hdtv

[Steelman]

Saw a maganavox 42" plasma hdtv at Best Buy online for $1900. It is the best price I have seen for a plasma tv of that size. Does anyone have any infomation on this tv or Magnavox plasmas in general?

[edtyct]

Magnavox is part of the Philips empire. It used to be the respected American arm, but it has lost a little cachet. I haven't seen this plasma except online, but I have seen Magnavox LCDs showing up in unlikely venues like Target. The cost of this plasma leads me to believe that this is the new low-end role for the Magnavox nameplate. You can bet that corners have been cut on it. The fact that the digital video output is DVI rather than HDMI gives something away. Although I don't believe that, for the most part at this stage of the game, the 8 bit limit for DVI (as opposed to HDMI's 12 bit) is a deal breaker, especially for higher-resolution sources, DVI has become almost extinct on mainstream products with any pretensions to currency and high performance. I would guess that this plasma is deficient in its own internal processing, regardless of DVI. It boasts motion-adaptive video deinterlacing, which is a good thing, but the proof is really in the pudding. I don't see anything about reverse 3:2 pulldown for films. I'll bet that using a good progressive-scan DVD player with it and bypassing the Magnavox electronics would be the way to go. If this panel matches the performance of what were considered to be good plasmas a few years ago, it might not be a bad buy at all, assuming that you have your heart set on a plasma. (In addition to flawed processing and scaling, you might encounter some false contouring in dark or shadowy scenes. I had an early-vintage plasma many years ago that suffered from this defect. I grew to dislike it intensely; it isn't something that you can cure externally.) For a little more money, you might look into the Panasonic line, which is uniformly good.

As long as you're aware of the possible pitfalls and can live with them, the Magnavox might work out for you. However, it's not likely to be the best performer that you can buy for $2000. An RPTV that sits on the floor at that size would probably do many things better. But, as I said, this is all speculation on my part, based on circumstantial evidence.

Ed