Buying an HDTV - what to look for [ plasma ]

a little review on what i found out so far, in my hunt for a 37"-42" plasma

1.
Some Plasma screens, the image is right on the surface screen. this means that when there is a high contrast like credits, you don't see the image twice when sitting to the side too much. its kind of like looking at a street light throught your window on an angle at night.

[how to see this issue, put you finger on the screen and look down at the image. If your touching the image this won't happen/ if its the image is on the other side of the glass pain you'll see it no problem].

ask an associate to put credits on the TV, stand to the side a little...you can't miss it.

LG makes a screen that projects the image to our side of the glass (anyone know who else does this?)

2.
Stores over saturate the image, (this sells more TVs). If you want to see how it should look. you have to ask...often this is not factory settings and they'll gladly set it back. If it is infact factory settings they may not want to so this unless your really interested.

3.
image washing, Make sure if your buying a plasma that it has something like a white wash. should you find that you do get an image burn, this will clean it for you.

4.
Pixel count - generally the more the better. True HD should be 1920 x 1080 (p) no Plasma [as yet] has this in your typical 42" family.

Hitachi has a model that bosts 1024 x 1080 pixel count but its only 1080i. and since its 16:9 why are there more pixles on the shorter length?

something fishy there.

5.
screen door effect - often referd to for LCD, you can still see the same type of thing for plasma. if your sitting distance is too close you will this...make sure you have ample distance from you to the screen, I think the rule of thumb is 3 x the height or more.




As i look into more models i'll post more points to consider.

If you have anything to add please post it and i'll gladly add it.


Currenty the models i have looked into, and can give some feed back on are:

LG
42PC1D
42PC3D

Hitachi
42HDS69
42HDS79

Panasonic
TH-37PX60
TH-42PX60

If you have any suggestions for any modles please let me know.