S_L
perhaps the articles have you thinking plasma, but the polling here is heavily favoring LCD. LCDs have improved dramatically over the last 12-18mos.
when we arrived here a few months back I intended to buy plasma, but found LCD to offer a better overall value with a picture quality that matched plasma (to my dismay) at a better price point. Love the set (Samsung 40" 1080p) but agree w/ DanielL that the cablecom digital video is surprisingly poor quality, and these imperfections are only bigger and clearer on a big monitor. that said, both display technologies are quality, so i suggest you look to see what is on sale!
One point that no-one seems to have mentionned here yet is that with Plasma you will get a higher power requirement. A plasma is a gas that is electrically charged so that the atoms get their electrons stripped, therefore, the very nature of a plasma means that you need more electricity to generate the plasma each time you turn the tv on and run it.
I have a three year old Sony LCD TV and the picture is great.
I have been agonising over this choice too, but perhaps this debate is now moot, since OLED will take the lead, in perhaps a year from now. A far superior technology with lower power consumption, the first displays will be on sale from Sony by the end of this year.
See, for example:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/s...nch-oled-hdtv/
for a shot of their 27" display
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic...emitting_diode
for the technical background.
the debate isnt really moot, as oled is still "new technology" which is always expensive and even when it offers a lot of advantages, will take a long time to filter into the market place.
a year is a long time to wait for a technology which has not been comprehensively tested.
That's probably because most people have an LCD.
I would say as a rule of thumb, if you want to have something under 36" go LCD. They are smaller, the motion blur they used to suffer from has gone and they are cheaper + you won't find many plasma's smaller than 37".
If you want 42" or bigger go Plasma. You won't find many LCD screens bigger than 40" and they start to increase in price dramatically.
Panasonic used to say they would only make Plasma telly's because LCD was inferior at larger sizes, I'm not sure if this is still the case but I guess thats a pretty good guideline.
If you have a massive living room which can take a large telly go Plasma, otherwise pick LCD.
http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html
Viewing calculator to assess which screen size you need.
Hi,
who can help me in making a choice between HD and Full HD?
http://hdguru.com/?p=34
1080p displays are defined as HDTVs with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 that refresh the entire image every 1/60th of a second
The Claim
1080p displays are the only HDTVs you should consider buying.
The Reality
The concept of a 1080p being the only HDTV you should purchase is a misinformed generalization. This myth has been perpetuated by various HDTV manufacturers and retailers. The reality, a high contrast ratio display with deep blacks will be perceived as sharper than comparable size 1080p display with a lower contrast ratio (see below for more on contrast ratio). Screen size is another factor.
1080p HDTVs, with screens less than 45” have little inherent advantage over 720p displays. The smaller the display the harder it is to see a detail improvement when compared to a 1080p display. Why? The 720p and 768p screens under 45” already pack the pixels very tightly together.
A similar effect can be observed with 7′′ and under standard definition TVs (480 lines of resolution). Theses tiny TVs appear very sharp because the lines of resolution are very close to each other.
Another consideration what will be your viewing distance? The further back you sit from the optimum viewing distance for 1080p (see chart) the harder it is to see the difference between 720p and 1080p. When you sit back beyond the maximum 720p viewing distance, you simply can’t justify the added cost of 1080p display.
What to do about it?
For screens below 45” consider a 720p display with high contrast and deep blacks over a 1080p display with lower contrast ratio. With the picture controls properly adjusted, you will be seen a wonderful sharp detailed high definition image that looks better that the 1080p model and costs less.
Copyright 2006 HD Guru (sm) All rights reserved.
Misterazz
HD and Full HD can mean the same thing so ignore these terms.
The things you need to look for are 720P 1080I and 1080P
most if not all 720p machines will do 1080I this is to say that only half the pixels are shown at any one time and the lines interlace so it looks better than 720P but its more of an optical trick,
1080P has all 1080 lines showing on the screen at the same time, which is the full quality that all currrent new technology uses Bluray, HD DVD, HD TV (some), PS3, Xbox360 and so on,
all new stuff is coming out supporting 1080P so if you can affford it go for 1080p, if you cant afford it then 720p is still far better than you will have been used to without a HD TV,
I hope this helps
Sam
This is a fairly dated fact. There are plenty of LCDs available at sizes above 40". Most manufacturers will have at least one at each of the 40-42", 46" and 52" ranges, plus some go larger. Sony has 3 or more different TVs at each of these sizes.
To the OP: Go to the shop, look at a range of screens and decide which picture you like best. I would also recommend visiting a few different shops as the same TV might show different quality pics at different shops depending on how each shop has set up the digital feed (is one feed split to 40 TVs? has the shop tweaked the setup for each TV to maximize the picture? etc.). You'll want to talk through these issues with the sales persons and pray they have a clue about what you're talking about.
Do you know if the PS3 code/region-free for DVDs and games?
Hi my friends,
thanks for the really professionnal answers
OK,
I went window-shopping and had the sales-clerk to put me the same signal through several brands, models and sizes.
The pure subjective results were.
1. Given same size and price range, Plasma is better. Hands down.
2. Newer LCD models that are better than Plasma are way more expensive.
3. Given the same HD source ( a Blueray Disk for example ) the difference in quality is visible between a 1080p and a 720p. the moving shapes look the same but the static ones show pixelization on the 720p while the 1080p show them much rounder and sharp.
4. With an standard video source there is no discernible quality difference between 1080p and 720p.
I've found the price difference between same model 720p and 1080p is not that big at netto24.ch ( only some 300 CHF ) but is more at the shops were the 720p are being put on sale
example 50" plasma TVs
Panasonic TH-50PX70E 720p CHF 2'686.00 ( CHF 1999 at the shops, on sale ) Panasonic TH-50PX700E 1080p CHF 2'956.90 ( CHF 3200 at the shops )
I have to side with Plasma.
I have a friend in the UK who is a consumer addict. He always buys the latest and best gadgetry, but at the same time is very particular and analytical about what he buys. This involves weeks of internet research, general opinion, questions directly to manufacturers. He pined for weeks over the LCD/Plasma situation and eventually plumbed for Plasma- Panasonic 37". High Resolution, great picture with fast response time.
Myself and two other mates were so convinced of his analysis that we bought the same TVs aswell. All of our front rooms are like strange doppelgangers - something akin to Alice in the looking glass.
As for the burn out thing - well by the time it fizzles out we will all be watching Laser TV or something or maybe even having it pumped directly into our brains via wireless. Or maybe we'll all have those glasses with TVs in them that will provide an alternative 3D reality as we walk round the streets, thinking we're in the jungle. Or maybe Earth will have exploded and we'll all be tiny pieces of dust drifting through the cosmos. Or maybe there will only be one TV Channel and that will be 24 hour Ant and Dec, so we won't want to watch TV anyway.
Regardless - if it looks good, then get it. Don't pay the earth, cos you'll want a new one before too long anyway and it will have to have that new function that everyone raves about.
I think this is correct...well pretty sure it is
DVD's no it's not, games yes it is (but on-line may not work) + Blu ray currently region free also (for how much longer I do not know!)
However with a little intelligence and a few tools on a pc you can strip regions off a dvd making it playable in everything
Alternatively borrow/steal a PS3 and take it into the shop to try them out + bluray disc of course (My mates plan, got some strange looks but he's happy with his new TV!)
Without meaning to hijack this, can I throw in a slightly different angle: it's been mentioned before in this thread that LCDs are better for being hooked up to a pc. Does this apply specifically for if someone is watching a downloaded movie/tv series? It's even possible to download things in HD...if you did that, is this the sort of scenario where LCD would come out on top when hooked up to a computer? Or could plasmas display those images just as well?
Thanks
I think plasma has affected your brain. LCD does not do that.
krlock3
Sorry the models I posted are in fact not 1080p but 1080i
The 1080p plasma models ara more expensive
from the netto24 web site :
Panasonic TH-50PZ700E SFr. 3'618.80
Panasonic TH-50PZ70E SFr. 3'145.30
I am not that sure then what is the difference between the 70 and the 700
the difference is clear then between the PX (1080i) and the PZ (1080p) is then that
AS I understand it both models use the same panel, but the 700 has a superior speakers and sound.
If you need sound go 700, if you use an external amp don't worry about it.
Its not about image quality.
An LCD screen will display much higher resolutions than a plasma and is therefore better suited to a pc display. It will work exactly the same as a monitor.
A plasma will also display just as well, but the resolution will be lower..1080i is 1280 by 720 I think...may be wrong.
Yes you can download stuff in HD, but the sizes are much much bigger...DVD (blueray) quality goes up from 4gb to 30gb +