BTW, I don't recommend plasma after some research. They have a finite life span. It's about twenty years if you only use it two to four hours a day, but the whole notion of the gas in the cells just going dead one day really bothers me. With LCDs, you just have to replace the crystal the light projects through. not bad. Plasma also has burn in issues with games, especially ones with a status bar, such as a speedometer. You'll see lots of plasma on ebay that was used in airports, and now has JFK, OHH, BRA, and stuff burned into it. Some of them have orbital pixel shifters that can prevent this, but I'd be worried as shit while I was playing that I was damaging my beautiful screen; couldn't handle that.
If you are going to buy a new tv, get one that supports all the resolutions! That way you are never going to run into resolution problems.
These are the key features for a new tv.
No Lag
480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i support (no converting is better, up or down converting lowers the quality, and my produce lag)
Clarity from different angles. (some tv's only look clear and bright from a 75-90 degree angle (straight on or slightly to either side) Depending on the layout of your room you prob want 50-90 degrees or better.
Brightness (more visibility when there is light in the room.)
Contrast & Overall image quality (this is obvious, just looks at a few tv's while you are at the store)
Also, if your are buying a new hdtv I assume your are buying a total entertainment system. Don't buy anything but the tv at the store! They will rip you off on all the accessories, and cables. If your are buying at a store that offers commission to it's employees, remember to negociate the price, the sticker price is atleast 15% higher than you can get it for.
DON'T BUY A THIN PLASMA/LCD unless you actually need to save that much space. LCD/Plasma is lower quality, and is more failer prone. Buy from a decent manufacturer. I recommend Sony, and Mitsubishi. Other manufacturers like Samsung, Magnavox, JVC, ect make great consumer electronics, but they are new to the hdtv market, and this means that they will have many more issues than the Sony and Mitsubishi tv's.
QUOTE(LenteSubigo @ Mar 15 2005, 02:02 PM)
If you are going to buy a new tv, get one that supports all the resolutions! That way you are never going to run into resolution problems.
QUOTE(Chris_F @ Mar 15 2005, 11:17 PM)
What about 1080p?
Actually I just read around a bit and it looks like the coming TVs will have inputs that accept only 1080i but convert it to 1080p but nothing positive yet since they are not out yet. JVC is also releasing a DILA display soon with 1080p. The Sony using the three chip SxRD technology are the only ones able to do give the high resolution but they are $14k so pretty damn pricey.