Saw this at Circuit City and the salesman seemed pretty knowledgable. They had this unit, which is a 42'' EDTV, mounted on the wall with many other HDTV plasma's, including panasonic HD plasmas. The salesman said he had personally bought the 50'' HDTV panny plasma, but considered this one. His points: 1. Showing digitally recorded HD signal on all sets, the HD sets did NOT blow this one away on HD. I could hardly notice the difference. He said it had over 800 lines on this model and it was just below the HD standard of 1024, and this was why this ed model was so sharp. 2. He said since it was ED, that a Progressive DVD would look better on this model than on the same panny model in HD. 3. He hit a button and changed the signal from the recorded HD signal to a standard non-hd digital signal on all of these tv's and this one then looked better that all of the rest of the HD's. You could actually see the difference. He said the ED could display a standard digital signal with better results than HD.
Guys, I cant see spending so much more money for what is almost a non-noticeable difference in pq from this particular ED unit to any HD unit, and I viewed all they had, which was many. And when you consider that on dish network, I can only get about a dozen HD channels and probably 150 non HD, and watch a lot of DVD movies, this may be the best way to go. This one also had the tuner built in.
Just one question, Will an ED plasma still receive the same over the air programming as HD tv's when in 2009, tv stations only broadcast in HD?
Can anyone please comment on this? I need the intell. Almost ready to buy. Thanks....
Dick Jagger
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I bought this in dec.; hd box, component a/v cables, hd tier (~10 channels), wall mtd. I am very happy with the picture on the hd channels, standard channels, the picture is just o.k. (compared to my Sony KV-32FV16). I would recommend it based on the very low price now available on this, though it may be obsolete technology in just a few years. Also , on the wall, the gray plastic surrounding the glass looks wavy and rather cheap, compared to the other ones like Toshiba (which I thought looked the best on the wall though the panasonic had the best picture).
Yes, the TH42PD50U will receive the same over the air programming the the HDs will. Also, you are a little confused on the FCC tuner mandate. The 2009 deadline is NOT for TV stations broadcasting only in HD. It is for TV stations broadcasting in DIGITAL. (only 480p).
The only thing that the ED has that the HD doesn't on the tuner end of things is the CableCard slot. If you use an antenna, you are straight, but if you're trying to recieve cable without a box you may be stuck with a useless tuner unless your cable company supports it without a CableCard