Can someone tell me the pros and cons of LCD and plasma TVs. I'm trying to decide which one to get.

2/26/2006 12:59:29 PM

BASICALLY

LCD-Bad contrast (thats the black and white levels e.g. when the movie has a very dark scene, the darkest blacks will be more gray than true black)

PLASMA- Burn in after a while, meaning a duller picture, alot of people are saying plasma tvs dont last long too, the technology is so new, no one knows how well they hold up over, say, 10 years

Those DLP LCDs are so hot right now

the next people to post will provide you with far more in depth info

cheers on getting an awesome tv, and in time for march madness!

2/26/2006 1:14:08 PM

BIG ASS CRT!

2/26/2006 1:38:25 PM

Yea, I also want to know what's DLP LCD. Is that projection?

2/26/2006 1:52:53 PM

Quote :

"Those DLP LCDs are so hot right now "

No such thing. A DLP is a DLP and an LCD is a LCD.

DLP's are the hotness however. So are the new LCD's.

I'm still holding out for oLED/oLCD panels though, hopefully in a year or two.

2/26/2006 2:22:15 PM

Get a plasma. LCDs look terrible, at least a plasma is bright.

[Edited on February 26, 2006 at 2:48 PM. Reason : .]

2/26/2006 2:48:13 PM

^^

Yeah, Noen's right. DLP uses a "light engine" and actually has moving parts (color wheel) and such. It is completely different from an LCD projection tv.

^
My LCD tv is EXTREMELY bright (800 cd/cm^2 compared to 1000 for a NIB plasma screen for the most part). Some LCD screens have high contrast ratios without overly bright whites, and still have very high luminosity as well. Plasmas are generally brighter yes, but they used to lose about 30% of their luminosity in the first year. The new "no burn-in" ones are probably better, but they still have lots of issues.

As noen suggested though, OLED screens are something to wait for. They're better in almost every way than either LCD or plasma screens, or at least they have the capability to be. Besides, when reasonably sized OLED and OLCD screens hit the market, there should be a price drop in LED and Plasma screens a quarter or two later. The OLED and OLCD screens' initial price points will be far to high compared to the already lowered price points for LCD and plasma screens to demand too much of an initial price drop from competing HD technologies, but yeah, give it a few quarters.

[Edited on February 26, 2006 at 3:28 PM. Reason : ]

2/26/2006 3:10:59 PM

Yeah and if your LCD is "extremely bright” prepare for gray blacks.

2 crossed transmittince(sp) polarizer’s with an "extremely bright" CCFL can only be so dark

its just the nature of the technology and its limits are something you can not buy around.

2/26/2006 3:34:34 PM

Get a huge projection TV

2/26/2006 3:34:43 PM

yeah 1080i crt all the way

[Edited on February 26, 2006 at 3:36 PM. Reason : .]

2/26/2006 3:36:00 PM

DLP, cheaper than both those, bright, lighter.

You can get a 55" from BB or CC for 1500-2000 right now. So prolly cheaper if you look for deals.

2/26/2006 4:00:14 PM

^^^^

Yeah, the blacks aren't as good as they were on the plasma I was considering buying, but they're still pretty damned good and I don't have a "tnt" bug burned into my screen from my law and order marathons. I think that's worth it.

^ just watch the bulb replacement costs on DLP's. They're really fucking expensive.

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/lcdtv.html

Good arguments there for LCD over DLP. Despite what people say, the black levels and contrasts on LCD tv's can be extremely good. They won't be as good as on a plasma, but like you've heard everywhere, plasma has other problems. They give most of the advantages to LCD's there.

Here's a similar comparison between plasmas and LCD's:

http://www.cnet.com.au/hometheatre/tvs/0,39026023,40036500,00.htm

Again, LCD gets the overall advantage.

Plasma and DLP both have better size/cost and image quality/cost ratios for the larger screens, but they both have more long term problems. Plasmas lose much of their vaunted brightness over their first year of use and DLP projector lamps can cost upwards of 400 bucks to replace and are NOT included in the standard warranty.

If you're not looking at something 42 inches or larger, the LCD is your definate best bet. If you have the money, the 42+ inch LCD's are the thing to get, but for the price you may want to just get a DLP tv.

[Edited on February 26, 2006 at 6:39 PM. Reason : ]

2/26/2006 6:31:49 PM

DLP with LED light engine is probably worth waiting for

2/26/2006 6:54:59 PM

^

Yeah it sounds pretty cool, due out in april:

http://www.hwhpr.com/pr/samsung/CES06/led_dlp.html

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Samsung_HL_S5679W/4505-6484_16-31641984-2.html?tag=nav

Sounds like it might be the best thing over 50"

[Edited on February 26, 2006 at 7:13 PM. Reason : ]

2/26/2006 7:11:11 PM

Quote :

"I'm still holding out for oLED/oLCD panels though, hopefully in a year or two."

Toshiba's SED should be out by then too.

2/27/2006 12:23:10 AM

Quote :

"http://www.cnet.com.au/hometheatre/tvs/0,39026023,40036500,00.htm Again, LCD gets the overall advantage."

That site lists two of the major perks of LCDs as: power consumption and weighing less.

Totally "must have" qualities! Who cares about contrast anyway?

2/27/2006 1:38:09 AM

Actually the key advantage was:

Quote :

"LCDs tend to have higher native resolution than plasmas of similar size, which means more pixels on a screen. If you're a true high-def junkie who's keen to see every pixel of a high-res 1080i/p image reproduced pixel-by-pixel (providing you have a source that high, of course), then LCDs are the way to go."

The others were just bonuses.

2/27/2006 1:43:38 AM

A "high-def junkie" is probably not watching a 1080i signal.

And a screen with the native resolution for 1080p is a real viking when it comes showing off all that awesome 1080p content floating around right now.

It's like a constant struggle to decide whether to watch the 1080p Batman Begins trailer or the 1080p version of Terminator 2!

2/27/2006 1:48:08 AM

Yeah, I already stated that for the price the Plasma and DLP's are better espescially at the larger sizes. I like, and so did the cnet editors, the higher resolution of the LCD's better than the somewhat minor improvements in contrast and brightness the plasmas offer. Like I said earlier, I have an exceptionally bright LCD with a very high contrast ratio. It's only a 32" one and outperforms (as a dual use TV and monitor) any of the plasmas I saw in its price range. That's why I agree with the cnet article and cited it.

I think if you're going to buy a huge tv then you might as well get one that'll support the highest resolutions and future video technologies. If you're not going to, you might as well wait for OLED or LED DLP stuff to come out and watch a little longer.

2/27/2006 1:56:36 AM

I got some 1080p wmvhd dvd's for my birthday, there's gotta be like.. 8 or 9 total

2/27/2006 1:58:56 AM

No plasma i've seen has had considerably better contrast/black level than a decent LCD. Also, the Sony XBR LCD has seemingly very good contrast/black level, with great brightness and viewing angle, compared to plasma. The only problem is that it doesn't look as good at non-HD resolutions as a good plasma.

If you aren't going to wall mount, and you'd be sitting at least 8ft away, I would recommend the sony LCOS (they call it the XBR SXRD). They're a bit more expensive now, but they support full 1080p (which nothing uses now, but it's good to know you have it), and look really nice.

Panasonic and Pioneer both make good plasmas.

2/27/2006 2:02:58 AM

The best advice anyone can give you:

Buy what looks best to you.

I personally think the LCD is sharper than the Plasma and can't tell much of a difference in the black-level with plasma vs. lcd (although DLP is really noticable).

2/27/2006 2:04:12 AM

^^ yeah that part's true. Standard Definition tv does look extra shitty on an LCD as opposed to DLP's and Plasmas (smoothcrim and I can both attest to that with our LCD's.)



[Edited on February 27, 2006 at 2:06 AM. Reason : ]

2/27/2006 2:05:11 AM

gotta get an upconverter

2/27/2006 2:07:21 AM

And you got a damned good deal on that one... I wish I'd been able to buy it when you did. I haven't seen it for anywhere near that price since. It's always out of stock when it is.

2/27/2006 2:08:01 AM

^^ gotta get a good up-converter. Not all up-converters are made equal.

2/27/2006 2:29:17 AM

no one has mentioned LCoS yet.. the new Sony SXRD's and the D-ILA's from JVC are amazing.. better contrast ratios, can support up to 1080P, and have no burn-in effect.

V you're right.. must've overlooked his post..

[Edited on February 27, 2006 at 2:37 AM. Reason : moron's post]

2/27/2006 2:35:37 AM

Moron mentioned the sony's, not the JVC one though.
]

[Edited on February 27, 2006 at 2:38 AM. Reason : meh, I misread it even though I saw it]

2/27/2006 2:36:33 AM

The JVC D-ILA looks better than a lot of the DLPs/LCDs in its price range, however, I haven't seen one that does 1080p on retail stores yet, and the JVCs seem to have more decoding artifacts (a tendency to form blockiness), and they don't look quite as good as the Sony for non-HD signals. However, for the price/features, the JVC would pretty much be a toss-up with the Samsung, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi DLPs, depending on what you value most in your TV.

2/27/2006 2:43:03 AM

^ I have noticed on my friends D-ILA that you have the color pixel effect, especially on whites..

I did read articles that mention the consumer level JVC's have that artifacting problem.. but the Pro models do not, and are by far the best on the market, and also support 1080p if i'm not mistaken..

I do agree with you on the Sony's.. I walked into BestBuy when my friend was buying his JVC.. and just stared at the 60" SXRD on the floor.. and was just amazed at the quality. If only they had a model without the "handlebar" speakers on the side.

2/27/2006 2:52:15 AM

no matter what you buy it gonna be the best tv in ur place, at that point u'll have nothing comparable to compare it to. Everyone who comes over is gonna be in aww and u won't know what's better cuz its the only good tv u have.

Go to best buy and compare side by side and pick one that looks good that ur eyes can tell and in a good price range and buy that one.

there won't be much regret when u bring home and enjoy it.

2/28/2006 9:42:36 AM

Everyone claims plasma tv's have a shortened life, but I dont consider 80000 hours a short life. Thats 24 hour usage every day for the next 9 years. I believe they do tend to lose their original brilliance after a certain amount of time, but I dont know how noticable it is.

Have you looked at DLP? I didn't like these Tv's a while ago but the technology is starting to grow on me and they really are the best buy for the money in my opinion. You can get a decent 50" for under $2000. That's basically 50% of what a plasma that size would cost. DLP ftw

2/28/2006 10:11:12 AM

Why

In the hell

Would you want an OLED?

2/28/2006 11:03:44 AM

Quote :

"Go to best buy and compare side by side and pick one that looks good that ur eyes can tell and in a good price range and buy that one."

Your eyes will be attracted to the brightest one and the signal coming in to those TVs is so bad that you're really just trying to decide which one is the least shitty.

2/28/2006 11:36:35 AM

Quote :

"Your eyes will be attracted to the brightest one and the signal coming in to those TVs is so bad that you're really just trying to decide which one is the least shitty."

lol

2/28/2006 11:50:05 AM

Quote :

"I believe they do tend to lose their original brilliance after a certain amount of time,"

They do.

The percentages vary depending on how well you break your TV in but I think the drop is noticable.

10,20,30%

2/28/2006 11:55:38 AM

they lose brillance gradually, and your eyes won't be able to tell unless u see a friend's. your eye will adjust with the screen will constantlly think that the image is still the standard image of a plasma.

2/28/2006 1:37:43 PM

true, but just because you cant tell doesn't mean it doesn't happen

2/28/2006 1:59:32 PM

i love it when customers buy plasma tvs that were our floor models for about a year and then don't have any warranty on them

2/28/2006 2:11:06 PM

^ that's just mean.

2/28/2006 2:42:22 PM

Quote :

"Would you want an OLED?"

Mostly just to piss you off

2/28/2006 2:52:15 PM

no i tell them there is no warranty on them

3/1/2006 11:28:51 AM

I bought a 50 inch samsung DLP from BB about a month ago for a damn good price. The picture is absolutely beautiful. There is a however a problem that I don't think anyone here has addressed though and that is video lag. The tv is great for movies and tv and all that, but if you plan on playing anything that requires a reasonable amount of reflexes and timing, you might be put out. It's not terrible but it's definitely there.

3/7/2006 4:25:05 PM

No I think thats called "shitty launch titles for the 360"

3/7/2006 5:08:31 PM

1. OLED would be the hotness, and anyone who can't see why you'd want one either 1) is stupid, or 2) doesn't know what OLED is.

DLP- don't get it. it has moving parts for crying out loud. this makes it a lot more likely to break than any of the other systems.

B/t plasma and lcd, its really what aspects of the screen quality are most important to you, and what extra amount of cash you are willing to pay for a lot of cash.

go with a sony sxrd, its decent in price and damn good on quality, and like mentioned above will have 1080p for you when you need it.

3/7/2006 5:30:05 PM