The TH-50PZ750U is in Panasonic's first group of 50" 1080p consumer plasma televisions. There is even a 50" model in the 700 series that offers fewer features than the set we're reviewing here, but costs $500 less.
This past week it was announced that Warner Home Video has extended its distribution agreement with Oscar-winning producer Saul Zaentz for another five years. Two of the crown jewels in the Zaentz portfolio, <I>Amadeus</I> and <I>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</I>, both best picture winners, will be hitting Blu-ray and HD DVD in February of 2008, just in time for the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards.
Shortly after "Austin Powers" was released on DVD, I bought a Dwin CRT projector. I won't confirm or deny if the two events are related. In order to mount the projector, I had the low bidders cut holes in my "cottage cheese" ceiling for snaking video cable and power to that most unnatural of spots, the middle of my ceiling. I've been living with the patched up results for years. Only through a decade of burning toast in the adjoining kitchen has the ceiling in the home theater begun to uniformly discolor enough to diminish the starkness of the patch job. Now that I want to mount my new JVC projector, the prospect of letting the Butchers of Sheetrock back into my house is unappealing.
Open Season (Sony). This Blu-ray Disc's picture, shot digitally in high-def and authored with MPEG-4 compression, is incredibly three-dimensional and realistic. Boog the bear's fur looks like you could reach out and stroke it, and other objects look extremely solid.
Most folks shopping for a home theater receiver or amplifier are bound to have their eyes peeled for a single number: the power rating. Ideally, this spec will tell you how much juice a particular amp can deliver to a given set of speakers under normal conditions.
With all the press that monster flat-panel TVs and high-def discs have been getting, it's possible to forget that video is only half the experience. (After all, this magazine isn't called Sight & Vision.) Without great sound to back it up, your home theater is just a bunch of fancy images.
