Plasma v LCD - the FACTS

Pioneer are exclusively plasma, but Hitachi and Panasonic are also big LCD manufacturers as well as plasma.

Having read the info on this site, I have to say I agree with pretty much all of it.

anything bigger than 32" = plasma for me.

I have a 32" Phillips with ambi light, and its only on some sports stuff it lets the side down.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:

Having read the info on this site, I have to say I agree with pretty much all of it.

so do I! actually, the more things go, the more I wonder why most people buy lcd tv's (apart of the price!)

However the burn in effect on a plasma is real. I have seen it in quite a few of the plasmas on display at big megastores.
Though in its defense, I have not seen in any of my friend’s plasma in a home setting. Sometimes I do get this worry for my own pioneer 427XG.

they used the default settings, which I have read are never the best for the tele, but aimed to look bright in the store, so perhaps this test is not representative?

quote:

Originally posted by {OdS}:

quote:

Originally posted by Dave996:

Having read the info on this site, I have to say I agree with pretty much all of it.

so do I! actually, the more things go, the more I wonder why most people buy lcd tv's (apart of the price!)

I would never ever buy a plasma, unless the enormous power consumption these machine have would reduce dramatically. I may sound like a moral knight (just a Dutch expression), but I find it unbelievable that people don't pay attention to these figures. The same in the US: WTF are oil prices so low over there that everybody can drive these enormous fuel-monsters.

C'mon guys, our children will appreciate it if we just pay a little bit of attention to the environment...

I have to admit that every time I have looked at LCD I have been underwhelmed. Best I have seen was a Sony with Hi-Def material but still there was something unnatural about the picture, blacks were still nowhere near the best that Plasma can do, and motion was poor.

It is a shame that Hitachi dropped their 32" Plasma as the picture on this unit can be astonishing, far exceeding the results from the LCD sets that followed it. I picked up an end of line 32P5200 and it's wonderful. I have absolutely no regrets at all!

Two words:

Samsung LCD

Andrew

sorry andrew, but i have to agree with the majority on here, lcd sucks whem compared to plasma.

quote:

lcd sucks whem compared to plasma

And when compared to a good CRT as well.

Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by silklee:
However the burn in effect on a plasma is real. I have seen it in quite a few of the plasmas on display at big megastores.
Though in its defense, I have not seen in any of my friend’s plasma in a home setting. Sometimes I do get this worry for my own pioneer 427XG.

Plasma TVs are apparently most susceptible to burn in during the first 20 or so hours. The dealer I bought mine from (Sevenoaks in Yeovil - highly recommended) prefers to get the set in and leave it running with a DVD on repeat in their spare demo room, before delivering to the customer. I was more than happy to allow the dealer to do this.

quote:

sorry andrew, but i have to agree with the majority on here, lcd sucks whem compared to plasma.

Even though I opted for a plasma, I don't agree with this, some of the latest LCDs are quite superb and for anything up to 37" you would be hard pushed to tell the difference. As always, use a speacialist retailer, don't go to Comet on a Saturday afternoon and expect to get good advice or see the sets properly set up.

Gary

gazza, all the threads i've read on plasma they reccomend turning the contrast and brightness down for 100 hours not 20, so if you buy one from your dealer you still have the over 80 hours to worry about the damage you may cause ?

Gary,

this is a very good point. You should never judge either an LCD or a Plasma screen from a quick walk into your local Comet or Currys (or similar). Usually the screens are left at default settings or in "exhibition" mode and the result is often much too bright.

Sadly it's not just the high street chains that are guilty here. Even walking around a show you can see screens achieving only a fraction of their true potential because they either haven't been set-up or they have been set-up poorly.

When I first plugged in my 42" Fujitsu plasma I was horrified by the image until I remembered that their default settings are miles from optimum. Changing the picture mode to FINE, and a few minutes with the test screens from the n-Vi and my favourite set-up disc (opening from Master and Commander - ideal for tweaking contrast and brightness) allowed me to get a picture that is quite breathtaking.

quote:

Originally posted by Bas V:
I would never ever buy a plasma, unless the enormous power consumption these machine have would reduce dramatically. I may sound like a moral knight (just a Dutch expression), but I find it unbelievable that people don't pay attention to these figures. The same in the US: WTF are oil prices so low over there that everybody can drive these enormous fuel-monsters.

C'mon guys, our children will appreciate it if we just pay a little bit of attention to the environment...

obviously, watching tv will damage our children more than tv's power consumption will! oh and next time you use a vacuum cleaner, don't forget that it uses as much as 6 to 8 times more power than a plasma tv. my suggestion: stop cleaning and watch movies instead

I fully agree with you about US cars however. everyone on the planet tries to reduce fuel comsumption, everyone but one!... but that's another topic I guess...

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
gazza, all the threads i've read on plasma they reccomend turning the contrast and brightness down for 100 hours not 20, so if you buy one from your dealer you still have the over 80 hours to worry about the damage you may cause ?

John

Now you mention it, I think it was considerably more than 20. My dealer left it running on repeat for several days so it was obviously more than I suggested. Anyway, the principle remains!

Gary

quote:

Originally posted by {OdS}:
1. obviously, watching tv will damage our children more than tv's power consumption will!
2.oh and next time you use a vacuum cleaner, don't forget that it uses as much as 6 to 8 times more power than a plasma tv. my suggestion: stop cleaning and watch movies instead

3. I fully agree with you about US cars however. everyone on the planet tries to reduce fuel comsumption, everyone but one!... but that's another topic I guess...

1. I don't know if that's so obvious
2. I don't vacuum that much, thanks for the argument why I don't have to!
3. Americans...

There are still things I hate about plasmas:
- Burn in
- Glossy mirroring front glass
- Color dithering (spec. on dark scenes)
- Solarisation (no smooth transistion)
- Flickering (spec. Panas in bright colors)
- Blacks can be better, but doesn't have to

Every technologie has it's pro's and con's. It depends, how well the manufacure can do it, and on what kind of artifacts you are sensible... Like with the projectors, one loves DLP, the other one can't stand 'em.

My hopes are still on SED for TVs to bring the best of both worlds together

happy watching
Adrian

In order of quality assuming well set up.

CRT
Good Plasma
Good LCD
Bad LCD - Motion problems, contrast
Bad Plasma - Solarisation, Contrast

quote:

Originally posted by Adrian Frauchiger:
My hopes are still on SED for TVs to bring the best of both worlds together
Adrian

I really hope this will be brought to the market and adopted by the final consummer. it looks very promising.

Of the 95% of plasmas I've seen in the past and recently, why are the colours unstable? Even on a good HDTV picture.

By unstable I mean rapid noise-like colour-changing fuzzyness of the pixels across the screen? With a good LCD it is rock solid.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
Try as I might I cannot see the effect to which you refer on my Panasonic 42". The picture off-air or via HDMI is extraordinarily stable. My only observation is that greens are always very green, if that makes sense. However, overall picture quality is excellent.

quote:

Originally posted by {OdS}:

quote:

Originally posted by Adrian Frauchiger:
My hopes are still on SED for TVs to bring the best of both worlds together
Adrian

I really hope this will be brought to the market and adopted by the final consummer. it looks very promising.

I have heard, that 2007 they want to start the production, but only in small capacities. In 2008 they want to go in regular, bigger series production. By then, I hope they will reach europe too...

quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Randle:
By unstable I mean rapid noise-like colour-changing fuzzyness of the pixels across the screen? With a good LCD it is rock solid.
Andrew

correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you referencing to the mpeg compression artifacts? plasmas are SO sharp that any picture looking good on a crt or lcd screen will see its defects(?) revealed on such a screen. however, I must admit that much plasma screens shown on shops either suffer of bad calibration, poor source quality or are simply too cheap to beat a good old crt.

@Adrian: crossing fingers!

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
sorry andrew, but i have to agree with the majority on here, lcd sucks whem compared to plasma.

Sorry - I agree with Andrew.

Try watching a plasma when you have nystagmus, then tell me LCD sucks. At least with LCD, when your eyes start rolling (due to the nystagmus) you don't get headaches from the blue/white flickering caused by the plasma technology; it's really hard to describe to a fully sighted person what the effect looks like, but it makes you want to be physically sick within an hour or so if you have a bad eye day in front of a plasma.

LCD might not have the blackest blacks, but at least I don't want to puck when watching one.

BTW, I still use a Sony CRT and intend to stay with it until it dies. Even at 100Hz though, I can still see screen flicker.

BTW, I have the same blue/white flickering issues with ye olde "paper white" computer monitors - truly loathsome devices. Even a highly-burnt amber screen is nicer to these eyes than one of those!

Technology progresses rapidly so maybe LCD is moving forward to a point where it can be compared side by side with plasma.

The reality was at least and probably still is that plasma is way superior in terms of contrast, back-level, colour acuracy and brightness.

I have a 55 inch Fujitsu plasma that does HD. It's amazing how bright the set is when you have the lights down. It's really quite amazing. Way better than any cinema experience on regular DVD (Seating position is about 12 feet away from the set).

The astonishing thing is that while HD is quite breathtaking that regular DVD is really quite fantastic, to the point that I don't feel a need to move to HD-DVD/Blueray. I suppose it depends on how obsessed you are with getting that transparent window effect that you get with HD on those nature programs. In the end though, regular DVD (using hdmi connection from a Undisk 1.1) can product quite an amazing, glassy transparent picture with tremendous brightness colour, smoothness and detail, and blackness.

The grey-scale on the Fujitsu is amazing--turn the colour down to zero and your get this amazing fine contrast in black and white that makes you realize why the image has such realism in colour.

The only way to go is Plasma.

Chris.