I've recently decided to pull the trigger on a major upgrade of my home theater/TV system. I decided to upgrade my TV and purchase a new pre-pro/receiver and Blu-Ray player. I'm also considering purchasing a second subwoofer, upgrading my center channel and adding height speakers to be used in Prologic IIz Height or Audyssey DSX Height configuration.

I've already purchased the TV - a 60" LG 60PK550 plasma to replace my current 51" Sony CRT rear projection. I got a great deal on the TV and it's received good reviews, especially as a bang-for-buck plasma. I'm planning on having it professionally calibrated as well.

I still enjoy my current Sony TV but I decided that I wanted to step up in size to 60" and wanted to upgrade to fully support 1080p/24fps resolution from a Blu-Ray player.

I was wondering what others think I'll notice going from an (uncalibrated) CRT rear projection TV to a (calibrated) plasma? Is it going to be a significant improvement in picture quality or will it be more subtle? Will the black levels of the plasma compete with the RPTV's black levels - which are, subjectively, pretty good. I'm expecting the black levels to be on par but the color to be a bit more "lively" and have a bit more pop.

What should I expect? Personally, I'm mostly interested in the size increase and the ability to play Blu-Ray at full resolution - any improvements in picture quality would simply be icing on the cake

Any random thoughts on the upgrade?

Thanks!

Bryan

I think it will be night and day difference! Report back after you have had a chance to watch a good bluray. Watch the animated movie coraline, and you will be blown away by picture quality! Try 9 as well.

Report back after you have had some time to watch a few movies!

I personally have never been into paying a professional technician to calibrate my TV. I've always been satisfied with calibrating myself using a home user Calibration disc such as AVia or DVE. However, the professional technician will have access to a whole slew of menus that you could seriously mess some stuff up in if you didn't know what you were doing.

With a set that big, you probably will notice a little increased definition over a 720p set, but not much.

As far as color/black levels, I hope you notice a difference. Please report back and let us know.

I will be especially interested in learning if you notice any weird artifacts when watching material in 240hz mode. I find the video interpolation software on some sets (used to increase a normal 30 or 60hz signal) introduces funny looking screen effects, where the foreground appears separated from the background.

3D?

Going CRT to plasma I would not think you would notice any difference in black levels. The CRT should be a bit better.

I would think that the image quality difference will depend largely on how well calibrated your CRT was and how close you sit. Once you are past a certain distance for a given screen size, you will be unable to tell the difference between 720 and 1080.

jakewash - nope, not 3D. Not sold on it yet. Besides, I have no interest in wearing glasses over my presciption glasses to watch TV. It was actually kinda funny - went to Future Shop with my 5 year old daughter and it was hilarious watching her hold the glasses to her face to watch the Panasonic 3D demo. I could just see us all watching a movie as a family and having to hold these glasses to our face while eating popcorn. My son would probably destroy them before they had 10 hours of use.

My CRT was not really calibrated. I simply ran some test patterns from a THX DVD and dialed in the user settings. Still achieved a pretty good picture - better than most TVs I've seen. But it was starting to dim a bit and probably needed to be serviced - lenses/mirrors cleaned, etc. Figured I'd rather buy a new TV and move up to 60" and full 1080p.

I agree - I think the PQ will be an improvement. I'm just hoping the black levels aren't worse. But I think the color and pop will be big improvement. Plus the ability to play Blu-Ray at 24fps is intriguing. I'll report back once I get it setup.

Anyone upgrade from a CRT rear projection and have regrets?