Tony Myers

HD vs. ED

I have a friend debating HD and ED, Plasma 42". I prefer HD. ED would be more in his price range. If he buys ED will he regret it or is really a big difference.

Tony Loewen

For 42", I would say it's not likely going to be life or death, but HD will look better. HD plasmas are still pretty ridiculously priced, from what I can remember. If he want's plasma, ED would definitely be a step up from SD, but I'm not sure if it would be cost effective to jump to HD. But hey, if he's got money to burn, the HD should be noticeable sharper. Tell him to go look at a couple for himself, and make a decision based on that. As you go bigger, HD starts to make more of a difference. At 42", I would say not so much.

Bob McElfresh

Hi Tony.

I'm going to move your post over to the Display Devices fourm since you might get more opinions.

Admitting I dont know much about the ED spec, I would say he should go with HD compatible display if possible.

Alf S

One of the recent Sound and Vision magazine articles about HD said to stay far away from EDTV..totally not worth it in todays true HD world.

I would have to agree..the world is switching to HDTV, not ED TV...

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Mitch Stevens

I'm going to have to agree with what Tony Loewen wrote in his post.

At such a small size, it's not going to make a difference whether he decides to get an HD plasma or an ED plasma, especially if he's going to be sitting far away from it.

Then there's the issue that plasma screens are extremely susceptible to burn-in, much more so than other TVs, including RP-CRT.

If he buys an HD plasma and spends tons on it and it gets burn-in in just a few months, he's going to regret spending that much on it anyway. It won't matter if he burns in an ED plasma, because it'll be a TV he's going to want to upgrade soon anyway, since it's not true High Definition.

If he's looking to go flat, but not worry about burn-in, why doesn't he look into DLP or LCD (High Definition)? That way he can get a TV that will last him forever and he won't have to worry about things like burn-in.

Also, I would definitely recommend that he go bigger. Even my 127" screen seems small to me. Have him go with the biggest screen size he can possible get, especially since it'll most likely be hanging on his wall and won't be taking up any actual floor space.

Parker Clack

Tony:

Does he have the room to go with a front projection and screen instead of getting a Plasma? If he can go front projection for the money it is diffently the way to go.

Parker

Allan Jayne

Before considering front projection, be sure that darkening the room is not inconvenient let alone not impossible.

In the context of ED versus SD, plasmas and LCD's and DLP's that are not HD and not miniature portables are all ED; they are all progressive scan.

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Arthur S

Perhaps someone already said this but the answer to your question is if the viewing distance is 8 feet or more a real good ED plasma (Sony KE-42M1) will look as good as the best HD plasma. This may not jive with your thinking, but it is true.

Adrian>G

I must say I have a 42 inch ed, and unless you have a hdtv plasma right next to or near, you WONT be able to tell the difference. I saw my tv in stores right next to each other before I bought them, ed was 2499 and hd 4899 they were different in quality ways but ed was cheaper and still looked wonderful. so why not go with ed unless you have the money to kill go HD. Either way I like to think they both look good.

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