Plasma or LCD?

emilie03

No to tech

option to buy 42" plasma tv

should i or get a lcd

plus and minus

anyone, thanks:j

Costa_lot

I was advised anything over 42 inc plasma is better

superscaper

The old disadvantages of LCD and plasma that were used to compare the two are quickly disappearing. Plasma no longer has a short lifespan, LCD can be made larger to a high quality etc. Your best bet really is to go and look at different LCDs and plasmas yourself in showrooms etc. Nowadays it's mostly down to personal preference. LCD and plasma do look different but which of those differences makes which better is personal and subjective.

balloo_2

i was in Comet the other day and asked the salesmanabout plasma or lcd he said no difference realy unless u play games or watch sport he said the plasma tv has a faster refresh rate. Hope this helps :beer:

mascherano

balloo wrote: »

i was in Comet the other day and asked the salesmanabout plasma or lcd he said no difference realy unless u play games or watch sport he said the plasma tv has a faster refresh rate. Hope this helps :beer:

Thank god for those genius Comet Salespeople.

superscaper

mascherano wrote: »

Thank god for those genius Comet Salespeople.

Exactly, as I've already said, most of the supposed disadvantages of both plasma and lcd are no longer true. This includes the slow refresh rate of LCDs. Many LCDs have perfectly acceptable refresh rates for fast action tv and high end gaming and the difference in refresh rate against plasma wouldn't be perceptible to the human eye.

I don't think a Comet salesperson is the best source of information when responding on a techie forum :rolleyes:

jaxxy00

dont know how true it is but i remember a similar discussion and people were warned that a plasma tv uses 3 times the electric that an lcd does. I suppose the best way of confirming this is to look make a note of the power rating which i would assume to be on the rear somewhere. ( i know not the sort of thing you would look for but depending on how often your tv is on then 3x the usage and with electricity charges going up and down as they are it could possibly mean a big difference).

superscaper

jaxxy00 wrote: »

dont know how true it is but i remember a similar discussion and people were warned that a plasma tv uses 3 times the electric that an lcd does. I suppose the best way of confirming this is to look make a note of the power rating which i would assume to be on the rear somewhere. ( i know not the sort of thing you would look for but depending on how often your tv is on then 3x the usage and with electricity charges going up and down as they are it could possibly mean a big difference).

Actually that wouldn't confirm anything. LCD is mostly a constant consumer of power due to it's backlight (always on). While although generating plasma from a gas for the same area takes more power, it is dependant on where that plasma/light is needed so a plasma tv's power drain fluctuates depending on what you are watching. As a very large generalisation for the same screen size, watching lots of films will cost you less with a plasma while watching lots of cartoons or sports will cost you less with an LCD.

So yes it is possible for a plasma to consume three times the power of an LCD but that's its' maximum and at times it could be consuming less. I think on average (and they're making both technologies more efficient with every generation) there's not going to be much in it. As I've said already (again!) the supposed disadvantages of either technology are diminishing and aren't really relevant when comparing the two.

conclusions pinched from:
http://www.hometheatermag.com/gearworks/106gear/

JustCharlie

mascherano wrote: »

Thank god for those genius Comet Salespeople.

haha he's jus being a good boy and doing his job. I used to be one of those geniuses!

I agree with the others that the technologies of Plasma and LCD are becoming close. I would think its safe to say that LCD will eventually dominate the market though. (Sony and Toshiba have already stopped making plasmas altogether)

For most households LCD is the winner. It allways on backlight make it ideal for viewing in any condition, whereas in brightly lit rooms (with patio doors for example) the colours in a plasma appears washed out. It also has a longer life span than plasma (about 30% longer) and you have less chance of screen burn. (shadows left by identical images shown many times eg MTV logo or sky/freeview menu pages)

However if your one of the people lucky enough to own a cinema room plasma would be best because light wouldn't be a problem and the colours are still truer and the refresh rate is still quicker than an LCD.

If your looking for something over 42" then you find a much smaller range of LCDs and they will be a lot more expensive than the equivilant sized plasmas because the technology is a lot more expensive to produce.

So, 9 times out of ten LCD is better but if you want a large TV it may all boil down to price.

Hope this helps!

emilie03

thanks to you all