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 I returned from CEDIA 2005 with visions of HT sugarplums dancing in my head. I saw lots of goodies including plasma sets with great pictures and less “burn in” than previous ones, new HD DVR players from Dish with the capability of downloading video to the new Pocket Dish units, well in advance of the Video iPods and much more capable. Then there were the 1080p displays all over the place!
As luck would have it, upon my return my old reliable 27” SONY XBR set (circa 1987) was on its last legs and it was time for a replacement. It was hanging on the wall in my bedroom “hospital style” and it seemed that either a plasma or an LCD HD capable model would be the ideal replacement. After looking at all the specs and prices I decided that a Panasonic plasma set would be perfect for me, both in price and performance. Ambient light isn’t an issue in this room so I didn’t need the added brightness of an LCD set. That will probably be my choice later on in the kitchen if other technologies don’t intercede before I’m ready to buy.
My general rule of thumb right now, when considering a plasma display, is to “stick with the p’s” and that means Pioneer and Panasonic. Of course this could all be different by the time you read this but I don’t think you can go wrong with either company’s offerings. Not wanting to spend the extra money for the slightly higher performing Pioneer Elite models, and finally deciding that 42” model would be a bit too large for the space I was considering, the 37” Panasonic TH-37PX50U was a perfect fit for my situation. I chose a SANUS VMAA18b-01 Vision Mount Flat Panel Articulating Wall Mount to install the display and I couldn’t be happier with that choice; a quality product and completely satisfying in every way. I was surprised how good standard TV looked on the Panasonic because I had always heard that HD sets don’t always do a good job with SD. Of course my basis of comparison was a CRT that was almost 20 years old. And when I traded in my Dish 721 SD DVR for an upgraded Dish 942 HD model, the picture looked very, very good. This is a 720p set and does an excellent job for its intended purposes and I’m very happy with the combination of the set, the stand and the sources.
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