Video Asylum

Posted by AbeCollins (A) on March 27, 2005 at 00:58:19

In Reply to: Thanks, Abe... yes, it's a... posted by Jimmy C. on March 21, 2005 at 14:04:58:

petew made some great comments on EDTV vs HDTV 42" plasma screens. I couldn't see any significant difference in picture quality between the 42" ED vs. HD sets at 8 to 12 feet away - or not enough difference in quality to warrant HD prices being about twice that of ED.

As for picture quality with plain ole analog cable... it's OK. I have analog cable and it's still very enjoyable but you get very spoiled watching DVD's on the 16:9 screen or over the air HDTV which is just incredible. The other slight annoyance is watching a typical 4:3 broadcast on the 16:9 screen. All plasma 16:9 sets have tricks for making the 4:3 broadcasts look a little more acceptable on the 16:9 screen to minimize the 'stretching' effect. If you watch 4:3 broadcasts on the 16:9 screen w/o any 'tricks' to compensate, everything looks stretched horizontally. People look wider than they are. Everything looks wider. You can also watch at native 4:3 if you don't mind blank vertical bars on each side of your 16:9 screen.