Kinda falls under the 'what a nice problem to have' category I guess.

I've had a 40" Sony XBR for about 10 months now and I still love it. The picture is wonderful on normal TV/satellite/cable inputs and really great with a progressive DVD (sorry, I don't have HDTV). I have a very bright room with one wall full of windows and the TV is viewed by people sitting & standing and from many different angles (rear projection TV's were terrible in my room). And... with the TV's 300 pound weight, your average thief can't carry it out of the house

Whats EDTV??

A so-so Ron Howard movie notable mainly for Jenna Elfman. Grrrrr...

Would you believe...

Enhanced Definition TV. Basically 480p if I'm not mistaken. It would therefore be able to display your progressive scan DVD - but not your satellite or cable or off-air HD signals.

FOX pretends to be in the HD game with similar resolution (and lingo). Most people out there are unfortunately still too busy complaining about "them darn black bars on my screen when I play my DVDs" to take exception to FOX' tactics.

Most of those "affordable" plasmas out there fall into the EDTV category. Some of them do look great - with prog scan DVD. But the real HDTV ones that scale everything up to 720p (for example) look stunning in comparison - for a big jump in price.

Hope this defuzzifies the picture somewhat.

Jeff Mackwood

ps. to add an additional 2 cents to this thread, my own view is that plasma is going to be great for the masses, but will never compare in quality to other existing and emerging technologies. Personally, I already have a rear projection (CRT-based) HDTV that looks superb with its 1080i capability, but my next move will likely be to a front projector of some sort, in the next two years, when one will be available that has a native resolution (in widescreen mode) of 1080p. DLP might get there soon. LCoS already is - with bugs to be ironed out. Imagine simply plugging in your 720p or 1080i signal and having it upconvert to 1080p. That will be well worth the wait.