Originally Posted by ncx

If you think a quality plasma with a good uncompressed HD signal looks looks grainy, it is either defective or maybe your eyes are! Having seen them both side by side in a light controlled viewing room, I can assure you that 1366x768 does not look grainy next to 1920x1080, using the exact same source and letting the older panel's scaler handle the down-conversion. There is a difference but it is small.

edit: to clarify, I am talking about the same 1080p signal on a 1080p display and a 720p display. I am not talking about comparing a BR disc on a 1080p plasma to the way compressed HD cable looks on a 720p plasma. There is no 1080p source on cable or sat., so the only true comparo is to use a BR or HD HVD player on both, which is the way I compared them at my local A/V shop.

I have an HD projector too, and I agree with you, huge HD movies do rock. There is nothing like that sensory overload you get with gigantic 3D HD images. I still prefer the image on my plasma for overall quality.

IMO, don't believe the hype that a 1080p panel or PJ will 'blow you away' if you already have a high quality HD panel or HD projector. It simply isn't true, all things equal. 1080p looks great but the differences are small unless your nose is close enough to the screen to smell dinner on the HD food channel. I am running BlueRay at 1080p and letting my plasma's scaler downconvert and it, and it is incredible but not that different from the 1080p version of my plasma at 10 feet (my seating distance). The bigger differences, IMO again, come from the AUDIO sources you get with 1080p movies (BR or HD DVD). The new audio formats (True HD, uncompressed PCM, etc) are simply mind blowing.