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I'm going to get a new TV. At Costco, the 50" Panasonic plasma looked very good. They had a 45" LCD (forget what brand) that seemed to blur with fast action for some reason. Is this common with LCD? I like the plasma, as the screen is clear, even when viewed at quite an angle (my living room is wide). What problems potentially are there with plasma? I hear about burn-in being not quite the problem it was, is this true? My cable has quite a few HD channels, not sure what standard signals look like at 50". So many questions, and I'm just learning! Thanks, Dave.
Follow Ups:
I bought a Sharp LCD, which was very nice but didn't allow access to an advanced menu so it couldn't be calibrated. I replaced it with a Panasonic 37-inch plasma on the advice of an ISF calibrator, and the thing is in another league, picture-wise (it was also $600 more). If you can stand the 100-200 hours of break-in, during which you can't watch anything with sidebars and need the contrast and brightness turned down, you'll be rewarded with a stunning picture. You don't need to be right in the sweet spot as you do with an LCD, either. The LCD was sharper (more pixels), but it's almost like the difference in resolution between LPs and CDs. It just seems more natural and less fatiguing to view.
One of the blogs on the Ultimate AV site indicates that plasmas really don't burn in. What happens is that some of the pixels effectively 'stick' at a particular colour but that this is usually curable by turning the screen off for several hours or, in extreme cases, feeding it a white test pattern for several hours. Apparently the condition is not permanent like burn in on a CRT screen.LCDs with slow response times do exhibit blurring of motion. Apparently this is not an issue for displays with a 12 ms response time or better. LCDs are usually more expensive than comparable plasmas once screen size goes above the 37/40" mark so if the 45" LCD you saw was comparable in cost to the 50" plasma, it's probable that it was not comparable in quality and it may well have had too slow a response time to deal with fast motion satisfactorily.
In general plasmas have better black levels than LCDs and that definitely contributes to a better picture. They also tend to be brighter which can produce a better contrast range. On the other hand LCDs may have a slight advantage in the area of colour accuracy and plasmas have a more reflective glass screen in front of the display and are apparently more prone to reflection problems than LCDs so an LCD may be preferable if you are troubled by reflections on the screen. It was that screen reflection issue which led me to choose an LCD over a plasma when I replaced my CRT a couple of months ago and I have been very happy with the LCD which is virtually reflection free, even when placed at the angle which was most troublesome for reflections with my CRT.
There are plusses and minuses with all technologies and a large part of getting the best results is simply ensuring that the minuses of the technology aren't exacerbated by the problems in your situation.
David Aiken
Thanks for the info. It's a few wks before I buy something, and I appreciate all the info I can get. It ain't like the old days of choosing between the B/W RCA or the B/W Zenith. Oops, I may have just dated myself. Oh, well.
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Yes, I thought about projection, but the room must always be pretty dark for that to work best. Sometimes there's a lamp on or curtain open in the living rm, (spouse reading a book or something). It seems projection would work best in a video-dedicated room, instead of a busy living room. Of course, if putting in a movie & cranking up the sound system, I black-out the windows & prepare the room for optimum experience. Popcorn, nuts, beer optional.
clicky
The 50" Pana plasma is awsome.
Make sure it is supplied with the HDMI card.
thanks,
bill
TH-50PHD8W simply amazing
I hope it is a good set. Not sure about the HDMI card, hate to sound stupid, but how do I know if it is supplied? Is this something upgradable? Also, I haven't really checked if the 50" Pana is supplied with enough inputs and outputs. What with the DVD I have, the H.D.DVD I will need to get someday, the cable (HD DVR), the stereo (Denon with Def Tech spkrs), and of course, I now have a good reason to pitch out the stupid VCR. I guess I'm gonna have to learn more about the proper HD connections to use. I don't mind paying a bit more for good quality cables.
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