Plasma vs LCD // Your view!

I still stand by my LCD purchase.
I had a big enough budget to buy my new television and I spent many, many months going to see LCDs, Plasmas in various shops.

I will not deny that the blacks were slightly better on the Plasms.
However I would certainly not say it is "night & day" when I compare it to my LCD.
I don't get ghosting or smearing at all no matter what I'm watching.

SD can sometimes look a little bad, however it only seems to be on BBC channels - all the rest are perfect.
HD sources are amazing as is gaming via the PS3.
I am extremely pleased I made the LCD purchase and have never regretted it.

I've got a Samsung LE40F86.
 
Nymins said:
My M86 only swears/ghosts when viewing average to bad quality SD stuff on Sky. Watching BR clips or playing games on the PS3 however causes none of this.

Have you tweaked the settings much for both SD and HD stuff?
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Yep, used a few guidances from AV forums including game mode with a PS3 to see if that helped cut stuff, Im pretty convinced its better when you drive it which 60hz rather than 24FPS with LCD. Its nothing huge, just I notice it as im very much looking for the effects, which is what LCD is expected to do.

What I mean by the grid effect is I can see the lines between each pixel portion. I find it 'muddens' bright white compare to LCD, although in an average lounge is probably no issue at all.

Panasonic PZ70 does sound a very good set then, Im still very please with my M86 but trying to keep to unbiased info in the thread
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Yep, used a few guidances from AV forums including game mode with a PS3 to see if that helped cut stuff, Im pretty convinced its better when you drive it which 60hz rather than 24FPS with LCD. Its nothing huge, just I notice it as im very much looking for the effects, which is what LCD is expected to do.

What I mean by the grid effect is I can see the lines between each pixel portion. I find it 'muddens' bright white compare to LCD, although in an average lounge is probably no issue at all.

Panasonic PZ70 does sound a very good set then, Im still very please with my M86 but trying to keep to unbiased info in the thread
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Yea i tried Game Mode using my current settings for the PS3, but found that the colours went really bland. Without it on it looks much more vibrant. This was done whilst playing the Motorstorm Demo.

I have the 24fps setting set to Automatic i think. I thought it only applied to BR movies though and not games? Could be wrong here.
 
Hello,

Happy to contribute my input. I have already made several posts concerning this subject matter, as I have spent a lot of time researching the pros/cons of LCD/Plasma and went with LCD in the end. Plus I also made a bit of a contribution post on my findings on 720P vs 1080P which is pretty relevant if you are deciding to got full HD or not.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11090872&postcount=780

and

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11146044&postcount=11

In conclusion:
For watching Movies/Sky/SD Dvds/TV best to go for a 720P Plasma, downside, fairly expensive for a decent plasma, go 1080P plasma if 50''+ screen but prepare for a bigger hole in your bank account.
For doing the above but also as PC monitor/Xbox360/PS3 HD gaming or desktop output go for LCD and best to go for a decent Full 1080HD LCD 40''+. Slight downside, although the gap is getting smaller ever year, the black levels on LCD is generally not as good as decent plasma screens. However, my Sony is pretty damn close, as I actually manage to see a Kuro and a Sony running side by side. I am pretty sure that soon enough, with screen getting thinner and bigger, that LCDs will be leading the market, if they are not already. Mainly cause they are cheaper to make and more research and development has and is going into them.

Hope that will be of some use to you.

Cheers
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
My 40M86 smears.

The quote 8ms is against a standard benchmark which doesnt cover all transients of video. I watched apocalypto on BR and the colours and resolution are awesome but in the faster moving scenes like chases through jungle you see how the sharp detail drops off and then when the footage slows again its like the camera focus's properly back to a HD picture as the LCD pixels catch up. Panning around fast in Halo or COD has a similar effect. I was watching footy on my parents 37px70 today and it is better than mine for motion but seems more blurry on SD stuff and I cant really live with the grid effect of plasmas, they seem very noticable to me.
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Hmm can't say I have noticed this, I will have another look out for it as I'm going to watch Apocalypto tomorrow or so. :)
Corasik said:
As I said, perhaps the difference is subjective and some people simply cant see the difference, or dont care. Not everyone for instance can see rainbows in cheap DLP projectors.

Its not just the black level by the way, its the number of shades of dark colours. With LCD the darker blacks often get compressed, while on a good plasma you can more clearly see the differences between the various shades of grey as they head towards black. For Sci-fi "space" TV/Movies it makes quite a difference imho.

If your happy with your TV, there is no problem is there.. but it doesnt mean that everyone would watch it and think its amazing. The fact is that many people still consider ultimate TV quality to be a CRT (or CRT projector). With the current generation of Plasma screens they have almost caught up with CRT. LCD is still the worst of the current techs for TV with the exception of its advantage over crt/plasma of being virtually burn proof (although retention is still possible).
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Hmm well definitely no smearing from what I can tell (usually very picky) the only thing that lets me down on my LCD is the viewing angle, I need to sit a tad higher up otherwise the top left of my screen goes light and grey-ish, kinda annoying as I have to sit up to diminish it a bit.

Black levels aren't the best either, no backlight control = fail, but it's not terrible at all and haven't really seen many LCD's that look much better (apart from the LED's) and everything else is good, can't complain really.

Might go Plasma next year though providing I can get a 1080P one, will likely go back to using a PC monitor again and just have the Plasma as a secondary for games/movies. :cool:
 
ive owned a pioneer plasma for nearly 2 years now, its an older 720 HD model and it does suffer from a little bit of pixel retention but i believe this is easily solved with the correct running in procedure.

i dont do consoles so id def get another plasma after this.
 
Plenty of LCD owners in here justifying their purchases, but from my extensive comparisons that took months, the only reason to get one is if it will be used a lot as a PC monitor, and budget constraints.

Otherwise a 'Kuro' really does set the bar for others to beat as it provides the best SD and HD quality (haven't seen a fujitsu though). If you want my testing methods then I'l post them up, as am at work atm and it is a bit boring trying to uproot LCD fanboys :)
 
adfinni said:
Plenty of LCD owners in here justifying their purchases, but from my extensive comparisons that took months, the only reason to get one is if it will be used a lot as a PC monitor, and budget constraints.
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I'm certainly not justifying my purchase, there was no true 1080P Plasmas that I could see in December anywhere near the price of my 1080P LCD, that and the fact LCD is more suited as a monitor which is what mine is used for primarily.

I've seen my parents Plasma downstairs with HD and SD, the Panny, yes it has better black levels, yes SD looks better, as for HD I couldnt tell much, if I remember correctly my LCD picked out finer details than the Plasma. But the Plasma is 720P, my LCD is 1080P so I'm sure that's a standard as I was using 1080P.mkv's on both occasions.
 
I've still yet to see a high spec LCD come up to scratch against a similar spec Plasma.

If moneys no object its gotta be a Pioneer PDP-LX608D Kuro, I'd rather lose my wife than my Kuro. Got my HTPC and Sky HD plugged in, the footy has never looked so good. Looks awesome, and its does true 24p which is very nice:D.

Of course all this comes at a price, £5100 for a 60" a few months ago. You can pick them up now for around the £4300 mark if you shop around.

But at the end of the day regardless of which is better, it always comes down to how deep your pockets are, and if you absolutely without a doubt NEED those little extras (me:p) that just keep pushing the price up.
 
As much as I loved my plasma, for that money it has to be a decent 1080p projector. They match the PQ of any plasma out there and handle motion better. Having a 100" + image is a bonus too ;)
 
Jihad said:
I'm certainly not justifying my purchase, there was no true 1080P Plasmas that I could see in December anywhere near the price of my 1080P LCD, that and the fact LCD is more suited as a monitor which is what mine is used for primarily.

I've seen my parents Plasma downstairs with HD and SD, the Panny, yes it has better black levels, yes SD looks better, as for HD I couldnt tell much, if I remember correctly my LCD picked out finer details than the Plasma. But the Plasma is 720P, my LCD is 1080P so I'm sure that's a standard as I was using 1080P.mkv's on both occasions.
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I'm not saying that everyone should buy a plasma, but LCD was definately better suited for yourself, as you are using it as a monitor, i don't dare to use my pkuro as a monitor ;)

The other main plus point of LCD is the anti-reflective screen. But my plasma is opposite a window and although the reflection is bad i just close the blind. Simple remedy :D
 
adfinni said:
I'm not saying that everyone should buy a plasma, but LCD was definately better suited for yourself, as you are using it as a monitor, i don't dare to use my pkuro as a monitor ;)

The other main plus point of LCD is the anti-reflective screen. But my plasma is opposite a window and although the reflection is bad i just close the blind. Simple remedy :D
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I think if I had a Kuro I'd be pretty tempted to use it as a monitor, is it 1080P? :D

But then again I leave my PC idle so often I'd probably end up messing it up, yeah the LCD screens are nice that way, didn't really think of that, curtains shut in my room 90% of the time. :p
 
Nitrojan said:
So I was wrong about the lifespan of the plasma being quite short in comparison to the LCD? Well.. that's what someone told me anyway -_-
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Quite right, modern plasma's have a halflife (which is when the screen has faded to half brightness) for 60,000 hours or more. Thats almost 7 years nonstop use 24/7.

Dont forget most LCD panels use cold cathodes as the lamp for the backlight, and eventually these will start to flicker, and eventually blow altogether, and while they may be 'technically' replaceable, the odds are if you take an old LCD to be repaired, it will end up cheaper to simply buy a new TV.

In reality, both LCD, and Plasma should last well into obsolesence, Even people with a 5 year old LCD/Plasma, if it goes wrong would they repair a standard def TV, or would they replaced it with a 1920x1080p trueHD panel.
 
Corasik said:
Quite right, modern plasma's have a halflife (which is when the screen has faded to half brightness) for 60,000 hours or more. Thats almost 7 years nonstop use 24/7.

Dont forget most LCD panels use cold cathodes as the lamp for the backlight, and eventually these will start to flicker, and eventually blow altogether, and while they may be 'technically' replaceable, the odds are if you take an old LCD to be repaired, it will end up cheaper to simply buy a new TV.

In reality, both LCD, and Plasma should last well into obsolesence, Even people with a 5 year old LCD/Plasma, if it goes wrong would they repair a standard def TV, or would they replaced it with a 1920x1080p trueHD panel.
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True.. I get what you're saying.. so I may aswell buy a plasma?
 
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