I am looking into buying a HDTV widescreen and hope you guys can help, I need one that is capable of displaying the normal 480i, 480p, and 1080i, but I also want it to be able to display 720p, but the catch is it has to be around 48" screen size, due to space constraints. The reasoning for 720p, is because Street hoops for xbox is in 720p and so will Tony Hawk4 and probably other Activision games, so I want to be able to take a advantage of this, any help would be great

For now you will have to go to plasma.

You'll have to go digital. No RPTV under 50" based on 7" CRT's can FULLY display 1280x720. Your choices are plasma, DLP based TV's, LCD based TV's, or LCOS.

Panasonic sold RPTVs in that size last year that did 720p and had a small footprint but I'm not sure if they dropped it on the new models for this year. I almost bought one myself until I decided on a Mits. Keep in mind that all sets will upconvert 720p to 1080i so you can still get the signal into them from your Xbox just not progressive so it might not look as good. By the way ABC is the only station broadcasting in 720p as of now. Everyone else uses 1080i for HD.

Is converting 720p to 1080i really an upconvert?

Plenty can take 720p inputs, the problem is the output. 1280x720 is really on the upper end of what 7" CRT's can display unless they are extremely high quality (ie. the Pioneer Elite's), and the bandwidth of many of these smaller units limits the output to about 650x1100 or so.

I've read about the limitations of 7" CRTs but I never heard about any bandwidth limitations before. The only true HD you're ever going to get is from 9" CRTs and there aren't many choices there. And i guess you're right 720p to 1080i isn't really an upconvert but more of a downconvert really since most would prefer a progressive signal to an interlaced one. Still the 47" panny would suit him well i think.

Yeah, the video amps in these units simply cannot support 720p and above. We've not even touched on retrace timing, spot beam size, etc. Actually, with these units, bandwidth is more of an issue than lens size, as insufficient bandwidth means the lens doesn't even see the extra resolution.

To Chipmac: So the 47" Panasonic widescreen displays in 720p, yeah I only want the 720p for xbox, because most hdtv shows are and will be in 1080i, but if you are sure that the 47" Panasonic can display 720p, I will be buying it next week, hopefulyy you can help me, Thanks

my Sony takes the 720P and downconverts it to 480P according to the manual.

I was not aware that the Panasonic 47" did 720P and i almost bought one before buying my 51" Sony.

Sorry I can't be of more help but like I said earlier what little I know of the Panny 47" is only what I learned when shopping around last year for my set. However I do know for a fact that this year's models do not handle 720p natively. It accepts 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i but in regards to the 720p that it accepts; that gets converted to 1080i for display. Now my opinion is that even though 1080 is interlaced and 720 is progressive once the signal is converted to 1080i you most likely won't even notice the difference. However if your can't find an old model that displays 720p and you decide to just buy a set that is widescreen and HDTV capable I would recommend a Mitsubishi over the Panasonic for a number of reasons. Having said that please be sure to do a lot of research before buying because the state of HDTV right now means making some very important decisions and compromises. One of my favorite forums for this kind of info is at the HomeTheaterSpot.com. Good luck.