Plasma HDTV Technology Isn't Dead Yet

[Marcus Yam]

Plasma TV is still here.

Plasma HDTV Technology Isn't Dead Yet : Read more

 

[Guest]

I will always buy plasma.

 

[Startingline13]

Plasma > LCD

 

[starryman]

I own both and hands down Plasma has a better display irregardless of being slightly less sharp. It's well known that LCD is less expensive to produce than Plasma. But both are going out the door... OLED is definitely on the right path. Better color, faster response, and for all the greenies lower energy consumption.

 

[Guest]

Never bought plasma. My 52" LCD was half the weight of equivalent plasma. Weight was an important aspect in my purchase decision.

 

[hellwig]

50% of 50"+ market, what has the rest, DLP?

Walking into a store to buy a TV, two things will determine what I buy (assuming I already know what size I need): Price and Picture quality, in that order. If plasma meets my needs, I'll buy it, but if DLP or LCD meets them better, well, I don't have any loyalty either way.

Plasma suffered from a lot of (deserved) bad press in the early days. Its always hard to shake that stigma even if the hardware, quality, and price have improved.

 

[Myrdek]

If only plasma didn't have that damn image retention problem I'd buy one. I use my computer as a television as well so that's a huge issue

 

[audioee]

@ Myrdek

Read this http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/3101/what-is-killing-the-plasma-tv.html

@ hellwig

Buying a TV in a big box store, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. and judging picture quality on the floor is a bad idea. The display units are cranked up to torch mode and high color. Only LCDs can pull that off. When this done to a plasma the color and picture get washed out. But the real test is in a home environment. Current plasmas will look better than LCD.

 

[audioee]

@ Myrdek

The link didn't show...

http/www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/3101/what-is-killing-the-plasma-tv.html

 

[hixbot]

More accurate colours, better motion, less input lag, much better blacks. They now rarely suffer from image retention. Plasmas offer many advantages over LCD. Their only negative would be power consumption.

Unfortunately when in a department store with terrible lighting, people seem to buy the brightest displays, which are always LCDs. Combine that with sales people who would rather not, or can't explan why Plasmas advantages.
Not to mention that LCD's are cheaper to produce and therefore offer better profit margins.

I worked at a big name electronics store and I was told not to tell people about Plasmas advantages unless the customer was close to buying one. Pretty much the only Plasmas that were sold, were to people who have researched on their own and had already made up their minds.
Everyone else always bought LCD because they look brighter in the store, and side by side, people think the brighter display has a nicer picture.
We were told to encourage this because it confirms their initial impression and often lead to a quick sale. If we told them otherwise, they'd get confused, and leave without buying anything.
I couldn't deal with misleading people, and quit.

The good Plasmas are better for gaming than the best LCDs. Even the 240hz LED displays. So many people have been told the opposite, by authorized reps. It's shameful.

 

[Myrdek]

@audioee

Thanks for the link, I had read reviews of the best Plasma saying they had improved a lot but while their good enough for console gaming their not for pc.

Better plasma cell technology effectively prevents images from getting permanently burned into a screen with normal use. While modern plasmas do experience image retention when something stays on the screen for hours on end, simply changing the station is usually enough to wash out the ghosting within a few seconds.

I do leave my computer screen on for hours on end sometimes and sometimes I can play a game for 10 hours non-stop and every game has something static. I would end up ruining the screen with that kind of use

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

If they could ever get the price down, LaserTV will be a better choice.

 

[KyleSTL]

I'm glad I'm not the only one correcting plasma misconceptions. Power consumption, image retention, and all those problems are a part of plasma history. The damage (in the average consumers opinion) is done and will take years to rectify, meanwhile the hacks at all the big box stores will continue to misinform everyone that asks for advice/'expertise' (and sometimes when they don't). Oh yeah, and don't forget to buy the Monster cables with that.

 

[pochacco007]

it isn't always about the quality but about something else that people prefer having even though quality may not be there.

if you look at video games for instance, i would prefer resident evil 4 controllers with wii graphics as compared to having resident evil 5 classic dual analog and super graphics.

i believe lcd's use less energy, is lighter, and cheaper then plasmas which is probably the reason why lcd's are prefered then plasmas.

 

[doomtomb]

Aren't LCDs more reliable and last longer? Wouldn't I want that out of a huge investment like a big screen TV?

 

[Dave K]

Competition is always good... hopefully Plasma stays around to keep the LCD guys pushing to improve. If Plasma died out years ago then we'd probably be watching washed out early gen LCD tech because they'd never have had to try to keep up.

 

[San Pedro]

Yeah the big thing I think is price and power consumption. I can get a 32 inch sharp here in Japan that is rated at 66 kw/h. That's less than some light bulbs. The 37-42 inch models about double that though, but still not that bad.

 

[solymnar]

I can't help it...when I think of laser TV...I have this image in my mind of a lasers tracking your head and following it beaming the image directly into your eyeballs.

Someone walks across the room carrying laundry...you quick turn on the laser TV on some horror flick and it blasts the images into their eyes and catches them off guard.

Commercial: "Laser...it beams the TV goodness into yer mellon."

On a more serious note laser and oled sound like the way to go at this point in general, esp for someone who's going to use it for their computer.

 

[acecombat]

[citation][nom]starryman[/nom]OLED is definitely on the right path. Better color, faster response, and for all the greenies lower energy consumption.[/citation]
Too bad they havent worked a way around the very limited life in OLED panels as opposed to Plasma and LCD!

 

[silversurfernhs]

"irregardless" - starryman; this is why he is confused and audioee is right on the mark