I have been researching plasma tv's for the past week. I am looking for 42' HDTV Model after learning EDTV isnt capable of hd signals. Pioneer PDP-42A3HD seems like a good choice. I plan to mainly watch dvd's on this until i get directv hd satellite. Any opinions on this tv? I also might want to watch some free channels in hd, so I will buy a antenna capable of recieving local hd channels. I understand that the Plasma needs to have the hd tuner built in. Is this model capable of it. I would like some opinions on whether or not to purchase this. I found this at a lower price (2300$). Thanks for the replies in advances.
Ed Plasmas are HD capable and display HD signals quite well, and SD signals and standard DVDs better than most HD tvs due to closer matching resolutions. Your information regarding ED TVs is not correct.
I just finished reading the review of the Pioneer mentioned in the original post. It can be linked form the news items section at avsforum.com that first comes up when you visit the site. I would seriously recommend reading the full review in detail before purchasing this display.
I purchased a Panasonic 42" HD plasma monitor for our reception area at work. It is wall mounted and feed by a Samsung SIR-t451 ATSC tuner box and a cheap DVD player.
The Olympics broadcast over-the-air ( OTA ) by our local NBC station in 1080i were SPECTACULAR for the one hour from 4 to 5 pm they were broadcast during the workday.
To test the DVD we played "Robots", the animated film, and it was hard to turn it off and get people back to work.
We don't have a room full of sets to compare against, but we are very satisfied with the Pany plasma HD monitor. When viewing standard defination TV received by the ATSC tuner box, it is very viewable. We have no way to test analog NTSC broadcasts as the Samsung box only tunes ATSC digital signals. Not a problem here as all the local network broadcasters have a digital signal now.
For the slight amount of savings, I can not recommend any EDTV sets. Do your homework and make sure the Panasonic you want is a HDTV with both NTSC and ATSC tuners built in. If it's a monitor, then know you will need to purchase an ATSC tuner box or pay additional fees for HD feed by cable or satelite. I really like the over-the-air digital TV broadcast now, all the networks have HD content and it's FREE, no monthly cable or extra satelite fees.