Is it worth buying Plasma HDTV yet, if so which?

almillar

No hotscooby, it's definately got something to sell - if you look at the bottom of the page you'll see that it was set up by Hitachi, Pioneer and Panasonic, companies who put a big push behind plasma.
The obvious answer is to look for yourself. Plasma has traditionally been better, especially for more vivid colour, blacker blacks, and response time, ie not blurring with motion. LCDs have advanced far faster and have really caught up, I have a 1080 Samsung. They still aren't as good for films etc for the black/colour reasons above, but are better for computers etc as they have got the higher (HD) resolutions faster - just look for the price of a 1080 plasma compared to a LCD. Also have to watch for the actual resolution of plasmas as loads of them have rectangular pixels which will look squashed for a computer. But all of these comments are just people's opinions of course...
Alan

Smiley_Mum

I'd imagine they'd be quite heavy on electricity, they're like sitting in front of an electric fire. If you are overly concerned, check the ratings on them too.

superscaper

Smiley_Mum wrote: »

I'd imagine they'd be quite heavy on electricity, they're like sitting in front of an electric fire. If you are overly concerned, check the ratings on them too.

? They do get quite warm but they don't consume that much more than an LCD on average and it is difficult to compare because LCDs work at their maximum consumption 100% of the time, whereas with a plasma the power consumption depends on the picture display and is only at max consumption if the screen is pure white which obviously is pretty much never.

MercilessKiller

Look out for:
1 - Contrast Ratio
2 - Black Levels
3 - 1080p

They're the 3 big things in my opinion. I recently bought a Samsung 40" LCD.. it was a lot dearer than other ones, but had a 15000:1 contrast ratio, and 1080p..

1080p is known as "True" HD... I.e it's not scaled down or mapped or anything.. it is HD = HD = HD... thats what HD is. 1080i on the other hand is slightly different.. thus for futureproofing my TV I went with the 1080p version...

Equally 100mhz, in all honesty isn't worth a LOT of extra money though it does depend on what you use it for. Unless you watch high pace action movies all the time, 100mhz is over promoted in my opinion. The one I have isn't 100mhz, and everything looks brilliant on it, even in HD.

Opinions differ though!

Coveredinbees!!!!

Smiley_Mum wrote: »

I'd imagine they'd be quite heavy on electricity, they're like sitting in front of an electric fire. If you are overly concerned, check the ratings on them too.

The maximum power rating of my plasma TV is 250W which is nothing like an electric fire more like 4 ( and a bit ) 60 watt light bulbs

BillScarab

While I agree it is probably best to go for a 1080p set if you have room for that size TV, bear in mind that Sky only broadcast in 720p and 1080i so if that's all the HD content you will wath you don't need a 1080p set. Virgin also broadcast in 720p and 1080i.

MercilessKiller

But Xbox 360 shows supports 1080p, as does new Graphics cards on PC.

Correct 1080p isn't needed.. but it is long term futureproof.

Inactive

MercilessKiller wrote: »

Look out for:


1080p is known as "True" HD... I.e it's not scaled down or mapped or anything.. it is HD = HD = HD... thats what HD is. 1080i on the other hand is slightly different.. thus for futureproofing my TV I went with the 1080p version...

No point in having 1080p, nobody broadcasts using it, nor are they likely to.

superscaper

Inactive wrote: »

No point in having 1080p, nobody broadcasts using it, nor are they likely to.

Broadcasts are only one source though. Some people who want to use Blu Ray, HD DVD, PS3, Xbox 360, and who knows what else in future may want to take advantage of 1080p.

Inactive

superscaper wrote: »

Broadcasts are only one source though. Some people who want to use Blu Ray, HD DVD, PS3, Xbox 360, and who knows what else in future may want to take advantage of 1080p.

Fair comment, but the majority of TV users only watch broadcast material, and they don't need 1080p for that, nor are they ever likely to.