Advice - looking for a new telly min 42 inch ... LCD or Plasma ?

cheers in advance...

 

I'm not right up on this but.....

Some LCD tellys have the potential to drop pixels. That is, one of the tiny dots that make up the picture suddenly starts to shine white. If a lot go it can be really annoying. Some places wont exchange it on the grounds its within recommended specifications. I'm seriously unsure what to do about getting one and myown coursewould be a combination of the following;</p>

1. If you go for an LCD get a top brand one rather than a cheapie</p>

2. Check before you buy what the policy is if you get pixel dropout.</p>

3. I don't think plasma screens are subject as much to this type of thing. Therefore if you are gonna buy expensive, go for the plasma.</p>

 

Anything that size I would go for Plasma mate. Lcd ok for smaller screens but lake contrast quality and this shows when you get a big screen. Oh and dont worry about that plasma lifetime thing- new ones maylast as long as lcd ones. I would get a Panasonic too - good quality.</p>

 

try this one http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1159661197.1185224637@@@@&amp;BV_EngineID=ccccaddliekdjifcflgceggdhhmdfhj.0&amp;page=Product&amp;fm=11&amp;sm=0&amp;tm=0&amp;sku=918573&amp;category_oid=

 

try this one http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1159661197.1185224637@@@@&amp;BV_EngineID=ccccaddliekdjifcflgceggdhhmdfhj.0&amp;page=Product&amp;fm=11&amp;sm=0&amp;tm=0&amp;sku=918573&amp;category_oid=

 

Cheers...

Looked at that Panasonic....Richer Sounds do it at £799

 

Traditionally plasma territory but LCD catching up fast and now actually better for some applications.
Both have respective strengths and weaknesses.

Firstly, let's look at how the screens work.
A plasma panel is trapped gas between charged glass panes. The principle of how the image is generated closer to the Cathode Ray Tube technology of standard TV's. Electrons hitting the front pane cause luminescence in, so the image can be looked upon schematically as a matrix of tiny lights. An LCD panel, meanwhile, is a set of bright fluorescent tube lights behind filter matrix: The pixels of the panel itself each have 3 subbixels (red, green and blue) each having a tiny transistor in the corner which controls how much liquid crystal is drawn in to darken it. The whole matrix is then brightly lit from behind to generate the image. This has two important flaws which make plasma technology more attractive.

Firstly, even with all pixels set to full blackness, the LCD matrix is not entirely opaque. Thus some light escapes through and black actually appears dark grey. This means contrast ratio (the ratio of brightest white to darkest black) is near infinite for plasma panels and limited to about 1200:1 for LCD. Secondly, the transistors take a short (milliseconds) but finite time to respond. So if an image is changing fast, plasma changes fast with it. LCD screens may not and football is a good case in point - there can be motion blur from pixels simply not changing quick enough.

However, it is nowhere near that clean cut in real life. Plasma screens can only produce true black in a perfectly dark room. The glass panel reflects ambient light in your average living room and therefore even if not a single electron hits the front panel of the screen, what you see isn't true black. It's close but the same principle can be seen (albeit more so) when you turn a CRT TV off. Is the screen pure black? Not quite. Then there's tricks LCD sets can play - dynamic contrast. Newer sets detect dark images, artificially amplify the contrast of the image sent to the LCD panel and then dim the backlight to compensate. This does work and works well. A typical plasma has a contrast of 10000:1 in daylight and LCD can get up to 6000:1 with this technique. Also, if the room is well lit (big window, bright indoor lights) big reflections will be seen and these tend to be more annoying than with CRT. LCD's meanwhile have a matt finish and so you won't see reflections of windows and ceiling lights to the same extent.

But then there's the screen burn vs pixel death debate. The way plasma screens degrade over time is that things which show on the screen for much of the time (logos in the corner of favourite channels, the taskbar on a Windows desktop) can "burn in". The screen coating becomes damaged and these images are faintly visible permanently. LCD's on the other hand don't do this but transistors in the matrix can pack in causing a pixel that always shows a certain colour - black, white, red, green or blue. My laptop screen has a stuck red pixel but it's so small I rarely see it. On a 42" on the other hand...

There are accepted tolerances - a screen should have no more than 2 black or white pixels and no more than 7 of other colours when bought. However, different companies have different returns policies for screens which degrade over time. You have no comeback at all for burn-in on a plasma, or dead pixels within ISO standards for an LCD.

It boils down really to what you want it for:
If it's for a home cinema, where the room will be darkened for watching, get a plasma. Dark scenes on films will be much clearer, sport footage more "alive". However, in the bright light of many domestic rooms, LCD will be more engaging.

If it's just as a telly in a not particularly well lit room, it's personal preference.

Finally if you wish to use it with a media centre PC, or a HD games console like PS3, get a full HD (1920x1080) LCD and don't look back.

The best way of all, of course is to watch them in action. I don't know if the arrangement is still the same but in the far left corner of the tellies in Currys behind Halfords on Harbrough Hills, there was a useful juxtaposition of the Sharp LC42XD1E (among the top LCD contenders) and a Panasonic Viera Plasma screen, both running the same demo sequence. This is a good way to see the respective failings for yourself and decide which will work best for you.

 

(seestars) (seestars) (seestars) (seestars) (seestars) (seestars)

 

I know but if you're blowing over a grand, do your research! nt

 

O.W.T

Costco's at Leeds or Sheffield. 51&quot; only &pound;700...

 

Go for plasma- PANASONIC TH-42PX70 for around £850.

Seen it and compared it with LCD screens of same size and I rate it better, especially viewing from an angle. Get it from Laskys or other internet sites, with a pedestal stand for around £850.

 

RE: Cheers...for £799 it has no stand, just a wall mount. £899 with stand. nt

 

RE: Go for plasma- PANASONIC TH-42PX70 for around £850.

Too right - top tele that bugger !

 

Here's a good comparison article:

http://www.somucheasier.co.uk/ed-plasma-lcd-tv-difference.html

Similar content to Revvie P's, just less eye strain & brain pain!

Also covers the infamous 'lifespan' debate, which Revvie P didn't go into.

 

both running the same demo sequence

I would be careful on this one, after knowing someone that worked in a large store, it was always "wired" up so that the expensive models had all the decent expensive cabling and the cheaper models just had a normal co-axial arial in it....

This way, it always made the more expensive TV look a lot sharper and clearer...

Having recently also visited another large store, I did actually makle a point at looking at the cabling behind some of the screens, and you have guessed it, not all of them are the same.... Albiet I couldn't comment on the quality of the cabling used...

But I wouldn't take on face value what it actually looks like in store, as there are many factors that make a difference, not just the cabling...

 

Plasma will be defunct soon.

Do not buy one.

 

Knew I could rely on you lot.....cheers all nt

 

RE: both running the same demo sequence

A few years ago when I was buying a new telly and went to Dixons, I had it down to 2 and wanted to see Sky Digital on them, they said that if I wanted to see Sky it was on a different telly, they didn't seem to understand that I wanted to see the source I would be watching on the TV I was interested in buying…they said they couldn't do that as "it was too much hassle" to switch around and have all display TV's capable of showing it. So I just told them it was too much hassle for me to spend £700 and walked out. I'm not interested in seeing their demo DVD to show off the TV.

 

RE: Plasma will be defunct soon. When's soon? 1yr, 5yrs 10 yrs?

View an LCD screen from an angle - the picture deteriorates. Until they sort that out, I rate plasma better, and it's the newer technology. LCD is ok for smaller screens up to 32", over that for now it's plasma.

 

Check this

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=240807&CatId=1386