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In Reply to: Re: HDTV, Flat Panel, Wide Screen, Plasma, - need some help posted by Bruce from DC on April 05, 2002 at 08:05:32:

the problem is the 42" plasma displays currently available are NOT CAPABLE OF HIGH DEFINITION. (the 1024x1024 Sony is a technical exception...see link below)
you must be capable of displaying AT LEAST 720p horizontal lines in a progressive scan (or 1080 lines interlaced: 540p skipped lines followed by the other 540p lines = 1080i), and the current crop of 42" plasmas only do 480 horizontal lines.
here's the deal: a 42" plasma has 852 pixels in 480 horizontal rows, for a total of 408960 pixels, which is not nearly enough.
however, the 50" plasmas have 1366 pixels in 768 horizontal rows,
for a total of 1049088 pixels. that means they have no problem doing 720 progressive "scans" of video information, in fact, the input is "rescaled" to 768 scans, so as to fill the entire screen.
High Defintion CRTs are capable of much higher resolution, as are front and rear projection technologies. They can do the equivalent of over 2 million pixels, so you would think you'd get a much sharper picture, and of course if you project that on a 42" or 50" screen, you will. If you project that light on a huge screen, say 8 or 10 feet across you get something a bit less, but still very close to film.
but don't sit too close, and if your input is regular television programing, NTSC, it's gonna be ugly--downright nasty. That's why "line doublers and quadruplers and processors and scalers" are so often included or recommended as add-ons for large screen projection.
Very expensive.
plasma is something unique:
the quality of light and colors that the super-heated gas plasma emits is ....
oh man, you just have to see these things:
"Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through.
Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare!"
--"Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll

now aren't you glad you took calculus instead of wood shop?

Video Asylum

HDTV really needs at least a 42" diagonal screen to be worthwhile