New TV purchase LCD or Plasma?

[mommytodarlings]

We are buying a new TV and are undecided on LCD or Plasma.

Looking at the 42-47" range. I have been researching them both, but would like to hear opinions on the Pros/Cons of both.

TIA

 

[MikeyNS]

We are buying a new TV and are undecided on LCD or Plasma.

Looking at the 42-47" range. I have been researching them both, but would like to hear opinions on the Pros/Cons of both.

TIA

Best thing to say is to look at them both playing the type of media you're going to be watching the most in the environment you'll be watching it in (light room/darker room, etc). Most TVs in the big box stores are playing really nice "uncompressed" video which looks amazing, but when you get it home and stick it on your wall and watch your digital cable/satellite it looks horrible in comparison.
I'm a fan of the LCDs, but that's just me. Get a good brand name and research the model numbers online. I'm still waiting to replace my 60" SDTV because A> I don't want to go smaller B> I don't see a need to go HDTV *yet* with the lack of programs/channels C> I haven't purchased a HD-DVD player.

 

[canron]

i would wait for boxing day to make a puchase os get an open box speacial at best buys you get $500.00 off the reg. pricw as for witch one they are both great if you have the room for viewing.plasma you have to get recharged after so many hours(years).lcd has pixal burn out after so many hours.so its up to you.they are both going to need things done in a few years of use My lcd monitor has pix burnout not even 2 years its not reparable so its junk when more start to go you get white dots all over the screen as they go

 

[wee-haggis]

I'm a fan of Plasma.
We compared them when buying a new TV last year and the Plasma won hands down (a little more expensive...but worth it).
There was several reasons for choosing plasma including the fact that it had 180 degree viewing angle and the newer ones have 60,000 hour lamp life (a lot more than LCD or DLP).BTW....60,000 hours works out as running your TV continually for almost 7 years!!!.
Unlike the LCD.s that slowly degrade over time...the plasmas either work nice ,,,or they don't.

 

[Questforthemouse]

LCD...possibility of pixel burnout and screen door effect (sometimes looks like you are watching the TV thru a screendoor)

Plasma...possibility of screen burn-in from stationary objects and pricier

Do some online research into DLP technology. Excellent contrast, great viewing angles, significant technology upgrades over the last year with price dropping...If I were buying today I would be looking at DLP TVs...

Make sure you know what your tv will mainly be used for...gaming vs. movies/sports...

 

[drag n' fly]

I just saw this thread the other day somewhere else. We just purchased a 42 inch LCD flat panel w/hdtv and dvd/hdd. We also purchsed a home theatre to go with it for blow your socks off surround sound. We chose lcd over plasma because we have huge gamers in our house and the burnout and reflection on plasmas were a problem for us. Plasmas have better clarity but are really hard to see in low light conditions. Plasmas also pick up the reflection of everything in the room. Plasmas have a better black though. The LCD we have has great high resolution and is is good in our low light north facing bonus room. Our tv has the 180 degree viewing angle horizontal and vertical which is really nice. We have bell satellite as we feel this provided us with the most viewing options hdtv and regular tv. It really depends on what you are using the tv for. There are good and bad about each kind of tv. We researched for almost a year before we purchased so I recommend going in and speaking to someone and they can best help determine what you might be looking for and answer any questions.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

We just bought one - we ended up getting the 50" LG Plasma flat screen and we love the picture on it.

Dh did the research and spoke to alot of people about which to buy as he was originally going to get the 42" LG LCD - the plasma's don't have as many issues with burn in anymore and there's something about the black levels that if you are watching a high speed type movie/game the Plasma's perform better then the LCD's. Picture quality was very similar between the Plasma and LCD that we were looking at and dh was talking to his supplier at LG about it and we went with his recommendation.

Only problem I have is dh has decided we now NEED the HD satelite and DVD player boys and their toys

 

[mommytodarlings]

Thanks everyone.

I have been researching them and we've checked out Best Buy, but I wanted hands on opinions.

We have seen a lot of good press about the Westinghouse LCD 47" 1080p and I think that is where dh is kind of leaning. Read a lot of good consumer reviews on it too. It doesn't have a built-in tuner so it is essentially a large monitor, which isn't really a problem as we are going with HD satellite as well.

We do play a lot of games so I think LCD would probably be our best option.

 

[EnnEss]

Be very careful with LCD. Im am a huge gamer (3 comp monitors set up so i can play on the middle one and run aux progs on the other two), numerous consoles etc etc.

When you get over 32 - 36 inches with an LCD screen your just really upping the risk of burned out pixels. Manufactures usually expect 15 or something to go every 2 years, which is absolutely ridiculous, if you get one mid screen you'll be really disapointed. Currently I have a LCD monitor with one burned out pixel on the far right and its only 5 months old, drives me insane.

I wouldn't go with anything but plasma for tv, the resolution you're talking about on tv is still only about 60 percent of what a computer runs and plasma is more than capable of looking really really good with it. As for low light, stay away from the generic brands as you notice a big drop in quality there.

If you do happen to get the LCD one, buy the stores warantee thing and make sure it covers like 3 - 4 dots or something. Realistically though, within 3 - 5 years, which the warantee won't cover, you're going to have burn outs start to increase.

As for the couple of posts speaking about plasma burn out, they may have lcd confused with plasma. LCD is basically thousands of different dots on your screen, each one capable of burning out (never apply any pressure to a lcd screen beyond a very light wiping, it can toast the lights immediately), plasma is fundamentally different.

 

[drag n' fly]

Be very careful with LCD. Im am a huge gamer (3 comp monitors set up so i can play on the middle one and run aux progs on the other two), numerous consoles etc etc.

When you get over 32 - 36 inches with an LCD screen your just really upping the risk of burned out pixels. Manufactures usually expect 15 or something to go every 2 years, which is absolutely ridiculous, if you get one mid screen you'll be really disapointed. Currently I have a LCD monitor with one burned out pixel on the far right and its only 5 months old, drives me insane.

I wouldn't go with anything but plasma for tv, the resolution you're talking about on tv is still only about 60 percent of what a computer runs and plasma is more than capable of looking really really good with it. As for low light, stay away from the generic brands as you notice a big drop in quality there.

If you do happen to get the LCD one, buy the stores warantee thing and make sure it covers like 3 - 4 dots or something. Realistically though, within 3 - 5 years, which the warantee won't cover, you're going to have burn outs start to increase.

As for the couple of posts speaking about plasma burn out, they may have lcd confused with plasma. LCD is basically thousands of different dots on your screen, each one capable of burning out (never apply any pressure to a lcd screen beyond a very light wiping, it can toast the lights immediately), plasma is fundamentally different.

Even though the Plasma burn issue has improved considerably it still exists though. What I was referring to was the static image left in one place for too long burning the image in. Watermarks on channels etc will leave a burned image on your screen. You essentially get what you pay for. If you buy a 1500 dollar rear projection...that is what you get a 1500 dollar tv that lasts 5 years. I disagree with you though. I still feel LCD is the way to go for gaming...just my opinion tho!

 

[seashoreCM]

Both plasma and LCD direct view screen panels have tiny pixels in the same kind of grid arrangement.

If you press hard on an LCD screen as if it were a touch screen you may see the picture start to smear and if you press too hard you might leave a fingerprint (about with the detail captured by a turnstile biometric scanner, not with all the ridge details). If you press hard on a plasma screen as if it were a touch screen, you may shatter either or both of the front surface or some of the thin tubes behind it representing the pixels.

To forestall "screen burn" turn down the contrast of a plasma to about half and keep it no higher. You may need to repeat this turndown for each input: video 1, video 2, etc.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[mom_rules]

joining the thread

 

[cslittle999]

To great sources of information on this subject are http://www.digitalhome.ca/ and http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/. The latter forum will definitely have someone who already owns whatever TV you're looking at buying. We have a 52" JVC D-ILA and love it.

 

[F4disneyfan]

I would ster clear of both LCD and Plasma both are fixed pixel displays and will not give you true HDTV unless you spend 11 grand and buy a pioneer elite plasma. All LCD and Plasma displays currently downscale all input signals to their native resolution which happens to be 1366X768 so a 1080i HD input is dowscaled to the resolution of the display. Other than the ability to hang the tv on the wall there aren't many upsides to either technology. I would rather go with the DLP technology or LCD rear projection my reccomendation would be the Samsung HL-S5687W or the HL-S6187W both are 1080P native resolution and will accept 1080P input via HD DVD or Blue Ray players or the XBox 360 HD DVD player add on.

 

[F4disneyfan]

Even though the Plasma burn issue has improved considerably it still exists though. What I was referring to was the static image left in one place for too long burning the image in. Watermarks on channels etc will leave a burned image on your screen. You essentially get what you pay for. If you buy a 1500 dollar rear projection...that is what you get a 1500 dollar tv that lasts 5 years. I disagree with you though. I still feel LCD is the way to go for gaming...just my opinion tho!

LCD is nice for gaming but in a large panel you get ghosting with the faster moving images due to the LCD response time being far to slow to handle the image. you will even get it with faster action from movies even on very high end LCD panels.

 

[drag n' fly]

LCD is nice for gaming but in a large panel you get ghosting with the faster moving images due to the LCD response time being far to slow to handle the image. you will even get it with faster action from movies even on very high end LCD panels.

Obviously I am not the gamer ...heck if I know I will ask dh bout that tho

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

I would ster clear of both LCD and Plasma both are fixed pixel displays and will not give you true HDTV unless you spend 11 grand and buy a pioneer elite plasma. All LCD and Plasma displays currently downscale all input signals to their native resolution which happens to be 1366X768 so a 1080i HD input is dowscaled to the resolution of the display. Other than the ability to hang the tv on the wall there aren't many upsides to either technology. I would rather go with the DLP technology or LCD rear projection my reccomendation would be the Samsung HL-S5687W or the HL-S6187W both are 1080P native resolution and will accept 1080P input via HD DVD or Blue Ray players or the XBox 360 HD DVD player add on.

Actually the new Hitachi Plasmas have full 1024 x 1080 native resolution for full 1080i HD input. You may want to check them out as they're actually quite reasonably priced.

We went plasma because of the improved viewing angles (over projection types) and the general look of the box. LCD would offer you similar advantages but we found that we preferred the picture quality of the plasma for larger panels over the LCD's. Great TV for movies.

 

[mommytodarlings]

Thanks for all the replies,

Now I have another question about cables.

I know all the sales associates recommend the expensive cables, but does it really make a difference.

I have read a few people say that the expensive cables don't make much difference, but then I've heard a lot of people say that Monster Cables make a huge difference.

So, do we need to go spend a ton on cables? Opinions?

TIA

 

[F4disneyfan]

Thanks for all the replies,

Now I have another question about cables.

I know all the sales associates recommend the expensive cables, but does it really make a difference.

I have read a few people say that the expensive cables don't make much difference, but then I've heard a lot of people say that Monster Cables make a huge difference.

So, do we need to go spend a ton on cables? Opinions?

TIA

Do not buy MONSTER cable it is way overpriced for the cable quality. I would look at many other options there are cables as good and better than monster for better prices out there I picked up and HDMI cable for my DVD player to my 27" LCD I have hanging on the wall in my bedroom at 12 feet long for 35 dollars from costco it is a very good cable for a third the price of a comparable monster cable.

 

[F4disneyfan]

Actually the new Hitachi Plasmas have full 1024 x 1080 native resolution for full 1080i HD input. You may want to check them out as they're actually quite reasonably priced.

We went plasma because of the improved viewing angles (over projection types) and the general look of the box. LCD would offer you similar advantages but we found that we preferred the picture quality of the plasma for larger panels over the LCD's. Great TV for movies.

When did you look at teh Hitachi tv's I had been looking at tv's for the last 2.5 months and even the phonecalls I made to Panasonic Hitachi and LG tech services yielded the same result all their plasma displays downscaled the resolution to 768 from 1080i.