Off-topic, but did you ever explain why you bought a plasma? I remember you said you would write something up.
Where did you hear
that?
I was going to write something up... but I have to admit, I was so taken in by the exceptional quality of the VP504, that I have been busy hosting a marathon session of video shoot-outs at my home with some of my fellow HT enthusiats... and they are still going on as we speak.
As a brief preview of my eventual review, the reason I decided to get this plasma... despite my well known dislike for the vast vast vast majority of plasmas first started back in January where there was a lot of buzz about this TV, and the goal of Vizio to take on the higher-end display market with a new 50" and 60" PDP display that was going to have the latest PDP pamel technology and arguably the best video processor found in a consumer display. At the show, Vizio announced these new displays would be ready for release sometime in June... and so I waited to see just how the final product turned out.
Last month the first model (VP504) from Vizio showed up at my local Costco, and despite the less than ideal warehouse enviroment, right out of the box, the picture was truly remarkable!
Having gotten permission from the general manager, I connected my PS3 to the show model via HDMI, and ran several of the tests on Silicon Optics' Blu-ray HD HQV Benchmark disc - all of which the VP504 passed with flying colors.
I then popped in the Blu-ray edition of Digital Video Essentials, and made some minor calibration adjustments. Obviously I was unable to do any grayscale caibrations, but from what I could tell, it wasn't that far off for most of the IRE levels.
Finally, I then played a few clips from some Blu-ray films, as well as standard DVDs, and 1080p and 720p videos downloaded off the PSN store.
By the time I was done I had created a large crowd around me... and we all agreed... it was a freakin' amazing TV... especially when one considered the fact that it was selling for less than half the price of the top of the line Panasonic and Pioneer... but clearly performed at their same level.
I should have asked the Manager for a commision, as I think at least six or more people in the crowd around me proceeded to grab one up for themselves.
Now what was interesting on my part is that I really wasn't in the market for a new TV. I already have a dedicated home theater with a 1080p front projector, as well as a decent 1080p LCD for the bedroom, and a very nice 720p DLP RPTV in the family room.... but I'll be the first to admit it... the picture was amazing, and sooo much better than most plasmas out there that I ended up grabing one myself.
Needless to say, as I pulled into the garage with a huge box in the back of the SUV... my wife took one look at me and smiled and then said,
"Gee, why am I not surprised?" 
*Thankfully she is pretty used to all the AV gear by now.
Since then, word spread, and so I have had a steady flow of friends and neighbors coming by to see me run it through it's paces.
One thing led to another, and pretty soon we had half a dozen displays being set-up in our home as more and more wanted to see how their TVs compared... which led to several of my friends and neighbors making a trip to Costco to buy one for themselves.
Then this got us all to thinking, with multiple VP504s, multiple PS3s, and multiple SA 8300HD DVRs, we can do some really extensive and scientifically accurate blind testing of all sorts of different things, like comparing video codecs, 1080p vs upscaled 720p, HDMI vs component, Satellite HD vs Cable HD vs VOD HD vs OTA HD, Blu-rays, DVDs, etc, etc, etc... and that’s just some of the video testing… we are also messing around with some audio tests as well, especially comparing various audio codec… so the AV marathon continues!
However, if it continues too much longer, my wife is going to stop being so understanding.
