42-inch plasmas go full HD

Matsushita (a spinoff of Panasonic) recently announced that it has successfully launched the first 42″ plasma display in the world that offers full HD (1080p, baby!) in the form of the TH-42PZ700. Prices range from $3,550 to $3,620, enabling Panasonic to offer an alternative to 42″ LCD TVs that have long featured full HD capability. The TH-42PZ700 will come with either a bottom-mounted speaker or stereo side-mounted speakers according to price difference and have the ability to play AVCD video directly off SD/SDHC memory cards. Additional features include a trio of HDMI and S-Video ports, a couple of FireWire ports, four composite inputs, and Ethernet connectivity.