NEC 42X4 Plasma Review

PCMag reviews NEC 42X4 plasma display with 4 out 5 and an Editors Choice award. The review is pretty extensive and cover lots of details including intuitiveness of menus. They also have measured the contrast ratio after calibrating the unit and came up with ANSI 1001:1 which for PCMag is the best to date for all displays that have been tested and it truly is. Note that it is ANSI ratio. HQV test DVD has been used to check 480i processing and here is what reviewer says:

I use the HQV Benchmark DVD to evaluate a display's video-processing performance when displaying standard definition (480i) content—similar to traditional broadcast television. The 42XR4 managed a good HQV result by providing excellent noise-reduction abilities without softening image detail. Deinterlacing was also impressive, with no noted jagged edges in the synthetic portions of the test or in the video clip of the waving flag. The classic racetrack scene that uses film-based video (24 frames per second) revealed that 3:2 pulldown engaged quickly, preventing distracting moire artifacts from appearing in the grandstands. This indicates that the video processor is throwing away half of the visual information. The beginning of chapter 12 of the DVD movie Gladiator is a great check for 3:2 pulldown problems, as the slow panning shot of the bird statue with its horizontal lines can turn into a jagged, blurry mess if not properly processed. The 42XR4 handled this challenging scene perfectly.

The 42XR4 is suggested at $3999, a little higher then the average 42 inch plasma.

Via: Engadget
Source: PCMag