HDTV technology used with a plasma television screen is a great combination

HDTV technology used with a plasma television screen is a great combination that can enhance the viewing of any movie or television show that is being aired. The difference is astounding and well worth the slightly added expense for the technology. Choosing HDTV capability will be a great choice.

It is surprising how two identical-looking plasma TVs can come with such different price tags. The actual price discrepancy between a regular plasma television and an HDTV plasma television from the same manufacturer can be upwards of $1200. A plasma television unit bearing the "HDTV" distinction will cost about a thousand dollars more, but is this money well spent? All plasma displays contain a set number of pixels (picture elements), with which they generate on-screen images. The exact number of pixels depends on the size of the TV screen as well as its native resolution. The native resolution of a given plasma TV = the total number of pixels comprising its display element.

Everything watched on a plasma television will be converted to its native resolution, i.e. forcing the video content to fit onto the screen. This process is called down-conversion or up-conversion. The video content watched on a plasma television, whether it's regular programming or HDTV also has its own resolution. If a plasma television has a native pixel resolution of 1024x768 and you are watching a DVD in progressive scan then the internal processing of the plasma is up-converting the signal to match its native pixel resolution. This naturally places a premium value on plasma displays that do the best job.

If the incoming video source has a higher resolution than your display's native pixel resolution, some degree of detail and sharpness will be lost in conversion. There is approximately a 20% improvement in the picture quality when HD content is displayed on HDTV plasma televisions when compared with lower resolution plasma televisions- when viewing two plasma televisions by the same manufacturer.

If, on the other hand, the incoming video source has a lower resolution than your plasma monitor's native resolution (i.e. most broadcast TV), then the lower resolution plasma may outperform the HDTV plasma. So a person could actually pay a higher price for a plasma with higher resolution and it does not look as good as its less expensive counterpart? Yes. This occurs because the higher resolution plasma must do extreme up converting of the incoming signal to match its native pixel resolution. It can certainly occur between brands. For instance a regular Pioneer plasma may have a better picture with the same incoming DVD an HDTV from Vizio because the Pioneer is built better. The lesson to be learned is that consumers need to be brand conscious when deciding which plasma television to purchase.

Consumers need to educate themselves about high definition television and regular plasma television in order to purchase the correct product that will best meet their needs. One of the deciding factors will be whether the extra cost of the HDTV is actually worth it when all features are considered.

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