1080p plasmas from NEC aren't 1080p
By Kevin C. Tofel 
posted Sep 12th 2005 10:01AM
posted Sep 12th 2005 10:01AM
See, we just mentioned "1080p" as a buzzword and sure enough, there are plenty of HD set announcements. We'll start the day off with one from NEC, who has three new 1080p Plasma displays depending on your point-of-view. The 42XR4 is a $6,000 PDP shipping in November that can accept a 1080p signal (if you can find one) but will only display it at a 720p resolution.The next size up is the 50XR5 that costs you $9,000 when it hits stores in December. Again, it can accept a 1080p signal, but is only capable of 768 horizontal resolution lines. The flagship in the new line, the 61XR4, ships in November with its 42-inch sibling and will set you back about $14,000. Sadly, this set too is a 1365 x 768 display resolution that accepts a 1080p signal.
What a disappointment on these display specs for these kinds of prices. This is exactly why I previously called for the FCC to mandate clear consumer labeling of a set's display resolution. Too many people are purchasing HD sets thinking the output is one resolution when it's really another. Is it just me that has an issue with this? Chime and tell me if I'm right or if I'm off base.
It also doesn't help that many of the B&M stores do their best to hide the resolutions of some of their sets while broadcasting others...nor does it help that most of their employees don't actually know the resolutions themselves (Circuit City is certainly high on my list of stores that do this). And not only that...most of them don't have a quick resource to look up the resolution either - in one case, one of the employees had to log onto the store's website to get the specs on a TV I was looking at.
I agree that the current scheme is confusing. Right now we have three kinds of "1080p" sets:
1) Sets that display at 1080p, but don't accept a 1080p input (37" BenQ and Sceptre LCD for example)
2) Sets that accept a 1080p input, but can't display at 1080p (above sets)
3) Sets that accept 1080p *and* display at 1080p - which in my mind, should be the only sets allowed to say they have 1080p resolution
Personally, I think that the whole HDTV "standard" is a mess - we've got 720p, 1080i and 1080p and they are all sticking around for awhile.
I have to agree that you are totally right. I have to explain to my friends constantly why their projection set will never look as good as my tube tv, just because they can only go 720p with DLP. Another thing, you have to wonder how many people have gone out and bought an EDTV plasma thinking that they were getting HD just because it was widescreen