Plasma 42 inch ....

Coulndt let this one go by without comment. The Onyx series from Panasonic and the same sized other current Panasonics are all the same as far as glass electronics and power supply. There are not separate Onyx plasma plants! How funny. The differences are largely cosmetic. PQ is identical. Runco sources their glass and does not even make their own. Again, there isn't anything special about a Runco plasma except the price tag. Absolutely none.

3:2 Pulldown is a function of DVD players by the way. The statement that certain plasmas do 3:2 Pulldown and others don't pretty much misses an understanding of very basic concepts. Your DVD player does the 3:2 pulldown and if its not done well by the player and its chipset and it won't matter what your plasma does ( yes even a Runco!)

The discussion about Pioneers and Pannys is fair game however- at least there is something to talk about here. Pioneers have a certain recognizable eye popping Wow! image--especially in well lit stores compared to seemingly dull panasonic ( yes even the Onyx). This is due to differences in performance of the TVs in various lighting conditions. Inngeneral- Pannys have the edge in the dark and Pios in ambient room light. But Pioneers black levels really improved this year in 2005 with their 6th generation sets. Not quite up with the Pannys.

LCDs- yes LCDs have also imporved. Their images from top producers are crisp and clear and very sharp. Hwoever, the large difference still remianing in black levels and therefore contrast ratios between LCDs and plasmas means an incredible loss of shadow detail in darker scenes in LCDs relative to plasmas. This is even mentioned in periodicals such as the Perfect Vision and Sound and Vision in their latest issues while reviewing the newer offerings. Again, the human eye can see differences in contrast ratios where at 8-10 feet we really have trouble decerning differences in pixels counts. Try it out sometime.

LCDs videoness is exactly its limiting factor. With an LCD you know you are watching TV( a very good one!)- with a plasma, if its set up correctly, you are looking through the window. I agree with the divisions between between top plasma groups versus the others. My favorites right now are Hitachi and Panasonic.

Keep an eye out for the Hitachi's 42 and 55 inch, they are really nice.

Thank you so much for your responses,very much appreciated.

I do agree with Rysa4,that the commercial, basic Panasonic PDW 42 inch, remains a brilliant buy ,when it comes to performance vs value.

This is what I had and it will most likely be what I buy again.

The Panasonic Onyx and standard series are indeed different in PQ, and this is easily apparent in any setting where both can be compared side-to-side with same signal and quality of adjustment. 3:2 or 3:3 pulldown is available in DVD players but that doesn't address other digital sources that are transmitting film-based rather than video-based programming. It also doesn't mean some sets don't do it better. You can plainly see this effect on the mass-market Pannies displaying film-based media from non-DVD sources, and it is addressed in the Onyx series, as well as Pioneer and most others. For most people it is a small issue, since most people are not critical.

As for the Runco, well of course they don't make their own glass. But again, I've seen it in direct comparison with Elite, Onyx, Fujitsu, and it is clearly more natural. I didn't expect this, so was surprised. Worse, it costs more. But damned if no matter what you did to the picture, the Runco PQ dominated the group.

The limitation of LCD, and the cause of their false vivdness compared to good plasma sets, is their 24 bit displays. 16.7 million colors isn't nearly sufficient to show film, and this is easily demonstrated by the superior subtlety and gradients visible in the 1+ billion color displays in Pioneer, Hitachi and Panasonic plasma.

I agree the new Hitachis look promising, and the newest Elites have advanced as well.

Phil

Good luck to the original poster. Also I really agree that Hitachi is a true plasma force yet to be reckoned with. Soon the vastly improved quality of their displays will take front center stage in the plasma world, as other makers fall by the wayside. SAmsung has the resources to put out a high volume quality product as well, but they have had more QA issues than Panny and Hitachi. Pioneer stops their production lines in 2006 ( March) and will source glass.