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In Reply to: Plasma TVs and Diary of a two-channel man....(plus questions) posted by Rich H on April 25, 2001 at 00:32:36:
***What should I look out for in Plasma TVs? Any particular problems?Ah, yes. It is a dying overpriced technology. It doesn't even come close to the quality offered by any number of direct view TV's.
Plasma today is strictly a life style sale - flat display if you must have THAT feature. In all other areas it basically is completely outdated.
Follow Ups:
> > "Ah, yes. It is a dying overpriced technology. It doesn't even come close to the quality offered by any number of direct view TV's.Plasma today is strictly a life style sale - flat display if you must have THAT feature. In all other areas it basically
is completely outdated." < <It's funny Victor. That was exactly my feeling until recently. I'm not a home theater guy - one reason being that I'm very sensitive to picture artifacts. Whenever I've looked at TVs, no matter what price or technology, I've been disappointed by how bad the images look. Big TVs seemed to be simply blowing up low-resolution images. My loudest laughs were reserved for people dishing out money for the crappy, smeared images on Plasma screens, just to have a cool-looking flat TV. Count me an uninterested cynic.
But last fall I was in a AV store in NYC and the best picture display there was clearly a new Plasma screen playing a DVD (don't know which screen it was). It was, aside from HDTV, the very first time a tv image made me go "WOW!" Then I encounter this Panasonic plasma set in my local AV dealer and, to my eyes, it is clearly a step above everything they have in their very large, high-priced store. It is the single display that, for picture quality alone, makes me absolutely lust after it. (The other plasma screens in the store are disappointing in comparison). I haven't seen a direct view TV yet that didn't display an annoying (to me) presence of lines, blurring, crispies or other artifacts. In comparison, this Plasma screen is like looking through a window.
So, either you and I haven't been looking at the same top-quality plasma screens, or beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Rich H.
***I haven't seen a direct view TV yet that didn't display an annoying (to me) presence of lines, blurring, crispies or other artifacts. In comparison, this Plasma screen is like looking through a window.Rich, this description makes me feel that they didn't show you the progressive scan picture on a good digital-ready tube set.
The things you mention are not present on good digital TV's - I wish I could show you the near film-like smoothness of the Toshiba tube, for example.
However, in that category you will see limilar performance between the plasma and tube. The biggest differences will be in the areas of color purity, brilliance, contrast and three-dimensional depth, where the tube is simply light years ahead.
All that presumes good source material, of course. If you go to the store, request that they connect a reasonable progressive scan DVD to the TV, and bring some good quality demo with you - depending upon your taste you might try things like Run Lola Run, All About My Mother or Lost in Space - all these would push any TV to the limit of its capability.
***So, either you and I haven't been looking at the same top-quality plasma screens,
That IS possible, of course, but I thought I have seen pretty much every display out there. Sure enough, there will be differences between different plasma units, but I was talking about the fundamental issues with that technology that apply to all units.
*** or beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
That of course is true. And plasma units ARE sexy.
Best of luck in your search.
Thanks again. I will take your suggestions to heart in my search.
I'll check out some good tube sets too, with progressive scan. Unfortunately, it's still looking like a plasma or a roll-down projector screen type of thing will fit into our family room.
Rich H.
Plasma's have several problems, not least in the colour rendition and the contrast level, they also have a tendency to smear as the plasma glows for longer than the phospor on a tubed set. The top of the range Sony 36" widescreen, (not sure of the model number in the states) is the best set I have ever seen. Yes sure you can sometimes see artifacts, but that is usually down to the poor source material, or the terible set ups that the shops have for showing sets.In a dealer they can have upwards of thirty sets running off distribution amps! I have also seen dealers demonstrate DVD using single video in leads, not even the s sockets or the RGB that a lot of the top models have.
Plasmas are sexy, but not the match of a really good CRT. Sony's line doubling feature used with a RGB input from a DVD is about as good as the technology gets at the moment. Two years time? Who knows!
Roland
Check out the new RCA 16:9 direct view (can't remember the model #(best buy)) and Philips 34pw9815 (circuit city). Proscan and Loewe too though I would not buy one myself.
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