HDTV's

[shams]

During my 3-week Asia trip, I took some time out to investigate and have a *real* good look at TV displays (LCD, Plasma, projectors). The most noticeable (and disappointing thing) I found in 99% of the stores I visited - was they had no idea what they were doing. Most of them were trying to sell a really expensive display unit - by hooking it up to some crap input signal, on some crappy show, through a crappy cable playing on a crappy DVD player. Even the ones that did get it (half) right were playing some horrible DVD on expensive equipment - and it looked like crap (I suspect they may get these display things right in the US :>). ... I have no desire to go for a full 1080p display - many of the ones I saw looked worse than the 720p displays (which are plentiful). My personal preference is something like a Phillips or Samsung 1024x720p Plasma display - with all the bells and whistles. The Sony ones in particular I looked at were bordering on terrible - especially for the price (I'm very harsh on bluriness, and fussy-ness). I currently have a 4+ yr old Phillips "TrueMotion" TV (does 480p / 1080i + PAL modes), and I think it looks amazing - still better than most of the sets on the market (its just getting a little small, at 82cm). The reason it looks so good, is that it up-samples the frame rate to 100hz (and does it properly) - which when you think about it, is quite a feat. Cost me about $1600AU (factory 2nd - has a scratch somewhere), and it is worth every cent. After speaking to many people, I believe the issues with Plasma (burn-out, losing pixels) are greatly exaggerated - and have improved a lot over the last few years. They also have better colour reproduction, less issues with refresh time, require less power (the new ones anyway), and have perfect viewing from every angle. Kwaad - Im impressed that you have a rat :) One of my friends had one as well, and I really liked the creature (I doubt my cats would be as forgiving though ;).