Slightly off-topic, I know, but I just happened *cough* to be in the big John Lewis store in High Wycombe this afternoon (can't imagine how that happened) and wandered over to the electricals section.
They had three plasmas side by side, running Monsters Inc off a split feed from a Pioneer DVD player. I think all 3 were taking an RGB scart feed. It was the Hitachi 7200, the Pio 435 (if I've remembered the right model name after a glass of wine) and the Panny PE50 (the new 42in Viera).
Ok, I was standing about 3 feet away from the screens rather than a more sane 10 feet away but initially, I thought I preferred the Pio because it looked a little brighter and sharper. After a few moments, I started to warm (pun intended) to the Panny because it blended things together better - the fur on Sully looked more like a real mass of fur, rather than lots of individually highlighted hairs which is how the Pio showed them - a little
too sharp.
If I'm honest, I didn't spend much time looking at the Hitachi, but it looked reasonable, but not £1K better than the PE50.
For some reason, someone asked for the Panny to be switched over to the snooker which a number of other screens were showing, including the LG 42PX11. I was very disappointed with this - lots of ghosting around objects in front of the green baize of the snooker table (balls, players etc). I don't know how the LG and Panny were set up to receive the TV signal (or what it was coming from, but I assume digital not analogue, since it had the interactive option onscreen)
Rest assured that this is not the only visual testing of plasmas I intend to do before I buy, but it was a very instructive first pass. Since what I'm actually looking to buy is the PWD7, can anyone comment on how it compares to the PE50, before I jump to too many conclusions.