Why do people say Plasma is the best picture quality?

[Red Squirrel]

Funny since I was looking at TVs at walmart a while back and the plasma (there was only one on display) was way good quality compared to the LCDs all around it. Though aparently LED is even better then plasma but I have not seen it for myself.

It's hard to judge when looking in stores though, they play with the settings to deceive you. For example they'll make a more expensive LCD look better then a cheaper plasma, or if there's a TV they're trying to get rid of, they'll set it so it looks better, etc... I heard all their tricks.

The downside with plasma is apparently they wear out over time. So the quality won't remain as good. Not sure if this is true though, I've only heard this and it was a long time ago, maybe they've gotten better. Some crappy LCDs may have wear out issues too, and burn in.

 

[vi edit]

The downside with plasma is apparently they wear out over time. So the quality won't remain as good. Not sure if this is true though, I've only heard this and it was a long time ago, maybe they've gotten better. Some crappy LCDs may have wear out issues too, and burn in.

At 8 hours a day of viewing, it'd take about 10 years to reduce the brightness of a plasma by 50%.

If that's a problem...then you watch too much TV 🙂

Edit - that's at 30,000 hours. That's what it was with my older plasma. It's now up to 60,000 hours. So either 8 hours a day for 20 years, or 16 over 10. Either way, it's a non-issue for most consumers.

 

[Apex]

At 8 hours a day of viewing, it'd take about 10 years to reduce the brightness of a plasma by 50%.

If that's a problem...then you watch too much TV 🙂

Edit - that's at 30,000 hours. That's what it was with my older plasma. It's now up to 60,000 hours. So either 8 hours a day for 20 years, or 16 over 10. Either way, it's a non-issue for most consumers.

100,000 hours on many of the newer plasmas now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

At 8 hours a day of viewing, it'd take about 10 years to reduce the brightness of a plasma by 50%.

If that's a problem...then you watch too much TV 🙂

Edit - that's at 30,000 hours. That's what it was with my older plasma. It's now up to 60,000 hours. So either 8 hours a day for 20 years, or 16 over 10. Either way, it's a non-issue for most consumers.

Hmm that's not too bad then. It would only be an issue in a commercial setting where it's running 24/7 but guess in that case they can use an LCD or even a projector so they only have a bulb to change. (Ex: Retail stores with displays, NOCs and such).

 

[rivethead]

100,000 hours on many of the newer plasmas now.

While 100,000 hours is a lot, so is 50% (less bright).

Doing the math and assuming straight-line degradation, it would only take 250 days at 8 hours a day to experience a 1% dimmer screen.

Would it be noticeable? I doubt it, but 5% might and that's only 3.4 years at 8 hours a day.

 

[Howard]

Isn't the perception of brightness logarithmic?

 

[JackBurton]

While 100,000 hours is a lot, so is 50% (less bright).

Doing the math and assuming straight-line degradation, it would only take 250 days at 8 hours a day to experience a 1% dimmer screen.

Would it be noticeable? I doubt it, but 5% might and that's only 3.4 years at 8 hours a day.

And what's stopping you from increasing the brightness of a plasma? This can be adjusted over time to keep the same brightness.

 

[rivethead]

And what's stopping you from increasing the brightness of a plasma? This can be adjusted over time to keep the same brightness.

Well, I would assume you can only dial brightness so high.

Same reason a Marshall amp can't get any louder than "11"

 

[kalrith]

Well, I would assume you can only dial brightness so high.

Same reason a Marshall amp can't get any louder than "11"

New plasmas can get quite bright at max settings. I would say that you could easily keep the same brightness for many years by turning up the dial. At 8 hours per day for 20 years, you'd be at 60k hours. If the brightness reduction is linear, then that's a 30% decrease in brightness. My plasma is probably 35% lower than max brightness, meaning it could sustain my preferred level of brightness for 20 years at 8 hours per day (I actually average 4 hours per day). As much as I like my TV, I would be very sad if it were still my main display in 2029.

 

[vi edit]

Well, I would assume you can only dial brightness so high.

Same reason a Marshall amp can't get any louder than "11"

But I only ran my plasma at about 40% brightness. So I had lots of room to keep bumping it if needed.

Again, a non-issue.

 

[spidey07]

Because it is.

/thread

 

[Apex]

While 100,000 hours is a lot, so is 50% (less bright).

Doing the math and assuming straight-line degradation, it would only take 250 days at 8 hours a day to experience a 1% dimmer screen.

Would it be noticeable? I doubt it, but 5% might and that's only 3.4 years at 8 hours a day.

These plasmas are rated at 500 to 1500 cd/m2 brightness.

For reference, a good CRT HDTV, when new, put out about 300 cd/m2.

At half brightness, you're still not going to want your TV calibrated to even close to the max possible output.