LCD vs PLASMA,which is better?

kimberley111

just been to comet just to have a look at the large 40-50" plasmas & LCDs
only had a quick browse but cant say the picture was brilliant on any
we have had a 42" rear projector for the last 7 year so the picture on the plasma & LCD are a lot better but i thought they would be better it may just have been that shop

1 question i have -- we have sky but dont have HD
some of these teles have HD Ready & some 1080p
there is always a diferance in price
with not having sky HD does it make a differance ??

Might have a browse upto Tesco to view them there before i choose :j

abr

well i have a plasma and 2 lcd's
needed another and so i have just had another delivered 5 mins ago
from JL
i bought a panasonic plasma tx-p37x10b:D
realy having a move round plasma's downstairs lcd upstairs

isofa

kimberley111 wrote: »

Might have a browse upto Tesco to view them there before i choose :j

I wouldn't, they are unlikely to be setup properly, stick to a good hi-fi/video retailer if you want to see what they can really do.

TVs stuck on splitters and repeaters are unlikely to ever look perfect.

aliEnRIK

kimberley111 wrote: »

just been to comet just to have a look at the large 40-50" plasmas & LCDs
only had a quick browse but cant say the picture was brilliant on any
we have had a 42" rear projector for the last 7 year so the picture on the plasma & LCD are a lot better but i thought they would be better it may just have been that shop

1 question i have -- we have sky but dont have HD
some of these teles have HD Ready & some 1080p
there is always a diferance in price
with not having sky HD does it make a differance ??

Might have a browse upto Tesco to view them there before i choose :j

Ive never known ANY shops (Including proper hifi ones) with properly calibrated and connected tvs
What this means is you might think one looks bad and one looks good when in fact the bad one could look far better

Your best bet is decide what screen size you want, what needs connecting, what your going to use it for then look for proper 'reviews' (Not comments on amazon etc) and shortlist what your interested in

kimberley111

whats the diffrance between hd ready and 1080p ?

aliEnRIK

kimberley111 wrote: »

whats the diffrance between hd ready and 1080p ?

HD ready means the tv must have at least 1 hdmi and will accept at least a 720P signal

1080P is FULL HD (Largest HD you can get at the moment which is only available on bluray discs and certain console games)

If your spending over 600 quid then you should be able to get a decent 1080P capable tv

Under that and you 'may' be better getting a smaller panel (usually 768 pixels instead of 1080) ~ aka HD READY

roddydogs

Dont ignore the horrible reflections on Plasmas-they have glass screens--

isofa

kimberley111 wrote: »

whats the diffrance between hd ready and 1080p ?

Have a read here: http://www.hdtvorg.co.uk/focus/resolution.htm

almillar

Those 'horrible reflections' that you get off the shiny plasma screen will turn into 'horrible glare' if you put an LCD screen in the same place. I don't get why people are so down on plamsa in this case. If you put a CRT/Plasma/LCD (LED backlit or not) in the wrong place you'll be squinting at it. Whether it's a reflection of something or a bright spot doesn't make a difference to me.
OP - 1st question I have to ask is why are you upgrading? If you're not planning to go HD, what's the point of getting an HDTV? If you do plan to get SkyHD at some point, definately get a 1080 screen, as this is the resolution that all HDTV in the UK is broadcast at, any other size of screen will have to scale the picture, which loses that crispness that's so good about HD. Some of the pictures you've already seen that you were disappointed with may be like that because of this.
I've got LCD and plasma and definately prefer plasma. Plasma generally gives better colour, blacks and motion, LCD uses slightly less power and is generally thinner and weighs less. Also be aware that some TVs will look far better in bright showrooms than others and it's very hard to find a correctly set up TV that will look how it will in your living room.
After lots of research I bought a Panasonic G10 and am very happy with it - it's got Freesat HD built in (which will plug straight into your Sky dish if you take another cable down from it.

bosseyed

I'd choose LCD over Plasma - in my experience, LCD gives a better crisper picture with better black reproduction. They're also marginally cheaper to run as I believe they draw less power.

Forget about the idea that plasma lasts longer than LCD though, I think most plasma have somthing like 7,000 viewing hours before needing to be re-gassed, which assuming 5 hours TV a day (too much surely!) is still nearly 4 years of TV.

If you can afford, go for full 1080p capabilities. HD ready will be 720p which is HD but only just. Mind you, theres not a huge amount of stuff that actually runs at 1080p at the moment - lots of Blue Ray etc runs at 1080i.

EDIT! Oh and don't look at the TV broadcasts in Comet or wherever and judge the TV performance on that - more often than not they've split and degraded the original signal meaning it looks worse than the telly is capable of. If you're going the HD route, get them to plug in a blu ray player and really see what the TV is capable of.

And then walk out and buy the same TV off the internet for £800 less than the store price. Comet/Curries et al are a complete ripoff.