# need advice: 120hz LED-LCD or 600hz Plasma



## DDSDTS (Jun 14, 2011)

Sorry I haven't had time to search much, and I'm not online often. Moving to much bigger home with a larger viewing
room, so I am switching from my 8 year old Sony Bravia 32inch LCD to something around 50 inches.
I like the more life like motion of Plasma, and and wondering if something like an LG 50 inch plasma
will be better than the current crop of 120hz LED tvs from Samsung and such. I know 4K is
emerging, but we're on a budget and always late adopters lol. The light weight and longevity of
LED is attractive, but I've decided that motion and refresh rate matters to me too. 
I'm leaning towards the LG plasma. Am I on the right track?


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Hi!
To answer simply, I would say your on the right track, since you mentioned a preference already. I will speak only of my own opinion, but 120/240hz displays are a deal breaker for me. Every time I see one I want to turn it off rather than expose another person to it. Having said that, I know some that like the effect, or are less sensitive to it. Some can't even tell. I believe this can be turned off to a point, but then your just left with a regular LCD. (Bad blacks, narrow viewing angles, etc.) You also mentioned a budget, so id say early adopting 4k would not be beneficial, for lack of support, extra cost, and even though there is more to the equation, the extra resolution could likely be lost on your eyes. Depending on distance. Plasma is still available, but you might have to dig to find one. ...worth it IMO. I know the others will drop in and offer more guidance. Good luck!


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Display selection really depends on your likes and environment. 

The LG and entry level samsung plasmas don't put out very much light. If you keep the room relatively bright you may be better served with an led display. Plasma does tend to have a better gradiance and better black level (traditionaly). 

LED can have issues with back level, though they have come a long way. Improvements like local dimming and better LCD masking have drastically improved black levels. Frame interpolation is a mixed bag. The higher frame rate screens have improved blurring in fast motion but they all come packaged with some form of motion smoothing (soap opera effect: SOE). Fortunately with most displays this can be turned off. Another technology that's being used is blank frame insertion, they strobe the back light between frames to make the LCD color change far less noticeable. The trade off is that you loose a significant amount of total light output.

Tell us about your viewing habits and room lighting and we should better be able to help you. 

Welcome to the forums!


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## daveinredondo (Jul 26, 2014)

PLASMA -- I just bought a 60" plasma for $750 because they will soon be unavailable anymore to my understanding. It is not smart but for a $50 you can stream to a usb device. The picture is far superior to any LED I have seen in presenting detail and true blacks. Their major negative is the glossy reflective screen glass. I replaced mine with LED because the reflections were annoying. Someone opens the refrigerator and all you see is the stuff inside reflected on the screen not the show! Placeme nt is critical for Plasma which is why they are praised in home theater settings

Why 4K?-- to address LED's inherent weakness, which is a significantly less detailed 1080p display, even with edge lighting, etc. Until the last plasmas are gone you can cheaply get so much more pop than with a similarly priced LED.

LED is still a very good 1080p performer. I have a two year old Vizio 55" LED, which is fantastic -- for an LED -- but I bought it because my old plasma reflected an annoying amount of daylight and lamplight due to its central location near windows and facing opposite the open kithen. I bought the my new Plasma because it is in another location where I can control the light sufficiently tomappreciate the outstanding picture.

So, I think you should assess where the TV will be located, and whether it will catch reflections that cannot be controlled.


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## NYPete (Oct 11, 2011)

I just helped a friend unpack and set up a Samsung PN51F5300 plasma TV yesterday. I expected it to look pretty good, but I was actually pretty astonished how good this TV looks. And I have had a Pioneer Kuro plasma for years. I am not saying it is equal to a Kuro (it isn't) but I am used to a great picture and I thought this had a great picture. I consider it an absolute steal for the $550 or so it is going for. Turn off the Eco sensor right away, which was making it dim. With that off, it was plenty bright and punchy. Red Sox-Yankees game looked great, and some high def basketball on ESPN looked fantastic last night.

The one caveat I have is that the screen is quite reflective and a light directly opposite the screen will be strongly reflected. He had one of those halogen torchier type floor lamps that when it was on high would show up like in a mirror. We moved the lamp about 5 feet to the right so it's reflection was out of line of sight and problem was solved.

The plasmas are going, but Best Buy still has this model and a few other retailers. If you can, try to see one or read some reviews on it or the F5500 series which I believe is the same TV but with wifi and smart apps built in. I can't believe there is a better TV for anywhere near the price of this plasma right now. I can't recommend it more.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

Plasmas for sure have better black levels than LED,LCD tvs. I own a Panasonic plasma that is 50'' and am considering the Samsung F8500 or the F5300 just because I want a bigger screen and because plasmas will be gone from the shelves soon.
If I where you I would get the F5300 since you're on a budget and I've read nice reviews.


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## Steeve-O (Dec 3, 2010)

I just replaced my old Insignia 40 inch LCD TV with a brand new LG 60PB6600 TV about two month ago and I can say I'm really happy that I've gone with plasma. One of the main reason to chose plasma for me was the color, black level and motion aspect of it. I was a little scared to have a lot of reflection or to have image burn in issue but those two don't seem to be really an issue. Light can be turned off and with the curtain on the window TV is watchable all day long. I do use this TV with my computer but I just take little care to not leave it on with the computer for many hours when not needed and I've not seen any image retention yet. I mostly watch video and play game on my computer with the TV.

Black are really black. Color are beautiful and Image is butter smooth. 

The only issue with this TV I would say is that the smart function menu is quite laggy and is close to unusable to me. I didn't buy this TV for the smart TV function but more because it had more HDMI port and supposedly have a better screen than the 60PB5600. I would still say that for a TV that I paid 700$ CAD it's a burning deal but I will not use the smart TV function.


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