Final word in the 720p/1080p battle in HDTV?

[RealBlackStuff]

Seems you are wasting your money if you buy a 1080p HDTV smaller than 50"
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-681 ... ag=nl.e501

[wolfman]

I couldn't agree with this article more. We went through a 2 month long grind trying to buy a 50 inch tv earlier this year and after standing 2-3 feet in front of a 1080p set and looking back and forth at the 720p/1080i set for literally HOURS over the course of WEEKS....I concluded that for the 50 inch screen I could hardly ever see anything that looked like it caught my eye as a difference - and it was almost impossible to discern if that difference was an improvement or not as it was so quick to be nearly imperceptable.

So sitting 8-10 feet away from the unit like we do in our family room there is no doubt that getting the 720p/1080i set (1,366x768 resolution) was the right thing for us - and based on sales, etc, the 1080p was $1500 more on the day I bought my 720p/1080i plasma 50 inch set, so that basically made it a very easy decision for us...

[Roadster]

I couldn't agree with this article more. We went through a 2 month long grind trying to buy a 50 inch tv earlier this year and after standing 2-3 feet in front of a 1080p set and looking back and forth at the 720p/1080i set for literally HOURS over the course of WEEKS....I concluded that for the 50 inch screen I could hardly ever see anything that looked like it caught my eye as a difference - and it was almost impossible to discern if that difference was an improvement or not as it was so quick to be nearly imperceptable.

Were you watching 1080p content (e.g., Blu-Ray player set at 1080p resolution), or just the standard HDTV feed inside a retail store like Best Buy? I think the latter feed is 720p or 1080i, so you wouldn't be able to discern a difference on two side-by-side sets with the lower resolution feed.