Manufacturers have been having just a wee bit of trouble getting 1080p plasma displays to market, and now in the last two days I’ve seen a couple announcements about them. First off, Pioneer has sent its first shipment of PDP-5000EX displays to the UK. The 50″ display features an all-new cell structure that’s half the size of previous cells.

“The biggest challenge for us was to maintain brightness,” explains Hiroyuki Shibosawa, General manager of Pioneer’s product engineering division, “because the small cells also affect the discharge time and any misfiring amongst adjacent cells.”

The display includes two HDMI inputs, though no mention is made about whether or not they accept 1080p signals. This is not a forgone conclusion, as many sets that display 1080p resolution don’t actually accept 1080p signals. This set has a true resolution of 1920 x 1080, unlike the display below.

Groundbreaking Pioneer 1080p plasma makes UK debut

Not to be outdone, Hitachi is also coming out with a 1080p plasma display. Their set comes in at a size of 42″, however. But they’re cheating just a bit when they say 1080p. When you think of 1080p, you assume that the resolution is 1920 x 1080. But 1080p doesn’t necessarily mean that. The 42″ Hitachi has a resolution of 1024 x 1080. The set has 3 HDMI inputs, though again no mention is made of whether or not it accepts 1080p signals.

Hitachi Introduces World’s First 42-Inch Plasma With 1080 Line Display