OT: Which is better...

[catdude33]

LCD or plasma televisions.  I'm looking to make a purchase and I just don't know which way to go.  tia.

[ednksu]

LCD

plasma still has issue with burn in.  if you are a gamer/like sports/ watch network tv with logos in the bottom of the screen stay away. 

LCDs doent have quite as nice a picture, but they are more versatile (sp)

[catdude33]

ttt

[catdude33]

I wish this hadn't been moved.  Now I'll never know which TV to buy.

[AzCat]

Plasma. 

LCDs have garish colors, don't do blacks well at all, and quite a few of them have problems with motion blur as well.  A bunch of the larger models from several manufacturers routinely exhibit manufacturing defects in the glass that might or might not be viewed as a warranty issue by the builder (Sharp and Sony come to mind immediately and probably Samsung since their glass comes from the same plant as that used by Sony). 

While it's true that you can burn images into a plasma, the newest generations are less likely to experience burn in than are CRTs so it's not a huge issue any more.  On the upside plasmas are a whole heck of a lot closer to a "look out the window" experience.

[ew2x4]

Will you be using your computer on it at all? Plasmas have rectangle pixels resulting in really strange resolutions. LCD's have gotten to be really good. Plasmas are not bad. In all honesty, just find a nice looking set at a good price. Just get a 4 year warranty.

[AzCat]

Will you be using your computer on it at all? Plasmas have rectangle pixels resulting in really strange resolutions.

It's not rectangular pixels on the plasmas, it's the goofball 5:4 aspect ratio of some LCD monitors that causes the problem.  If you're using a PC that can output a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio you'll be fine with any HDTV if it has a sharp enough picture to render text well. 

LCD's have gotten to be really good.

They've gotten better but most still have picture quality issues of some sort though how annoying they are depends on the viewer.

In all honesty, just find a nice looking set at a good price. Just get a 4 year warranty.

Personally I'd skip the extended warranty and spend the cash on something like this.  Plasmas as a technology, for example, have a failure rate over the expected life of the product of around 3% (or so a trade rag claims).  Odds are you won't use the warranty and if you need to have the set repaired the cost is usually in the same ballpark as the cost of the extended warranty.  Caveat emptor with el cheapo sets though.

[waks]

LCD or plasma televisions.  I'm looking to make a purchase and I just don't know which way to go.  tia.

Chico is by far the most knowledgeable on this subject. I've read some so I'll give it a whirl..


LCDs are better if you're planning on watching them in an area with a lot of light. Plasmas are better if the area you're going to have it in doesn't have a lot of windows and you'll be watching it with the lights off. LCDs have trouble with the dark, dark blacks while Plasmas have trouble with burn in and glares. Both technologies have been greatly improved though and are getting better and better every day. LCDs are also lighter than Plasmas but they are hard to find about 50" where Plasmas are sold up to 65" for decent prices.

I have a Toshiba LCD that I bought a couple of years ago and I love it. I haven't had any complaints for it in any way.

The debate right now seems to be a lot like the current Apple vs. PC debate. I don't think there is one right answer. It's more one of personal preference. It probably has a lot to do with what brand you look at and maybe not as much to do with plasma or lcd. Toshiba, Panasonic, and Sony are always going to put out a good product. While you can also buy something crappy like Westinghouse, etc. There's a lot of stuff on the internet that you can read that would probably be more helpful. Also, going to a store and just comparing one to another might help as well, although the environment isn't exactly like your home living room.

[ew2x4]

Will you be using your computer on it at all? Plasmas have rectangle pixels resulting in really strange resolutions.

It's not rectangular pixels on the plasmas, it's the goofball 5:4 aspect ratio of some LCD monitors that causes the problem.  If you're using a PC that can output a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio you'll be fine with any HDTV if it has a sharp enough picture to render text well. 

LCD's have gotten to be really good.

They've gotten better but most still have picture quality issues of some sort though how annoying they are depends on the viewer.

In all honesty, just find a nice looking set at a good price. Just get a 4 year warranty.

Personally I'd skip the extended warranty and spend the cash on something like this.  Plasmas as a technology, for example, have a failure rate over the expected life of the product of around 3% (or so a trade rag claims).  Odds are you won't use the warranty and if you need to have the set repaired the cost is usually in the same ballpark as the cost of the extended warranty.  Caveat emptor with el cheapo sets though.

Either way, a funky resolution is usually not supported by most video cards. Unless you get a 1080p resolution plasma, it's a problem you should look into if you will use it. I don't care about the back story, it's a problem. And if I'm spending close to $2k on something as fragile as a tv set, it's getting a warranty.

[AzCat]

You're missing the point: it's not *plasma* that causes the problem with PCs attempting to display oddball aspect ratios, it's the oddball aspect ratio the oddball PC is attempting to display.  E.g., a laptop with a native 5:4 display is going to look goofy on a 16:9 plasma, LCD, DLP, CRT, etc.  It doesn't matter what display technology you use, if your PC is designed such that it expects to only output one particular aspect ratio while your display device expects to display only others you're going to have some issues. 

[The Whale]

I went with a plasma for my basement, and don't have any complaints.  During the day, the glare coming in isn't even noticeable.

[AzCat]

LCDs have trouble with the dark, dark blacks while Plasmas have trouble with burn in and glares. Both technologies have been greatly improved though and are getting better and better every day. LCDs are also lighter than Plasmas but they are hard to find about 50" where Plasmas are sold up to 65" for decent prices.

That's fair but be sure to put those comments into context: the present generation of plasmas have less issues with glare and burn-in than do the CRTs everyone has been using since the 50s.  Blacks on the present generation of LCDs are pretty good if there's a sufficient amount of ambient light in the room. 

Big LCDs, even the newest ones, seem to have pretty frequent banding & clouding issues, those issues are why I finally chose plasma over LCD.  Some manufacturers (e.g., Sharp) have stood behind their better sets and have offered replacements for sets with defective glass; others (e.g., Sony) have essentially told their customers to &@#% off saying that some banding and clouding is normal on an LCD.  If you're price sensitive you'll probably be buying online which will preclude returning the set (in most cases online sellers won't take large sets back even if you're willing to pay return shipping) which will leave you at the tender mercies of the manufacturer.  If you go that route do a *lot* of research on the set you're buying and whether that particular manufacturer will stand behind it and to what degree.

In store demos under banks of fluorescent lights aren't going to tell you much about how the set will perform in your living room.  Try to find a place with a demo room that has normal living-room like levels of incandescent light.  And be sure to make them give you the remote and let you adjust the picture to your taste on each set you're considering.  Most manufacturers ship most of their sets in "torch mode" knowing that if the set is turned on in-store it's likely to be under very bright lights and knowing that most consumers will mistake bright garish colors for picture quality. 

That said it'd be tough to go wrong with any of better LCD or plasmas released in the last year or so ... if you get a defect-free set anyway. 

[Racquetball_Ninja]

I'm too lazy to read all of the posts tonight but the most important question you need to ask yourself is, "what am I going to be doing with this TV?"  Once you know the answer to that question everything else falls into place.  For me LCD was the way to go but I would have loved a Plasma.