questions: 3:2 pulldown; Samsung
 

First of all, how important is 3:2 pulldown, and what is it used for? Just HD sources? OR does it benefit VHS and cable also?

Also, what about the Samsung line at Best Buy? They have a 47" Samsung there on sale (open box) for 1500 with a 4 year extended warranty. Is this a good line of tv's? Good picture? Or shold i go with some other brand in the $1500-1700 range?

thanks in advance

3:2 pulldown is how film is converted to NTSC video. Film runs at 24fps, NTSC at roughly 30fps. What many newer TVs do is reverse this process thus providing a much cleaner image. It is not a necessary feature, but I would suspect that once you have seen it you won't want to go back. By reversing the process I mean that the picture is de-interlaced. Here is a site that can answer many of your questions about 3:2 pulldown:

http://www.projectorpeople.com/news_info/pulldown.asp

BTW: Although it is known as 3:2 pulldown the process is actually 2:3 pulldown. The pulldown process was developed by RCA in the 1930s

Great link Danny_boy!

Questions:
1. does it mean that if you have a progressive scan DVD player that it will automatically have/do reverse 3:2 pulldown?

2. does a progressive scan DVD player always send a progressive signal to the television set at 30 fps? If this is the case, what if your TV is incapable of receiving/displaying progressive signals? Will it result in a worse picture (flickering) compared to a picture sent by a non-progressive scan DVD player?

Yes, and ideally you should use the de-interlacing in the progressive DVD player rather than in the television.

However, having 3:2 pulldown in the television is useful for all of your non-DVD video sources (broadcast TV, VHS, videogames, etc.).

A progressive scan DVD player can also be set to display a standard interlaced signal. If you set if for progressive but do not have a progressive scan monitor, you will get no picture.