Is there significant quality difference between a 720p Plasma and a 1080p LCD TV is the 42'-50" size range?
Answer:
For the price range in which you're shopping you will be much better served if you purchase a good quality 46- to 52-inch LCD from a company such as Sony, Sharp, JVC, etc.
Competition remains fierce, particularly in the 42- to 46-inch price range, and manufacturers are cutting corners in many areas – and at great cost in performance – in an effort to obtain more desirable price points that will appeal to a wider range of potential customers.
One of the more common native resolutions available in 42-inch plasma display panels (PDPs) is 1366×768. This particular panel resolution results in additional (and unnecessary) video processing in the form of decimation (even if linear,) which is required to convert a standard video format, such as 1280×720, to the native panel resolution of 1366×768.
But the much more important issue is how a high definition display performs when it comes to video bandwidth, scaling, de-interlacing, video noise, gray scale tracking, 3:2 pulldown processing when viewing 24p film content on DVDs, etc. The majority of displays are unable to pass many – if not most – of these basic requirements necessary to achieve quality, true high definition performance.
Under the ATSC Digital Television Standards popular Direct-to-Home satellite broadcasters such as EchoStar Satellite (DISH Network) and Liberty Media/DIRECTV Group currently have the option of broadcasting content using a full 1080 lines of video progressively scanned at 23.976 Hz, 24 Hz, 29.97 Hz, 30 Hz, 59.94 Hz, or 60 Hz. Once both companies are completely switched over to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1 (SMPTE 421M) I sincerely hope that they provide subscribers the opportunity to receive and view 1080p video, particularly film content, in its native progressive scan format.
Also on the topic of PDPs - there exists the very real threat of image burn-in especially if you spend much time watching television (such as DirecTV.) Combating burn-in requires much more work on the user’s part in order to minimize or prevent it. While it's true that plasma displays have much better contrast and black level performance than almost any LCD it comes at too high a price for anyone who intends to use their display primarily to view television programming.
My advice is to play it safe and consider purchasing a quality 46- to 52-inch HD LCD display with a pixel response time of less than 8 ms, which can meet as many of the aforementioned HD performance criteria as possible; you’ll be glad you did.
The higher the number is, the better the quality is.
720p is the lowest HD you can get,
1080 is the highest.
It pretty much means clearness, quality, and detail
the only difference I could tell was during fast moving images like a football game where it's raining. Sometimes you get little chasers with a 720 that you don't get on a 1080. When I was shopping the plasmas where a lot cheaper than the LCDs of the same size. I don't know of many 1080 plasmas that are close to 50". BUT the sony bravia xbr lcd in the store was the best tv picture I've ever seen.
OH..there WILL BE A MAJOR PICTURE DIFFERENCE if you choose the 1080P over the 720P...
MAJOR!!
I've seen both side by side.and the 1080 has more detail !
Direct TV will need to be upgraded to HD to see the difference in your home.
But, you will be setup with the 1080P TV for when you want to UPGRADE.
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