LOL, mep is right, naturally, but it's not the only difference. The PHD model has significantly better processing in addition to the resolution. Basically, HD ready means there is no loss of info vertically, the screen has more pixels than lines of data. This is of course a fudge, cos all 42" plasmas (HD ones) are 1024x768, not 1280, but there you go, the spec was written by Panasonic amongst others! Of course, the data in the incoming HD signal is scaled by any display which is not exactly HD resolution, ie 1280/720. It is fair to say that a crap 1024/768 plasma will, as it has to scale upwards, look worse than a very good 480 line plasma if the scaling is good enough in the 2nd and poor enough in the 1st. Does that make sense to you? All things being equal, more res is better, the PHD is a better screen than the PWD. But that does not mean the PWD is not just as 'future proof', it will accept and display correctly all the same signals, and looks very fine with 720p.