Video Asylum

Posted by Joe Murphy Jr (A) on July 01, 2011 at 10:31:22

In Reply to: RE: cool - my response posted by centaurus3200 on June 30, 2011 at 15:29:57

Panasonic rates their plasmas now at 100,000 hours until half-life. Half-life is the point when the display can only produce half of its maximum brightness. At 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, that's over 34 years. By the way, LCD manufacturers give their displays about the same rating.

I bought my 50" Panasonic in 2004, my 42" Sylvania plasma in 2007 and my oldest son's 37" Insignia in 2008. Never had a problem with any of them and none of them have a stuck or dead pixel. That's my experience.

The way the LED LCD's get their blacks darker than regular LCD displays is local dimming. An area that calls for the darkest blacks can be turned way down, but not OFF. Therefore, this is not individual addressing: with plasma, if you want the pixel at Row 7 Column 54 to be OFF, you can do it. With LED LCD or LCD, that cannot be done.

Colors are better today on LCD, and even some early LED LCDs, than just a few years ago. However, they can still, at times, have that artificial look. Plasma produces color via a completely different technology and, like CRT, produces it at the glass -- not through a filtration process starting behind the screen.

Plasmas use more power than LCDs -- that's a fact. However, most of the forums that use this as a selling point for that technology exaggerate the difference in consumption. Most of the plasmas sold today, while still not equal to LCD in power consumption, are much closer than LCD proponents would have you believe. Just remember that when you look at the power ratings, LCD is more or less a steady state consumer -- power draw is very close to constant (ie, it doesn't fluctuate a great deal with picture changes). Plasma ratings are based on the maximum draw (eg, when there are extremely bright scenes such as explosions, flashes or white screens). However, normal viewing power draw is way down from such scenes. The rating system doesn't allow for average draw, so plasma is stuck with using its maximum draw for the ratings system. There are some threads at AVS Forum where people have done their own tests on LCD vs plasma in the area of power consumption. Except for the most nitpicky people, the newest plasmas do much better against today's LCD displays than older plasmas.

Weight is something that makes me laugh when it comes to displays. Once you mount it on a wall, place it in an entertainment center or on a stand, that's it. How often do these people who whine about the weight of a display move them? Seriously, for most normal people, the only time displays get moved is when you're moving to a new house or apartment.

Silicon Image has acquired ABT, the makers of the DVDO products. You can read about the different processors they offer

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