anyone using this TV for their system? i know its supposed to be great, but i was told from a sales rep that this TV is not shielded because its a commercial monitor. if it is not shielded what does that exactly mean? does that mean it will cause more interference with my components and wiring?

I just picked up a Panasonic TH-50PX6U at Costco for $2199.00 last week. It is fantastic. It works well with the 990. In fact, My mother-in-law watched Nemo yesterday (for the first time) with my 5 year old and even though we had take out from an excellent Italian restaurant called Sweet Basil, she wouldn't come upstairs to eat until the movie was over! I know this is a different model than the one you are asking about, but I thought it might be of some help.

gooomz,

I'm was debating between the TH-50PH9UK and Panasonic's new 50" 1080p TH-50PF9UK myself. The H model has a dedicated thread on AVS forum ( www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=706697 )that might help you. As you noted the 50PH9UK is very well received and the price is really tempting.

I don't get the "shielding" concern. I've been using a commercial Hitachi monitor for almost 4 years without any issues. I suppose there are some differences as the commercial are class B but that shouldn't be detrimental to personal HT use. What type of sales rep did you speak with? One who sold only consumer models? I think the issue with a commercial model is that you need to be careful to select the correct options to insure compatibility with your other components and your desired results.

During my research I found it interesting that the value of a 1080p capable monitor versus a 1080i/720p monitor (like the 50PH9UK) was highly dependent upon the size of the screen and the viewing distance. The consensus of what I read is that you need to sit between 6 and 8 feet to actually see the difference created by a 50" 1080p capable monitor over a 720p monitor. Well, that is a huge difference in cost as the 50PH9UK is going for just under $2,000 and the 50PF9UK is $4,500 to $5,000. At my seating distance, 11 feet, the 1080p content from a BluRay or HD-DVD player may not be worth the expense.

If you are interested in reading one person's rather elaborate discussion about the relationship between screen size and resolution take a look at www.carltonbale.com/blog/2006/11/1080p-does-matter/ . It seems mostly directed to folks with projectors but is probably applicable to smaller screens used by LCDs and plasmas.

I am in the market for Panasonic TH-50PH9UK 50" Plasma TV. I have been reading expert reviews and that has been useful to me. It may be help you too. I had been using PCWorld.com, cnet.com to find reviews. Yesterday I used PriceGrabber’s expert review tab ( http://www.pricegrabber.com/info_expertreviews.php/masterid=22919626 )
and found a site ( http://www.smartratings.com ) that aggregates expert reviews. It only covers a few categories but it is pretty neat. Just my $.02.

Thanks for the links dodman and welcome to the Saloon!

I'm probably going to be in the market for a 50" plasma this fall. Who knows what the prices and features will be at that time other than I expect lower prices with more features! I followed up with a visit to my local HT store to take a look at Pioneer's 50" 1080p display; at my viewing distance I couldn't tell it apart from a Pioneer 720p plasma. I'm fairly convinced that I will get little or no benefit from purchasing a 1080p 50" plasma. Instead of spending money on resolution I can't distinguish I'm going to spend some time researching video processors to see if one could clean up standard TV and DVDs on a 50" monitor. I might spend as much on the 50PH and a video processor as the 50PF alone, but end up with a better picture in the end.

Again, welcome to the Saloon. Enjoy!

I agree with AVFan -- we recently went out to purchase a 42-inch plasma for a viewing distance of about 7 feet. Looked at Pioneer Elite 940HD (720p) and the 1080p 50-inch Pioneer Elite plasma, both with a Blu-Ray feed. Three of us could not see a difference, and the salesman indicated he wouldn't move to 1080p until larger screens became available (or unless he was sitting really close to monitor). We went with the 940HD after looking at it and a bunch of LCDs (including the Sony XBR 2).

That's interesting that even at 7 feet you could not see an improvement on the 1080p Pioneer over the 720p version. I would have expected you could see some, albeit minor, improvements. Did you feed those monitors an upconverted signal from a standard DVD? Just wondering if the BluRay Disc looks better than upconverted standard DVD on a 720p set.

I'm becoming convinced that 1080p is marketing strategy for smaller screens (50" or less) and its real benefit is for folks that have projectors with 100" screens or more and their seats around 10 feet away. I think the rule is you sit three times the screen height for the best viewing experience. That won't work in most homes and so most folks don't need a 1080p set.

I'm sure you will enjoy your new Elite.

Just a follow-up. CNET has a nice comparison of the two 50" 1080p plasmas on the market and their 768p cousins. CNET concluded, as did RCF051, that you can't see a difference between the 1080p and 768p sets unless you sit closer than 7 feet. Check it out at http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6482_7-6558982-1.html .

AVFan -- I am glad to see the CNet review reference, as I may have had to attribute our seeing no difference to tired older eyes! But both plasmas were fed a 1080p feed from a Sony Blu-Ray player, which the 940HD then downconverted to 720p, while the 50" diplay played at its native 1080p. It seems to me that the switch to 1080p is taking on the same marketing symbolism as ever-increasing MP in digital cameras, where the increase from 6 to 8 or 8 to 10 MP pretty much is meaningless.

What we took away from our time with the displays is that when we upgrade the family room set (currently an older Sony 40" XBR 700 HDTV), we will have to go to a 70 inch display or larger to see any appreciable benefit of 1080p from a sitting distance of about 9-10 feet, and the difference may be so small as to not warrant much of a price premium.

RCF051:

Thanks for the additional info.

This chart ( http://www.carltonbale.com/wp-content/uploads/resolution_chart.png ) matches what you are saying regarding display size, resolution and seating distance to see the benefits of 1080p. I've seen variations of this same chart that reach the same conclusions. They are all based upon a persons visual acquity assuming 20/20 eyesight. Other monitor qualities (e.g. contrast, black levels, etc) are probably more important to what we see versus just resolution. That's what made the CNET 50" comparison so telling. They compared like sized sets with similar performance (except for # of pixels) from the same manufacturers.

I don't have room, the cash, or the WAF to purchase of a 70" display. So, are we seeing a functional limit to display technology? It looks (pun intended) so.