LCD, LED or Plasma?

I was in Competitor yesterday having a nose about and they had a samsung LCD, an LCD LED and a G10 plasma all side by side with info on each tech posted up around them.

The way they had them setup in the shop the LED had the best blacks, the G10 blacks looked quite grey.

however when some colour came on the screen the G10 was well brighter than the Samsung so it was just a crap setup tbh. The Samsung had had it's brightness turned right down and the G10 right up by the looks of it.

The LED models aren't bad at all but still glad I went for my Panasonic Plasma as it suits the viewing conditions in our room great as the room isn't too bright.
 
Quality - Pioneer plasma
Bang per Buck - Panasonic plasma
Cheaper option - Sony LCD
 
I'm not sure LCDs and 'LEDs' are receiving fair cop on here and avforums etc. If it's brightness levels you're concerned about, take a look outside where, in real life, it's ****ing bright.

That said I prefer the SD picture of plasmas to LCD, but on HD I prefer the LCDs. The 'LEDs' are just amazing for both and if cost wasn't a factor, I would have one.

That's personal preference and although people will probably try and tell me I'm wrong, I just can't see what the over-dull grainy image produced by plasmas has to offer over these recent TVs labelled as 'LEDs', the image of which looks simply beautiful.
 
Dull and grainy from a good plasma is far more accurate to real life than 3km from the sun LCD in dynamic.

Do you live in the sahara as it certainly isn't that bright :p

Also, comparing tvs in shops is soo hard and most of the time very misleading.
 
wait till next year an panasonic should be releasing thier range of led backlite tv's.

the samsung are very nice, and hd does look awsome but the sound is crap, so you will need some sort of speaker system.
 
Robbie G said:
That said I prefer the SD picture of plasmas to LCD, but on HD I prefer the LCDs. The 'LEDs' are just amazing for both and if cost wasn't a factor, I would have one.
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What does the resolution matter in the picture quality between your choice? Bizarre.

Plasmas have the best blacks. Plasmas handle movement better. The only reason to get an LCD (including the LED backlit versions) over a plasma is if you are a HTPC user and/or you do A LOT of gaming.

The LED backlit jobs are an improvement but still not capable of producing the native contrast and colour depth of a good Plasma.

OLED is another matter, when we will see those appear though at a reasonable price is anyone's guess.
 
Stag said:
What does the resolution matter in the picture quality between your choice? Bizarre.
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I don't know, since I never evened mentioned the resolution. Bizarre.

Stag said:
Plasmas have the best blacks. Plasmas handle movement better. The only reason to get an LCD (including the LED backlit versions) over a plasma is if you are a HTPC user and/or you do A LOT of gaming.

The LED backlit jobs are an improvement but still not capable of producing the native contrast and colour depth of a good Plasma.
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Maybe, but you are placing far too much weight with black levels and forgetting about the rest of the image.

Modern LCDs no longer exhibit noticeable ghosting with fast moving images. I'm afraid that your advice is three years old.
 
Robbie G said:
Modern LCDs no longer exhibit noticeable ghosting with fast moving images. I'm afraid that your advice is three years old.
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A tv's ability (or lack of) to handle resolution in motion is not solely down to ghosting. the sony w5500, for example, managed a motion resolution of 650 lines with motionflow on high, or 300 with it off. http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Sony-KDL40W5500/Calibration.htm my panasonic plasma? 1080 lines, like most plasma's. what he said about movement is bang on, at least for the time being. It's your understanding of motion resolution that is incorrect.
 
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Stag said:
What does the resolution matter in the picture quality between your choice? Bizarre.

Plasmas have the best blacks. Plasmas handle movement better. The only reason to get an LCD (including the LED backlit versions) over a plasma is if you are a HTPC user and/or you do A LOT of gaming.
Click to expand...

HTPC is for films yeah? Why would you not want a Plasma. Who cares what the menus look like.
 
Stag said:
The only reason to get an LCD (including the LED backlit versions) over a plasma is if you are a HTPC user and/or you do A LOT of gaming.
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My lounge PC doubles as a HTPC, (connected to my Plasma and Projector). I still wouldn't go for a LCD (for HTPC use), as they are just inferior at most given price points.

Gaming is the only area where I would choose LCD over Plasma. And also, if I wanted a small screen (below 37"), LCD would be the way to go.

LED tvs are far too early in their development cycle to purchase right now (unless you can get one at a knock down price).

At the present time, at most price points, Plasma TVs offer superior image quality.

I'm actually shocked that LCD hasn't overtaken plasma yet, given that a lot more money is being spent on developing LCD technology than plasma. By now, I would've thought that LCD would've overtaken Plasma. Perhaps the big manufacturers such as Sony backed the wrong horse?
 
Robbie G said:
That said I prefer the SD picture of plasmas to LCD, but on HD I prefer the LCDs. The 'LEDs' are just amazing for both and if cost wasn't a factor, I would have one.

...I just can't see what the over-dull grainy image produced by plasmas has to offer over these recent TVs labelled as 'LEDs', the image of which looks simply beautiful.
Click to expand...

For SD purposes, at identical price points, are you saying that LED offers better image quality than plasma? If so, can you give me the model number for the LED TV you are talking about. I genuinely would like to know.
 
I think the problem here is that people's definition of "good" differs. To a knowledgeable av enthusiast, good means the ability to faithfully reproduce the pictures as a director intended.

To others, good seems to mean oversaturated bright images.

Localised LED dimming is a great technology for LCD tvs, but is still a bit away from being an answer to LCD's inherent problems. Yes it addressed the black level issue to a degree, but it also intoduces other flaws to the image such as halos in scenes of mixed brightness. LCDs also have a tendency to wash colour the further you are off centre as well as introducing gaming lag.

The main advantage of LCD is that it still looks good in a very bright room, an area where plasma traditionally suffers.


Plasmas in general give a more accurate picture than LCD and size for size draw as similar amount of power. They do not tend to suffer from processing lag in the same way that LCDs do.

The main downside is that image retention (not screen burn) can occur on certain panels (LG mainly) and if your room is very bright this can wash out the image a bit.


In all honesty, with a 1k budget you should be looking at a Panasonic g15 or v10 plasma: http://www.avforums.com/reviews/Panasonic-TX-P46G15-Plasma-HDTV-Review.html

Here is a (slightly older) 7 series Samsung Review:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/samsung-le40a786-review-20080922131.htm
 
my mum has the new 8 series 40' sammy on order, will let u know what i think once delivered, its being calibrated too :) mite actually hav to spend time at hers now :o
 
Me and the G/F are also looking at getting a new TV in the next couple of months as we're moving into our first place together and will need one for the bedroom, I've got a Kuro already which will obviously be the main TV for the living room but was thinking about a Sammy LED as I found one at the weekend 40" for 1k but on the other hand the Panna Plasma's (after Pioneer of course :p) look like they might be the best bet in that same price range

Decisions Decisions
 
i fancy led simply to take the power consumption down a bit and they r so thin, cant wait to play with it, my mum may eventually get to watch it..
 
I may have to break out my emergency can of worms cover here.

Despite all this top information and view points, must say i am more in a quandry than before.

Have to say that decision is now between the Panny V15 and Sammy 7 series LEDLCD.

Can get them both for the same price, so will have to demo them next to each other (when i get the chance) to see what is what. Feel this may be a good day out, bith for me and my Blu Ray of BSG.

Ally-will be good to hear what that sammy your mammy is getting looks like too
 
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