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Not much of an TV guy (I lerk about the analog forum) but our JVC 36" D Series went out. I know nothing of the new market. Plasma, LCD are terms that are totally foriegn to me. I do like watching Tennis though and in the store displays I can usually see trails behind the ball which completely turns me off. Don't know if this is common or not. Now I could just fix the JVC. It has a decent picture (no trails), can be left on 24 a day without issue, etc. If I go plasma, I would like to keep it under $1.5K. I'm looking at maybe 48 inches or less. Any personal fav's? Any direction for me?
Follow Ups:
Go with 1080P and an hdmi 1.3a input for some future proofing.
Make sure to watch the set under the conditions you will have and the type of show and source. Sports, blu ray, bright etc.
Time is on your side, the sets, as a whole, are getting better and cheaper. Or at least the perfromance over price ratio is getting bigger with time.
We'll have to agree to disagree about human caused global warming until the next global cooling scare comes along.
I agree :)
#1: LCD: Advantages- Good in brightly lit rooms. Lighter weight-wise than plasmas. Better if you play video games. Lots of manufacturers to choose from.#2: Plasma: Advantages- More film-like picture than LCD. Better black levels. Don't suffer from motion artifacts. (The newer 120Hz refresh rate LCDs have largely eliminated this in that format.) Wider viewing angle. (One big reason why you don't want a DLP set). Less expensive (unless you get Pioneer) for a comparably-sized LCD with 120Hz refresh rate.
Misconceptions about plasmas (at least the current crop). #1- They suffer from burn-in. Not a problem that it was on the earlier plasmas. Still, plasmas not recommended if you play video games. #2 Plasmas run hotter. Well, somewhat, but again it's not a big deal. #3 Plasmas use more electricity than LCD's. Again, somewhat, but not enough to worry about.
Brands to consider: LCD- Sony, Samsung, or Sharp at the top tier. Second level- JVC, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and LG.
Plasma: Pioneer is recognized as the best, but you pay a significant premium. And beginning next year, Pioneer will no longer be making their displays. They'll be sourcing them from Panasonic. Next in line is, coincidentally, Panasonic, followed by Samsung. Sony does not make a plasma display.Currently I own a Panasonic plasma and a Samsung LCD. The Samsung has a good picture but is somewhat "plastic-looking" compared to the Panasonic plasma. My personal preference is for the plasma TV.
Each user really needs to get into a store and put the things side by side and run a comparison to see which technology types have tradeoffs which seem worse to them.My Sharp Aquos is a very nice LCD but it exhibits motion blur among other minor problems. It makes an ultra sweet computer monitor in my living room though. Try this experiment: hook it to your PC grab a small window and move it around with the mouse...does it have smoothly regenerating edges and does the text stay clear while it is in motion. Not on my Aquos it doesn't.
My cousins plasma (can't remember brand) was getting burn in problems. He bought it after seeing mine all hooked up to my PC, brought it home and hooked it to his PC. He ended up taking it back that week and trading it in for an LCD.
My buddies Mitsubishi DLP seems to exhibit unnoticeable motion blur and how bright the edges are is really a function of the optics. As I said in my post below the new mits DLP's are sweet. Personally I would never even notice the brightness problems and the thing has no motion blur. Too me they are second only to the CRT's. This would likely be my choice if I were in the market right now. Edit: running the window moving test I mentioned above yielded most satisfactory results on my buddies Mits DLP.
In summary: it's all about which tradeoff turns you off the least.
I'm thinking your video drivers have more to do with what you see dragging a window across the screen. I've tried this on both my Plasma and LCD..there wasn't a difference. The better your video drivers and video card the less blur you'll see.There's a slight trailing on certain colored words when moving a window around rapidly on a white screen but nothing annoying. I don't notice this at all when I'm watching Blu rays or standard DVD movies.Probably because there's no material that uses a white back ground for practical purposes.
If it were related to the bandwidth of the video card being the bottleneck due to slow hardware or outdated drivers I would have expected the embedded Intel graphics on my buddies computer which uses RAM for video memory to be much slower than my Asus 8600GT w/256 megs of video RAM and always up to date drivers. Both of us are running 720P out of the PC's since 1080P is too small to see anything very well when sitting on the couch so you could say this is right in my graphics cards resolution/performance sweetspot but his wasn't too shabby either. I would expect a bit of video card bandwidth limiting with my setup on 1080P though. My buddies setup clearly does better motion. Admittedly my setup is not the absolute latest and greatest but it's a pretty screamin card that does much much better on this particular test when feeding a CRT at a similar res instead of this LCD.
To really see it you have to wiggle a window around pretty quickly. I just tried it again and definitely see multiple outlines of the edge of the window closely trailing behind the real window and quickly disappearing when I shake it around quickly kind of like that old mouse trailer effect windows used to have. When I plug in the CRT and do this it's a nice crisp clearly defined edge no matter how quickly I move the thing around.
If you want to see something really gross put your video card in interlaced mode instead of progressive mode.
This isn't the only test that shows the motion blur. Panning movie scenes etc also highlight this shortcoming of LCD's. It's actually a pretty well known problem of this relatively slow technology. Think of it like this: why else do you think we are limited to 60Hz refresh rate max while best CRT's are up in the hundreds of Hz? They are getting better all the time with this but last years tech like my Aquos are definitely not up to what CRT's are/were capable of in their heyday.
Check out the Wiki link below. It's not too bad and notice the star of this blur page seems to be LCD screens with nary a mention of plasma and no mention of DLP. Note that they also seem to hold CRT as the reference to shoot for with respect to blur. Note that I wouldn't consider wikipedia necessarily a final arbitrar but this time it seems to correlate well with my own understanding.
Thats still a nice card you're running. I run my display at 1080p as the 720p looks fuzzy too me on my Sharp 52 inch Aquos. My Plasma which has a native resolution of 720p looks great when running the video card at 720P. I use a Nvidia 8800GT 256 bit with 1 Gb of ram... Smokin card by the way!!!I get to look at the Mits DLPs on a regular basis as I install them from time to time in customer's homes. I admit I'm not a big fan of these TVs. They look dim too me.
For someone that wants a large screen for cheap..they are the best way to go. However..the bulbs in some of these units are terrible! I've seen countless failures in these TVs. The bulbs are only rated for 2000 hours, if you get 4000..you're just lucky!
Thanks for the link. Very interesting stuff, from owning both Plasma and LCD..neither is perfect too me. But I'm not one to do a lot of splitting hairs with this stuff. I enjoy watching movies on a regular basis with my PC.
I did notice on my buddies Sharp(same panel as mine) some trailing effects with a certain BR movie. I however haven't seen this trailing effect with my BRs. He uses a standalone Blu ray player and I use my PC of course.
It seems as some videos are more prone to this than others..like live sporting events. I don't know..this technology is still being perfected ..even on the camera end. I give it a few more years and the flat panels will exceed CRT in those aspects that they may come in short now.
I have a CRT 36" Sony Wega that I tried to watch a standard DVD on recently. You couldn't give me a CRT now! lol
I hadn't used my Wega in almost 2 years after crossing over to flat panels. It is still sitting unused as I type this.
I went from a Sony Wega to a Panasonic 50" plasma. I alsways liked my Wega, with its enhanced magnetic squeeze, it made DVDs look great. However, since I got the plasma, I would never go back, either. I have the 50" Panasonic, and a 37" LG LCD I got for the kids Wii, and I like the plasma much better for DVDs, even though the LG still looks very good.
I still think plasma has the edge in picture quality, no matter which LCD you compare them to. I also agree that typical in store sets are never set up properly. Get them home and set them up to some calibrated standard, and they all look much better.
Yeah..I agree the Plasma's as a whole do have an edge in the cinematic department.
The LCDs are just a little more friendly when it comes to other task..like gaming or everyday computer monitor use.My next flat panel will be a Panasonic Plasma..it will only be for Movie and normal TV watching though. I see a 60" in my future ..maybe next year! ;-)
It's much narrower than either LCD or plasma. Something like 45 degrees off center and the picture begins to fade. With LCD, you have about 175 degrees total. If you can sit in the sweet spot that's great. And DLP's they're much cheaper than either LCD's or plasmas. And remember, there's a bulb that needs periodic replacement.
Personally, I don't think you can tell squat about how accurate the picture can be by viewing a TV in the store. Usually they're in "Vivid" or some other hopped up mode to make the picture stand out. Like loudspeakers, the only way you can really tell how they'll perform for you is to take them home. Unfortunately it's not that easy with a 60" plasma. But most stores have return privileges.
I could see where that would be a problem for off axis viewing. In this case I forget axactly how big it is, like 68" or something, in a relatively small living room and so there is plenty of room for everyone to get a good seat. It wasn't a problem I noticed, but then I only watched for a couple hours max.
I don't doubt the thing about messed up store settings. Better stores will allow you to play with settings while doing a side by side comparison. Of course it's not the same as calibrated in the environment where it is used. I have yet to find a store that allows in home trials though like some audio stores do with equipment.
To clarify further... Plasma is not good if you consider using it as a computer monitor down the road. It will eventually get burn in to some degree..mine did.If mainly for movies and normal TV watching..you'll be good to go with the Plasma.
Live fast motion picture quality is more dependent on the processing power of the TV than any thing else(whether Plasma or LCD). My Samsung plasma has a terrific picture, but it does have digital artifacts or chipping compared to my LCD when watching live sports broadcast. The LCD actually has the better picture in these areas and it is a 60Hz model Sharp Aquos. The Sharp clearly has better processing in this case.
With recorded video, your video source is what decides how good of a picture you'll get more than anything else IMO.
Also another quark, my Samsung plasma does have better black levels, but the Sharp has better detailed black levels. Instead of seeing just a black blazer of a person's suit. You see a black blazer, black tie and a black shirt with wrinkles in it. This of course varies from panel to panel. Just something to pay close attention too. Some panels will black out the details.
My favorite LCDs are Samsung, Sharp and Sony. For Plasma I would go with the new Panasonic 1080P.
Good luck
...and they were playing the Will Smith movie "I, Robot". During some of the intense actions scenes you could see some pixelization around the edges of the actors. Now these digital artifacts may have just been part of the film so it might not have been the TV's fault. However, they were playing the same movie on a Panasonic PZ85U plasma and I didn't notice any artifacts.
That's quite strange as I just watched I robot 3 weeks ago on my 60 HZ Sharp LCD. There was no pixelation to speak of in the most intense scenes. Judging any of these televisions in a store are difficult. The settings are normally screwed up and the sharpness is turned way too high. This alone will give you grainy edges.
I think it is also a function of distance. All sets I have seen will show some 'dithering' if you are close to the screen. This goes for LCD or plasma. At a typical viewing distance, however, I cant see this going on. This is different from pixelation, however.
Yeah I agree..that's why I'm always puzzled by comments of LCDs only having these motion issues. I see issues with them both. It is a small price to pay for a better viewing experience..one I can accept and live with over a basic CRT display.
Dick,
Although I ultimately purchased a Pio, that Panny PZ85 is THE biggest bang for the buck out there right now. I came very close to buying it.
I agree on the Panasonic, that's why I bought one. My room isn't that large so I bought the 42". Now I regret it. Shoulda bought the 46"! Fortunately my wife loves the TV too and now agrees with me that the 32" Samsung in the master bedroom is too small. I see the 46" in my future after all....
You better go for the 50". If the 42" is starting to seem too small, the 46" will not be much better. You quickly get used to the size. A 50" will not take up much more room than the 46".
I was told that's noise from the 120 processing.
jack
Dick, just a clarification to what you said: Pioneer will be sourcing the glass from Panasonic. Pinoeer will continue to do their own design work and make their own electronics
By "display" I meant the same as "glass". I guess I need to brush up on my terminology.
No trailing tennis balls there.
..the Panasonic Plasma line. They make some really nice Plasmas at each price point, and you should be able to find a 46 or 50 inch model for around $1500. You might not get full 1080p at that price in 50 inch but the 720p set is at least 95% as good.
I've seen that on several LCD tvs. Not all, but many. I bought a Sony SXRD mostly it did not have this problem, and it looked great on fast moving scenes. LCoS, (liquid crystal on silicon), is another variation of Sony's brand name SXRD technology. They are not as thin as an LCD or plasma set, but are only about 12" deep.
Baba-Booey to you all!
They are pretty much all LCD (and OLED) now.
Jack
I still think it's one of the best 50" pictures for about $2k.
Baba-Booey to you all!
I can't really tell you what to buy, you are going to have to just go out there and see what you like. Sets in that size and price range frequently go on sale, so keep an eye out for bargains.
Jack
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