Which of these Plasma TVs should I get?

Question

I'm getting a Plasma this weekend. I want a 50". We're looking at the Pioneer Kuro 5080HD, Panasonic TH-50PZ700U and the Panasonic TH-50PZ77U.

The Panasonics have 1080p but the Pioneer is only 768p. However, the Pioneer is one of the best TVs you can buy now. Which one should I get?

Answer 1

I have a older Panasonic TH-42PX50U (almost 3 years).  I just looked at the Pioneer Kuro and the Panasonic latest generation next to each other the other day at best buy.  The Kuro had better blacks and a little bit better color representation to me.  If I had to do it over again, I'd go with the Kuro.

Then again, for the price I paid for the Panasonic then I could get a really sweet higher end display today.

The 1080p vs 768p is a bit of none issue to me.  If you sit back at a proper viewing distance, the differences are hard to discern.  If you are on top of the TV, then you may notice a difference.

At the end of the day, it isn't what, I say or any of the magazines or review sites say that matters.  It boils down to this - which TV picture do you personally like best and which best fits your pocket book.  Of these two makes and models, I'd go with the one that you like most and which every is least expensive or has the best bundle / is on sale.

After reading the Plasma TV Buying Guide web site and their sister site, the LCD TV Buying Guide web site for YEARS before I bought a TV, I have to say that they had really good reviews and advice.

The other thing I recommend is checking out AVS Forum and the reviews related to both TVs.  People who have lived with either TV for awhile may be willing to talk openly about whatever flaws they have encountered.  Some people get really angry there if anyone points out a flaw in a $3000 TV they just bought but at least there are people willing to talk about and offer ideas suggestions, or experience on how to compensate for it.

One other thing -- I can't recommend enough getting a copy of the Joe Kane Digital Video Essentials TV disk.  No matter how good a TV is, I haven't yet come across one that isn't tuned to make it look good on the showroom floor rather than accurately represent the picture.  I went through the exercise of correcting my Panny and I'm about to go through the process with the Sharp Aquos LCD I bought for the bedroom two days ago.

Answer 2

Neither.  Go with a Sony XBR Bravia.  It is far superior.

Answer 3

I would go for the TH-50PZ77U. 1080p will give you better picture than 768p....the downside to 768 is that whatever image is sent to the tv will be stretched somehow to fit the number of pixels on the screen.

Answer 4

I would get the 1080p Pano over the Pioneer Kuro, even though I like Pioneer's product much better. It doesn't matter much on HDTV since 1080i is interlaced and you only need 540 vertical lines to produce it, but one day you will have a Bluray player and the 1080p will perform the best.

Just a suggestion outside the box:

I have consistantly installed Pioneer Elite plasma displays in people's main viewing room until fall of last year. The Sharp LC-52D64U looks so close to the Pioneer plasma image, that with the additional advantages of LCD, I've decided it's a better choice. LCD will outlast plasma and it will not suffer burn-in from game machines and computers like plasma.

LCD has always had difficulty producing black and they have also been slow to process moving images. Sharp promised an end to these issues when their new Kamayama2 factory opened, and they were telling the truth it turns out. Sharp still produces in the other two factories so don't accidentally look at the other models. Only the D64U models are up to speed with plasma and I think you should have a quick look before you make your final decision.