Can anyone point me to an article or advice me on the differences between a Plasma and LCD screen of equivalent value. Do these displays suffer from blur/after glow?
Found a good resource. For anyone else who might be interested on the subject www.homecinemachoice.com Any comments from plasma/LCD owners?
You get burn-in with any screen, including plasma or LCD. I used to sell these for about 8 months in a high-end TV store (plasmas, LCD's over 23", Bose, Kef etc. ) Ask away. But if youe question is: "My mate had a plasma and he says you have to re-gas it after about a year, where do i go for that?" then I suggest you do some research, or give me your £1500. I have better uses for it.
heh I sell and install plasma and lcd panels. In sizes where plasmas exist, they are considerably cheaper than an equivalent featured LCD. At much better image quality, and no light source to need to replace. They are the obvious choice. Ignore everything about plasma's not lasting very long. It's legacy information, that might have been true 4 years ago. A current plasma panel will maintain great brightness and 100% color accuracy for 10+ years at average usage, which is something that only one other type of television currently made can share. DLP (and those aren't flat panels) The biggest reasons why I like plasmas better: Since there is no light source, you can get better blacks in the image. Black effects EVERY color in a tv, and obviously it effects things like shadowing, darker scenes, etc. Nothing will touch the black level of a plasma. Nothing. Plasma's have a lot more consistent image, because of the way the phosphors produce color and light. A very high quality LCD, looks pretty good. But it doesn't look good in every lighting or viewing position. Plasmas do. Obviously, don't do stupid things, like play the same video game for 3 weeks straight and not use the tv for anything else, because you will get etching. Etching is generally not permenant, at least not visually, but is a result of the phosphors reducing in radiance in uneven amounts. We used to use a lucas films thx demo disc on our panels to demo them before we got our HD feed running. I cautioned our people about it, since there was a small THX Logo in the bottom right corner of the screen, and I feared that when we did switch to a live feed, that it would retain, and would cause us to sell less panels. It did indeed retain, but was not visible even under the closest scrutiny after about a day. This is true of almost every type though, as is mentioned. Even on my standard CRT tube tv downstairs, I have etching. It's from the mp3 menu of my dvd player. It just takes considerably longer. With plasma panels, you can get what is known as ED (enhanced definition) which is compatible with HD sources, but not technically HD. There resolution is lower. They look really nice to most people, I would say better than even the best LCD panels. Of interest specific to you, I am under the impression that the UK does not have much for HD content currently anyway. If I had lots of money, and had my choice of tv types, the list would be an HD plasma, an ED plasma, than one of those new DLP's with the improved flywheel. As I've always told people, let 3 things decide how you buy a tv: Cost. Factor in the little things you will need, cabling, mounting/displaying furniture, random other accessories. Image quality. Be sure to evaluate them using the same source, the better quality source the better. Find something that blows you away visually, and bring it in. Good quality DVD's are just fine to evaluate even HD tv's. Form factor. Your living room will look stupid if it's all black and the tv you buy is bright silver. (on that issue, I really do recommend getting a tv that is BLACK. When you watch a movie at night, you won't be able to see the tv itself, and is less distracting)
And there was me thinking LCDs were better because they had more pixels on the larger screens and could display sharper, higher res images?! I get what you mean about "a better black" though, LCD black is never black (ie void of colour). Dont plasma's run extremely hot though? I have used ~40ish" plasma in work, and we plugged it into a VGA out from a computer and the image quality was attrocious It only did 800x600. It wasnt a new-new one, nor was it that cheap. Spose you gotta really know what to look for.
I saw the demo of the LCOS screens at IDF Spring and I wouldn't even consider purchasing a plasma or LCD until they hit the market. They should retail at around $1800 for a 41" screen, and the image is exceptional.
*grabs tissues* edit: I forgot to add - ive had this (computer) TFT/LCD for 18 months and its only ever displayed my desktop outside of games and video (which, comparitively speaking is a very short time), and i havent had any sort of burn with the start bar. It doesnt appear to happen on LCDs unless the TV versions are different.
We recently got a 42" plasma for the sitting room. It can cope with 1024x768 from VGA or DVI, but why should you need more? The unit has a Techwood brand on it, but the screen is made by LG and the tuner box by Samsung or someone like that. It is wall mounted above the sideboard and does get hot, but no more than my 19" CRT monitor. When we were in the shop, there was a Sony 32" LCD with immense picture qualtiy. This thing was truly beautiful, but too expensive at ~£2500, while our plasma was the cheapest 42" in Curries at £1800! You just gotta know what to look for. Go into the shop at look at the display models. They should all have the same picture on them, usually from a crap quality RF connection. If any catch your eye, note down the make, model and price. Go home and do some research. Check out what others are saying about them and the full spec. sheet. Then go back into the store with a tablet PC or laptop and try them all out. Check out sharpness, light spillage (from sharp white - black joins) and overall impression. This should give you an idea of what you want. Basically, I think that the black on a plasma is unbeatable, but LCDs are sharper and brighter. But that's just my opinion. _C EDIT: One other thing. Never. Under any circumstaces use the built in speakers if they're not a major brand. Ours were unbeleavibly pish. Screens with seperate/removable speakers are a bonus.
I don't like the new lcos tv's. I still see no reason for an lcos, when a DLP is better, the same form factor, and often times cheaper. As far as the heat on plasma's, I wouldn't worry about that, unless you plan to put it on top of a fireplace or live in arizona and have a skylight in your living room with no AC. Heh. Use your eyes, period.
I noticed that Techwood one in Dixons once, it caught my eye because to my mind the image was sharper, clearer and brighter than some of the branded ones costing nearly twice the price!
