If I had a PS3 I'd be unlikely to have a separate Blu-ray player, unless I had far too much money and a taste for too many remotes.

Blue Ray player AND PS3... why ????

"Pioneer makes great plasma TV"

The word you were looking for is 'made'. Pioneer announced the cancellation of their plasma TV division some time ago, which is the reason this is significant, not the TV in itself.

"After all, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Pioneer plasma smaller than 50 inches"

Umm - no, not all. Sorry, but all a bit nonsense that whole section about size.

The consensus, at least until recently, was that full-HD was useless on anything below 42 inches. Nevertheless, manufacturers across the board added it to various TVs because gullible people wouldn't touch buy unless it had a full complement of mystery acronyms.

The real question is whether this is worth the extra money over the Panasonic 37PX80 plasma. The Panasonic is considered a bargain at £600-700, not least because it manages to keep the price down by avoiding un-necessary spec add-ons.

A real shame, a friend blew £3k on a Kuro plasma and it is just about the most awesome TV ever. It's about the same shape and size as the Monolith from 2001 and its blacks are even blacker. I don't know why they pulled out of the plasma market when they were so far ahead of the opposition.

The PS3 still pisses over all but they very top end Blu-Ray players.. Why would you want both?

They pulled out largely due to the strong Yen making it very expensive (and therefore unprofitable) for them to make the panels, not because they didn't think they were a success.

I've heard (unconfirmed) rumours that they will continue to make plasma TVs by sourcing the panels from other brands. If so, I have doubts about the quality of such.

"Setup is simple enough – though as you plug in your Sky+ HD box, Blu-ray player and PS3 you’ll notice you’ve just used up all the HDMI sockets. For the price premium this set commands, a fourth socket on the side of the TV would have been expected, but no, three’s your lot."

You want four HDMI sockets? Why? Please explain why it should have 4?

1. Blu-ray

2. Cable/Satelite

3. Games console

What you plugging into the fourth that wouldn't actually replace one of the others?

Try finding an amp with 4 HDMI inputs for a reasonable price because that's what stands in between most sources and a high end panel.

It's as if you're just trying to find something to bitch about.

Re:Blu-ray AND PS3?

No, the PS3 does not piss over all but the very top end blu-ray players. Not even close. True when it first came out but not even close now. sony 350 and Panasonic BD35 both rated higher and both nowhere near top end.

One good thing about Full HD is that 1080 content need not be resampled, and 720 content can be resampled very simply. Whereas it's all too easy to mess it up with a 1366x768 screen.