New TV Dilemma

[Darkdreamer]

From what I've read Plasmas tend to excell when they're in darker rooms. Even in the Best Buy I was at there were some TV's in a darker corner and you could see a difference in the images. The Plasma blew the LCD away, it was showing King Kong so there were a lot of darker colors that were a lot more noticeable and detailed on the Plasma than the LCD, they just blended in a lot on the LCD.

[Darus Grey]

Ye same thing happened to my GF with her Samsung PC Monitor. Only on for 2 hours and blue lines constantly appearing down the screen.

Anyways how come so many are saying Plasma are better than LCD/LED? Is this the case if so i have been had. I looked at both Plasma & LCD/LED displaying the same football match and the Plasma didnt look as rich at all? Quite dull.

We got the LCD/LED and really happy with it but we could of got a bigger tv for slightly cheaper in the Plasma but it the display didnt look as nice or rich in colour and detail. This was in a big heavily lighted open store would this be the case?

Don't feel bad, and I'm about to go conspiracy a bit here, but you have been effected by a serious marketing campaign.

Washed out = "Bright"

Saturated = "Vibrant"

It's all marketing speak about how to turn the negatives into positives and it works.

Let me put it simply, ever turned on the "Cinema" setting of a TV and noticed it lowers pretty much every setting to like 25-30% of it's original values?

That's what it's meant to look like...but they display and market TVs in "vivid" mode, to display their "vibrant colors".

And this is something plasma falls short of, despite the fact that in real-world scenarios, it's completely irrelevant how "vibrant" it is, but it's about the only thing that LCD does "better"(lol) and they push it to the limits in their campaigns, making people believe they should be watching TV at those settings.

Stores are in on it too, the reality is that in order to compete with LCD, Plasma prices have completely plummeted, despite the fact that the technology isn't that significantly cheaper to manufacture. Which means the plasmas are sold at a much lower margin, making displaying LCDs in a favorable light in the store's best interest because that's where the $$$ is.

Except for some people like competitive fighting gamers, racing simmers, etc who rely on millisecond level reactions(and we play on CRTs anwyays...), there's nothing horrible about LCD sets, they're more than adequate.

What it boils down to, is that they're a lesser value for the money unless you're buying in the 20-37 inch range, and most people, when they become informed consumers, like plasma, cause who doesn't want better performance for less money?

[Grey Jorildyn]

Yea.. I just canceled my LED-LCD TV order and bought this this instead.

Seemed a better buy for the money and performance and pretty much every other factor. Really only worried about the potential buzz or hum, but it wasn't a big enough deterrent to get me to spend another $500 on a TV from last year that is smaller and has more input lag.

Also, it's true what Darus says about in-store displays. They really do not try to sell you a plasma whatsoever and those TVs always have the brightness jacked up or are in "Dynamic" display modes (ala Samsung). Nobody watches TV like that, ever. You'll be seeing spots for hours afterward if you do.

I absolutely love the softness that LCD/LED brings to watching stuff like regular cable viewing. In the future I would probably pick one up again for a living room type area, but I am trying to plan ahead for a HT in a year or two so I figured the plasma would be the way to go. Good tips in this thread and others as always. A lot less of a headache than AVS forums that's for sure.

[Darus Grey]

You honestly can't hear the hum unless you're behind it.

We're not talking xbox level noise here.

A lot less of a headache than AVS forums that's for sure.

Me and I assume Kareface are AVS regulars, so it's like the distilled version, lol.

AVS is a great place to go if you simply want to be scared to buy ANY tv.

[Atreides]

my only issue is like... I usually think movie and sometimes standard presets are too dim, even in a completely dark room after I optimize it (using other people's calibration results, or the thx thingy). Maybe it's just me but I like a nice bright image. For me, this still makes plasma ideal since the contrast range is so high, allowing brighter brights and still displaying blacker blacks than any LED/LCD is capable of, but I always feel like some sort of mutant for not being able to appreciate my TV in movie mode.