# What made you choose LCD over Plasma?



## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

I am still in the research/shopping mode and on the fence about getting an LCD or Plasma.

For those that recently purchased an LCD:

1. Why LCD?
2. Which model did you choose and why
3. Which model was runner up?

Cheers


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

I bought a 720p 50" plasma earlier this year as I nearly watch movies exclusively and it was the most bang for buck. If I did it again, I'd go lcd- they now have better picture, better prices. I was considering panasonic, samsung, and toshiba lcd's for their picture quality and price, for what it's worth.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

ironglen said:


> I bought a 720p 50" plasma earlier this year as I nearly watch movies exclusively and it was the most bang for buck. If I did it again, I'd go lcd- they now have better picture, better prices. I was considering panasonic, samsung, and toshiba lcd's for their picture quality and price, for what it's worth.


I've never seen good contrast from any LCD. The closest are the sony's, but they are still pretty far behind.


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## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

I purchased a 24" Vizio LCD a month ago just because of the size. It's light and easy to move. Plasmas are larger, heaver and somewhat harder to move around.

For a large display, I'm waiting for the local A/V store to get in one of the new Mitsubishi DLP projectors. They're easy to move, too


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

selden said:


> I purchased a 24" Vizio LCD a month ago just because of the size. It's light and easy to move. Plasmas are larger, heaver and somewhat harder to move around.
> 
> For a large display, I'm waiting for the local A/V store to get in one of the new Mitsubishi DLP projectors. They're easy to move, too


Do you have a spare white wall by chance? A projector can make gaming go to the next level. :R

Selden, just pick up an Optoma HD20. Your tv/movie life will be transformed to a mythical world. Buying a projector was the best home theater move I've ever made and mine isn't even a Home theater type. 

I use an Optoma ep719. It's finicky but for the price it couldn't be beat.


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

I would agree with the superior picture, but lcd is arguably better in many living rooms where ambient light is an issue. Don't get me wrong, I think that the plasma was a better choice for my situation, even at 720p. Going projector, control of ambient light is a must, otherwise, most with it seem extremely happy.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

We visited Best Buy tonight... just killing time mainly, but I noticed they have some really good deals on Plasma sets. Looking online at various places it seems there are a lot of good deals on Plasmas. But, I can't help but to wonder if Plasma is on the way out. The LCD LED sets looked nice, but they are priced way too high right now.

We have a 67" DLP LED in our great room, but just recently purchased a couple of Panasonic TC-L37S1 - 37" 1080p LCD sets (one of our daughter and one for our workout room). The determining factor for me was that they seemed like the best bang for the buck at the time. I am not too picky though... DLP, LCD, Plasma... they all look excellent to me, so I mainly price shop for the minimum features/specs I want.


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## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

I think it's going to come down to price; plasma or lcd.

Do you think best prices are before or after Xmas?


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## dyohn (Apr 17, 2008)

For us it was three issues. One, weight. The LCD is lighter. Two, since I changed my HT to a mixed use theater/regular TV system, we needed to be able to watch the screen in the daytime with plenty of light in the room and the LCD simply works better in that setting. And third, we bought a 52" Sony XBR screen that to our eyes has just as nice a picture as plasma, and was quite a bit cheaper for a similar screen size.


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## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

XBRs are superb.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

This topic has been discussed so much but the general consensus is that Plasma is less expensive but uses almost twice as much power as LCD when comparing the same size Plasma is also much heaver and bulkier. Plasma has better blacks and offers little to no motion blur. LCD has richer color and is less prone to burn in.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

While power consumption is coming down on PDPs, they will likely always be significantly greater than LCD sets. From a repair perspective, any time you have more power used, you are likely generating more heat and using higher current devices. This is certainly the case in driving a PDP vs backlighting a LCD. Higher current devices are typically going to be more service intensive in the long run. Certainly we have seen lots of cheaply bulit inverters on LCD backlights failing, but we also see lots of bad YSUS and output buffers failing on PDPs. As a tech, my gut tells me that the more reliable technology will usually be the lower power dissipating system.

Yes, the blacks on PDPs can be better, but the blacks on many LCDs are good enough unless you view it under well controlled lighting. For casual viewing in well lit rooms, many LCDs can actually look better in the blacks if they have low reflective screens.


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

I use a Toshiba 46xv545u in my setup I use it for everything PC monitor,movies,games. Use to own a Plasma but my daughter took care of that so now I use an LCD. Have no problems with it good black level, gray scale was off a bit took care of that and now I simple enjoy the picture.


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## the_rookie (Sep 30, 2008)

I didn't choose LCD over plasma.

I however have some opinions that are more fact based, not biased.

1) I like Plasma's over LCD's for the blacks. I can honestly say, I have not seen a LCD have as good as blacks as my Plasma. True, I may have not seen every LCD or THe top ones, from most comparable, and even higher level models of my plasma class, I have not seen a better one.

2) I feel the 120Hz doesn't look real. It may be me, but my wife agree's that moving objects on a 120Hz look sped up for some reason. 99.9% of the 120Hz LCDs we have seen have that trait. Where as my Plasma has no motion blur, nor unreal movement traits.

3) When I purchased my Plasma, my energy costs did not go up when I replaced my old RP Mitsubishi. And I use it now more than ever, and my costs are the same, if not lower.

4) Its hard to put into words, but I guess the best word I can think of is Plastic. People look kinda plasticy IMO on an LCD. They do not look real, its got a shinyness that I cannot really explain. It has a bit of an effect on Plasma, but I think its the higher contrast levels, as well as technology problems existing with non-organic camera lens. (OFF TOPIC, but I think it has an effect of alot of visual problems IE Green Smeering, Contrast Problems, etc. Eye lens are organic and dont defract light, as well as enhance due to the prisim effect of glass enhancing certain colors because of its reflective nature as well as deflective; opposed to human eyes) 

(hopefully I was understood :dontknow

5) Finally, Because im fine with having no sunlight in the room most of the day, I am happy with having no ambient light in the room, so the whole LCDs perform better in brighter rooms doesn't apply so it wasn't a drawback when deciding what to purchase.


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Those are all good points rookie, and I agree with them all.

One of my problems is that when I get a phone call I like to pause my PVR and talk, then when I'm done I press play. I also watch a lot of sports. Those screen tickers are running all the time. I do this without concern on an LCD. 

A plasma would suffer from screen burn (I would think) under those conditions. I do have to get a new larger set for my living room, and I am shying away from the plasma for this reason. I gotta say the new Panasonic V10 plasma sure looks nice, but the newer LED LCD sets are not bad either (albeit a bit pricey right now). It's a hard decision for me.

brucek


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I would not be worried about phosphor burn for that short a period, particularly if the set was not run with maximum contrast. It is much less of an issue than with the earliest PDPs.


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## the_rookie (Sep 30, 2008)

I have a panasonic 46" and I play video games all the time. I use the pixle oribiter on it. I do suffer from very mild burn in. On a pure, and I mean pure...black screen you can see some ghosting effects from past game HUDs. However, during any other color/movement, you would never give a second notice at any burn in period.

And I play games about 85% of the TVs time.


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## tiggers97 (May 13, 2008)

Is the reliability with Plasmas any different than with LCD's? To me, it seems that Plasma is on it's way out as a technology. I see fewer of them than a year ago, and it seems most of hte new technologies are with the LCD TV's.


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## dyohn (Apr 17, 2008)

tiggers97 said:


> Is the reliability with Plasmas any different than with LCD's? To me, it seems that Plasma is on it's way out as a technology. I see fewer of them than a year ago, and it seems most of hte new technologies are with the LCD TV's.


Plasma reliability is just as good as LCD these days, but yes plasma is on its way out. Manufacturers are stopping production for several reasons, but mostly because it is just getting too expensive to built plasma displays as the cost of building LCD panels continues to fall.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

dyohn said:


> Plasma reliability is just as good as LCD these days, but yes plasma is on its way out. Manufacturers are stopping production for several reasons, but mostly because it is just getting too expensive to built plasma displays as the cost of building LCD panels continues to fall.


Well I think Panasonic will be producing them for a few more years at least. I hope we get something better than LCD on the market though. Every LCD tv I've watched looked overly bright. I suspect this has to do with the calibration, but still I'm not impressed with LCD TVs. I really enjoy the DLP tvs but you may as well go projector if you are going to that much trouble. A carada brilliant white screen and a 1500 dollar projector and you got a 2000 dollar huge tv. I think projectors may ultimately take over the market. But it depends on how the future of computing goes. 

I suggest you guys watch the sixth sense technology video on TIB it's very fascinating stuff. For the record ambient light is only an issue if your light beam is hitting the screen. Otherwise it's not an issue.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

dyohn said:


> Plasma reliability is just as good as LCD these days, but yes plasma is on its way out. Manufacturers are stopping production for several reasons, but mostly because it is just getting too expensive to built plasma displays as the cost of building LCD panels continues to fall.


I really do not think that anyone has enough data to generalize this, nor that it is possible to do so because of the great variance in reliablility between brands and models. What can be said is that the reliability of both technologies seem to have improved as they have matured, which is expected in any technonogy.

That said, in the long term, plasma panels have phosphors that age slowly, while LCDs have backlight systems that age with less change in the image, but eventually will fail more completely. Plasma uses higher current devices to drive the panel, which in the long run, on average not be as reliable.

Most of the failures we see in plasma systems have to do with the higher power handling devices, while in LCDs problems seem more related to build quality.


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> To me, it seems that Plasma is on it's way out as a technology.


True enough I suppose, but I don't see that affecting my desire to purchase one today. The display I purchase isn't affected because they phase out the technology. It would only affect me if I planned to buy one in the future.



> I think projectors may ultimately take over the market.


Can't say I agree. The average consumer wants a single box they plug their cable into. Hanging projectors and running wires in the ceiling, etc., will always remain a niche market (in my opinion).

brucek


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

lsiberian said:


> Every LCD tv I've watched looked overly bright. I suspect this has to do with the calibration, but still I'm not impressed with LCD TVs.


Why not calibrate them? A simple user level calibration can make most look very good.



lsiberian said:


> I really enjoy the DLP tvs but you may as well go projector if you are going to that much trouble.


What trouble? RPTV is a niche market now, but there is a lot of application for it. Lots of folks just don't need a flat panel.



lsiberian said:


> I think projectors may ultimately take over the market.


Projectors started the big screen business 35 years ago. They have not taken over yet and in the marketplace have consistently been displaced by products with less sensitivity to light. I don't see that changing significantly, particularly with the low cost of producing LCD panels.


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

I chose LCD for the lower power, I have even set it for slow turn on so it uses a lot less power in standby mode.
The factory settings for colour is way to garish I had to turn it way down to get "natural" colours.
I have been using it for 6 months and have no complaints at all regarding black levels.


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## dyohn (Apr 17, 2008)

I work in this industry (my customers include all the manufacturers for the raw panels used for flat panel displays of all types) and I can tell you with certainty that plasma is not a technology they want to continue supporting for much longer. There are some new things on the horizon but I don't expect to see them any time soon, especially in today's depressed consumer electronics market, since the cost/price model is not right yet. But yes, Panasonic is likely to continue producing plasma displays for the next couple of years.

To the person who mentioned that LCDs always look "bright" to him, if you are judging from only how they are displayed by most retailers, then I understand this comment since most of them switch the display to "torch" mode in order to appeal to the widest range of customers. The average consumer usually is drawn to the brightest display in a retail store, just like they are drawn to the louder sound system.  If you really want to see what a display might look like when properly adjusted, either grab a remote and change the settings yourself or go see it in a higher-end store that has a proper demo room. You might be impressed with what today's LCD technology looks like.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

the LCD's aren't mine so I just grin and bear. I supposed LCD is way better than the B&W tv I had as a kid though. My parents have the top model Samsung from last year and it's not too bad, but I'm spoiled with a calibrated DLP projector.


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## 1sickss (Dec 24, 2009)

I went with an LCD mainly because its alot lighter, and can be repaired if needed in the future, as far as i know, once a plasma goes out, that it....Ic ouldnt be happier with the Samsung i bought.


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## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

I love the picture of my 55" Samsung LN650. I am thinking about getting a larger unit as it's too smalll for the room. There's a Sharp 65" LCD I'm considering. I have 2 weeks to return the Samung; just not sure it's worth $1300 more than the Samsung and prefer to stick with LCD.


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

I chose LCD because they tend to produce a more vibrant image that "pops". The colors look more saturated and the whites are more pure white and more intense. The comment has been made that plasmas do better blacks - it's a bit of a misleading statement - the statement should actually be that the BEST plasmas can produce better blacks than LCDs, and it comes at the expense of a dimmer picture overall. There's a bunch of minor issues that kept me away from plasma too, like image retention, power consumption, glass screen, etc., but mainly the dim, dingy picture. 

I went with the Samsung LN52B750, which seems to be the best 52-55" offering aside from the local dimming LED sets like the 8500, 950, and Sony XBR8 sets. My runner up would have been the Samsung LN55B650.


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## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

It seems most videophiles prefer plasma; more often higher end sets such as the Pioneer Kuro and Elites.

I think LCD's are easier to live with, especially regarding the need for a darker room.

Projectors provide an excellent large picture at the trade off of needing a dark room.

Best Buy and other stores are giving heavy discounts on most plasmas due to consumer preference of LCDs.

That's my 2 cents.


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

I think plasmas (in general) provide a more natural looking picture compared to LCDs. Though, not everyone is looking for a "natural" looking picture, some people would rather have a nice razor sharp, brilliantly vibrant looking picture, which is absolutely okay, too; it's just a matter personal preference.

Both produce a great picture and I would suggest for either technology to have it professionally ISF calibrated to get the most out of the set.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

My experience, which covers hundreds of sets of both flavors, in many brands, is that either technology can have many of the characteristics generalized in this thread, depending on the brand, model, and how the set is calibrated. There are tendencies in the two technologies, but they are mostly overcome by calibration and specific model. There are factors in the application that may favor one or the other, but in order to make an informed choice, it is far more useful to compare specific products than to try to generalize LCD vs PDP.


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## ms3 (Dec 8, 2009)

I traded the 55" Samsung 650 for a 65" Sharp. I needed a larger screen but the Samsung had a better picture quality in terms of blacks and clarity. 

I went into BBuy and noticed the Pansonic 65" V10 price has come down to the Sharp. 

I'm considering switching the Panny due to the great views on cnet.com. 

Any thoughts?


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