate you, from my heart for any of your guidence.

A year ago I would have said go for Plasma. The biggest advantage Plasma offers is in high speed motion. If you take a set of pixels, since a Plasma screen is made up of charged gas and does not have a physical state, it can change shade and brightness. In particular, what is important is how fast does the pixel goes back to being complete black. This defines how the screen will handle contrasts and motion. In Plasmas, the gas goes back to its natural state that is black literally instantly.

In contrast, a LCD is made of small physical squares (called pixels) that are electronically modulated optical devices. These are monochrome pixels that are filled with liquid crystals. Compared to Plasmas that have a natural state, LCD have no natural state.

There is a light source at the back of the pixels. When you pass a electrical current through these pixels, the liquid crystals re-align themselves is various degrees (called twisting) allowing shades of light to pass through. The maximum current makes the crystals align themselves in such a way that there is no twisting at all, and no light passes through. You get complete black color.

To get different shades of gray, you vary the voltage of the current that pass through the pixels.

The most important time for an LCD is what is called Response Time. This is the minimum time need by each pixel to change it's color and brightness. This is measured as BTB (Black to Black) and GTG (Gray To Gray). The issue is that since each pixel has a physical state, it does have a response time as compared to Plasmas that have literally nil response time. In LCDs you have to pass a current even to get black. In plasmas, you just allow the gas to go back to its natural state.

Imagine a scene where there is a black screen across which you are moving your hand. When part of your hand reaches a particular pixel, the color and brightness of that pixel changes to display your hand color and texture. As you hand moves away from that pixel, it is supposed to become black instantly. In LCDs, the pixels do not do that. So fast movement will leave a ghostly trail of colors and brightness.

Now we are talking about very small periods of times - mostly in millisecond which is one millionth of second. But in fast motion this time is enough to make you see the blurs, particularly if the pixels are large in size (measured by resolution, or number of pixels per square inch) and you sit near the TV.

A couple of years ago, LCD's had response time in the 20s and 30ms. Current crop of LCD measure response time between 4 to 10 ms.

If you get an LCD that has a response time of 5ms or less, it will deliver good picture quality - very very close to a plasma. Of course the more the pixels the better it is. FullHD LCDs have over 2 million pixles, thus reducing blurring to a large extent.

Cheers

 

[marsilians]

The critical factor here is your plan to get a Blu-Ray player. If you have firmed up on that, you must get a FullHD. All Blu-Ray output is 1920X1080 pixels which only a FullHD TV can handle.

Venkat, its not necessary to have a 1080P monitor to view Bluray. You can definitely watch them on 720P as well.

 

[venkatcr]

Venkat, its not necessary to have a 1080P monitor to view Bluray. You can definitely watch them on 720P as well.

True, but what is the value of getting a Blu-Ray if you are not going to use it to it's gull potential?

Cheers

 

[Dushie]

In my personal opinion blue ray is as good as dead, not enough titles to watch, not available locally and is dying a slow death ...

All this talk about Full HD and HD ready is something i am tried of as its no use of discussing and is never ending ...

Benefit of Full HD will only come if you display full hd content all the time and if you are sitting close to your Tv under 6 feet.

If your viewing distance is above 7 feet and if you are going to watch SD, then doesn't make sense going for Full HD. As at those distances they both look the same....

Regarding LCD Vs Plasma talk it is a never ending battle -

To make things simple -

Anything below 42" go for Lcd .Anything above 42" go for plasma if you want the home Theater experience and PQ.

If you are planning to view in brightly lit areas where there is lot of light go for Lcd and stay away from Plasma.Plasma's look best in dark viewing areas just like your Cinema.

The above views are my personal and own , no offense meant to Venkat or other members ....

 

[sandip_d]

Thanks a lot friends for quick response and special thanks to Venkat for his very detailed & fundamnetal guidence as usual. Venkat, I will sure wait till it is possible for Madbull & you to site together and watch performance of his Plasma on your Oppo 983.
I agree with Dushie that not much blue ray titles are not available right now. I think it will take some time for Manufacturers & Bollywood people to make blue ray (Hardware & Software) widely available in India. Most of the Showroom today display all kind of sets but a very few of them have HD source or Content to demonstrate.
I was inclined towards purchase of Oppo 983H, but since it is not available in US & costs 42K in India, it would be prudent to purchase Oppo's Blue Ray Player ( Speculated Price @ 499$-599$) when launched there. Also as I will be primarily using Oppo Blue Ray player for upscaling the DVD's, what will it be more suitable 720P or 1080P screen? For Blue ray I understand 1080P is must for true experience.
Warm Regards and keep on enlighting me more.

 

[venkatcr]

In my personal opinion blue ray is as good as dead, not enough titles to watch, not available locally and is dying a slow death

Dushie, you are killing Blu-Ray just as it starting to take off? It was just a couple of months ago that Blu-Ray won the battle over HD. In the US today, literally every new DVD is being released in Bly-Ray.And lots of old movies are being re-released in Blu-Ray.

In India, it is just taking off. The prices are steep for buying so people and retailers are a little weary. But many rental shops have started keeping genuine BR Discs.

By end of this year, BR discs will be available in larger numbers in India. I reckon by next year, there will be more BR players sold with backward compatibility than DVD Players. And the prices will reach manageable levels. I am sure by end of this year you can get a large number of BR Players at around 200 to 300 dollars. And that too of good quality.

It is just a matter of time. It is now endorsed by every major Hollywood producer, and that wont happen unless they are sure it will succeed.

Be a little patient. You remember how DVD wiped out VHS completely? BR will do the same to DVD.

Cheers

 

[moserw]

Sandip,

It makes more sense to go with Full HD but even more sense to wait a while till prices drop further. Even if you get Full HD TV and a Blu-Ray player, the content itself will still be expensive for a while. It does not make sense to purchase the Oppo Blu-Ray player just so you can upscale SD DVD content. Lots of other cheaper alternatives are available to upscale SD DVD content. Finally like Venkat said Full HD makes sense only for Blu-Ray content or for gaming via a PS3 where Full HD is really gorgeous to even just watch let alone play. But even here the PS3 and more so the games for it are expensive/hard to source.

To sum it up, go for a Full HD TV and Oppo Blu-Ray player only if you have lots of Blu-Ray content or if you have lots of gaming content that needs to be played in full 1080P glory. Otherwise just try to hold on for a while as rates are only going to come down further. I paid 55K for my PV8, and less than 5 months later its available for 42K or thereabouts. It does make sense to hold on a little longer if you can.

 

[marsilians]

As I said in a post some weeks ago, I am giving 3-5 yrs for BR to be mainstream. Until then 720P is serving all the needs.

Salesmen are squeezing us with talk of full-hd and what not. Its part rubbish and part snake oil.

I called around a few friends yesterday around town and the max fullHD titles that I found was 18 with one person.

More reason for me to wait. If the manufacturers somehow split the HD audio with video, then I may jump sooner but I dont see it happening anytime soon.

Sandip,

It makes more sense to go with Full HD but even more sense to wait a while till prices drop further. Even if you get Full HD TV and a Blu-Ray player, the content itself will still be expensive for a while. It does not make sense to purchase the Oppo Blu-Ray player just so you can upscale SD DVD content. Lots of other cheaper alternatives are available to upscale SD DVD content. Finally like Venkat said Full HD makes sense only for Blu-Ray content or for gaming via a PS3 where Full HD is really gorgeous to even just watch let alone play. But even here the PS3 and more so the games for it are expensive/hard to source.

To sum it up, go for a Full HD TV and Oppo Blu-Ray player only if you have lots of Blu-Ray content or if you have lots of gaming content that needs to be played in full 1080P glory. Otherwise just try to hold on for a while as rates are only going to come down further. I paid 55K for my PV8, and less than 5 months later its available for 42K or thereabouts. It does make sense to hold on a little longer if you can.

 

[adder]

u dont need a Blu ray player to see full hd 1080p videos,u can always see downloaded content ,via HTPC or a nvidia ion or laptop,u can also buy a WD hd player,and xbox 360 and ps3,and upscaling dvd players .also newer upscaling tech from toshiba lcd can uspcale SD content to resolutions above 1080p,they have a cell based upscaler.

as far as lcd they are more then a match to plasmas,lcds from sony and samsung easily surpass the contrast levels of most plasmas ,only plasmas like pioneer kuro and panasonic FHD plasmas have a 10% contrast advantage(but will loose to a active led backlight lcd).
samsung and sony FHD 40inch lcds have around 100% ANSI contrast advantage compared to the plasma like PV8 and pv80 .
response time in lcd is past,infact todays lcds have less motion blur then some plasmas.

 

[metalbandit]

Dushie, you are killing Blu-Ray just as it starting to take off? It was just a couple of months ago that Blu-Ray won the battle over HD. In the US today, literally every new DVD is being released in Bly-Ray.And lots of old movies are being re-released in Blu-Ray.

In India, it is just taking off. The prices are steep for buying so people and retailers are a little weary. But many rental shops have started keeping genuine BR Discs.

By end of this year, BR discs will be available in larger numbers in India. I reckon by next year, there will be more BR players sold with backward compatibility than DVD Players. And the prices will reach manageable levels. I am sure by end of this year you can get a large number of BR Players at around 200 to 300 dollars. And that too of good quality.

It is just a matter of time. It is now endorsed by every major Hollywood producer, and that wont happen unless they are sure it will succeed.

Be a little patient. You remember how DVD wiped out VHS completely? BR will do the same to DVD.

Cheers

We have to give BluRay some time to settle down as the next generation media. I remember DVD players costing 15000 upwards, when the technology was in its nascent stages; and now there are umpteen brands selling DVD players for as low as 1500 bucks. Of course, quality of picture will differ from the better brands, but the fact remains that once the technology is accepted as standard, as stated by venkat, prices are bound to crash. I had bought a DVD-ROM (not writer) in November 2003 for 2200 bucks, and today a DVD-Writer is available for less than half that price. So there you have it.

I had also zeroed in on the Pana PV8 or PV80, and the Samsung A450 Plasma after reading so many posts here, but was thinking of deferring the decision and buy a 29" CRT instead (mentioned in another post on CRT's) till Plasma prices come within my reach. Have still not bought any of them though.

Another viewpoint is, a big screen TV is a capital purchase, and in this case for Plasma and LCD, a much bigger one than a normal CRT. Hence the usage period anyone will look at will be at least 8-10 years. (my Videocon is 22 now and on its last legs), in which time Blu-Ray should become more common or even be succeeded by newer technologies. So does it make sense to spend that little extra now for something which will be commonplace in the next 2-3 years?

Maybe a review is needed here for HD Ready Plasmas vs. Full HD Plasmas, and how upscaled content and Full HD content appears on both...

Just my views, and open for comments....

 

[Dushie]

Dushie, you are killing Blu-Ray just as it starting to take off? It was just a couple of months ago that Blu-Ray won the battle over HD. In the US today, literally every new DVD is being released in Bly-Ray.And lots of old movies are being re-released in Blu-Ray.

In India, it is just taking off. The prices are steep for buying so people and retailers are a little weary. But many rental shops have started keeping genuine BR Discs.

By end of this year, BR discs will be available in larger numbers in India. I reckon by next year, there will be more BR players sold with backward compatibility than DVD Players. And the prices will reach manageable levels. I am sure by end of this year you can get a large number of BR Players at around 200 to 300 dollars. And that too of good quality.

It is just a matter of time. It is now endorsed by every major Hollywood producer, and that wont happen unless they are sure it will succeed.

Be a little patient. You remember how DVD wiped out VHS completely? BR will do the same to DVD.

Cheers

Venkat, my only fear is that will it be as popular as DVD's are.Also as many other members have mentioned the costing and availability of the same in India is something to think about.

Plus buying a full hd model anticipating blue ray to get popular and widespread in India as of now is something i feel one should think about.As it won't happen overnight and may take a couple of years during which new formats will come out.

Primarily if you are watching SD or upscaled content then one is better of buying cheaper HD ready sets.

Tomorrow the technology may change and we may get more bang for the buck and people may start buying Full HD as they will cost what HD ready is costing today .
But at that time Full HD will get outdated and will be replaced by Ultra HD and other versions of the format.

Guess this is a never ending cat and mouse game and one should decide depeding upon his or her's personal need's and requirement

 

[adder]

Maybe a review is needed here for HD Ready Plasmas vs. Full HD Plasmas, and how upscaled content and Full HD content appears on both...

well a HD ready plasma can never beat a FHD plasma even though u feed a 1080p signal to HD plasma which it downscales,on the other hand a FHD plasma will surely perform bad when fed with a SD content compared to a HD plasma with the current upscaling tech,it should be intresting how toshiba new upscaling tech will perform in their new LCDs.

 

[Dushie]

well a HD ready plasma can never beat a FHD plasma even though u feed a 1080p signal to HD plasma which it downscales,on the other hand a FHD plasma will surely perform bad when fed with a SD content compared to a HD plasma with the current upscaling tech,it should be intresting how toshiba new upscaling tech will perform in their new LCDs.

Adder, there is one exception to the above statement ... if the viewing distance is over 7 feet then both will look the same and you won't notice any difference between HD ready and Full HD.

So before buying viewing distance is an important factor to keep in mind as that will determine, which size and feature to go for ?

 

[adder]

Adder, there is one exception to the above statement ... if the viewing distance is over 7 feet then both will look the same and you won't notice any difference between HD ready and Full HD.

So before buying viewing distance is an important factor to keep in mind as that will determine, which size and feature to go for ?

thats true,i have seen people who have a viewing distance of 7 feet but have bought a 50inch lcd projection tv like one of my friend all they want is a bigger tv and dont realy care about the video quality.and many of friends bought a plasma bcause they get a bigger size for the same price as a 32inch lcd.
only few people choose the size of their tv based on their viewing distance,most of them want to go for the biggest they can afford.
the same way i have seen peope who buy blindly just because its a well know premium brand,even though there are better performing tvs for a similar or less price.like bose in audio..

on a different note one my friend bought a fake sony mp3 player even though he knew it was a fake,when i asked him why, he said well its a sony and not many people will know its fake(even though he could have got a transcend or someother genuine better sounding player for the same price).

 

[sandip_d]

Hi all,
I agree that it does not make any sense to spend little extra now for something which will be commonplace in the next 2-3 years. So I have concluded there in no point in purchasing Oppo Blue Ray Player right now. Hence made my mind for Oppo 981H instead.(@ 229$).
To reduce my confusion about resolution (HD Ready Or Full HD) and TV(LCD Or Plasma) further, I found some information on Cnet. Hope the other members may find it usefull also. After reading the articles somehow I felt, 720p is enough for 42" Size. Waiting for Venkat's Review......
Warm Regards

HDTV resolution explained
HDTV resolution explained - HDTV World - CNET.com

Flat-panel TVs: plasma, LCD, and how they compare
Flat-panel TVs - Four styles of HDTV - HDTV World - CNET.com


720p vs. 1080p HDTV: The final word
720p vs. 1080p HDTV: The final word - Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

The case against 1080p
The case against 1080p - Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

 

[venkatcr]

Venkat, my only fear is that will it be as popular as DVD's are.Also as many other members have mentioned the costing and availability of the same in India is something to think about.

Dushie, the fact the Blu-Ray has become the only standard for HD is just a few months old. Now that it has the backing of all producers, the conversion will accelerate. New technology is always expensive in the initial days, but as the market acceptance gathers speed, prices will crash. Already WalMart is selling BR Players for 150 dollars. I am positive you will see more action on Blu-Ray discs and players in the coming months.

Plus buying a full hd model anticipating blue ray to get popular and widespread in India as of now is something i feel one should think about.As it won't happen overnight and may take a couple of years during which new formats will come out.

Well there are two options.

1. You can buy a HD Ready player today, and in, say, 24 months start cursing yourself that you don't have a FullHD TV ready when HD content is easily available.

2. You can send X amount additionally today, and be happy for the next 4 to 5 years. HD technology and 1080p is not going to change for the next 5 years at least. See my explanation below.

Now how much is X and whether it is justifiable is, of course, in your hands. When I switched over from CRT to LCD/Plasmas about a year ago, I decided to spend money on rest of the HT equipment, and wait for some time for a TV. At that time, I felt the FullHD TV had not reached it's optimum in terms of technology that it has today. So I went and bought the cheapest 32 inch I could find, promising myself that I will buy a 50 incher within 12 to 24 months. When I do that, the 32 incher will continue doing service in the bedroom.

Primarily if you are watching SD or upscaled content then one is better of buying cheaper HD ready sets.

This depends upon the scaling factor and the screen size. If your screen size is 42 inches or more, and your player can scale to 1080P, a FullHD will beat a HD Ready any day. Please refer to number of pixels per square inch in my previous post.

Tomorrow the technology may change and we may get more bang for the buck and people may start buying Full HD as they will cost what HD ready is costing today. But at that time Full HD will get outdated and will be replaced by Ultra HD and other versions of the format.

Dushie you may be surprised to learn that the technology is terms of scaling to 2160p is already available with the technology companies. So is the content. There is long explanation that I will provide later, but a film based content is already far ahead. Depending upon the quality of film and the camera used, a film, on a rough scale, will have something like 2000x2000 pixels to 6000x6000 pixels. The digital equivalent is something like 2000p24 to 6000p24.

But will the technology reach us as consumers? Yes it will, after about 5 years or more. Why, because the industry has just finished a long war over HD standards that lasted some 10 years. Secondly it is only now that media houses and producers have started converting their film to 1080P. Together they will wait till they have recovered all their investments, and then only venture into the next horizon. Toshiba, since it lost the HD war, will rattle some skeletons to save face. But they will not be supported by anybody to bring a new technology into the market. What will be the use for Toshiba if they introduce a player for which there are no content available? They will try to scale existing DVD content to the max possible. But there is limit set by MPEG compression and the size of the DVD itself. If you understand scaling, it is mathematically estimating what the next pixel should be, and displaying the artificially generated pixel. To scale beyond 1080p, you just need more original data, and that is not available in a DVD.

To move up from Blu-Ray standards, you need a disc that can store about 200GB of data, a laser that has a wavelength of less than 200nm, a lens that has a numerical aperture of less than 0.50, the player that has all these technologies, and finally convincing all the producers to start spending million of dollars AGAIN to reconvert all the movies again. I don't think all this will happen in less than 5 years at the least.

Guess this is a never ending cat and mouse game and one should decide depending upon his or her's personal need's and requirement

Oh, that is something I wholeheartedly agree with. So let us all live for today, shall we? And plan for the next few years.

Cheers

 

[sandip_d]

Hi,
After reading all the articles from Cnet as said in my previous post, I am somehow tilted to opt for (42" Plasma 720p + Oppo 981H-Sourced from US at @229$). I was searching for head to head comparision of Panasonic PV-80 and Samsung Ps42A450 & finaly found a gentleman who is having privillage of having them both. This is his comparision.....

PN42A450 42" Plasma TV (Widescreen, 1024x768, 20,000:1, HDTV) - PC World Pricing

I own both the 2008 Samsung 42" 720P PN42A450 plasma HDTV and the directly competing 42" Panasonic TH-42PX80U plasma. Comparing them side-by-side with power off: The Samsung's panel has a reddish hue. The Panasonic's panel is a slightly darker grey. Neither is pure black. The Samsung's screen is more glossy and reflective. The Panasonic's screen is more LCD matte-like. The Samsung has a slightly wider bezel or frame so its total width is wider than the Panasonic's. Side view, both seem equally skinny and both seem to have metal (not plastic) backs. To my eyes, both TVs have OK styling. When off, the Samsung is silent, while the Panasonic has a constant electronic buzz coming from the top left area. The Samsung's remote is better quality. Out of the box the Panasonic's remote buttons sometimes stick when you press them. Unlike all of the TVs I have ever owned, only the Panasonic has the channel-up and channel-down buttons on the left side of the remote which is backwards and needlessly awkward. Turning the power on, and after turning down brightness, contrast and doing other fine adjustments, the Samsung has a more noticeable flicker when there are large areas of solid bright white. The Panasonic handles scenes with large areas of solid bright white better. However, the Panasonic seems to have less color depth than the Samsung. People's faces, even in HD, look more cartoonish or like claymation with the Panasonic. Faces look somewhat like blochy pink balloons compared to the Samsung. The Samsung shows detail of varying skin tones while the Panasonic displays a more uniform cartoonish look. Side-by-side, the Samsung makes real people look more natural. It seems that the Panasonic has fewer facial hue colors to offer than the Samsung. The Samsung has a 20,000:1 native contrast which is 5000 greater than the native contrast of the Panasonic, so perhaps contrast has something to do with putting depth and texture in human faces. The Samsung is also better with maintaining steady color. The Panasonic's color slightly shifts on its own rocking between purple and red regardless if the Panasonic's Color Management Mode is turned on or turned off. The Samsung also handles image noise a little better than the Panasonic. The Samsung boasts a better angle-of-view rating, but in reality I do not notice any difference between the two. The audio from the Samsung is more natural for movies and TV shows. The Panasonic sounds great when there is music, but regular voices sound unnatural no matter how I make adjustments in the audio menu. Adjusting the Samsung's zoom is a one-button procedure. With the Panasonic, adjusting the zoom is a tedious menu nightmare. As a PC monitor, only the Samsung has the 15 pin jack. You must set your PC to 1024 x 768 -- nothing higher. The Samsung has become my primary TV. The Panasonic is now the kid's TV.
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Samsung have high contrast ratio 30000:1(Model PS42A450P1) as compared to 15000:1(Viera Th-42PV80D), Samsung is 100Hz whereas Panasonic is 60Hz. I Would like compare them side by side before deciding any further. Do we have any on the forum who bought Samsung PS42A450, would like to get his feedback also.
Warm Regards