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Originally Posted by rteichman
Two things I want to mention. First and most important make sure you get an HD unit and not an ED unit! The less expensive plasma models usually are EDTV instead of HDTV. The other thing is to look into LCD units. Depending on the size you may prefer to get an LCD unit, as they are less sensitive to abuse. If you do decide to get an LCD unit you should look at MicroCenter. They have the best price LCD units anywhere.
The avsforum mentioned below is great. Also, when you shop for plasma realize that speakers and tuners are extra on some models so be careful
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Funny thing is that this is largly untrue, but people think that the HD tv's are better overall. Well currently they are not. There's a few reasons for this.
All Plasma TV's have a native resolution. ED is 852 X 480 (or something along that line) and HD is 1024 x 765. They picture is always upconverted or down converted to the displays native resolution. So typically what you see on HD tv is is 480P which is 852x480. So your HDTV is upconverting the signal, but that doesn't make it better, because the picture is only as good as the source. So in that scenario the EDTV displays better as the source is in it's native resolution not being upconverted to HD resolution needlessly by the TV's engine.
DVD's are all 480p so again they are up converted needlessly. When BlueRay comes in that will be 1080i which will be the native resolution of your HDTV and you will see the difference then. As of now there are no cheap Blue ray systems out there and they won't be the standard for a long time.
Eventually all HDTV will be real HD resolution, but that wont be for a few years yet, maybe 5 or so.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5137915-1.html