Plasma or LCD

beancounter1968

Hi

I have £1000 to spend and I am looking for a TV of at least 42". I am really confused about whether it should be Plasma or LCD. I have heard conflicting accounts of each. I am just an average viewer who watches a mixed bag of everything in the evenings. I don't subscribe to sports channels and the kids watch plenty of kids TV and DVDs. I will be looking to place an xbox 360 around the tv as well. The people on currys suggested plasma for sports but LCD as inch for inch better performance. I can't afford to make the wrong choice

Any thoughts on which I should go for?

Thankyou in advance

Phil

milkydrink

beancounter1968 wrote:

Hi

I have £1000 to spend and I am looking for a TV of at least 42". I am really confused about whether it should be Plasma or LCD. I have heard conflicting accounts of each. I am just an average viewer who watches a mixed bag of everything in the evenings. I don't subscribe to sports channels and the kids watch plenty of kids TV and DVDs. I will be looking to place an xbox 360 around the tv as well. The people on currys suggested plasma for sports but LCD as inch for inch better performance. I can't afford to make the wrong choice

Any thoughts on which I should go for?

Thankyou in advance

Phil

We bought a plasma & I've since been told that I should have bought a LCD as plasmas are going to be redundent when they can make LCDs at a reasonable price in 42" & bigger. Don't know how true this is.
I think you would struggle to get a LCD in 42" or bigger, but I think you can get 37" & 40".
We love our plasma, the screens can be cleaned like normal glass (it is normal glass), but LCDs are that funny squidgy stuff.
Ebay is great for a cheap bracket.
Sorry couldn't be more help.

Hotspur

My understanding is that at the moment LCD is better for screen sizes 32" and less and Plasma for 32" and above. The viewing angle for plasma is wider than LCD. The good old CRT still beats both for fast moving action sports etc. however whether you will notice much difference in real life remains to be seen.

Technology moves on and no doubt LCD and Plasma will improve on the CRT picture particularly when HDTV becomes common place.

Beware salesmen who say one is better than the other, they are probably only repeating something they have been told by their sales manager.

Blacksheep1979

plasma will give a better picture on sd media (it tends to smooth everything whereas lcd can be blocky) on hd stuff (and to an extent digital) lcd is better.

Manty

I'm currently in the market for a HD TV but haven't done any serious shopping yet. One thing I would say is it is definately worth arranging some viewings of the size you want, side-by-side on an LCD and Plasma TV, both showing the same content.

I also read that sports, football and maybe movies with fast action can help show how the TV copes with fast movement - don't be fooled by the slow, serene images of flowers and insects on the demos that the showrooms like to play, since they give the screen plenty of time to draw the image.

If spending a large amount on a TV, I'd want to take it to its limits before committing to buy.

jamstaruk

37" or less lcd win over 37" its plasma all the way

Troubleatmill_2

From the techies at Richer Sounds..

(when I was in the market for a big telly ).

Plasma picture is better as it can adjust the colours faster then LCD.
( Plasma is a gas? LCD - Liquid ).

I thought he was talking nonsense - until you see the screens side by side - then you can really see the difference.

LCD's are catching up...but they are not there yet.

Best
Troubleatmill

Blacksheep1979

Troubleatmill wrote:

From the techies at Richer Sounds..

(when I was in the market for a big telly ).

Plasma picture is better as it can adjust the colours faster then LCD.
( Plasma is a gas? LCD - Liquid ).

I thought he was talking nonsense - until you see the screens side by side - then you can really see the difference.

LCD's are catching up...but they are not there yet.

Best
Troubleatmill

I'm sorry but the analagy with liquid/gas that they told you is absolute pap. The reason is that plasma will smooth over imperfections more than an LCD screen will (due to fixed pixels on lcd whilst the way plasma works the cells blend better together)and this shows up far more on most signals that are currently fed to the screens. If you feed two screens that are capable of displaying a 1080p/720p signal with a 1080p/720p signal (even a fast moving sports/action scene) then they will both be smooth and clear.

The response times that get bandied about to try explain this streaking on lcd, although sometimes relevant, are another marketing gimick. The real reason is because of lower amounts of data and the way the lcd screen interprets it.

Oh and the main reason shop assistants will be trying to plug plasma instead of lcd is so that they don't get left with the old stock as everyone is moving towards lcd.

If you are just going to watch sd tv for the time being and when digital/hd sources become the norm then go plasma as it does smooth the picture an dmake it less grainy on the eye.

OverlandLandy

A controversial view:

neither!

Buy a top end CRT. better quality than LCD, good viewing angles and more 'stable' than Plasma (easily damaged).

Swim against the flow for a while...the technology is 50% hype at the moment. Whats the point of HD (at this precise moment in time) when Blue ray players are still so expensive and the number of HD transmissions is still limited. By the time there is a good level of availability your 'new' TV will be 'old' and you will probably want to upgrade it!!

milkydrink

OverlandLandy wrote:

A controversial view:
neither!
Buy a top end CRT. better quality than LCD, good viewing angles and more 'stable' than Plasma (easily damaged).

We bought a plasma for the living room just before xmas 05 & we bought our daughter a LCD for her bedroom last birthday.
We do have a smallish TV in our bedroom & portable TV in the kitchen, at some point in the not too distant future I want to change these for LCDs.
I wouldn't dream of buying a CRT, I think they will all be gone in a few years. Skinny TVs are great :-)

Honestly our 42" plasma is great & men love it (it's my husbands pride & joy, LOL).

arthurp8

panasonic th42px60 - 900 squid plasma bargain!