1080p an issue for now?

thanks for looking those up. it looks like 4 grand for a 52 inch lcd with 1080p and just over 2 grand for a good 50 inch plasma. that's a heck of a premium for 1080p and a slightly better picture. at 57 to 58 inches, it's also about 2 grand more for the lcd vs. plasma. i can't really spend 5500 (best price on 57 inch lcd). so back to my original question, is 1080p a real issue at the current time? is it worth an extra 2 grand? if we won't see 1080p broadcast for 5 years, then i'd rather get a new set in 5 years that will presumably be even better and not spend the 2 grand now. if the broadcast is coming soon, or if the bluray / hddvd war will end soon and movies will be broadly available in 1080p, then it might be worth having. a related question - if plasma has better picture quality than rear projection (to my eyes it does), will that continue to be true if the source is 1080p and the rear projection handles 1080p but the plasma doesn't?

thanks everyone for continuing to respond on this thread. it has already been very helpful and hopefully will continue to be. -dave

Dave...it seems as if its more of a budget issue than technology issue. If you're looking into getting a 1080p LCD along with some type of 1080p media, then yes its truely worth every dime. However, if you're only gonna feed the 1080p LCD 720p or 1080i, then it may not be worth it at this point. BluRay or HDDVD isn't going anyware for the time being. They will get better yes, but they are here for a while. Remember, they said the same thing about digital CD's. And don't forget, BetaMax was the thing of the future, not VHS.

IMO, your safe either way. If upgrading in 5 years or so is not an issue to contemplate, then spend the 2G's. This will more than likely be the very earliest you would have media available to upgrade to. If you wanna future proof, now isn't the best time. Also, keep in mind, 1080p may be broadcasted in 5 years or so. Maybe. But it will be probably another 5-7 years or so after that before a higher resolution than 1080p is broadcasted. That could easily be about 10 years before you would be "forced" to upgrade. Even then, you're not forced to do that.

Here's a suggestion for the "best bang for your buck". If you wanna get the 1080p but don't wanna chance HDDVD or BluRay, then take the money for the HD player and get a low priced video scaler. New or used, its your call. You may end up spending roughly the same price overall ($1000 vs. $15-1800). That way, every signal you feed the scaler can be processed to whatever your LCD can handle. If your LCD can handle 1080p, then everything the scaler processes with be output to 1080p. This includes, video games, dvd's, cable/satallite, etc. Same rules for 720p or 1080i, or any point in between.

An important question is do you want to buy now, or can you wait a little bit. The two grand spread between the new LCD's and the plasmas will narrow over the coming year. Last year, the 40 plus inch LCD's first appeared; they were premium priced, now they're quite a bit cheaper. This year it's the 50 plus inch LCD's coming out. Next year it will be 60 inches no doubt. If the past year is any indication, I fully expect that a $5500 50 inch LCD will be $1000 less by April. Further drops in price in the new year will depend upon when newer models come out.

I don't think that 1080p by itself is worth an extra two grand for until there is more source material. A year from now maybe with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD coming on stream, but not at this moment.

A 1080p projector, if its a good one like the Sony SXRD, would be an interesting comparison with a 720p direct view if you have 1080p material. But again, there is not a lot of source material. I don't know which would be the better picture, but the projector would still have the deficiencies that projectors have, such as dimness in off-axis viewing. And reliability. If you get an LCD projector, keep in mind that Consumer Reports have been noting a lot of problems with them. They are almost the only electronic product that they recommend purchasing an extended warranty for.

Saving money for the future might be a good idea. We're very close to the market introduction of SED TV's.

"a related question - if plasma has better picture quality than rear projection (to my eyes it does), will that continue to be true if the source is 1080p and the rear projection handles 1080p but the plasma doesn't?"

Yes...unless the "foundation" of rear projection is further developed and upgraded. 1080p will remain 1080p; Plasma will just do a better job of showing it than RP, until RP is upgraded and developed. Meaning, since plasma does a better job at showing the media, be it 720p or 1080p, the plasma will produce a better picture than RP because it can do the job better...until RP is further developed. When this happens, RP can take the place of plasma because the "foundation" is stronger and development has taken place. Its a huge claim to say now, but it can happen; should RP be further developed and upgraded. Its actually taking place now; DLP is incorporated with RP. The more DLP is developed, the better RP gets, and so on.

i've never even heard of a video scaler (i'm mostly an audio guy, totally new to video stuff). what exactly does it do? can you actually 'upscale' a 720p or 480p signal to 1080p? or is for the reverse (i.e. taking a 1080p signal and making it viewable on a monitor with lower resolution by 'downscaling it')?