forget about CRTs...

[Kremlar]

I have an old 42" commercial Panasonic plasma that I absolutely love. It's only 480p, but the picture is just great - not as sharp as the latest LCDs but it just has a certain depth about it that I've always liked.

I've had this plasma for 10+ years - my first flat panel display. Bought it without speakers but added them after. It's been solid as a rock for me, most recently installed in my master bedroom.

Decided to get a Fire TV Stick for my master bedroom but the plasma does not have HDMI. Funny how a $35 purchase can trigger a $500 purchase. So, I replaced my trusty old plasma with a new Insignia 55".

Anyway, I always though the Panasonic plasma would rock as a display for my old Commodore/Amiga stuff and I was right! Brought it down to my basement home/office and mounted it to the wall. Tested with my C64 (composite), Amiga 600 and also my Amiga 4000T (RGB > VGA and also RGB > VGA > BNC) and the display performs great. There's also an NTSC/PAL switch in the menu options but I haven't tested PAL. All Amiga modes I tried seem good.

My model has VGA, composite/svideo and BNC which is switchable from RGB to component. I believe there's a DVI card available as well but I never owned one.

Anyway, I love it and would definitely choose this over an old CRT or new LCD for a low res retro display. My model is a 42PWD6UY but I'm sure there are others in this series that would perform just as well.

It doesn't do the picture justice, but here are a couple of pics:

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma1.jpg

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma2.jpg

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma3.jpg

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma4.jpg

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma5.jpg

http://www.techav.com/misc/retro/plasma6.jpg

The C64 and Amiga Workbench pics show a pattern on the screen but it's not there in person - image is very smooth.

I thought this was worth sharing so cross-posted to a few different forums.

[Shephda]

Looks very nice!