Panasonic TH-42PD25U/P 42-Inch Enhanced-Definition Flat-Panel Plasma TV
Extremely Happy, Use the Cable Card!
Picked this unit up a few weeks ago and I am very happy with its performance. This system converts whatever signal it receives into 480p, and it does it very well. 1080i broadcasts are a dream, 780p are excellent, and the 480i from digital and analog are both great. In fact, my standard 480i analog channels are much cleaner than ever before. I tested out the reason why and determined it is due to using the cable card (via Time warner Cable). Without the cable card analog signals are fuzzier, with more noise. <br />I tested this by taking the same analog signals into the TV from a set top box component outputs, and also tried taking them through a new Toshiba TIVO system component outputs. These analog signals are degraded relative to using the cable card. It makes sense; when the signal has to go through these boxes it comes in as analog, is processed through the boxes inferior tuners, is converted to digital, and then back to analog as it exits the box. The TV must then convert it back to 480p digital before displaying it. With the cable card it comes into the card as analog, goes though a quality tuner, and is immediately converted to 480p digital. The resulting 480p signal is quite impressive, basically making the analog signals as high-quality as the standard digital signals. <br />The overall system is quite impressive; I now have my TIVO (with DVD), audio receiver, and VCR all working from the panasonic remote control.  <br />The speaker system a fine for family and normal listening. But you would be missing out if you didn't take the optical digital audio output into a Dolby Digital receiver for surround sound. <br /> <br />My only complaint with the system has been reversed; I originally didn't like the fact that using the remote to cycle through the different inputs was a drag. With so many inputs (Video 1, Video 2, Component 1, etc.) it is a drag pressing the input button 6 times just to cycle through them to get back to the cable TV input. But I discovered an apparently undocumented feature; you can go directly back to the cable TV input from any other input by pressing the Channel button. SWEET. No more cycling through inputs.  <br />I am an electrical engineer and former satellite installer. I researched these systems very thoroughly (who wouldn't for $2800) before I purchased. Take it from me, this is just as good, and in fact better than an HDTV unit. Consider that an HDTV (as opposed to en EDTV) will not display analog signals as well, or 480i digital as well. This is because it needs to process and add so much to the signal in order to convert it into its native format. This unit shows it just like it is, at 480p. Anything above 480 looks just as good as HD. Can't tell the difference between an HD system and this one with 1080i and 780p! <br />