Plasma or LCD TV?

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

We have been watching the prices at Costco, mostly....and are looking at a 47 to 50 inch TV to purchase for black friday <crossing fingers> So, what in the heck is the difference between a Plasma and LCD?

~Melissa

 

[mickeymaker2003]

Plasma TVs will all be HD (High Definition). The choice is between plasma and LCD. LCD is like the display in laptop computers.

It is a matter of personal preference which you like better.

 

[Scurvy]

I know that there are others who can explain better than me, but -

"Plasma" is the type of screen on the TV. There's also "LCD" or "projection".

"HD" refers to the resolution of the picture, in this case "High Definition". There's also "Standard definition".

They aren't referring to the same thing, so you can't really explain the difference between them. Something could be both or neither, or just one and not the other.

 

[secretpantssam]

I would get LCD. I've heard nothing but complaints about plasma and personally I think the picture looks better with LCD.

 

[Kies99]

All you need to know about Plasma vs LCD (from Cnet.com)

http://www.cnet.com.au/plasma-vs-lcd-which-is-right-for-you-240036500.htm

 

[Scurvy]

I would get LCD. I've heard nothing but complaints about plasma and personally I think the picture looks better with LCD.

You also have to consider what you are going to be doing with it and where it's going to be. Different screens look better from different angles and in different lighting conditions. I've heard that Plasmas tend to have more problems with images "burning" into the screen, especially if you play lots of video games.

I also recommend LCD. We've been very pleased with ours - no complaints at all.

 

[MN Vikings Fan]

I love our LCD. Fantastic picture~~I can count every whisker on Brett Favre's face! He is soooooooo adorable!

 

[MsStinkerBelle]

While plasma technology has gotten better (and I saw a gorgeous Samsung one at Best Buy this past weekend), I really don't trust it and would go with an LCD instead.

 

[Justin the Hook]

It is really a matter of personal likes now. LCD and Plasma are both built about the same now. The burn in rate on Plasma used to be true when they first came out, but that has now been fixed. Just as the blacks displayed on LCD's weren't good when they first came out. What you really need to look for is the refresh rate. Make sure you are purchasing a TV with at least a 120 MHZ refresh rate.

Heck we could get more technical and LCD and Plasma now have competition with LED TV's which display an even more vibrant picture and use less energy to operate.

 

[Scurvy]

Heck we could get more technical and LCD and Plasma now have competition with LED TV's which display an even more vibrant picture and use less energy to operate.

Oh! I forgot about LEDs, but those do look really good. Of course last time I checked their price point was still significantly higher than the others and I'm not sure they seem better enough to warrant the added price.


I'm glad they've fixed the burn-in issue on the plasmas - that was a pretty major issue for anyone who was into games (or liked to leave the TV on a news channel for long periods of time).

 

[mrodgers]

My only experience with either is watching a football game on a first generation Plasma and trying to watch a hockey game on an LCD. Neither were HD signal (cable on one and DirectTV on the other.) Both looked absolutely horrible because the picture was all squished with the wrong aspect ratio.

My problem with the LCD was, watching a hockey game, it could not keep up with the action. This wasn't a cheap LCD either. I had to turn the game off and wait to watch it recorded at home on my 1996 27 inch CRT Magnavox dinosaur where it looked phenomenal compared to the expensive LCD.

I refuse to pay those kinds of prices for a TV, then pay extra for the mere 10 HD channels I would get, and have to watch all other channels utilizing only half of the TV screen that I paid for. My digital input 27 inch CRT does just fine and looks so much better than any non-HD broadcast I've ever seen on a Plazma or LCD.

 

[shortbun]

We have all LCDs because we heard some marginal things about plasma. You want to watch for the pixel/picture clarity count. We bought 1080p for our big set and got 760(I think) for the smaller sets because they're not for gaming or sports viewing which seem to be the most important things we watch around here, lol!

Btw, we found really good deals the week prior to Black Friday and Black Friday we didn't find the TV's we wanted on sale. You kinda have to be prepared to by whatever is on sale.

 

[oldbay]

Hi!
We have a 42 inch panasonic plasma and I love it! No burn-out at all and Dh does play the video games on it and have had it for a few years too. It is one of the few purchases we made with no regrets - I now see why people get into their tv's. lol.

My best advice - go to a store where you can see the tv turned on and view the picture yourself. I find the image crisper with a plasma, jmo.

Another thing that matters when looking at tvs - is it 720 or 1080? The 1080 is much better, more pixels I believe. Also, remember to hook your tv to your cable/satellite box with an HDMI cable so the HD picture is transmitted to your tv in the best way.

Happy TV shopping!

**disclaimer - all the tv terms in this post are not the technical kind

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

We got our LCD from Costco. It's a 52" and came with 1 year Costco service, in addition to the regular warranty.

I was all set to go out and purchase a plasma that night. What changed my mind was the salesman at Best Buy who told me not to get a plasma if you have a lot of windows. I guess there is a problem with glare. We have tons of windows, so that made my decision right there.

I was really worried about the burning image issue. I know everyone said not to worry...that it rarely happens. We have that problem, though. If it's going to happen to someone, it would happen to us.

Anyway, we LOVE our LCD. One of our best purchases ever.

 

[claytonsmama]

we absolutely love plasma...the picture is great from any angle whether you are right under the tv to another corner in the room.

 

[weluvdisney1]

Ill say plasma,the picture is way better,imo

 

[Thumper_Man]

We just bought an LCD for our house, mainly because of where we live. We were told if you live in high elevations, plasma's tend to burn out quicker. Don't know how true this is; but we didn't want to spend a ton of money on a plasma, to have it give out sooner than it has to. Same thing for LED's. Again, rumored they burn out quicker at higher elevations. I wanted to buy a LED, but didn't want to take the chance of it burning out too soon. If they ever make the LED's cheaper and more tolerant to the elevation, then my next tv will be an LED.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

We bought a Panasonic Plasma at Costco about a year ago this week! LOVE IT! The refresh rate was important to us because all the boys here (including the 46 year old I call my hubby) watch a ton of sports on it. Awesome with xBox 360 too.

1080 is the only way to go. We preferred the picture look of the Plasma over the LCD - just preference I guess. There are few windows in the family room where it is set up. I can see a show from the kitchen on that thing! It's 50".

They had signage all over the place at Costco that Plasma's were fine in our altitude - about 5280' or so here. It is when you take them up in the mountains where it is an issue.

Burn in problems solved a while ago.

Have fun - you will be amazed. OH - and as someone else mentioned in another thread - be sure to get HDMI cables to get a true HD picture. Buy them on-line - there is no quality difference in paying $$$ for monster cable brand vs. on-line. We got ours through monoprice - they were so great. I called them and told them exactly our set-up and they told me which cables to buy.

 

[Scurvy]

1080 is the only way to go. We preferred the picture look of the Plasma over the LCD - just preference I guess.

That's an important point. Some people strongly prefer the look of plasma, others prefer LCD. When we were shopping for our newest TV we spent hours looking at display models and listing all our favorites (the second from the right, the first one on the left - that sort of thing) before reading the price or details of any of them. All of our favorites were LCDs - the pictures just looked better to us. It really is a very important thing to consider when choosing a TV. It doesn't matter if the price is great if you end up unhappy with the picture. I think everyone who shops for a television needs to go look at lots of them to see what they prefer. If ColoradoMom!! had bought an LCD on my recommendation she'd probably be unhappy, and if I had gotten a plasma on her recommendation I'd be unhappy.

Other things, like 1080p vs. 720p, are less subjective. 1080p will show more detail, so most people will probably prefer that. The same with the refresh rate - 120 hz will look better than a lower rate to almost everyone.

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

Thank you all for the great responses!! We have started checking all ads in Sundays papers and getting comparisons....now, back to the store(s) for some serious TV watching to decide which picture we like