Ok. i have been looking at a new 42-50" tv, got up to £800.

Trouble is, one set looks great with plasma, then another looks better in lcd, or led form.

I'm confused :wack: Whats should i be getting, or looking out for?

Well i got a 50 inch plasma Viera and its fookin ace. No blur nor distortion anytime. Love it !! i was frighted by the rumors of plasma burning out but went for it and no regrets. HD is excellent also!

50 inch Panasonic plasma and its a fantastic picture especially when I watch HD :)

As mentioned above, the best TV around for value and picture is probably the Panasonic TX-P50V10 plasma. Money no object, go for one of the Pioneer plasmas with the 9th gen Kuros panels.

 

Dave

As mentioned above, the best TV around for value and picture is probably the Panasonic TX-P50V10 plasma. Money no object, go for one of the Pioneer plasmas with the 9th gen Kuros panels.

 

Dave

 

i've been told thats panasonic screen on the pioneer. i dont get this plasmas/lcd wont last how often do you change tv's, cause i update about every 5 years and panasonic offer 5 years warrenty so never have to worry the whole time i have my tv

I agree with Hairdo.

 

LCD's - especially the cheaper or larger ones - can suffer tremendously from motion blur depending on what the refresh rate of the screen is.

 

Whilst larger plasmas are heavy, a good quality 1080p Plasma will give you excellent contrast ratio with little or no motion blur. The reason they are still cheaper than the equivalent LCD's is that they have a 10 year head start in manufacturing time hence a lot of their tooling and factory costs have been recouped already. I have 3 large screens including a rear projection (56" Sagem HD), LCD (50" Samsung HD) and a 12 YEAR OLD 46" PANASONIC PLASMA!!! The plasma still has the darkest blacks and ZERO ghosting (Though they did not make HD 12 years ago). The rear projection is great for watching movies on and is far less susceptable to ambient light than you would think. The LCD, whist it has good colour depth is terrible for motion ghosting.

 

DO NOT GO TO CURRYs OR SOME OTHER HIGH STREET MUPPET TO TEST YOU CHOICE OF TV - even if that is where you eventually go to buy the thing. Try and go to a smaller independent retailer where they can directly link up a good quality hi-def source and have set up the screens correctly. I hate to say USE THEM then go and buy it cheaper somewhere else once you have made your choice but they usually can't compete on price. Also, don't be fooled into watching some ScreenWorks cartoon as your test. This footage was originally created digitally so ALWAYS looks good and only looks better at full HD. Try and get an action movie on blu-ray and ask them to put that on - something with lots of motion and nice dark scenes. Batman- Dark Knight is a really good test to watch in HD or DieHard 4.0.

 

I have also just bought a new Apple 27" imac with their new led back lit display and I have to say that the image quality is superb!!!! if only we could get this kind of quality on a larger (50" plus) screen then that would really be something.

 

I am just about to change my main screen (the rear projector) for a flat panel and I will almost certainly go the high end plasma route. I would agree again with Hairdo that the new Pioneers are excellent and you can also never really go wrong with most Panasonics either. From a value for money/picture quaity perspective I don't think you can go wrong. Don't forget plasmas have a 10 year development headstart over LCD panels.

 

The reason LCD's have been getting bigger and bigger is simply the weight of larger plasma units. (They weigh an absolute ton!!) NOT BECAUSE OF PICTURE QUALITY!!! Any real movie phile who knows his stuff will agree you get an overall better picture on an plasma to an LCD. Of course there are crap Plasmas and excellent LCD's but like for like - pound for pound plasma is better than lcd.

 

But who knows.... give it 5 years and we will all be watching 3D hologram projectors or some other bo***cks!!!!

 

Pay your money - take your choice!!

Edited November 18, 200916 yr by CyrusJH

Maybe not so important yet but coming soon is energy consumption costs. Some big plasmas are like heaters burning more than 500W. New LEDs are less than 200W even for a large screen size.

 

So the plasma could cost up to 50 quid a year more to watch so if you need to you can tell her you can justify a spend of £250 more for the LED assuming that you keep it 5 years!

Can I make a really important point about all of this - the screen will only be as good as the source signal you are putting into it. Sky HD is only a 720p signal. Even then you need to use a decent quality HDMI lead and a majority of the content on SKY HD are upscaled programs from standard UK or USA sources. Only programs that have an HD icon in the program info were originally recorded in HD.

 

You either need a 1080p BluRay source or a true 1080p upscaling AV amp in order to best utilize a good screen otherwise you are completely wasting your time. Don't even bother watching a standard terrestrial signal on that size screen and expect it to look better - it won't - it will just amplify all the defects in the signal.

 

It is like a stereo - you can have the best speakers in the world but if you are running them of a crappy cassette player then it will still sound crap. Spend the money improving your source signal.

Sky broadcasts in 720p and 1080i but you're right to say that to get the best out of the TV you'll need a good 1080p source, but i'd disagree that there's no advantage even with a Standard def source. The picture won't be a crisp cause of the lower resolution but you'll still get the better colour reproduction and much much better contrast compared to a LCD (and just cause all the manufacturers are calling TV's LED's doesn't make it true. Remember, a TV advertised as LED is just an LCD with LED backlighting).

 

Another big advantage with Plasma's is in gaming. Most consoles now can output 1080p so it'll look fantastic and plasma's have the advantage with must lower response times so the game will appear snappier. Serious gamers only use plasma cause they claim (rightly or wrongly) that it gives them an advantage in online play.

 

I suppose that the reason everyone want's big plasma's is sorta the same reason that we all drive Zed's. 90% of the time you're not going to get near it's potential cause of the limitation of the TV signal (or the speed limit in the Zed's case) but it's nice to know that if you ever need it, the potentials there ;)

 

Dave

 

PS: Don't waste your money on expensive HDMI leads. They're a con. If the signals digital then the cable has very little effect on it. Just google "Monster Cables" to find out just how overrated expensive HDMI cable are.

Edited November 19, 200916 yr by hairdo2001