Mainly a question for US DVD5 owners...

I am considering either LCD or Plasma in the 40 - 50" range. Does the DVD5 do well with the internal scalers of most 720p displays (Having trouble finding any EDTV 480p natives)? Any horror stories?

My current favorite is the NEC plasma (50XR4).

Appreciate your comments.

Kind regards,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I'm using a Panasonic 42PWD6 EDTV and am very happy with the results. I'm currently using component from the DVD5, but I also have the DVI board fitted to the display.

If you do go for a plasma, I'd recommend getting a callibration DVD e.g. Avia, as it will help guide you to a much better picture than the one delivered straight out of the box.

With my viewing distance (~9'-10'), and personal preference, I stuck with EDTV and 42". The picture with the DVD5 is excellent.

If you're having trouble locating an EDTV locally, you could give Visual Apex a call. They give helpful advice without pushing the sale and have excellent customer service: Visual Apex

-Mark.

Thanks Mark,

I found the Panasonic TW-42PWD8UK as the current/new 480p model. Very reasonably priced.
I need to check out its altitude rating ..I'm up at 6000 feet (Northern Utah).

-Paul.

Hi Paul,

You may want to ask Visual Apex about this particular requirement, as it does seem altitude affects plasmas (reports of buzzing at altitude and a flux of picture beyond 8000 feet). There's some info in the Plasma and LCD Flat Panel forum at AVS Forums, by searching for altitude. Altitude didn't come up in the Panasonic tech sheets, but NEC explicitly states up to 9840 on some of their panels.

Good luck!
-Mark.

mark could you tell me what an edtv is?

Hi John,

With EDTV, I was referring to the resolution of the display, with mine being 852x480. ED stands for enhanced definition - see the following link that better describes the different acronyms: Wikipedia EDTV

-Mark.

mark, are you saying a panel with 480 lines of resolution with prog scan is edtv, or have i misunderstood ?

Yes, typically EDTV is used to describe 480p(NTSC)/576p(PAL) displays. Other resolutions such as 720p are often described as HDTV, even though they're not "full" HDTV (1080p) - you may see some references to "HD-lite", for example. There's a fuzzy border between EDTV and HDTV, as can be seen from the following link, from Wikipedia, that breaks down the resolutions further (note: the ATS Committee is US-specific): ATS resolutions