Home audio & video forum: 720p Plasma vs. 1080p LCD

whats the price difference? I have a sony 40inch Z series 1080p and a vizio 37inch 720 and for me its tough to tell a huge difference. The vizio cost me 400 bucks and the sony 1,000 bucks, so is it 600 bucks better? No. Also standard tv will look better on a 720 set then a 1080. But the price alone may be the decider, thats why I ask.

The LCD is Samsung 40b530

the Plasma is Panasonic TC-p42x1

choices. The tipping point might be the newer technology of 1080 for the same price. In general I have preferred the plasma picture for the main TV in the house. 720 would be fine at the size & viewing distances you have mentioned. I am a proponent that the beginning point one can really see the benefits of 1080 over 720 is at 50 inches & larger.

Go back to the showroom somwtime they are slack rather than busy & take an hour of viewing time to have your mind settle of the one for you.

first you must understand what makes up picture quality.

based on Cnet, image science foundation, and sound and vision mag.
the number 1 thing that makes a quality picture is contrast ratio, number 2 is color saturation, number 3 is color accuracy, and the 4th is resolution.

so based on this info, the plasma will win in the first two areas, not so sure about the color accuracy on both sets, but I would not pick any HDTV based on resolution alone.

and you should know that if you have a alot of windows and watch tv in the day this can washout the contrast ratio on any TV set Plasma more so then LCD. so keep this in mind.

try reading a few things in the HDTV world section of CNET.com
they have a 1080p section and how to judge picture quality section.

the diffrents you see is in brightness not resolution.