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LCD or Plasma?

Anubis

Anubis

No Lifer
So my 27in 15 year old tube TV is finally going to die and i need a new TV so might as well join the 21st century and get a HD one.

I realize this prob comes up a bit and i've done my googleing and such on the subject but it seems there is no real answer. LCDs are brighter and use less power but have a smaller viewing angle and cheap ones might have some motion blur. Plasmas use more power, are heavy, but have better viewing angles and black levels, however the suffer more in bright light and can possibly have that burn in shit happen.

Is burn in really still an issue. I remember when they first came out it was, things like channel logos (ESPN, FOX,...) would cause it with normal viewing. Does this still happen or have they fixed it.

Ill mainly be using it for games and TV, and i never just leave my TV on. I was leaning twards Plasma because the power/weight issues don't matter and itll be in an area with consistent lighting, but burn in scares me as i do sometimes play video games that have constant HUDs for hours and hours
 
"Burn in", or permanent ghosting, is not an issue on modern plasmas. Some people still do a break in routine to be safe but actual burn in rarely if ever happens these days.

There is still "image retention" at times - so a static image might ghost temporarily - but even that has been improved. If you have a HUD that is on screen for hours you will likely get some image retention, but most plasmas will have a scrolling white screen or other pattern that you can run to get rid of it, or else it should go away on its own relatively quickly. My plasma is a few years old and the only real IR I have to deal with is lines on the screen when I watch 4:3 content for a while. It typically goes away in less than 15 minutes once I go back to HD content. I imagine that this would vary by brand, but any of the decent sets these days should be fine.
 
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Anubis said:
Is burn in really still an issue. I remember when they first came out it was, things like channel logos (ESPN, FOX,...) would cause it with normal viewing. Does this still happen or have they fixed it.
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They've pretty much fixed it. It's "possible" but only if you have the same static content on the TV all the time. For example, if 80% of the time the TV was on, it had the ESPN logo on it, then yes that might burn in. However, that's only an issue for a place like an airport that has it on the same channel all the time.

I have a 3yo plasma, and I've only seen IR once. That was when we have a slideshow running for 3 hours straight at my son's 1st birthday party. The static content produced some IR that went away very quickly after I changed it to something else.
 
As an owner of a new 46 inch 240Hz LCD from a major brand.....motion blur is still an issue.

Also, the power consumption issue is not a big deal. You are talking about a savings of $100 PER YEAR. If $100 breaks your bank, maybe you should not be looking for a new TV.
 
IMO local-dimming LCD sets have superior picture, but are waaaay more expensive than most plasmas. The main LCD advantage is that any 120hz set will do proper 5:5 pulldown of film material...
 
possibly have that burn in shit happen.
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Yes absolutely. My boss has had software displaying on plasmas now for months. Clear burnin on the title bar occured.

Unless you leave a game or TiVO on Pause for a number of hours it won't be an issue.
 
As an owner of a new 46 inch 240Hz LCD from a major brand.....motion blur is still an issue.
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I'm not experiencing motion blur on a 60hz LCD set (sharp lc42d65u) . I really think that major brand or not, each model has its own quirks. My mother in law had a HELL of a time getting her HDTV. Samsung 42" went tits up on day 29, Westinghouse 40" looked ridiculous, people looked like you were on acid, and anything with movement digitized, that went back, and she ended up with a sony 40" 1080p set that is sharp as a tack, but ghosts a bit and color is not really adjustable to my standards (but to her its fine).
 
If you have good control of the lighting in the room, and are not hooking up a computer to it, plasma has the better picture quality. After the 2-3rd generation plasma panels came out, most of the image retention issues had gone away. While it is still possible (especially with connecting a PC which has a static GUI), you should not have an issue.

I have both an LCD and a plasma. The LCD is a 46" 120Hz 1080p Sharp. Don't get me wrong, it is a good TV, but it pails in comparison to a 2 year older 40" 720p Panasonic plasma in anything that has a lot of dark material. Black level detail is much better on the plasma. Now the newer LED backlight with local dimming does a lot to help this, the plasmas are still superior. I just wouldn't trust hooking a PC to a plasma (which is why I have an LCD in the one location due to the HTPC).
 
bobdole369 said:
I'm not experiencing motion blur on a 60hz LCD set (sharp lc42d65u) . I really think that major brand or not, each model has its own quirks. My mother in law had a HELL of a time getting her HDTV. Samsung 42" went tits up on day 29, Westinghouse 40" looked ridiculous, people looked like you were on acid, and anything with movement digitized, that went back, and she ended up with a sony 40" 1080p set that is sharp as a tack, but ghosts a bit and color is not really adjustable to my standards (but to her its fine).
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Yup, mine is a high end Sony (z series). I am thinking about getting rid of it and getting a Sammy Plasma.
 
If glare won't be an issue, get a plasma. Traded in my 47" LCD (that I dearly loved) for a 50" plasma in January. It's almost four months later and I still go "Whoa!" every time I turn it on in a darkened room.
 
Just like to chime in that I love my Plasma as well. I accidentally left a static image from my ps3 on there for about 8+ hours one night (white text on black background) while it was updating the firmware. Within 24 hours of regular watching, it was totally back to normal again.

Couldn't be happier - Samsung PN50B650
 
Your best bet is to find a decent B&M that has a BR feed and will let you play with the remote(take it out of torch mode) to see what you like best. Plasmas flicker like CRTs with a low refresh rate, some people don't notice it at all, just like some people don't notice the blurring on LCDs. Your best bet is to find a store, or visit friends houses, to figure out which display type you like the best.
 
ive seen them both pretty extensively, my sister has a plasma and my brother has an LCD, ive never see a plasma flicker but i have seen the motion blur on an LCD
 
ive seen them both pretty extensively, my sister has a plasma and my brother has an LCD, ive never see a plasma flicker but i have seen the motion blur on an LCD
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Sounds like plasma is the way to go for you. Barring endurance gaming sessions with a fixed HUD or using it for a PC display it seems like it is your best bet.

Why don't you consider an LED Tv instead?
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"LED" TVs are LCDs with a different type of backlighting. Once OLEDs hit the market I'm sure it will alter buying advice significantly; as of right now every "LED" TV outside of Sony's $2.5K 11" is LCD.
 
Stay away from LCDs. A lot of the movies look like post-production edits. Films should look like films, not something someone is working on in FCP. Plasmas have better picture quality. I think Panasonics are the best since Pioneer priced itself out of the market.
 
Another thing to make sure is if you have any windows or lights that plasmas will reflect. There is anti-glare coatings to help but it's obviously not as good as an LCD. Plasma PQ is just so much damn better in practically every. OLED is the only thing to finally kill plasmas once they become cheap for everyone to buy but until then it's plasma.
 
zerocool84 said:
Another thing to make sure is if you have any windows or lights that plasmas will reflect. There is anti-glare coatings to help but it's obviously not as good as an LCD. Plasma PQ is just so much damn better in practically every. OLED is the only thing to finally kill plasmas once they become cheap for everyone to buy but until then it's plasma.
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yup, Plasma beats it in everything now.....even price. However, Plasma will be the loser in the future....which is why lots of companies have abandoned it.
 
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