Choice between 2 different 42" plasma as monitor

I use a DVI to HDMI cable and it works perfectly - in fact my Toshiba's PC input only gives square resolutions like 1024x768! To use the whole screen it has to be the HDMI inputs.

Hmm that's good info to know. I'm gonna go look at these two models more in depth this weekend. : )

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=112252...|79|2341|3316|74672&N=4018657&Mo=14&No=10&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=74672&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&hierPath=79*2341*3316*74672*&topnav=

heck Id go get this  

And maybe a nice new sound system!

I have two of them, one for my monitor and one for my TV. It was either these or a Sony that cost the same price as the both!

I'd go with a sony you can find a 40" around 1600 and can't beat the picture quality in my opinion.   Also i personally like lcd's better then plasma, think they have more ups in my opinion. I might be a little more picky on picture quality then you, not sure. For the money though Visio is a great buy from what i have seen and alot of people say they are as good as sony in picture quality, not sure i agree. That is me though.

wish i could get a 42"

I am insane so that is better then unique in my opinion.   In reference to your sig. lol

Those are VERY good Plasma flat panels. I have not seen another brand that looks as good as Panasonic. HDMI would make everything more convienent, so its your choice whether you want to pay the money or not. Plus the nice thing about HDMI is Video AND Sound on 1 cable! Stay with the panasonic though! I would suggest to you getting the cheaper panel, and then getting a 8800GT that has HDMI, which should not be too hard to find. You will pull a better picture out of an HDMI signal.

I've got 3 plasma monitors...1 Sony and 2 Panasonic. While I like the Sony OK the Panasonic is a better display. Check around the internet, Panasonic Plasma RULZ. Avoid that Costco panel. The Sony panels are expensive and not as good as the Panasonic. I know this for a fact, got both!!

If you need to save money get this 720p Panasonic for $999.99 (plus $99.99 shipping). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This is a great deal on a 50" BTW, $1399 (plus $99.99 shipping) including a mount: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If it were me I'd choose between the $1299 BestBuy 42" 1080p Panasonic, the $999 42" 720p Panasonic and the $1399 720p 50" Panasonic.

A 50" 720p looks really good as long as you are at least 6 feet away. Any closer and you can start to see the pixels. Avoid the 50" if you are putting it in a small room or plan to sit fairly close. The closer you plan to sit the smaller dot pitch you need. If you are only going to be a few feet away get the cheaper 42" 1080p from BestBuy.

Yeah I will be umm... 2.5 to 3 feet away or so. I watch almost no television so it's unlikely this will be used as anything but a computer monitor (for Seinfeld reruns and various FOX fare, my little tv here is fine : )

I do want 1080p instead of 720p.

Since it is unlikely I will be able to see how the screen looks in the store with a PC hooked up to it, can anyone tell me how one of these compares to an LCD computer monitor? I currently have a dell 24" 2407FP or something like that (which I'll have for sale if I do get the plasma screen.)

I do have a BFG geforce 8800 gt I picked up at best buy but I don't think it has HDMI out. It did come with a "HDTV" adapter with what looks like an S-Vid connector on one end and 3 RCA type on the other labeled Y Pb/Comp and Pr (Green, blue and red color respectively).

---Ok just checked back of card has dual DVI out and one connector which looks like S-Vid.

Oh yeah, if you are going to be ~3' away you need the highest res you can get. You are lucky to have snatched up a 8800GT before they sold out. The 8800GT is the best/only card to buy.

OK DVI and HDMI are sorta the same thing signal wise. Give me a minute and I'll give you a link for a DVI/HDMI cable which would be your best choice for a cable.

The Panasonic has "2 HDMI, 3 composite video, 3 S-video, and 2 component video connectors" according to the BestBuy site.

HDMI/DVI is best (perfect/digital) followed by VGA (D-sub, very good, analog), then Component (3 wire: blue, green, and red cables, very good, analog), followed by S-video (getting pretty crappy by modern standards), followed by Composite (single yellow ended wire, looks like crap).

Ok here are a couple links to dvi to hdmi cables. Notice no electronics are involved because electrically dvi and hdmi are the same basic thing (except hdmi can include audio).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=64...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I've been dreaming about buying one of the Panasonic 42" 1080p's myself. Correct me if I'm wrong, but both of those displays have VGA. I would just go with that. I've heard of a lot of DVI to HDMI scaling issues. Plus, you're obviously not using the audio (which is really the reason to go with HDMI).

MY dad has owned a Panasonic 50" Plasma for 2.5 years and I'm inamored with it, which is why I will be getting one this spring/summer.

just so you know, plasma tv sets have to be over 50" to be true high definition, and secondly you are going to want to get a LCD not a plasma screen because of burn in which affects plasma televisions.

Do you have a link? Because I'm currently deciding between 42" 1080p plasma or LCD (for my living room).

Absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma w/ ATSC Tuner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
They also have one called TH-42PZ77U that's 1080p.

Additionally plasma burn in has all but been eliminated with the newest panels.
http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-bu...




Burn in can be completely avoided with a little education and caution during the first couple months of use.
Panasonic is currently on their 10th generation of plasma panels, I think this dated problem needs to die.

Please do not misinform people when you're not well read on the subject.

Thanks for the info on the cables. I just went with the cheaper model (TH-42PZ77U) and bought it through circuit city.

Got it for $1199.99 price match to Sears, as well as 24 months no interest, and $70 ($230 off) a wall mount / HDMI cable package. They also gave me a $10 CC gift card as 10% extra difference between sears.

So I ended up with the TV, wall mount, and 8' cable for $1259.99 I don't need the mount and have someone who will give me $100 for it, so my total falls to $1159.99 I'm thrilled : )

I'll just need to pick up a DVI to HDMI adapter and I'm all set.

Best Buy had 36 months no interest and would match the price + 10% difference but unfortunately they are out of stock on these televisions (guy said they are almost impossible to get ahold of locally, and won't be in stock until Dec. 5th at the earliest around here). The one I got from CC was the last one they had in store.

Gonna pick it up after work tonight. Darn thing weighs 100lbs I guess... hope I don't drop it trying to carry it into the PC room lol

Now I need to upgrade the PC =/ wish mainstream penryn processors would get here a bit sooner!

icucmeuc, please know this:

Plasma displays should not be layed down for any reason. I'm not sure of the reason for this, but everyone I've talked to about plasmas say to NEVER lay them down (face down or back down). Always maintain a vertical orientation.

Thank you : )

Gonna bring the 2 wheeler from work with me. Should help keeping it upright (and should help my back... lol)

I'm not sure about this, perhaps you are thinking of large LCD panels or plasma panels during transport? The reason I mention it is because my 50" Sony plasma needed warranty service and the repair guy laid it down flat (face down) to work on it. He seemed to know what he was doing. He did mention that LCD panels break and that they are not covered when this happens. Evidently LCDs are delicate. A friend related the exact same info saying that his LCD developed a crack and that "Sony sucks" and "the local repair shop sucks" because they didn't cover the repair. The same exact repair shop did a great job fixing my 50" and Sony covered the expense at no charge so I'm happy.

This is incorrect for sure. At one time it might have been sorta true but the newer sets have full 1080 resolution. At one time you could find 42" sets that were only "Enhanced Definition" that had something like 480 lines of resolution and they were basically crap. The Panasonic the OP listed is not just 720 but 1080. A monitor is considered "high def" if it has at least 720p. LCDs have historically had higher res than plasma but the new higher def plasmas give nothing away to LCDs. That said, the new LCDs look pretty darn good too.....

Burn in is not a problem for TV use but if you are using a plasma monitor for computer use alone make sure you take anti-burn-in steps! Make sure orbit is turned ON. Actually I'd be a little nervous using a plasma for computer use alone. Please be careful and don't ruin a nice new high res plasma monitor!!

Ok "oh my God"....

This thing is absurd playing Crysis. The game blew me away at 24" but at 42" it's incredible.

I am very happy with this purchase so far. The hardest part was carrying the box up the stairs and into my place myself, and assembling the thing onto the stand and getting it up onto the desk without banging / dropping it. I managed though... go me! lol

I had to poke through the options to get it to look right. At first the edges were cutoff but there's an option in the TV's menu to switch things around and it snapped it in perfectly. I also had to change the color / contrast from "vivid" to standard. Vivid created far too much of a wash in games, although it wasn't bad for the plain old desktop.

What is "orbit"? I'll have to look into some sort of screensaver. After 3 hours of crysis I did notice a small amount of ghost imaging leftover from where the static HUD stuff was on screen, but this went away after 5 min or so of windows being active.

All in all I am happy with this so far. Gonna go give COD4 a shot now : )

Congrats on the sweet purchase.

"Orbit" or "picture shift" is when a display jumps around a few pixels every so often in order to keep from showing the exact same picture in the exact same spot to help eliminate burn in. You should run your new set on low brightness settings for the first few hundred hours as well. Read up on all anti-burn in techniques. You should be ok so long as you run full screen videos or games a lot. Do NOT leave your desktop on static display for very long (use screen savers or screen blankers) and do not leave black bars showing if you can help it. Change em to gray (not black) if you need to leave bars up. A plasma is not really that different from a normal CRT monitor (both use phosphors) so treat it like one. LCDs do have an advantage here but since you already have a plasma, LCD is not an option (which is OK cause you have one of the best displays available).