Plasma TV

Quality-wise, the best is Fujitsu, followed by Panasonic/Pioneer. The Fujitsus and Pioneers are expensive though, making the Pannys the best price/performance value.

 

ehhh I'm not overly impressed with the plasmas, they are neat on a novelty level but I wouldn't buy one. Much rather have a nice DLP, but for $1800 thats a hard deal to pass up.

 

Friend has a 50" Panasonic and what I noticed was that if the signal is perfect so is the picture, but any defects in the signal (such as from free to air TV) is magnified so that watching something basic like the evening news is excruciating. After spending 3 nights with it, I wouldn't have one...

 

I currently own a 61 inch Elite Pioneere, great pasma. No problems so far and have had it for over a year now. Its on the higher price but worth it if you want to go all out.

 

haha yeah on the higher end, just add another 0 to the price he was looking at. Certanly a nice setup you have there.

 

Do the plasmas still have the propensity to burn static images into the screen?

 

If you're looking for a thin "flat panel" tv you can hang on a wall (as opposed to a DLP, or other), you basically have two choices: LCD & Plasma. Plasma technology is a bit older, but the pictures look great. The Achilles heel of plasma technology is "burn-in" on the screen -- after a while, especially if you tend to watch a particular channel a lot (like CNN, CNBC, Fox News) where there are fixed graphical elements on the screen, you'll eventually see those images burned into the plasma display. That damage is permanent.

LCD doesn't have this burn-in problem at all. Until recently, LCD TV's didn't look quite as good as plasma, and the response rate of the displays wasn't as fast as plasma which also led to a lower quality image. But that's changing -- LCD displays are now getting mature, the display response rates are up to where they should be, they've figured out how to deal with the contrast issues in earlier models (the human eye senses brightness along a non-linear curve, so getting a TV to display an image that is pleasing to look at is more than just feeding a signal into a display -- the display has to interpret the signal in a manner that produces a pleasing image -- but that's getting a bit too geeky for this post). In any case, there are now nice, reliable, great looking LCD displays available, and they don't have the problems inherent in Plasma displays.

Whether you'll be able to find an LCD model you'll be happy with for $1800 right now is a different story, but it's a technology worth looking at before you plunk down hard earned $$ for a new HD television.

Just my $0.02

 

I just purchased a 50" Panasonic. I love it. You just have to make sure you're far enough away when viewing, so not to see the pixels.

 

Burn in is a thing of the past. End of story. There have tons of studies that show a modern plasma is no more prone to burn than a CRT (Tube) TV. The technology advances in the phosphor and the gas itself has pretty much eliminated the burn in problem. This study even showed that if burn in did happen (after 2 days of the exact same image) it could be undone by watching something else. The TV would heal itself.

The "problem" with plasmas is their native resolution of 768 lines. If a 720 line signal comes in, that has to be spread amongst the 768 lines. This is commonly called "scaling". If your cheap ass plasma has a weak scaling engine, the picture will look like crap. This same example holds true for a 1080 signal coming in.

People talk about everything BUT the scaling abilities of a given TV. But in reality that has a ton of impact on what the image will look like.

 

I have the Fujitsu Plasma at home, had it for about a year now.

Only complaint I have is that non-hd programming looks really flat on the plasma. Black areas are particularly troublesome.

But, when you're watching aN HD program, or a DVD, there's nothing better.

DM

 

Is the majority of the programming you watch going to be 16:9 or 4:3?

Also Burn in is not a thing of the past.

We have a few plasma units for client preview in our edit suites
and we regularly have to run the white screen function to remove burn in from graphics.

Most TV stations now use a bug in the corner of the screen that never changes.

 

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/273087528Pioneer%20DTV%20White%20Paper%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Yes, if you watched that same station for 48 hours then the bug would burn it. It would also go away once you changed the channel. Very few consumers watch the same channel for 48 hours straight. Also, any commercial breaks would reset the bug.

 

We have three at our houses. One 42 inch LG (great for price IMO), one 42 sony wega with glass around it(very cool TV with speakers and tuner built in) very costly when we bought but prices have come down. Also, one 50 inch fujitsu which probably has the best picture I have ever seen but costly and has no internal speakers or tuner. If you want pics or any more info let me know. I live at school but will be home for thanksgiving. All are hung on wall.
Erik
P.S. my dad just bought my mom a month or so ago this mobile LCD TV that you can watch HD on and carry around your house it is made by sony. It allows you to have a TV/DVD player slash internet connection anywhere as you can surf the web on it. All touch screen forget what it is called though.

 

Are you basing your statements on what a Plasma TV manufacture like Pioneer says, or are you talking from personal experience?


Having worked in the industry for 23 years, and having 7 Plasma monitors
as well as other types of monitors that we use for video production, film editing, audio sweetening and such, we have a wee bit of experience with these issues.

 

We sell the a few of the new tech sets here. I always warn potential buyers of
plasma about reliability problems. Plasma panels are driven by high voltage &
they also produce a lot of heat-factors that will cause problems with the long
term reliability. They also cost a LOT to fix as repair to plasma set could run as
high as $1-1.5K. The cheaper brands as philips are also not known for being
too serviceable.
The panels are usually good for about 30k hours. This sounds like a lot but for a typical family set this is only about 5 or 6 years. There is also a reduction in picture quality during this life. They are also power hungry as plasma tvs
consume on the average 2 to 3 times the power of other types.
But they are great if you want a thin tv.
For a tv that is 36" or smaller the crt is still the best thing out ther if you can deal with the bulk of the tv. Proven technology with decades of development
and picture quality second to none.
projection crt sets are a good buy if your on a budget and want a set in the
50 to 65 inch range.
dlp and lcd sets are the way most major brands are going. These both do use
a customer replaceable lamp that you have to replace every 2 or 3 years
at about $200 -300 but I imagine that price will go down as there will be
lamps available through other vendors than the manufacturer.
To my eye in comparing on a daily basis tvs in the 40 to 60 inch range the
lcd or dlp sets look the best. lcd sets have a slightly brighter picture but
the dlp sets have a better quality of contrast. The lcd/dlp sets are thicker
than the plasma at about 12 to 14 inches but are very lightweight lighter
than the plasma.
The next set I take home from work will be a dlp.

 

I agree with Dave, at my previous job (video game developer) we had a couple plasmas in the demo room and one specifically for trade shows. These would literally have the same image broadcast on the screen for 5-7 days at a time on a regular basis and we never had problems with burning the image into the screen.

An old big screen I had actuall burned the speed channel logo into the lower corner, lol... I really don't think it's an issue, I mean do your flat panel computer monitors have the windows task bar burned into them? Mine don't. And yes we did use a couple of the plasmas for computer monitors in conference rooms and such.

 

I'm talking from the perspective of someone who is looking for a HDTV and has done tons of research. I've read information from consumers (AVSForums), experts (htguys.com cnet.com) and industry leaders on various home theater podcasts (not industry podcasts).

And from what I've seen/read/heard burn in has been mostly solved. There is a chance that being in the industry for 23 years would bias your thoughts. The old plasmas were terrible for burn in. The new ones have made a lot of changes to fix this problem. Having 7 plasmas doesn't make someone an expert on new tech. It just makes that person an expert on those 7 plasma TVs.

Finally, your use of these TVs is MUCH different than the average consumer's would be. Everything I've said is in regards to consumer, not industrial applications. A pro like you is going to run TVs much harder and more often than any normal person at home.

Honestly, not trying to get into a battle here. Just trying to share what I've learned with people on something that is so often misunderstood.

 

The current generation of plasmas have a rated half life of 60,000 hours. That works out to 8 hrs per day (every single day) for over 20 yrs! I'm not sure anyone still has the same TV from 20 yrs ago.

Has anyone checked on the rated life of a DLP chip? I'll put my money on a plasma lasting longer than 1 million microscopic, articulated mirrors.

 

Most desktop flat panel computer monitors are LCD, which do not burn in.

 

Do the current plasmas/LCD's give good viewing at say a 45 degree angle? Is one better than the other at angled viewing?

 

lots of interesting comments here.

i've been a plasma owner for four years (pioneer pro1000hd 50") and have paid rapt attention to the plasma industry for close to six years.

here are my data points and opinions.

(A) burn in is an issue IF you don't calibrate the monitor properly. straight out of the box, the units (all the units) are calibrated "hot". if you do a proper setup of the unit you'll end up pulling the brightness WAY down. i have no burn in on my unit after all these years, and my kids watch all sorts of PBS stuff and Noggin stuff that have the annoying channel IDs.

(B) LCD panels CAN burn in. don't believe the hype. they are for sure less prone to burn-in than plasmas.

(C) commercial/professional/business use of LCDs and plasmas is in 99%+ of the cases nothing like residential use. apples and oranges.

(D) the scaling comment that was made is a good one. most flat panels have crappy internal scalers, and this is an issue. whether you're downconverting 1080 to 768 or upconverting 480 or 720 to 768 (for example) the picture is only going to be as good as the scaler. i use an external scaler that i feed to my plasma digitally, but now you're $1,800 budget is out the window.

(E) my general advice to people when they see or learn i have a plasma is to NOT buy one. neither LCD nor plasma flat panels are a good bang for the buck. imo, plasma is only interesting in two situations. either (A) you cannot get proper ambient light control or (B) you have a particular architectural or aesthetic constraint that dictates a flat panel. i would have a projector if i could control the ambient light in my den.

my two drachmas, worth no more than you paid for them.

doody.

 

What's your take on plasma from a color reproduction standpoint? I think there are some serious advantages to plasma in regards to color and black levels. Not to mention some serious contrast.

I was the one who talked about the scaling and the knowledge of the crappy scalers has me looking for TVs with native res of either 720 or 1080. Then at least part of the time I'm getting a pure scaled of the signal. I guess that's the only reason right now to even consider a 1080p. So that the 1080i signal of CBS, HDNET, etc looks awesome.

 

buy the $1800 one. You'll have a lot of wow factor that dosen't soon wear off.

My main knock-around set is a 42" NEC professional unit (very resistant to burn-in.) Good quality, though I like Pioneers best this cost 1/2.

I do most of my serious (ie movie) watching on a 9" AMPRO 4300 CRT projector and 100" screen though!