LCD or Plasma advice please

pernes

Hi, I want to purchase a 40 or 42" tv but can't figure out what would be the best between a plasma and HD LCD. One salesman told me that Sony only do LCD as plasma can end up burning the writing that you get at the top of the screen ie ITV2 called a burn out which will always be there, where as other shops swear by Plasma. What should I look for as a good spec? I also want to ditch my old hifi centre and use the tv as a media centre, is this advisable do I need to buy a theatre system. Could I plug in a hard drive and play my mp3 music and view pics through the tele? Sorry for so many questions but I am a bit green and would like a good tv and have a system which could play music around the house in different rooms, wireless would be great.
Many thanks

mitchg

For me its LCD and go for 1080p make sure you have at least 2 HDMI sockets and all the usual scart component and pc inputs, i am sure now there are some tvs that have an inbuilt hard drive for recording onto, will give you even more options for mp3, recording, upgrading etc. but which ones of the top of my head i am not too sure but i am sure they are out now.

Anthony2oo5

Ok where to start. Not an expert in the TV industry but have done a bit of research as I bought a 42" yesterday

Anyway, Plasma or LCD is a question that has been going on for a long time. Search google you will find many articles. I cant remember exactly the conclusion I seen in many posts but it was something like LCD's are better for 32" and smaller, plasma is better for higher. The main thing it comes down to is the blackness of the colours. One is better than the other but they both have advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, don't worry about which it is, unless your an enthusiast you wont tell the difference. Be warned though, plasmas have the gas problem where they may need re-gassing after a few years. Out of everyone I know who has had a plasma I have only known one person for this to affect and he has his television for about 5 years+.

The writing burning into the screen is a common problem and you may be surprised to know that it happens on ALL monitors, even your computer monitor and the old CRTs. What do you think screen savers are for ? Learn something new everyday ay ? This will only happen if you leave your TV on the same channel for a continued amount of time. And watch the same channel non stop. We're talking like 3 full days flat. But I would suggest you turned off your TV when your not using it, so not only stop this, but to save its life expectancy.

Good specs? not 100% sure but the higher the screen resolution and the brightness, contrast ect the better. The lower the response time the better. Just look at an expensive TV and a cheaper one and you will see the difference in the specs, but as I said before, unless your a TV fanatic, you wont be able to tell much. I would say try and get HD at at least 720p and make sure it has an HDMI slot. AND IT MUST BE DIGITAL. All analogue signals will be turned off after 2012 so if your TV ain't digital then you will be screwed. Be careful because they want to get rid of their old stock because of this so don't go for the cheapest TV because more than likely its not digital.

Ditch the HiFi? definitely. There are many options now for this, but it depends what exactly your looking for. Even though I hate Playstation, you might consider a Playstation 3. It can play blueray disks, music and divx now (the common format of movies from the internet). Or an Xbox 360. Alternatively you might just consider getting media centre edition installed on your PC and use that. It depends how you want to go about it personally.

Plug in a hard drive. Well nearly the same as the PS / Xbox solution but I have one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Blk-3-5-HDD-LCD-Media-Player-MP3-MP4-AVI-DIVX-DVD-NTFS_W0QQitemZ350013937562QQihZ022QQcategoryZ86758QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Have a read of it, its a good piece of kit.

Wireless solutions exists but never used them so cannot comment sorry. Just in case you want to know, I bought this TV

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=394165&tab=specification

Hope my essay helped you

donnajunkie

with plasma i hear that the gas needs topping up after a certain time so my impression is that lcd is more reliable. however i also hear that plasma give better picture quality.
as far as useing it to play your mp3's through. i am pretty sure most if not all of the new hd ready lcd/plasma tvs can be connected to a pc and used as an alternative monitor. so therefore you would be able to play your mp3's through it. lof course that also means whataver else you can do on your pc you can use it for like watch dvd's that are playing on your pc.

timelord_4

Plasma = Colour and picture clarity is far better, ideal for movies, screen burn can occur but can be prevented, plasma does not last as long as LCD and is more expensive to purchase and run. Far superior viewing angles and good response times.

LCD = Ususally get more faults, colours not as bright with no definitive blackness levels, dead pixels common, LCD's are cheaper to buy and cost very little to run (about 55% of a CRT TV). More robust and easier to transport.

---

The light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long and you have burned so very very brightly......

PitRejection2359

If you are going for a big TV and are hoping to use high defenition equipment in the future or to future proof your expensive investment, you probably want to go with the higher resolution HD: 1080i or 1080p.

The i stands for interlaced and the p stands for progressive. I'm no expert, but it bascially that means that on interlaced screens every other line is refreshed on each 'refresh', as opposed to every single line on each refresh in a progressive screen - see wikipedia here for a better explanation!!!

Basically, the progressive mode give better a 'quality' image, but is obviously more expensive. HMDI is a must, and you should only really look at models that have a digital tuner built in - analogue is being switched off as someone else said above.

Don't forget that this may mean that some of your existing kit may not work with the new TV either, but as long as your existing equipment and the new TV has a scart socket, you should be OK - but best to ask the retailer about it too.

As for which option (LCD or Plasma, and even which make & model), the best thing to do is go into any store with a decent range and look at all the models displaying the same pictures. There is no substitute for this - some people like one type of picture and others like it a different way. The only way to find a screen that you like is to look at the actual picture on the model you want to buy!

Obviously, once you have found the model you like the image on, check the online prices, and then go back to the store and see if they price match, or what else they can throw in for free!

As for a media playing, an external surround sound amplifier would produce good sound (and can be connected digitally to your monitor), and you can buy media centre extenders to wirelessly (or wiredly (?)) stream music, picture & video from your PC or Network storage on your home network. There is a lot of details there to look into, and thousands of different products to choose from! a good start could be 'what home cinema' or similar magazines - there is a lot of choice out there!!

Hopefully this should help you find what you are looking for!

totalsolutions

Made me laugh
>with plasma i hear that the gas needs topping
>plasma does not last as long as LCD and is more expensive to purchase and run

donnajunkie

totalsolutions wrote: »

Made me laugh
>with plasma i hear that the gas needs topping

so that isnt true then is it? i cant remember were i read it. it was either on this site or in a feature about tvs in a newspaper or a magazine. or it may have been a feature on another website.

Inactive

donnajunkie wrote: »

with plasma i hear that the gas needs topping up after a certain time so my impression is that lcd is more reliable. however i also hear that plasma give better picture quality.
.

Yea, you need to take them to your local gas station, make sure you don't put diesel in them tho'.. :rotfl:

Utter twaddle of course.

pernes

Many thanks for all the advice. I will venture out into the big tv world!!

JOel_2

Just as a note, LG and Samsung are the best bang for Buck at the moment. They both use the same physical LCD panels, and its model refresh time for both soon, so there are some very good deals around. Depending on your budget, I'd be taking a serious look at:

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/319/405/-/3336333/Samsung-40-LE40M87BDX-XEU-HD-Ready-Freeview-Widescreen-LCD-TV/Product.html?searchtype=genre

Joel