I have a 32" Sony Wega TV. I am seriously thinking of updating to a plasma TV. I am on a budget. Any suggestions on a low cost 42" Plasma TV?

Any particular price range? Define your budget?

Panasonic makes a great EDTV Plasma. I personally would stay far away from the Gateway brand!

Sonicflood

My price range would be $3,000. Could probably stretch a little above $3,000. But, would be better below. Is it possible?

The Panasonic TH-42PWD6UY at $2800. It's quite easily the best choice for this price. No one can match its contrast (rated at 4000:1. Real world isn't quite that high, but no one is near them).

Do you absolutely HAVE to have a plasma TV? Because for far less then $3000 you can get a 42" rear projection HDTV that will put any plasma TV to shame! Or is the "wife factor" dictating the purchase?

I have never really looked at any of the new projection TV's. Have they improved over the past few years?

If you don't need the plasma to have speakers or an NTSC tuner, I second the TH-42PWD6UY recommendation. If you need or want those 2 items, I'd recommend the Panasonic TH-42PA20U for $3500 or less online. I recently switched from a 27" Sony Wega to the 42PA20U and am very happy with it. DVDs are just incredible on the Panasonics. The Panasonics do a pretty good job on regular broadcast TV too. The Panasonics are generally considered one of the top 3 brands of plasmas, but their prices are lower than the other top models - not too much more than the Gateways, Sampos, Daewoo, etc.

Absolutely they have! In fact for $3000 you could easily grab a 65" HDTV on sale that will not only give you a much superior picture but a much more theater-like experience with the bigger size.

I agree. I would only recommend a plasma if you're concerned about saving space. CRT RPTVs are cheaper and have better PQ IMO.

Actually, as far as a Rear Projection option goes, take a look at the new LG 44" 16:9 DLP Rear Projection set - it's stunning! That's if it's available in the US.
As for Plasma on a budget, then look at the commercial version of the acclaimed Panasonic PW5 range - it's the one with no tuner or speakers and has a black coloured frame (the silver frame looks cheap and nasty anyway!) - you'd need a Sattelite reciever box or something to act as a tuner and you'd need to hook it up to a surround sound system. It supports prog-scan and HD.

Regards,

Iwan
West Kensington, London, UK

The problem with DLP's right now is they suffer from bad black levels and a lot of people are bother by the rainbow effect (from the color wheels) DLP's have. They are getting better but CRT based HDTV's are still the best video quality out there and the lowest priced as well.

As for what you mention avbout DLP - maybe that's a problem on NTSC spec machines. None of you mention is can be detected on the PAL spec versions.
As far as CRT being the best, you're right, I myself, have a 32" 16:9 flatscreen / widescreen CRT multisystem TV manufactured by SHARP. It gives stunning results via RGB input with bothe PAL and NTSC DVDs etc.

I currently have a 30" Samsung 16:9 CRT and the picture quality is amazing.

Obviously, you have more to spare , $ wise, than I did. Given that, I'd look into getting a 34" version - there is so much more screen size than a 30". Currently I think only Sony and Sharp (not sure on the second company) make a 34" 16:9 crt. They run around $1500USD. Granted it isn't a 4" deep plasma, but it's still a great picture. Besides, I think plasmas are too expensive right now.

Not saying I don't want one, but I'm fighting the urge to wait a couple odd more years. =)

Hope that helps.

I was going to ask basically the same question, not to jump on mike45 post. Can spend up to 3000.00 for a big screen tv, Rear Projection, Plasma or....................

My brother has a mitsibushi rear projection, not to put mitsu down, but the pic on his tv is horrible, maybe he doesn't have it set up right. He's not exactly a movie person, he got it for football,basball games.

Ozzzzy1 $3000 can get you a very good or great big screen TV. The quality of the picture on the other hand will be determined by many things.

If it's a standard definition TV you will spend a lot less since tv technology has be out forever. For that kind of money you should be looking at HDTV. Here's where the problem with PQ comes in. These sets are made for HD and DVD mainly so anything less will not look as good since you're enlarging a poor signal for the larger screen. It then shows all of the deficiancies of the signal. If the signal is analog at 480 interlaced the HDTV will use it's line doubler to convert it to 480 progressive. This conversion can be very poor or very good depending on the brand. If your using a SD cable or satellite digital signal it's also 480i and on top of the line doubler you're also fighting the compression the sat and cable companies employ to send so many channels. These signals can be better than their analog counterparts but in depends mostly on how much compression the channel has.

So if your brother has a Mits HDTV and is feeding it an analog signal and that analog signal is sports then it will look like crap since sports programming is some of the worst as far as PQ due to the above staeed reasons plus the types of camera lenses they use for the distant shots of the whole field. This is not the fault of the TV but the signal itself. It wouldn't matter what tv he owned the only thing that could improve it is to buy a very expensive external deinterlacer (line doubler) and scaler with high end circuitry to improve on the conversion that the TV does.

He does not have HDTV, but you did clear thing up for me!

I've been thinking about getting the Panasonic TH-42PWD6UY. For those of you who have this model, how to the blacks look when the lights are dim? It's hard to tell from the showroom since most of them are too bright.

Wow!... Just checked the prices of TH-42PWD6UY online and some places have it for less than $2500!! Very attractive indeed.

My question is, does anyone have a LCD TV instead? I know their PQ isn't as good as Plasma but I'm thinking about buying one because I am going to hook up my HT PC (Shuttle XPC) to it. I'm afraid using a PC will burn it the Plasma screen... How do their pictures compare anyway (LCD vs. Plasma)...

Damn... $2500 though... that's really cheap! The 22" Sharp LCD TV and the 23" Sony are like $1999... another $500 double the size!... Man that sucks

TH-42PWD6UY for under $2500? Got a url?

Plasma's tend to have much higher contrast and less motion smear than LCD's, making them better choices for video.

LCDs suck!

Just so you understand that the Panny plasma 42PWD6UY is not a true HDTV. It will scale the HD res down to 480p or 720p and the 720p is scaled as well since it doesn't have the capability to display true HD resolution. This is what's known as a EDTV since it only has a display resolution of 852 x 480.

Yes, there are exactly zero 42-46" true HDTV plasmas.

So, what is the best budget true HDTV LCD or plasma TV in 42" or higher? How do the cheap brands like Sampo compare to the Panasonic? I have been monitoring Ebay lately and prices seem great. Is it wise to buy off Ebay? I used to buy electronics off Ubid and they all had lots of quality issues so I am afraid of buying somewhere other than a traditional retailer.

Unless you're concerned about space I fail to see why anyone would want a plasma or LCD flat panel. Like many have said above the PQ is just not there compared to a traditional CRT based direct view or RPTV. Unless you spend a lot mor emoney you're not getting HD resolutions out of them. Their black levels still are below par and they're haven't been around long enough to know how long they'll last during normal use.

Now if you're still set on getting one I'd go with the Panny based on good reports from people that have them.

Here's one:


http://plasmadepot.com/tvs/pdp4330hd.html