When will a 60"+ true 1080P plasma be available?

UncleJeff - I'm a little confused about your post.

Does the NEC 61xr4 have a true 1080P input, and can it display true 1080P output?

thanks

There is not yet a plasma that can display true 1080p but some of them can receive a 1080p signal and then convert it to 720p. The bigger question is how long do you want to wait? There will always be some gimmick coming down the pike worth waiting for. I waited until DVI became very common and then I waited a bit more to get a unit that will at least acccept 1080p so that I can watch it when the next generation DVDs come out. Having waited so long for this I now have to worry about HDMI which does not bother me as I chose to continue to run my audio seperate so I don't need qudio piggy-backed along with the video. While not true 1080p, it will be spectacular. To answer your first question there is speculation that 1080p will be available in plasmas perhaps by December. Obvioulsy they are vague about this as they don't want to be producing obsolete units in the meantime that might not sale.

Hey goat, I just noticed you took my advice and visited the NEC thread. While the answers they gave are much like mine it looks like they said it better. I hope we were of some help.

So, is it worth the wait? Perhaps, if you are where I was a couple years ago. I have decided to forgo the proverbial two birds in the bush and enjoy the 50XM5 NEC plasma sitting on my wall which is truly awesome.

One more point, should you decided to wait. I care not to wait out the upcoming war between the two formats while the manufacturers work on de-bugging the new 1080p format in their haste to keep up in the market.

Unclejeff - Thanks for the helpful response!

Yes, I did check out avsforum, but I find it very scary over there. The threads are enourmous, the color scheme is not what I would call inviting, and the page layout is not what I would call simple... but regardless...

Does the NEC 61XR4 accept a 1080P signal via DVI? What about the 61XM4? I'm having trouble finding this out, and also having trouble finding out what the difference between these 2 models is.

I could see how my comment could of come off bad, im sorry. I just assumed if you had room for a 60" plasma display you might have room for a projector. I wasnt thinking a 110" screen but somthing smaller. I second the look at NEC's, they are the best plasma i have seen. Once again i apologize, i just dont like plasmas.

Jlind325is - No worries. Certainly there are tradeoffs between the plasmas and projects, and I can certainly see a projector based system as being applicable at some point. But to do a projection system well, you need a room with very controlled lighting, which I don't have. The other thing is that the use of this potential plasma is just as much for casual TV watching and playing video games as it is for movies. Given the necessary periodic bulb replacement for the projectors, it doesn't make sense to leave it on all day to watch the price is right and maury, when really their intended use is for movies.

So while I will agree with you that plasmas can't touch a high quality projection system in terms of absolute picture quality, the logistical situation that I am dealing with mandates a smaller, simpler solution.