Ludite Qn - LCD or Plasma TV?

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Will said:
Sorry to say but that does sound like BS from the sales guy! When he says that a Plasma will 'last' 5 years what on earth is he trying to say?

There is the 'half life' issue, but I wonder what this fellow's predicition of the life of CRT televisions is? Typically Plamsa TVs of today will last as long as a CRT or LCD screen. I'd have thought that excluding unusual breakdowns (which could affect any electrical appliance or screen) you'd be looking at a heck of a lot longer than five years. Some places use Plasma screens 24/7 for years and I am sure that represents a much harder life than the average home usage.

Doesn't sound as though he'll sell many £1K+ TV sets with that statement either!

Sorry if that sounds blunt ;)

Will

Deffinately BS... problem with LCD is the backlight.... remember it is like a fluorescent tube you find in a house.... after a while they start to dim and go black.... with a plasma... no back light as each pixel is lit as required... this also bringing in the power consumption... with LCD.. as the light is always bright a constant but high power consumption... but with plasma.. as the pixels are only lit as required by the picture... less power is required for the panel.. unless you are driving it hard with a total white screen.... and then the power consumption will match its LCD rival....

Dead Pixels... normally the warranty will state that a screen can have so many pixels dead within a region... if the pixel is dead in a corner say...then you normally find the manufacturer will state more pixels have to be dead in this area than say in the centre of the screen...

I will try and get some more technical information on this tomorrow if you all like...

I have a 50in Pioneer plasma at home and it is fantastic... great pictures... also another remark.... go for a panel that has intelligent fans... (fans come on when the panel is too hot and switches off again when not needed...) never heard my fans come on and its on for 4hours at least at night...
 
Swiss Toni said:
I understood that plasmas were more fragile than LCD? is this wrong?

Do pixels still fail on the latest LCDs? and if they do, are they covered by guarentees (John Lewis?)

Cheers

Different manufacturers have different policies, but they will not swap the set until a number of pixels have failed (something like 3-5, but it depends)

If they are adjacent, then you will probably notice and it is very annoying as you seem to look for them once you know they are there.

Overall, they are definitely a lot more fragile than a plasma screen

My opinion on the quality (having plasma & LCD) is that the LCD (Toshiba) has a 'bright' picture that can look a little harsh, and the plasma (Philips) has a 'warmer' picture with a teeny bit of muzziness that I think looks a lot more natural.


Bob
 
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So...

I watch no kissball whatsoever, a little motorsport. Do I need to start looking at plasma rather than the LCD tellys I thought I had made my mind up on before?!

:crazy: :D
 
bobmedley said:
My opinion on the quality is that the LCD (Toshiba) has a 'bright' picture that can look a little harsh, and the plasma (Philips) has a 'warmer' picture with a teeny bit of muzziness that I think looks a lot more natural.


Bob

Can also very much depend on the source and the compression in use in terms of what the full size picture looks like ... As was pointed out to me recently, digital terrestrial TV (Freeview) is highly compressed and the decoding box / TV does a lot of upsizing / re-scaling to allow the picture to appear the size that you see on your screen. Watch a DVD or a High Definition broadcast (which is only just starting to become available, and at a price !!) and you will see a noticeable difference in sharpness / picture quality.

S.
 
Swiss Toni said:
So...

I watch no kissball whatsoever, a little motorsport. Do I need to start looking at plasma rather than the LCD tellys I thought I had made my mind up on before?!

:crazy: :D

Start a poll!
 
Swiss Toni said:
So... ... Do I need to start looking at plasma rather than the LCD tellys I thought I had made my mind up on before?!
Some of these past threads maybe of use to you.

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=21232&highlight=plasma
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=11350&highlight=plasma
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=18035&highlight=plasma
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16515&highlight=plasma

I would say you need to:
1.) settle a budget
2.) try to narrow down what size screen you want... 32" 37" or 40/42"?
3.) Once you've settled on 1 & 2 then go view some screens both LCD/Plasma/possibly RPJ, and see what floats your boat.

I would also suggest you steer clear of budget brands that no one has heard of that are on special deal at Aldi/Tesco/<insert supermarket brand here>. If I were to go plasma then Pioneer/Panasonic/Hitachi/Fujitsu would be top of the list with Samsung and LG on the list too. If you are interested in LCD then check out (in no particular order) Panasonic/Sony/Toshiba/Sharp/Samsung/LG. If it's RPJ then Sagem seem to be flavour of the moment and also check Toshiba.

S.
 
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Will said:
Sorry to say but that does sound like BS from the sales guy! When he says that a Plasma will 'last' 5 years what on earth is he trying to say?

There is the 'half life' issue, but I wonder what this fellow's predicition of the life of CRT televisions is? Typically Plamsa TVs of today will last as long as a CRT or LCD screen. I'd have thought that excluding unusual breakdowns (which could affect any electrical appliance or screen) you'd be looking at a heck of a lot longer than five years. Some places use Plasma screens 24/7 for years and I am sure that represents a much harder life than the average home usage.

Doesn't sound as though he'll sell many £1K+ TV sets with that statement either!

Sorry if that sounds blunt ;)

Will

yeah i took it with a pinch of salt, thats why i still bought one!!

I think he was mainly saying that they cannot be re-gassed so when they go, they are 100% fit for the tip and cant be repaired.
 
Sed

Not wishing to be prophet of doom but if this technology-SED takes off next year the plasma v lcd arguement may become a distant memory. Developed by Canon and Toshiba! http://www.tvauthority.com/sed-tv-information/toshiba-sed-tv-overview.asp
Until the broadcast content/technology catches up, the potential advantages of digital HD sets will remain largely unrealised. The final generation of CRT boxes still offer a very good picture for the money especially with respect to contrast ratio and the depiction of fast movement -like football! thats if you can find any left for sale?? when you are test viewing in the shop be it lcd/plasma /crt try to get them to show you a terrestrial broadcast picture rather than the ubiquitous Computer generated HD Promotional material they normally show on all their sets.
 
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grober said:
Not wishing to be prophet of doom but if this technology-SED takes off next year the plasma v lcd arguement may become a distant memory. Developed by Canon and Toshiba! http://www.tvauthority.com/sed-tv-information/toshiba-sed-tv-overview.asp
Until the broadcast content/technology catches up, the potential advantages of digital HD sets will remain largely unrealised. The final generation of CRT boxes still offer a very good picture for the money especially with respect to contrast ratio and the depiction of fast movement -like football! thats if you can find any left for sale?? when you are test viewing in the shop be it lcd/plasma /crt try to get them to show you a terrestrial broadcast picture rather than the ubiquitous Computer generated HD Promotional material they normally show on all their sets.
Toshiba and Canon have been hyping SED for at least a couple of years now.

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=12274&highlight=plasma

I reckon it'll be at least another couple of years before it has a foothold against LCD & plasma.

Unfortunately large size CRT's 36" WS have horrendous geometry and my eyes pick out wavy lines that are meant to be straight, personally I couldn't go back from flat panel display technology when it comes to viewing the big screens. This effect isn't so obvious on smaller screens 32" WS and below.

*EDIT* Totally agree with you on test viewing SD material though. Good advice.

S.
 
I would deffo agree with you about the 32" limit on CRT they cant compete with the other technologies above that size. So if you want a big screen it sorta rules them out I guess.
 

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