Plasma Vs. LCD TV's ...
 

Yooo

Okay, so I'm debating whether I should get a plasma or LCD TV.

I'm looking at either the 40" Sony XBR LCD or the 42" Panasonic Plasma

Now, here's the problem: From what I've seen in the stores, there's basically no visual difference in picture sharpness (even though the sony is substantially higher definition). The Sony LCD is noticably brighter than the Panasonic Plasma in the showroom, but I'm not quite sure how much difference that will make once I've had a chance to get it in my own house environment. All that said ... Onto the bigger issues:

1.) Burn in. I've heard that plasma screens have huge problems with burn in and fade. Can anyone who has actually owned a plasma address these concerns? Are they bullshit? CRT's are supposed to be susceptible to burn in too but I've never once seen a CRT with a burnt-in image, except for a years old shit-quality monitor.

2.) Pixelation on the LCD. During action/motion sequences the LCD image looks like absolute shit because of the pixelation that occurs. There's a little bit on the Plasma too, but not nearly as much. Is there any cure for this, or do I just have to suck it up until the digital processing soft/hardware catches up with the screen resolution? Why haven't these DIPSHITS spent $59.99 to insert a 256mb graphics card into the back of the LCD yet?!?

Any info would help =) thanks all

I'd say Go LCD :)

err... can u back that up with anything? or just gut feeling?

The plasma should actually be a little brighter, who knows how they have them calibrated in the showroom. With the newer plasmas, burn in isn't really that big of an issue. Are you planning on hanging it on the wall and is that a must? If not, then you might want to consider a dlp, you'll get similar picture quality, with no pixelation and no burn in sensitivity at a much better price. Ask your question over at avsforum .com and you'll get the answer your looking for.

tv is brainwashing you

escape now

I recently bought the Samsung LN-R409 40-inch LCD and I think it's beautiful with my high def channels and dvd movies.

The only downfall (which isn't the tv's fault) is that my cable provider Charter, only has a handful of Hi-def channels, so the picture on standard channels isn't always that great because the tv is looking for a nice hi-def signal and when it gets a crappy one, it can't do much with it. I hear it does that with all hi-def tvs

One other thing that you left out about the tvs is the lifespan. LCDs have twice the lifepsan of a plasma, however a typical plasma TVs have a life span of 20,000 to 30,000 hours, which equates to at about 20 years of usage if you have the set on for 4 hours a day. The lifespan of an LCD TV is typically 50,000 to 60,000 hours, or about 40 years running 4 hours daily. If you think of it that way, most of the tvs that I've had have been upgraded within 5 years, so if it lasts 20 years, that should be beyond it's need :)

werd, thanks I'll check them out...

I've considered DLP, but didn't want the presence of a large unit since it's going in my living room ...

I've got a 55" LCD and a 42" plasma and the LCD is much crisper imo.

Go back to microsoft you dead beat and leave this board to it's would you hit it threads :p

I dont think its wise to point like that to another forum.....

Go with the plasma btw :-)

TIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxo ;)
Whatever you get will be nice. Fuck it ;) Just don't be buying any new printers from BestBuy anytime soon. lmao

BTW I only say this cause you know Brett doesn't cuddle as well as you. He is like a leather covered twig.

We bought the Sharp Aquos 32 inch about 10 months ago, from Bestbuy. It took a while to make the decision between the Aquos (LCD) and the Panasonic 42 (plasma). They were both about the same price, but the difference is brightness, crispness, and color just too big. The Aquos is amazing. I don't know a whole lot about the quality of Sony's LCD, built I'm sure it's great. I was also concerned about the burn in on the plasmas and the pixilation of the LCDs.....To be honest, it's really not that big of a deal, There really needs to be some fast moving scenes for it to be an annoying factor.

In my opinion, go w/ the LCD.....I'd still make the same choice over and over again..........Oh man, I love my TV

lol =) M$ never happened, I'm on my own with my projects right now

If you play games on it then you need the lcd, plasma will burn the logos on the screen.

After reading lots of reviews and checking out lots of shops, i finally ordered the Philips 42PF9830. Its a 42" LCD screen with Ambilight 2 and pixel plus 2 HD. The quality is awesome. Hopefully ill have it within two weeks or so. Spain takes forever to deliver their shit.

We were told by Magnolia HiFi, Tim, that the Fujitsu is the best of the best of the best for plasma. Second place belongs to Pioneer Elite and Panasonic is third for its cost value.

The research we're doing goes like this.

Plasmas burn in.
No, they don't because certain companies have addressed this issue.

Who?

Well, Sony won't be in the plasma market for much longer, as they are coming out with a new technology. Panasonic has this; but, here...Fujitsu has a technology that prevents burn in, unless you leave your television on for too long. What's too long? More than fifteen minutes at a time.

Ok. Sounds like plasma is cooler these days.

But, you should look into your cable company because that can influence the degradation of signal. You really should consider having Satellite in your home and then your signal will be awesome. Much better than cable. AND, since most stations are now going high def, it shouldn't be a problem for very much longer, if you are a network kind of gal or premium channel person......

However.

IF you watch scads of dvds, you definitely want plasma, although if you can't afford it, LCD will work fine, although dollar for dollar, LCD is more money. But, hey, this Fujitsu 50" for ONLY 10k is an awesome buy and will last a long time. AND. Most stations will be high def by 2007 or 2008, so why wait?

You can hang it above the fireplace. No worries about heat; but, you may want to place some form of barrier between the air flow from the wood burning fireplace and the television or consider devaluing your home by putting in a gas insert into your masonry fireplace.

So.

Here's what we're going to do.

We're going to wait because I'm getting a headache from the sales people and the research sites.

Let us know what you bought...and stay the hell away from Magnolia Hifi for answers....LOL

Hey, do you still have the same ICQ #? I just ICQ'd to your HyPer[AcTiVe] account. It would be nice to catch up with you again.

Best!

Plasma.

Contrast.

Advantage: Plasma. For scenes with a lot of dark and light images shown simultaneously-as with content originating from DVDs, video games, and NTSC TV signals-plasma TVs will consistently outperform LCD TVs.

COLOR SATURATION

Advantage: Plasma, with the following caveat: While plasma displays are especially good for moving images, LCD technology is better at displaying static images with particular crispness and even coloration.


VIEWING ANGLE Advantage: Plasma

Plasma manufacturers have made much of their 160° viewing angles, which is about as good as horizontal and vertical viewing angles get. This owes to the fact that each pixel is lit by itself, not from some central light source. Hence, each pixel is more readily visible because its brightness is consistent with every other pixel on the screen.


VIDEO PLAYBACK Advantage: Plasma

PRODUCTION SIZE & COST Advantage:

Advantage: Plasma. Even though production costs and retails prices have come down for both technologies, plasma still has the edge as far as production cost and capacity go.





LCD.

FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS "Computer use"

Advantage: LCD, except at "harsh" viewing angles

LONGEVITY Advantage LCD X2

SCREEN INTEGRITY Advantage: LCD

VOLTAGE REQUIREMENTS Advantage LCD X2

I had a panasonic plasma and it blew up

Hey Raven,

yeah, I've visited magnolia too, and heard that same thing ... of course I feel that more than half of it is BS ... since those are ALL their products, and omit brands like Runco, Bang & Olufsen, and a few others who, to say the least, are vastly superior even to a moron like me.

This morning I read quite a bit on the burn-in on plasmas, and frankly I think the magnolia guy is trying to sell you up to the LCD (because plasmas are cheaper than LCDs) ... the burn-in doesn't sound like it's nearly as much of a factor as it is rumored to be or used to be.

i definitely don't care much about signal from cable/satellite ... as the only thing i watch on TV is Law & Order on wednesday nights and CNBC for about 15 minutes each morning. I will be watching primarily DVDs on it because Hollywood can FUCK OFF with their ticket prices.

I'll have to check out the Fujitsus more seriously tho ... I think they're one of the only 3 major LCD manufacturers anyway. (sony and samsung are the other two, I THINK, but may be wrong). Anyway, I'll definitely let you know what i come up with and invite all the locals over to pop the cherry on my new theater when I get it finished up this winter :-)

if you watch a lot of sports get a plamsa....fast action like football just doesn't look quite right on a LCD.

i have a 42" panasonic plasma and i love it. paid $2700 last year...same model is now down to $2000, less on sale sometimes.

This is very interesting ... and makes me feel even more like Plasma is the way to go for me.

Re Voltage Requrements: I'll be buying a decent power conditioner for my entire system, so that should help.

Thanks VitaSoy!

Interesting... I'd be curious to know how the ambilight affects the viewing environment ... seems like if it was a great idea, theaters would have been doing it for years now..

LCD all the way!

You're right, Tim.....about Magnolia HiFi....but, we've also done some extensive research on these...and, while they look cool...for us, at least, it's not a great buy. For you, it is, because you're a mad fiend with dvd watching....

We simply don't use television enough to justify...and, since I won't buy just any old brand..I think we'll wait a little longer....the cool factor isn't enough...to watch The Apprentice on plasma or LCD.

But, yeah. Let me know what you end up getting. Hope all is well!

They both have their positives and negs. Personally I can't wait to see what SED does in a year.

Go for LCD, that's nice :thumbsup

i have a 55 inch sony xbr plasma. no complaints.

i wish i can have that 2

Too funny I was just looking into the exact same size flat screen TV's too!

I just love this board! :thumbsup

I have a LG 60 inch Beast that cost me $15K 6 months ago. 1/5000 contrast ratio with built in HD tuner. I LOVE It. its beautiful and bright, handles blacks very nicely (lcd's don't do blacks as well I hear). We watch a lot of dvd's and digitial TV, both come through great. I saw the LCD's and they looked good but more expensive than Plazma's without any major benifits

The burnin is an issue on plazma's, I make sure as a habit to not leave it on pause for more than 1-2 mins. Just cause sometimes you leave it on for 50 mins without noticing (oops). It has a (Whitewash) feature to clear the burn in and it works great and clears it within 5-20 secs. I left the plazma on for 4-5 hours on a bright image one day and it had a lot of burn in. I white washed it for 10 mins and it was still burnt in. I thought the plazma was going to be permantly like this, I went to be woke up and it had no burnin anymore. So burnin just cleared itself. Its not that much of an issue, just something you need to keep an eye on sometimes.

I also noticed when playing Xbox that the burnin would not be good for 8 hour Xbox gaming so if your a gamer i'd get a LCD.

DLP's suck ass compared to Plazma's imo, the colors & crispness do not even compare.

LCD's would certainly be one of my next purchases as i'm a gamer and would want the LCD for my 2nd tv so I can game while the wife watches tv.

Matt

LCD all the way! :thumbsup