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TV Advice: Plasma, LCD or LED?

HookeyStreet

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yup .. i have an older panasonic viera 42" .. was one of my best investments in the last decade :)
only mistake i made was i bought a 42" and not a 60" .. i have 60" space on my wall .. but back then i thought '42" is big enough'

My father-in-law has an old 42" Viera plasma and it has very nice pic quality. But his wife picked it and got the version without an HDMI input, FAIL!!!!!!!! :D
 
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Nice choice, the modern Plasma TVs have gotten a lot better. I would also say that they look brilliant for movies, there are certain movies like Blade Runner that people use to check out how well the TV can handle blacks.
 

Wrigleyvillain

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Yeah definitely will get one with with HDMI. GF's laptop has a Blue Ray drive and occasionally I'll haul my rig out to the living room while she's at work... :)
 
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Well I had experiences with our old 58"(I think lol) Panasonic Plasma and burn in was horrible. Even playing a game would produce burn in on the things that really never moved on the bottom of the screen. Watching tv was fine but Id never use it as a monitor. We never had to turn the heater on behind the tv as the tv would heat the room LOL

I just recently switched from my 15" monitor to my 32" LCD and man I love it!
 

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I'd go for a LED backlit LCD personally, they are minorly more expensive than regular LCD's, cost a lot less on electric compared to a plasma, and a fair amount less than a regular LCD too so you'll be saving for years to come. ^_^
 
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samsung ln46c750. Awesome TV, awesome picture, great price, 3D is flawless with super stardust HD on the PS3 :)
 
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cost a lot less on electric compared to a plasma, and a fair amount less than a regular LCD too so you'll be saving for years to come. ^_^


Has anyone any figures for each type of TV ??

I would be interested in the results, to see how much of a difference there is, in newer TV's
 
D

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I have a 46" Viera I bought ~about 5 years ago...It looks awesome But not as good as my LG LCD
but the Viera is 720 and the LG is 1080..

The LG has way better contrast than the Viera and the LG costs about 1/3 to watch...
My Mom has the LED version of my LG and I cannot tell a difference in Picture quality for TV or games...From what I gather the only difference is the LED is expected to last a little longer.

Personally i wouldn't bother with the 3D crap.
I went to Best Buy to see it and it's meh
You only get get 2 sets of Glasses and they are $200 a pair for extras and Ive only seen 4 3d movies available and you need a special BR player to watch em...
And as of now there is nothing Standard about em..So that may change and you may end up needing to buy something else..imo 3D will have to wait until Home Holographic units are out LOL
 
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The LG has way better contrast than the Viera and the LG costs about 1/3 to watch...

No. :shadedshu

The only way that is even semi remotely in anyway shape or form possible is 1- you got a bad tv and 2- it's been used so much over the time you have had it that the gases have severely broken down.

Plasma's in general have insane contrast ratios when compared to LCD's, it's nothing to do with quality it's simply the design.

Plasma's run anywhere between like 1:1500000 and 1:2500000 static contrast...

You are lucky to get 1:10000 dynamic which is not nearly as good as 1:10000 static.

If you are noticing a difference like that, you seriously want to go into your menus and start getting your settings tweaked because logically speaking it's just simply impossible for that. Plasma's are sold on their contrast ratios, color blending, soft edges and the fact that they don't blur or ghost, check out the color reproduction differences-
plasma- 68 billion to the power of 236 versus lcd- 16.7 million to the power of 224
 

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Has anyone any figures for each type of TV ??

I would be interested in the results, to see how much of a difference there is, in newer TV's

i dont have any current data to back this up, but at the end of the day the differences are not significant enough.

plasma uses its "lots of power" when the screen is white
lcd uses the same "low" amount of power all the time

so when you watch a typical image both will be roughly the same

rather switch off all the lights in your apartment while watching tv
 
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i dont have any current data to back this up, but at the end of the day the differences are not significant enough.

plasma uses its "lots of power" when the screen is white
lcd uses the same "low" amount of power all the time

so when you watch a typical image both will be roughly the same

rather switch off all the lights in your apartment while watching tv

Yeah that's what I was thinking.

Cant see there being a significant enough saving by going LCD to rule out plasma TV's altogether.
 
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Consumer Reports now includes energy costs in their TV ratings. Depending on the model, plasmas can be anywhere from about the same to about twice as much to run as the same size LCD. Energy costs vary a lot by make and model. In general, LCDs are cheaper to run.
 

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Yeah that's what I was thinking.

Cant see there being a significant enough saving by going LCD to rule out plasma TV's altogether.

Good cause I'm buying that VIERA tomorrow! :) Tax is a killer around here tho while I can get it for the same pre-tax price shipped from Newegg I don't know how I feel about shipping such a large and fragile item so far.
 
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Good cause I'm buying that VIERA tomorrow! :) Tax is a killer around here tho while I can get it for the same pre-tax price shipped from Newegg I don't know how I feel about shipping such a large and fragile item so far.

They are pretty well packaged now for shipping.

I got my latest TV, a 50", shipped from England to Northern Ireland without any sign of damage even to the box.
 
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I bought a Toshiba Regza 46" 120Hz after going to many stores and looking, comparing, reading reviews. I like it. Got it on a awesome sale, speakers in it suck, but I only watch shows on it and the kids watch cartoons and the wife watches whatever she watches.


We watch movies on it occasionally.


Does it have some bleed through, yep. Does it have crappy speakers? Yep. Was it cheap and awesome for the price despiet having common issues that every factory TV has? Hell yes.


So far as all these 240, 120Hz and all? Bah, go to a store and look and buy whoat one looks best to you, and fits your budget. I got more inches for less with a TV that I expect to last 4-5 years before I end up replacing it with another. That is less than $200 a year.


The "megahurtz" argument has been dispelled by so many AV sites it isn't funny, and I tried one method using my T1i on my TV and low and behold it takes grater than 2ms shot to capture the beginnings of blur from just color change on the panel. And even this it was all of 4-5 pixels wide. That still could have been shutter blur on the cameras part. Either way its faster than you or I or anyone will notice. 60Hz is faster than the human eye can account for and refocus enough to disern. Human eye response is about 17ms on average. So a 240Hz TV is no better other than a placebo effect than a good quality 60Hz. They only advertise 240 as better as they typically use mediocre panels and give them the best rating possible. Actually most "blur" that people complaain about on newer screens is caused by poor pulldown.
 
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Well, I'm rather shocked. I haven't read the whole thread yet and won't for a while (lazy, I know) untill I actually have the money for a TV but wow, thanks for everyone's input and once the actual time of buying a TV comes, I'll edit this post.

Also, I didn't realise that there would be 3 pages of posts in a day and I assumed this was gonna be a rather slow topic but well, as I said, I'm really shocked and once again, thanks for everyone's time, contribution and effort.
 

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Hey guys I didn't get the TV yet which maybe good cause I wanted peoples thoughts on this 42" VIERA compared to the other one I linked on page 2. It's $100 more (originally only $50 more) and the only bonuses I can see offhand are "PC input" and 3/8" larger viewable (true 42"). It has a refresh rate of only 120 Hz compared to 600 on the cheaper one; tho above 120Hz is it noticeable? Also without a PC input (doesnt say DVI or VGA) I'd have to get an HDMI to DVI adapter I suppose...
 
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pc input on my Toshiba is not used. I use HDMI as it carries audio and video on one cable and a 25' cable was only $15 vs a VGA cable of $12 and either a good set of audio cables $40 or a fiber/coaxial cable $15


Don't buy it for that, and again the 600Hz is just what they come up with to spew shit numbers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate

LCD does not ahave a refresh rate like you and I think, the worst panels can have better number due to the way they are rated, and by the adjustment of voltage they are given to get the change, Many are overdriven and while it helps in the creating black sooner and better, it causes a lot of problems with fine gradient shading.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/2009/02/06/the-dark-side-of-overdrive/1


This will help explain why.


The last issue is with color depth of the actual panel. The integrated processor might be capable of 14 bit color, but if it is only a 10 bit panel you will notice banding effects along edges and transitions.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/


Her is a site I have used to test my Toshiba, my monitor and other monitors I have picked up. I really hate my Asus 28" monitor as it has banding, it looks like a 8 bit panel.
 
D

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No. :shadedshu

The only way that is even semi remotely in anyway shape or form possible is 1- you got a bad tv and 2- it's been used so much over the time you have had it that the gases have severely broken down.

Plasma's in general have insane contrast ratios when compared to LCD's, it's nothing to do with quality it's simply the design.

Plasma's run anywhere between like 1:1500000 and 1:2500000 static contrast...

You are lucky to get 1:10000 dynamic which is not nearly as good as 1:10000 static.

If you are noticing a difference like that, you seriously want to go into your menus and start getting your settings tweaked because logically speaking it's just simply impossible for that. Plasma's are sold on their contrast ratios, color blending, soft edges and the fact that they don't blur or ghost, check out the color reproduction differences-
plasma- 68 billion to the power of 236 versus lcd- 16.7 million to the power of 224

Oh yeah That TV was incredible when it was New...But 4 years at an average use of 12 hours a day took it's toll...
And it wasn't a top of the line Model either It was a Walmart special when we got it..

For the time it was dirt cheap for a 46" plasma as it only cost $896...Very cheap for 2005
It was a Pre 600hz sub field drive Plasma...We got lucky as it was one of the Models that had the Bad switch problem that effected the pre july 2006 models...everyone we know that bought one had that issue we lucked out since it still works just fine...

I don't regret getting it either It was well worth it's price...
I know the newer models don't have those issues as they have way more gas and like 3x the contrast ratio..and they are likely to last as long as an LCD but they cost a bit more to operate..

I like my LCD a bit more though...It has 100,000:1 contrast ratio with a 2.4ms response time and it's way lighter than Plasma's plus my old Plasma is only 720p where as my LCD is 1080p.

And I'm not comparing my LCD to newer Plasma's just the Plasma I have..

Just so it's known I have ZERO regrets on the Purchase of my Viera I just wish it had more than 2 HDMI ports...I know the newer models have like 4-5 like my LCD does

Here is my LCD LG 47" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV 47LD520
Details are wrong as it has 3 rear HDMI and the side HDMI


and at OP that is a good TV for the price...But it is odd as 8 months ago TV prices were quite a bit lower...I have a feeling prices will drop again when it gets closer to November
 
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Wrigleyvillain

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Whoooooooooooooo new TV day! SO excited :D
 

Wrigleyvillain

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The 42" 1080P Panasonic Viera I linked to middle of page 2. Man it's nice. Blue Ray kicks ass too.
 
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I wouldn't go for a plasma as after 5 years you need to have a plasma screen re-gassed (if it can be done).

Say what? There's no such thing as "re-gassing" a plasma TV. Plasma gives the best blacks, colors and viewing angles. It's the closest thing you can buy to a CRT TV. My electric bill is less with a 50" plasma TV than when I had a 32" CRT TV.
 

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Yeah the "modern plasma myths" were challenged and debunked early in the thread! :D
 
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