LCD or Plasma

China Man

China Man

China Man

Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
1,212
Location
London
Hi,

This is not a LCD vs Plasma thread, this is purely help me to choose which one is best for me :)


I am running a mirai 32 LCD at the moment and I have connected to it

SD cable via RGB scart
PC at 720P via DVI-HDMI

I am ok with the picture quality now as I am not feeding cable HD and junk in junk out but now I want a bigger screen. We sit on the sofa approx 10-12 ft from the screen mounted on the wall.

I have a budget of 700 max and can't decided which screen to buy, I will be using cable SD 70% and computer videos 30%. The mirai is very good value for money but there are motion blur which affect a lot of LCD...

And suggestions?
 
I would say LCD also. You definatly want 1080p if your going to be connecting a computer to it. You do view a lot of SD but with your viewing distance and as long as the set is 37 or 40" you should be fine. Obviously the set will require tweaking to get the best out of the SD picture. Would recommend the Toshiba 37X3030D which can be had for £580ish atm or the Samsung le40m86 which is around £700.
 
70% Cable. Plasma will give the better picture for SD, be it a 1080p or 720p model. Better blacks, less motion smear, and generally more 'lifelike' colours.

30% Computer Video..., the OP said Video, not computer games, I assume this is probably a reference to downloaded video. Anyway 30% computer use on a plasma screen should present no problems. Just use a little common sense, and dont leave static images on screen for too long.
 
IMO anything over 60% of your viewing is SD or even HD Plasma is the way forward, the colours, blacks and image are superb. LCD is in my eyes is better suited to be a monitor not a TV.

I had a Sharp Aquos 32' 1080p LCD and now have a Samsung PS50Q7HD 50" Plasma and the difference between the two is night and day, Sky HD and normal Sky through the plasma is awesome much MUCH better than the LCD.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks for the help so far :)

The 30% of computer use will be Karoake videos and divx around 300mb/45mins. I guess both would be low quality materials. The only time I will need to read clear fonts will be when on desktop choosing folders/dir for karoake songs.

I know how desktop llooks on my 32 LCDs does anyone have a photo of desktop showing on plasma handy?

Ben
 
For £700 you aren't going to get a 1080p plasma, meaning that you're going to have to get a 720p one with a dodgy 1024x768 16:9 resolution (ie. not good for any pc use).

I'm agreeing with bob, for that budget you should get a LCD.
 
weringo said:
For £700 you aren't going to get a 1080p plasma, meaning that you're going to have to get a 720p one with a dodgy 1024x768 16:9 resolution (ie. not good for any pc use).

I'm agreeing with bob, for that budget you should get a LCD.
Click to expand...


Even though most of the use will be videos :confused: The resolution is fine have a look at a Samsung PS42Q97 cracking set for the money, Playing DIVX on a 1080P screen will look absolutely awful belive me.
 
Playing DIVX on a 1080P screen will look absolutely awful belive me.
Click to expand...

Depends on your source, I found my Mpeg-IV DVD player to have poor quality divx/xvid playback, but on a PC it's very good. A 45 minute 350/700MB divx/xvid looks fantastic and especially those from HD channels.
 
fothsn said:
Playing DIVX on a 1080P screen will look absolutely awful belive me.
Click to expand...

I was nothing less than impressed by a 700mb 1:36 Xvid on my 1080p LCD. Dark scenes showed minimal blocking aswell.

And that was through an Xbox with component so it was raw data the TV scaled.
 
badbob said:
Depends on your source, I found my Mpeg-IV DVD player to have poor quality divx/xvid playback, but on a PC it's very good. A 45 minute 350/700MB divx/xvid looks fantastic and especially those from HD channels.
Click to expand...


Thats true, but the huge resolution of 1080P will show playing DIVX and the like, HD rips will look okay as you say.


Given the choice of my 1080P Aquos LCD and the Samsung plasma would be a no brainer for me, the plasma displays excellent SD & HD pictures :D Also looks cracking hooked up to my XBox 360 :p

Your best bet is pop into a highstreet store, and check out the various screens just to get a feel for how the look etc, although they wont be set up correctly but they will give you an idea how the perform.
 
Last edited:
Plasma is better for SD from what I've seen. But if you plan to upgrade to more HD sources I'd go for a top end LCD.

But, you get what you pay for and for your budget, plasma's probably gonna be better for you.
 
When I am in the shop I see all the TV looks the same, in 2 groups.

The one that is set up with HD feed look amazing, and there are the ones that showing normal SD board cast where you can see blocks and noise.

When I first bought my LCD I plug it into normal cable out scart and the picture look rubbish and regret spending money on it. Then I set cable box out to RGB and bought a better scart cable and now the picture is good enough but still got motion blur. With the cheap LCD being 1 year on is there any improvement? And if I am happy with my 320 pounds 32" 720p LCD screen would I be disappointed with a 42" ATEC LCD at 1080p

only if I could drag my PC to the shop and plug it in :)

Benson
 
The thing is with LCD's is to reduce sharpness, all the way down. I set up Avia last week and at default it had horrible amount of ringing. In dynamic mode sharpness is set to 75- yuck!! On freeview it's set to around 10. Things like dynamic noise reduction and frame interpolation just makes it look worse.

It's not as a good as a plasma, but it's neither disgusting to look at. Considering the size increase from 28" widescreen TV I'm happy with it. It looks superb as a PC monitor, so worse case scenario I'll move the LCD to the gaming rig once 1080p plasmas become affordable.
 
Ignore the whole 1024x768 of the plasma, for occasional desktop use, just set your desktop to 1360x768, and the plasma TV will scale it down to 1024x768.

This is how I run my plasma TV when using the media centre, and it works just fine, can web browse and all the texts are clearly readable. Its no problem at all.
 
Ok, I just came back from a suppermarket and I spend half an hour playing around with all their display models, Plasma and LCD.

After doing some searching I think I am settle to this one

Hitachi P42T01 HD Ready 42" Plasma TV with Freeview @ 609 pounds next day delivery
No idea how well it will be with my computer but it handles SD image much better than any other panel in the shop.

Anyone got better idea before I order it for Friday? I really like some other 50" panel and some 1080P plasma but they are out of my budget...

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom