will my media centre look better on a full hd plasma?

[JamesUK]

Hi, i hope this questions doesnt sond too silly, although before i spend my money i want to be sure my movie watching will be better than on my standard tv.

i have a sumvision cyclone hd media centre which does have a hdmi port and can show at 1080p, currently i have a crt 32inch widescreen tv which is 50hz, i have been looking at different tv's and have been led to beleive from what i have read that at 42 inches and above plasma's are generaly better quality than lcd's, and that lcd's are better in smaller tv's.

i think i have found that the 'LG 50PS3000 50-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Plasma TV with Freeview' is the one that looks very good for me and given its price etc.. i have found it for £686.

the quastion though is when i get a hdmi lead and my media centre starts outputting at 1080p will the files look any different on screen, even the non hd films, will the output of 1080 kinda upscare the images, or would i be wasting my time as i am not likely to see any difference because of the compressed files? i will be using the tv primeraly for my media centre, so thats something to bare in mind, as i want the best picture i can get soley for that.

thanks, james

 

[Kezmo]

DVDS etc wont look any better, it'll be up scaled and up scaling quality varies widely from set to set, you might be better off asking around on AV forums for what set to get, for your budget id look at a panasonic plasma but im biased as ive just bought a pana myself

 

[jellybeard999]

You want to set the HTPC to 1920x1080, thats about it. AVI and DVD will look about as good as they ever will on the particular set by setting the PC to the native resolution and running with it.

FFDshow might be worth a try as far as scaling goes, but I don't think WMC can take advantage of that.

 

[Confused]

If you watch mainly Standard Definition stuff, ie DVDs and TV programs, you'll probably find they'll look worse on a newer TV.

Especially if you've got some low-ish quality rips, the CRT will be hiding the artefacts quite nicely, whereas a newer screen will emphasise them more!