LCD vs Plasma for gaming environment

[cmdrdredd]

I've always heard that if you are gaming on your TV to avoid plasma because of IR and "burn-in" is this still correct?

Recently purchased a 40" Samsung 1080p LCD (LN40B550) because I couldn't resist the deal, $848 locally. Anyway I wanted a Plasma because I've heard they don't have bluring issues with fast motion and also that they have better PQ when watching SD programming.

I'm very happy with my LCD, but it was recommended I stick with LCD instead of going with my original thought which was for a Plasma set due to the fact that I am a gamer (Xbox360 and PS3).

What do you all think?

 

[krotchy]

Plasmas do have IR and burn-in issues still, but it really is not a big deal. Like don't pause a movie and walk away for 4 hours. However as long as you dont spend 100% of your time playing an FPS with a health bar you should be fine. Even if you do get some IR just turning on some HD programming for a while with lots of things happening will tend to even out the wear on your screen again.

That being said the 40B550 is a sweet television, and I would take that over a 42" Plasma any day because I like the look of LCD's better. Sure plasmas are more accurate and have better blacks, but I still haven't seen a plasma that can actually display a real white.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: krotchy
Plasmas do have IR and burn-in issues still, but it really is not a big deal. Like don't pause a movie and walk away for 4 hours. However as long as you dont spend 100% of your time playing an FPS with a health bar you should be fine. Even if you do get some IR just turning on some HD programming for a while with lots of things happening will tend to even out the wear on your screen again.

That being said the 40B550 is a sweet television, and I would take that over a 42" Plasma any day because I like the look of LCD's better. Sure plasmas are more accurate and have better blacks, but I still haven't seen a plasma that can actually display a real white.

A real white? I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean to say that white is more grey or yellowish?

Anyway I'm super happy with this TV and couldn't hope to have a better deal on a TV locally. I did want Plasma because they were always superior, but now that I've seen a calibrated LCD in my room I don't think it can really get better. I should have gotten a 120Hz set, but I couldn't resist the price on this. Blur is not distracting, but it is there. Plasma never have this that I've seen which is why I wanted Plasma to begin with.

None of the sets at the store were calibrated so it was super hard to determine the quality differences between them all. Reviews are all positive on the sets I researched and was looking at.

My main concern was that for games a bit of motion blur would be distracting, and then that if I got a plasma I would have IR issues with games like Halo, Gears of War etc. I didn't know which direction to go because I've heard and read everything from one extreme to the other. "gaming will kill your plasma and burn the screen" to "it's not an issue and will clear itself out if it does get IR so just don't worry about it".

Black levels are nicer on a Plasma no doubt, I can see that right away but I think this set gets good Blacks too. Like I said it was hard to tell differences with sets not being calibrated.

just wanted to get some feedback on a Plasma when used for gaming part of the time as well.

 

[olds]

I guess I am stupid or doing something wrong. My 4 year old plasma has no hint of image retention or burn in.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
I guess I am stupid or doing something wrong. My 4 year old plasma has no hint of image retention or burn in.

I notice it on every plasma I've seen when hooking a game console up to it, but at the same time I didn't know how much of a problem it would be when used in this way for long periods of time.

 

[olds]

I had a PS2 hooked to it and now a Wii. I also play COD4 via a PC on it. No issues, so far.
50" Panasonic

 

[boomhower]

I have a 50" Vizio plasma for close to two years with a 360 hooked to it with no issues. I am not a huge gamer but it has gotten its fair share.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

my plasma is doing fine. i have some IR but nothing permanent.

 

[gar655]

Originally posted by: krotchy
Plasmas do have IR and burn-in issues still, but it really is not a big deal. Like don't pause a movie and walk away for 4 hours. However as long as you dont spend 100% of your time playing an FPS with a health bar you should be fine. Even if you do get some IR just turning on some HD programming for a while with lots of things happening will tend to even out the wear on your screen again.

That being said the 40B550 is a sweet television, and I would take that over a 42" Plasma any day because I like the look of LCD's better. Sure plasmas are more accurate and have better blacks, but I still haven't seen a plasma that can actually display a real white.

My uncle got "duped" into buying that LCD. The picture is just plain awful in comparison to either of my Panasonic 720 plasmas, 50" and 42". If you gave me an LCD I'd sell it for what I could and get a plasma.

I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: gar655

Originally posted by: krotchy
Plasmas do have IR and burn-in issues still, but it really is not a big deal. Like don't pause a movie and walk away for 4 hours. However as long as you dont spend 100% of your time playing an FPS with a health bar you should be fine. Even if you do get some IR just turning on some HD programming for a while with lots of things happening will tend to even out the wear on your screen again.

That being said the 40B550 is a sweet television, and I would take that over a 42" Plasma any day because I like the look of LCD's better. Sure plasmas are more accurate and have better blacks, but I still haven't seen a plasma that can actually display a real white.

My uncle got "duped" into buying that LCD. The picture is just plain awful in comparison to either of my Panasonic 720 plasmas, 50" and 42". If you gave me an LCD I'd sell it for what I could and get a plasma.

I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

Then you've been looking at the wrong LCDs.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: gar655

Originally posted by: krotchy
Plasmas do have IR and burn-in issues still, but it really is not a big deal. Like don't pause a movie and walk away for 4 hours. However as long as you dont spend 100% of your time playing an FPS with a health bar you should be fine. Even if you do get some IR just turning on some HD programming for a while with lots of things happening will tend to even out the wear on your screen again.

That being said the 40B550 is a sweet television, and I would take that over a 42" Plasma any day because I like the look of LCD's better. Sure plasmas are more accurate and have better blacks, but I still haven't seen a plasma that can actually display a real white.

My uncle got "duped" into buying that LCD. The picture is just plain awful in comparison to either of my Panasonic 720 plasmas, 50" and 42". If you gave me an LCD I'd sell it for what I could and get a plasma.

I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

If you take it out of the box and turn it on and expect perfection then yeah...

Calibrate and adjust it, then come back and tell me it sucks.

It's a well known fact that 99% of people who buy HDTVs don't know how to adjust the color and picture settings properly.

 

[Koing]

The first 250hrs of the plasma screens life is important to it. If you lower everything this will help avoiding screen burn later down the line.

Newer models will automatically lower brightness and contrast if you leave the screen on a static image for xx amount of time. My dads screen doesn't, but mine does.

I love plasma blacks and colours. I can't stand lcd skin tones. CGI looks amazing on anything but the lcd skin tones aren't for me. But thats not to say you may not prefer the skin tones of the lcd compared to the plasma though. Take a look at a decent set of each and decide for yourself. It's a personal thing if you like one over the other and only you should decide.

Koing

 

[dwell]

Originally posted by: gar655
I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

That's complete bullshit.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: gar655
I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

That's complete bullshit.

he should say, at the same price point.
for example a $1k plasma will look better than a $1k lcd, given similar size.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: gar655
I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

That's complete bullshit.

I'm very pro plasma, but I completely agree with you. Statements like this show that people are still holding on to ideas from years ago with most of them being false ideas. It's just as bad as saying that you should buy an LCD because a plasma will burn out after 4 years.

I still think that the top plasmas outperform the top LCDs. Also, at any size 50" or above, a plasma will generally outperform a similarly priced LCD.

With any TV the source and calibration (doesn't have to be professional) are essential to getting the best picture possible. If I go watch SD broadcast TV on a top-of-the-line LCD TV in torch mode and then compare it to a Blu-Ray on a Vizio plasma that's been calibrated, there's be no question as to which picture will be better. However, that doesn't make the Vizio plasma a better TV. People are under the idea that they can just look at two TVs and determine which one has the better picture, but this is often not the case. The source could be crap, the settings could be crap, and the environment (lights, other TVs, etc.) could also be crap.

Sorry for the digression. Burn-in on a plasma doesn't occur from leaving a game paused for 8 hours one time. It occurs from not varying your content for many, many hours. Let's say that all you play is Call of Duty 4. Even if you're diligent about not playing very long sessions and not pausing the game, you're still a likely candidate for burn-in because for the entire life of the plasma it will be displaying the status bars for the game. If you play many different games and watch some movies and TV as well, then you shouldn't have any problem with burn-in. As someone mentioned before, a plasma is most susceptible to burn-in at the beginning of its life (generall the first 1,000 hours). With my plasma I downloaded a break-in DVD from this avsforum thread and ran it for the first 200 hours of the plasma's life. The DVD will constantly cycle through different full-screen colors in order to ensure even aging of the phosphors. I actually turned the brightness and contrast up a little bit in order to age the phosphors more quickly. Once I was done with the DVD, I calibrated the TV and have been enjoying it ever since. I watch TV, movies, play PS3 games, and use it with my HTPC. I've never once experienced IR, let alone burn-in. I've had it for almost 1 1/2 years. I use the pixel shifter for everything except the PC since the PC mode doesn't allow it.

 

[ivan2]

uhohs, nerd fight!

 

[dwell]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
he should say, at the same price point.
for example a $1k plasma will look better than a $1k lcd, given similar size.

That I will agree with. The advantage of plasma is that they are *much* cheaper than LCD. A $1,200 Panasonic will outperform a $1,999 LCD in most cases. Still, plasma is not for everyone. Especially if you cannot control your lighting.

 

[gar655]

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: gar655
I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

That's complete bullshit.

No it's not. So there!

I've yet to see any LCD (I've not seen any of the 240hz models) that don't suffer from annoying motion blur, which is my biggest complaint and the main reason I won't own one.

My 2007 model Panasonic 720p 50" has a noticeably better picture than my nephew's 52" 1080P, 120hz Sony, which suffers noticeably from motion blur.

I don't really care about black levels, if it looks good to me that's all that matters. LCDs do not look good to me.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: gar655

Originally posted by: Chris

Originally posted by: gar655
I've yet to see ANY LCD at ANY price that compares to even the least expensive plasma sets for overall PQ.

That's complete bullshit.

No it's not. So there!

I've yet to see any LCD (I've not seen any of the 240hz models) that don't suffer from annoying motion blur, which is my biggest complaint and the main reason I won't own one.

My 2007 model Panasonic 720p 50" has a noticeably better picture than my nephew's 52" 1080P, 120hz Sony, which suffers noticeably from motion blur.

I don't really care about black levels, if it looks good to me that's all that matters. LCDs do not look good to me.

I've yet to see gar655 in person, so he must not exist!!!