Haha, I love brainwashed people thinking 1080p is automatically better. It makes me chuckle a little.

I got this tv as well about 6 months ago. I don't own a blu-ray player or a ps3 and I have HD channels from dish network which air in 720p so I am watching my TV at its prime.

And I watch movies on it at night time in 720p on HBO and it looks amazing!!

Just remember you 1080p brainwashed people, the only benefit you get is if you play ps3 or watch a blu-ray movie. Everything else broadcasts in 720p or 480p (including the Wii system).

Even at 50", 1080p isn't much of a difference. Especially if you are sitting further than about 10 feet away.

Here is the funny part about those constantly compare 720p to 1080p.

1. They don't actually own a 1080p or 720p TV
2. When they have a 1080p they don't have a 1080p source.

Why can't people just stick to any deal that is being posted. If it's not for you, move on. As I recall, there is a deal discussion section.

I purchased the Panasonic 50" 1080p TC-P50S1 and my mother got 42" 720p TC-P42X1 2 weeks ago. The picture not really different with local channel if you sit 10 feet away or further. The 42" able to display 1080i just fine. We got 34 local channels. There are only 4 local channels 1080i, 5 channels 720p and the rest 480i. The DVD look very good. If your expectation the picture quality like at store, you will disappointed. To get picture quality like store, you do need Blue Ray player.

99.9% of my time are watching from 480p, 720p & 1080i sources and sitting more than 10 feet away, why do i need to spend hundred more dollars in this diff time for something (1080p) that i don't really use? I bought a 42" pana plasma ealier at Sears, i am totally happy with the picture quality.
I paid about 2k for 46" XBR4 about 7 months ago at Sears as well, i personally don't think it's worth to pay 2k for XBR when you can get a 42" pana plasma for about 1/4 after cb & discount

rushhound said:gaijin4life said:speedy777 said:Is a 600 Hz sub-field drive better for fast motion? NO.

But isn't the sub field drive what enabled Panasonic to achieve full motion resolution for the first time this year on their plasmas? If it's not responsible for that, what is?

Plasma has never had a issue with "motion resolution". That is a LCD problem. Pannasonic marketing just tossed out the 600 Hz sub-field stuff to show a number higher than LCD's.
The average consumer in a retail store just assumes if the number is higher it has to be better. Garbage spewing sales drones in retail stores do not help this matter.

Bottom line is this 720p plasma will show fast motion far better than any LCD!

This is exactly why I always go with Plasma even though it's thicker than the new LCD's. I was at Fry's and they were showing the 007 movie and there was a scene with James Bond running and the camera was panning and the scene was almost unwatchable with the motion lag. Of course they had the 120hz on and it felt as I was watching an action Soap Opera. I went home, fired up my PS3 Blu-ray of the movie and went straight to that same scene and was thinking to myself, glad Plasma's are still around!

rushhound said:gaijin4life said:speedy777 said:Is a 600 Hz sub-field drive better for fast motion? NO.

But isn't the sub field drive what enabled Panasonic to achieve full motion resolution for the first time this year on their plasmas? If it's not responsible for that, what is?

Plasma has never had a issue with "motion resolution". That is a LCD problem. Pannasonic marketing just tossed out the 600 Hz sub-field stuff to show a number higher than LCD's.
The average consumer in a retail store just assumes if the number is higher it has to be better. Garbage spewing sales drones in retail stores do not help this matter.

Bottom line is this 720p plasma will show fast motion far better than any LCD!

It actually goes a bit farther than that. Yes, bigger numbers are better for promoting an item. To make this simple - your television screen is made up of 10 smaller screens. Where you used to have one dot refreshing at a time, you now have 10. You still only have a 60x refresh rate for every second, but it is now being done by 10 dots instead of 1, making the picture look smoother. On top of that, the use of sub-fields reduces manufacturing and repair costs for the manufacturer.

So, now the plasma televisions (most manufacturers are now advertising 600 Hz sub-field plasmas). It saves them money and gets consumers to jump on the bigger number and gives a bit of a better picture. A win / win situation for everybody.

I just picked up the p50x1 @ pc richard for $777.97+tax. They had it at that price for their father's day circular and they still hononred that price this week.

Also, for those in the NYC area. J&R has it on sale for $799 + tax.

Viewing distance is 9 ft. Mostly for SD dvd's and directv (sd & hd).

Very nice set!

I saw this at the store today, side by side with the equivalent Samsung PN50B450, also for the same price of $899.
Both sets, as well as all their sets, were on a closed loop digital signal which shows no degradation at all. The salesperson changed the input to analog, then digital, then closed loop. The picture quality obviously went from poor/crappy to really good to really, really good.

I did not notice anything, one way or the other, that I could see that would make me choose the Pana over the Samsung. The salesperson said Pana is rated number one in plasma sets followed by Samsung at number 2 (don't know if this is true nor where they got that information).

The Panasonic did have something the Samsung did not, that being an SD reader port.

I'm looking for a set, most likely plasma, to replace my 11 year old(!) RCA ProScan 52" RPG which is slowly failing. The viewable screen dimensions on my RPG are different than on an equivalent lcd or plasma hd tv as these new(er) hd tvs are wide screen. So even though the size (50") may be the same the height/width are different. THIS is something that I'll need to come to grips with and get used to. I also have a plain old DVD player, have no immediate intentions of buying and viewing blu-ray and I do own a Nintendo Wii.

BTW, I say I'll most likely go with plasma because my RPG is in the corner of my living room where ambient light would be a potential issue as I have a large picture window at the far side of my living room. The plasma puts out a bit more light (over an lcd) and I think I'll be better served in these lighting situations.

Another thing to consider if you are one of the posters that don't have a 1080p source. A TV of this quality level will last at least five years. I guarantee you that you will have a bluray player or 1080p TV within this time frame. I saw an add today from Direct-TV advertising their available 1080p signal via current equipment. Personally, I don't want to regret my purchase after a year. I'm just saying...