Newest Toy

And what a "toy" it is. After much thought, I decided it wasn't the best idea to work toward getting another car. I figured there are several other semi-big-ticket items that I needed to buy and/or replace before getting another car...especially since what I drive now is pretty dang good.

My first area to target is televisions. I wanted a TV in the basement and a bigger TV for my bedroom. I had an ancient little 13" TV in my bedroom and a 25" TV in my living room that's starting to grow old, too. I decided I could solve all the TV trouble by getting a new, larger TV for the living room and stepping both of the old TVs down a notch.

Then came the weeks of research. It didn't take long to realize that getting a new analog TV would be a waste for me. Then there was the debate over the size and type...finally settling on a 42" plasma.

Then the choice between EDTV and HDTV. In 42" plasmas, EDTV screen resolution is 852x480 while HDTVs are 1024x768. This had me undecided right up until the day I bought the TV. But after looking back and forth between the Panasonic models (which were identical except for screen resolution and price), I settled on the EDTV. On HD programming, the difference in the picture between the TVs was almost imperceptable from a normal viewing distance...certainly not drastic enough to warrant spending $1000 more on the HDTV model. With the way prices are falling, that $1000 saved alone will probably buy an HDTV in the not too distant future.

So I brought home a Panasonic TH-42PD50U 42" plasma EDTV last Thursday. So far I have to say I'm very happy with it. Picture quality on the HD channels and on DVDs is beyond outstanding. Picture quality on the standard definition channels is rather poor, but as to be expected from a widescreen plasma. Hopefully many more HD channels will show up in the near future...because once you start watching HD, you never want to go back to the old stuff. I admit I've watched programs I would otherwise never think of watching just because they're in HD.