I for one don't think the price is insanely high, for what you're getting. Pioneer Elite's 50" 1080p plasma monitor from last fall STILL is selling for 8 grand. The 750 series 50" Panasonic will likely have similar performance to that tv, for half the price.
BTW, Sony XBR and Sharp don't make 50" tvs, the closest comparison is a 52" - from a major authorized online retailer for both, the current gen (92 series) 52" Sharp was $5k, but just had a price drop to $4,500. The Sony XBR2 52" is $5k (XBR3 is $5300). Panasonic is a leader in plasmas, subjectively I'd put these model lines of theirs at "mid-high" grade overall, and a thin margin behind Pioneer Elites (high end I'd say are Fujitsu and Runco, low end plasmas are Vizio, etc.)
Yes, Panasonic makes lower-end, "mass market" HDTV model lines, but these particular models are not them (fyi, so does Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, etc. - they all tend to make higher-end model lines as well - last year, for example, it was Sony's XBR2 and XBR3, Samsung's 96 series, etc - this year it looks like we'll see XBR4 and 81 series as their highest end products).
FYI: I do not own a Panasonic TV. I currently own a Sony XBR direct-view CRT, which has a phenomenal HD picture, the only thing is the size (tv is 32" 4:3, so HD is about a 29" equivalent screen size). I'm excited to see what comes out from all of these manufacturers this summer (esp. Pioneer, from what I've heard about their 2007 CES presentation).
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Jeff,
I for one don't think the price is insanely high, for what you're getting. Pioneer Elite's 50" 1080p plasma monitor from last fall STILL is selling for 8 grand. The 750 series 50" Panasonic will likely have similar performance to that tv, for half the price.
BTW, Sony XBR and Sharp don't make 50" tvs, the closest comparison is a 52" - from a major authorized online retailer for both, the current gen (92 series) 52" Sharp was $5k, but just had a price drop to $4,500. The Sony XBR2 52" is $5k (XBR3 is $5300). Panasonic is a leader in plasmas, subjectively I'd put these model lines of theirs at "mid-high" grade overall, and a thin margin behind Pioneer Elites (high end I'd say are Fujitsu and Runco, low end plasmas are Vizio, etc.)
Yes, Panasonic makes lower-end, "mass market" HDTV model lines, but these particular models are not them (fyi, so does Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, etc. - they all tend to make higher-end model lines as well - last year, for example, it was Sony's XBR2 and XBR3, Samsung's 96 series, etc - this year it looks like we'll see XBR4 and 81 series as their highest end products).
FYI: I do not own a Panasonic TV. I currently own a Sony XBR direct-view CRT, which has a phenomenal HD picture, the only thing is the size (tv is 32" 4:3, so HD is about a 29" equivalent screen size). I'm excited to see what comes out from all of these manufacturers this summer (esp. Pioneer, from what I've heard about their 2007 CES presentation).
Cheers - have a good weekend.