With a plasma screen you get vivid colors like you've never seen before, extremely wide viewing angles (wider, even, than those of most LCD screens), and easy placement due to a plasma monitor's slim profile--the DTS-42 is a mere 3.2 inches deep, perfect for desk or wall mounting. Brightness tends to be extremely uniform across plasma screens, which are also impervious to the picture distortion and negative color balances that afflict CRT monitors when placed near lighting or sound systems. You do, however, need to be wary of image burn-in (wherein long-held stationary images leave a permanent impression in the screen).

The DTS-42 offers 853 x 480 native pixel resolution, a stunning 1,000:1 contrast ratio, high 1,000 cd/m2 peak luminance, and broad (160 degrees, horizontal/vertical) viewing angles so everyone can enjoy the best seat in the house.

Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

The DTS-42 also performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; reverse 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

A digital, dynamic comb filter enhances resolution by removing blurred edges between colors and reducing dot crawl (tiny, moving dots of color along a sharp color separation in a vertical line, as in a depiction of a character's striped T-shirt). Other image enhancements include CCF (Capsulated Color Filter) technology for natural colors, a MGDI (Meta Genuine Digital Image) engine, and ISM (Image Sticking Minimization), which guards against image burn-in)

An onboard NTSC tuner lets you watch SD television right out of the box.