LCD or Plasma

[Noddy]

Have convinced my GF that we need a new HD tellie for the house we just bought. Anybody got an informed opinion on which is best for gaming?

[Uncle_Darth]

I hate this debate. Everyone will have a different opinion and the salesman always just want to sell you somenthing.

a full HD LCD TV is great (1920x1080) - will give you a great picture and is good for games. That being said Plasma's have much darker darks (good for games) but run really hot - almost no nead for a heater in a small room.

There are pros and cons for both but they will both do what you want as long as there is a connection into the TV that will take the computer connection.

Not much help sorry but i think it comes down to personal preference.

And dont get conned but the power consumption bull with LCD's vs Plasma's
On average they use the roughly the same amount. It depends on what you are watching. Ie LCD has to power the whole screen all the time to make the colours.
Plasma only turns on the parts that need to be lit to change it from black.
Therefore - a plasma will use more than an LCD if showing a white screen and less if black.

[daveee]

Plasma's use more energy Darth. The current range are being phased out due to this. They were meant to be not able to be for sale at christmas this year, but I think it has been extended a while.

There aren't many big names that do Plasma's anymore, all the big names are moving to LCD (Sony, Samsung).

LCD's black levels are getting better and better with every release too, so not much to worry about there.

At the end of the day its better to go into a store and pick what looks best to you, I would go with a Samsung LCD (the F8 is a very very impressive TV) though, currently they have a rebate going on - if you buy a certain model you either get a free 19", or a free 26" (F8 comes with the 26"). You can get the F8 for around 3k.

[Tubby]

As Darth said this is the same as debating Holden/Ford, AMD/Intel.
Do your own research as I did and you will come to a decision thats right for you.
I bought a Pioneer 50inch Plasma and couldn't be happier (except that its a bit small)

A couple of things to remember

1)You CANNOT distinguish the difference between HD and Full HD at a viewing distance of more than 3m on a 50inch panel (less for smaller panels)

2)Your Panel can never ever be too big. What ever size you buy will be too small within a month.

3)Keep in mind that all the panels in the stores are wound up as far as brightness and colour goes. Its quite easy to get a cheap arse panel to look 'better' than a quality panel with a quick fiddle of the settings.

4)After 100 or so hours of viewing, the best money you will ever spend on a panel is to get it calibrated.
Cost you $250 and will make a huge difference. There's only a handful of guys in the country that have the equipment and the talent to do it properly. The difference will be chalk and cheese


The Best place to find all the info you need is
www.dvtforum.info
You can also participate in group buys which may take a bit of time but save you bucketloads of cash.
There are also threads on where to get the best prices

[Wokeye]

http://www.comparison.com.a u/

Seems to have info on energy efficiency/use over time for a decent range of models.

[bishos30]

I sell TV's for a living and get asked this everyday.
It mainly comes down to what your using it for and what type of room it's going into.

For gaming and sport plasma is the best, full stop.
You can pick up a panasonic full 1080p screen for under $3k.

The 2 things you have to worry about with plasma is screen burning, which is only a problem during the first 100 hours of use and light reflection. Plasma panels have a glass sheet on the front and screen glare is a major problem. To get the best out of it you do need a darker room.

That said if you have a light room (no curtains) or do most of your tv watching during the day get an LCD.

A full HD LCD won't look as good because of the refresh rate on the screen and subsequent motion blur. You can get screens that are better than others but be prepared to pay big bucks for them (the X series Sony Bravias are VERY nice).

PS. Big screen TV's have always consumed heaps of power. There's only a ruckus about it now cos every man and his dog has a 100+ cm screen. They aren't phasing out plasmas. They're just bringing in an energy rating for them like fridges and air cons are required to. Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung already meet the requirments on their units so stick with one of those.

PPS. I'm a gamer and there's a 42" Panasonic Plasma in my living room.

[Wokeye]

Do you play PC games with your 42" panasonic Bish?

[VisOne]

Thanks for putting this up noddy I've be thinking on this issue ever since I brought my Xbox 360 now I feel better informed to buy what I need. Looks like I will end up with a LCD due to the position of windows in relation to the TV.

[daveee]

Originally Posted by bishos30

PS. Big screen TV's have always consumed heaps of power. There's only a ruckus about it now cos every man and his dog has a 100+ cm screen. They aren't phasing out plasmas. They're just bringing in an energy rating for them like fridges and air cons are required to. Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung already meet the requirments on their units so stick with one of those.

I swear I read something where they said energy inefficient plasmas were going to be banned or something similar. It was a while back, so anything could have happened between now and then

[Wokeye]

I thought they were looking at it, but will now let market forces 'encourage' more efficient design instead, buy requiring display of energy consumption stickers like cars and some other appliances.

[GruAncH]

Originally Posted by VisOne

Thanks for putting this up noddy I've be thinking on this issue ever since I brought my Xbox 360 now I feel better informed to buy what I need. Looks like I will end up with a LCD due to the position of windows in relation to the TV.

Just board up ya windows Vis problem solved ahaha nice sheet of 3ply will do the trick...

Or get a white curtain for the front (looks good from outside) then a thick good quality blind and hanging curtains for the edges. that way you can control the light.

[VisOne]

I have rather expensive Venusians blinds on them but there light grey stop virtually no real light and I have a window in my kitchen that shines right on the screen. I'm trying to play oblivion right now and its hard as crawling through dark dungeons with this much light on the screen.

[AintWarHeLL(hehe)]

1080p plasma , LCDs don't have true 1080 yet, even if they call what they got 1080. you need to look at the last www.dl.tv Episode 206, they talk about what now is the best right now, well in the USA. Robert Heron is the KING of HD TVs. I have been watching dl.tv for along time, it it by far the best pod/vid/cast / TV show on the net its a must watch.

other good links you need to look at

http://dl.tv/2007/08/hdtv_tip_calibrate_y our_hdtv.php

http://dl.tv/2005/11/download_dltvs_hdtv_ special.php

[bishos30]

Originally Posted by Wokeye

Do you play PC games with your 42" panasonic Bish?

Tried to play PR with it once but couldn't get the widescreen to work properly. Have since worked out how but haven't tried again. I do watch Youtube on it and browse the internet through the PS3. Looks a heck of alot better than my Pc's screen.

And Davee, your right, they are banning innefficient plasmas. Well, they're putting a MEPs criteria on them anyways. The same as they do for most electrical gear (the star rating you see on fridges). It's just that most decent plasmas already meet the required standard. The ones that don't won't be able to be sold in Australia until the manufacturer redesigns it. Which is good for the consumer and the retail store. Most of the cheap brands will go out the window like the Conias and Palsonics, which is awesome.

Also, if your local retailer is shoddy enough to change the settings on the TV's on display (which is an annoying and pointless practice) the easiest and most accurate way of telling how good a screen is is to look at what shade black is and what shade white is. Most stores will be running HD demo discs at the moment which will have ample shots of both shades. No matter how much tinkering you do to a TV, white will be white and black will be black. The blacker the black and whiter the white, the better the TV. In the picture look for people with white shirts or shoes on and open doorways and shadows for the blacks.

If a salesman starts talking about the benefits of HD or True HD smack him. Simple story is, if you can afford full HD get it without question. Otherwise don't bother. War is right in that we don't get true 1080p stuff but Blu ray running at 720p is still mindblowingly stuff.

Oh and brand wise, stick to the names you've heard of. There are very few little known brands that do these things well and of those you need to pick one you can actually get some backup service from in your area.

[daveee]

What do you mean we don't get true HD stuff?


If your TV does 1080p, and you have a blu ray player...you have true hd?

Is there something missing?

[Captain_Wolf]

I agree with everything Bishos has posted.

If you have the money buy an LCD with a small refresh rate interval which will eliminate the motion blur on fast moving images (the main problem with LCD tech).

I played PR on my 55" plasma a few times... ohhhhhh yeah.

[AintWarHeLL(hehe)]

LCDs don't have 1080 lines of vertical resolution, count them, They simply downscale the image, as needed. its close. but not 1080. I will have a look over all the dl.tvs I got to see if I can fine the one where robert says about it.

[daveee]

LA46F81BDX Resolution 1920 x 1080

As taken from the Samsung website...

Correct me if I am wrong, but that is 1080 vertical pixels?

[Psyrus]

Originally Posted by daveee

As taken from the Samsung website...

Correct me if I am wrong, but that is 1080 vertical pixels?

Yeah I think antiwar might be a bit confused... there are definitely LCD TVs (42 inches and above) that have 1080p (and "i" I think), all it requires is 1080 vertical resolution which they have. 40 inches and below have 1366x768 I believe, which is good for 720p/i.

APCMAG also wrote up a little article about it... check it out:

http://apcmag.com/hdtv

[Ablack77]

Originally Posted by bishos30

For gaming and sport plasma is the best, full stop.

Are you sure about that Bish?

I'm sure you know your stuff, But I was told the opposite:

LCD is better for movement ie gaming and sport.

WTF ?

:O please don't tell me someone has lied to me......Do people lie? :O