HD vs. ED (1 Viewer)

[Tony Myers]

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...

 

[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.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[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.

 

[Cameron Wright]

BUZZZZZ wrong answer...

The makers of Quality Plasmas claim near Tube like burn in.... Near....

Bring it home.. play a movie on it for 100+ hours and you are set.

 

[Mitch Stevens]

That's wrong. There isn't a plasma screen that is not susceptible to burn-in. Of course calibration can help slightly, but the fact of the matter is, it will get burn-in eventually no matter what. It's inevitable. The only way it won't get burn-in, is if you stretch fullscreen to wide and zoom-in 2.35:1 movies so that they fill the screen.

On the Master Burn-In thread, there was a guy who burned-in his plasma by only watching 45 minutes of fullscreen material on it each day, for such a short amount of time.

 

[John S]

No shame at all in a really great ED display. But you have to make that choice. Nobody can really make it for you.


I would personally choose an HD display. Panasonic ED plasma's as well as the great Infocus ED front Projectors, sure make a strong case for ED displays.

 

[Ted Lee]

i have a panasonic 42" ED in my bedroom.

i gotta say, for the money, it's an excellent deal ... and it worked perfectly well for my needs. by that, i basically mean, "it's in my bedroom for pete's sake!"

there's no question, if you put it up against a hd set, you will see a difference. but, like someone else said, if you have it at home, you're barely going to notice a difference.

another way to put it (and this is the way i often put it to my customers): take a look at an ed set, then take a look at an hd set ... then decide if you see enough of a difference to justify the price.

 

[Cameron Wright]

I never ever said plasmas weren't susceptible to burn in... I said the quality plasmas claim NEAR Tube like burn in. You have to balance out the viewing time. You cant watch a certain amount of 4:3 material a day and a lesser time of Full screen material and expect not to have burn in.

You cant view 10 hours 2.35:1 movies a week and only watch 4 hours of full screen material in that same amount of time and not expect to get burn in...

Obviously if you watch more programs that are not full screen you will get burn-in, And burn-in on a plasma is not inevitable. Those are the kinda of false statement's that can scare people away from Plasmas and other new technology's

 

[Ted Lee]

oops..missed that part of mitch's post ... so i sorta agree now.

 

[DaveGTP]

#1) What brand was it
#2) When was this incident (they've gotten a lot better over the past few years)
#3) Had he broken it in at all, or did he start out watching 4:3 on it?

Seriously, you need to go read the AVSforum plasma forum, where people that actually own plasmas post. Or read the official stuff from the manufacturers. A good quality plasma these days is almost as burn-proof as a standard CRT. Just like people say video games will burn in a plasma - but don't hear the many people citing hours of Halo on their plasma.

Especially if you are nice to it in the first few hundred hours. After that your chances of burning it are even less.

Anyway, that wasn't the question. The question was about ED vs HD. As people have mentioned, if he is sitting greater than 8' away then the difference is very well likely undetectable.

 

[Adrian>G]

avs forums plasma forum!!!! WHATS THAT.

 

[Adrian>G]

nevermind found out what it was. stupid me

 

[Sami Kallio]

Is it mainly for DVD viewing or viewing HD broadcast? DVD source is the resolution of EDTV so nothing wrong with EDTV for DVD's. By the time HD-DVD/Blu-Ray gets here he can upgrade to a HDTV with the difference he would pay now for a HDTV set.

 

[Jon Martin]

Hi all,

I was wondering this same thing. I have just a standard TV and was looking to finally upgrade to a widescreen TV.

I was looking at the projection TVs since they are all that is in my price range now, but they take up such a huge amount of space and don't always look that great.

But then, I was in Circuit City yesterday, and I saw a whole row of Plasma EDTVs for around $1500 for a 42 inch I think it was Panasonic. MUCH cheaper than the regular HDTV.

What exactly is the difference between ED and HD? The quality did not look bad at all compared to the HDTVs.