MISCONCEPTION #2: THE HIGHER THE RESOLUTION THE BETTER THE PICTURE ON A PLASMA TV

This misconception has been perpetrated by manufacturers, who want to move more expensive (i.e., higher-resolution) product, and by retailers, who are repeating whatever the manufacturer tells them. True, Super HD (1080p) plasma displays are more expensive than their HD counterparts. The reason is that increasing the resolution on a plasma screen means fitting more pixels in the plasma display element (glass). A simple eyeball test will tell you, though, that this is not necessarily money well spent. First and foremost, there is very little content available in 1080p resolution. Blu Ray DVDs and Blu Ray gaming technology are it right now. Secondly, a 1080p plasma or LCD does not look any better with an 1080i or 720p incoming signal than does a regular HD plasma due to the fact that the latter is capturing and displaying every line and pixel of resolution. In this case the 1080p plasma or LCD will have to upconvert the signal to its native resolution, thus increasing the odds of motion artifacts.