Plasma or LCD

I recently made the plunge myself and the deciding factor for me was plasma's superior viewability in bright light. (My TV room has several large windows and I live in an extremely sunny climate.) If that had not been a factor, I would definately saved my money and bought LCD. I could not tell a significant differance in picture quality. Good luck!

I think that plasma is on its way out and that there may be new LED versions by the end of the year. Or you could check out the new DLP projectors that are available now.

plasma-- better response time (for fast action), no limit on color display--much the same as advantages of CRT. Downside-- shorter life that LCD or CRT.

If you want to go CHEAP, buy the plasma, if not purchase the better LCD. Don't worry about the ambient light, get up and close your blinds !!!

Plasma are good for viewing, but use a lot of power and have very short lives.

LCDs are often plagued by "shadows" when something moves, some are so bad that for example text that moves cannot be read easily. Best test is to make a video of green grass from about 20 feet away (6-7 meters) and move the camera slowly. Watch the video on the LCD, if the image "pumps", then do not buy! Wallpaper with a small pattern will do the same.

The problem is caused by the screen not being able to change colour quickly enough....

Present day LCDs have poor black/contrast, because the backlight "Leaks" thru....make sure that you have a good black contrast, few have.....

There are some new technologies coming onto the market that will both reduce the price and increase the quality, especially of the black areas of a screen.......

My advice is to buy a cheap LCD for now and be prepared to wait another 12-18 months....

Without a doubt you should go with an LCD. Plasmas are a dying breed. Particularly if you use a DVR or watch a lot of ESPN or anything that has a 'ticker' along the bottom of the screen. If there is a particular image on a plasma screen for an extended time period, such as a paused movie, they are succeptable to burn-in. You will see a ghost image of what was paused all the time, and it never goes away. Plasmas used to have the advantage of being available in larger sizes, but now that it has become more economical to produce large panel LCDs, there's no reason to go with a plasma. Also, you may be better off to save your money and get a 720p/1080i set rather than the much more expensive 1080p sets. Your high def broadcasts from the cable or satellite providers arent in full 1080p anyway. Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies are really the only thing to watch in 1080p at this point. I doubt you can pick up the difference between 720p and 1080p at all unless it is paused and you have the two side by side. By the way, if you want to get a high def video player, go with blu-ray over HD-DVD. It looks like HD-DVD will be defunct before too long. Make sure your TV has at least one HDMI port. It allows you to use a single cable for all digital audio and video without any loss of quality due to conversion. Also be wary of the term "HD ready" because that usually means that you need to seperate (ATSC) tuner to receive an HD signal. Most have an ATSC tuner built in as well as analog NTSC.

The burn in problems with the plasma sets have been solved, so that's not a problem. I don't know if this has changed since I bought my plasma, but for the larger screen sizes (50"+) the LCDs are more expensive, especially at higher resolution.

Bottom line is to get the up-to-date reliability ratings, decide which sets you like the picture of (this is subjective) and then buy on price.

I dont know who told you the burn in issue has been solved. It's inherent in the technology. Go ahead and leave a scene paused for multiple hours and check it out.

Let see if I can help you with this:

No to make it so long. Over 50" buy a Plasma if you like your money and display quality. Or wait few years till LCD reach the display quality of Plasma.

Diference between Plasma and LCD technology
Plasma and LCD panels may look similar, but the flat screen and thin profile is where the similarities end. Plasma screens, as its name suggests, uses a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells charged by precise electrical voltages to create a picture. LCD screens (liquid crystal display) are in layman's terms sandwiches made up of liquid crystal pushed in the space between two glass plates. Images are created by varying the amount electrical charge applied to the crystals. Each technology has its strengths and weaknesses.

Alhuey

My two cents' worth: I was in the market for an HDTV last fall and ended up going for a 42" LCD after looking at plasma and DLP displays.

Plasma: I could see the pixels from a normal viewing distance. Ugh! (so yesterday!) Worse, the displays flicker at the refresh frequency - which was quite perceptible - and which drives me bonkers. I cannot stand flickering displays.

Plasma displays, like all gas-discharge light sources, also suffer from "sputtering." Sputtering results from minute quantities of material that is ejected from electrodes and other surfaces as the result of high-energy ion impact (the "plasma" is an ionized gas inside the display whose UV output excites the phosphors, producing the red, green, and blue colors that make up the image). This material is deposited on the phosphors and interior display surfaces and eventually causes them to darken. For my part, plasma displays are definitely out.

DLP: DLP is a reflective electromechanical technology. It does not generate its own light but, rather, depends on external light sources which, at the DLP chip surface, can be extremely intense. This makes for a bright image, but the light intensity can damage the chip - especially in larger sets where much light must be distributed over a larger surface, requiring higher-intensity light sources. Once the chip is damaged, it must be replaced - an expensive proposition. The more quality-conscious manufacturers insert IR-absorbing filters between the source and DLP chip, mitigating the problem. These sets are generally free from such problems, but they cost more.

The other drawback to DLP (IMO) is the restricted viewing angle. Because the image is projected onto the screen from behind, the image is brightest dead-on but quickly diminishes with increasing viewing angle. The image is also fuzzier at increased viewing angles because the light is diffused more through the thickness of the display surface at these angles, causing adjacent pixels to optically mix. So much for the advantages of HDTV.

My particular choice was a 42" Samsung LCD HDTV. Very bright, great contrast, great resolution, wide viewing angle, and no flicker.

Plasma is the way to go. Check out some real good deal's

Doc Enterprise

http://www.nextdaypc.com/docep

Good shopping.

Al