Home audio & video: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's
Can't let go of oudated info
by jrprip - 9/2/07 8:12 PM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesI am a home theater installer and can attest to the anti-plasma bias out there. It really is crazy, because they really are better(and I used to be a lcd homer). People say plasma burns in and lcd doesn't, which is accurate but not the whole story. I takes a long time for a plasma to burn in and new technology makes plasmas even more resistant. They say lcds last longer, which may be correct in theory, but with the average plasma lasting 13 to 15 years before serious image degredation thats really a non issue. LCD IS better in situations with lots of ambient light. This is because they dont have glass screens, but the glass on plasmas allows for truer, richer colors. Samsung actually has begun putting glass fronts on some of their sets to sharpen the image. A big plus for plasmas would have to be their sub HD image reproduction. You can pipe an anlog cable signal into pretty much any plasma a have it look good but throw the same signal onto an XBR3 or Aquos and all you see is pixelated crap. NO motion blur on plasmas either! I still recommend lcds for certain situations, but for the most part I know from personal experiences that people are usually more satisfied with plasma.
let me add to the first post here.
by gabereyes - 9/4/07 9:37 PM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesI have been selling TV's for about 8-9 years now for multiable company's I got out of sales and did home theater install for about a year and a half, then went back to sales, and when I came back way more people are on the LCD boat, sents last time I sold TV's I was just trying to understand what happened within the last year too make this change.
Plasma screens that can take a beating and still look great
by RalphK5 - 9/7/07 9:53 PM In reply to: let me add to the first post here. by gabereyesI work for a division of Panasonic (Blu-ray Disc mastering) and we have had a few 65-inch Plasma screens here for over a year, and they still look wonderful. These first-generation HDTV sets are on several hours a day, and they have been running without a single failure; no blown power supplies, no lost pixels, no dimmed brightness, no change in color.
Back before there were enough of these units in the USA, we had to share two of our Panasonic 65-inch Plasmas; we would move them on wheeled tables from one control room to another, four or five times a week (thumping over thresholds, bumping into walls, etc.) And these two units have also traveled all over the USA, because every few months we would pack them up and ship'em to a trade show in some other city, including New York, Chicago, and even 'mile-high' Denver.
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The sets would return a couple weeks later, and we would un-pack them, put them back on their wheelie tables, then power them up...
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And they always work!
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Wow, are these things indestructible? It sure seems like it. Even after banging them around like this for over a year, these Panasonic Plasma screens produce pictures as gorgeous as the first day we got them. Every pixel is there, the colors are pure, and there are no burn-ins.
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Specialists from major motion picture studios in Los Angeles come and watch their Hi-Definition movies before they give final approval for disc replication (now THAT is critical viewing!) and they watch on these same well-travelled Plasma units! There has never been a complaint about them.
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To be fair, these 65-inch Plasmas are freakin' heavy. You wouldn't want to mount them on a Living Room wall without first doing something to make the wall strong enough to hold the weight. Oh, perhaps two feet of reinforced concrete should do it. (Yes, I'm exagerating... sort-of.) It's probably better to get the optional pedastal stand from Panasonic, and put the whole thing on a nice piece of strong furniture.
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But the Bottom Line is this: It's amazing how these gigantic Plasma screens continue to perform beautifully, even under such demanding conditions.
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Note: I am just a video technician, not a salesman. I am not being paid for posting this. The opinions expressed in this message are my own, and not necessarily those of Panasonic or any of its other employees. Ya got that?
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And of course, you should never treat YOUR Plasma screen like this. As the TV commercials always say, "Your results may vary."
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(There. I hope that's a good enough disclaimer.)
I own a Panasonic Plasma
by trebbor - 9/8/07 5:22 AM In reply to: Plasma screens that can take a beating and still look great by RalphK5I got a 37-inch Panasonic Plasma august 2006 after reading a lot of reports, views on forums and tests in magazines (german mag Video is very good!).
The picture is great and so far I have not had any problems with burning in.
Their Chicken! & uninfromed!!
by celler dweller - 9/7/07 8:02 PM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesI bought a Panasonic 58" HD Plasma TV before the new models came out around June, so I got the best pricing of the year, The 60U was Cnet labs & consumer reports highest rated plasma picture in its class, I researched & compared to DLP & LCD for many months. The Plasma picture is simply the best! As was the informed opinion on the Cnet forums (amongst others) Especially color wise, all I finally had to do was find a place that showed them in the same line of vision & it was all over! No contest! Same money if not less too! Do yourself a favor & ignore the fear stories & simply trust your eyes & the sources you trust!
Best!! Steve
maybe airport monitors caused this scare ?
by waveacle - 9/7/07 11:38 PM In reply to: Their Chicken! & uninfromed!! by celler dwellernever heard of people afraid of plasma,but a tv documentary showed the burn in on all the plasma monitors and about how there being replaced at an airport,this was several months ago. I researched buying a lg. wide screen hdtv soon after getting digital cable,The best truest color image on a tv screen buy all accounts was considered to be plasma hdtv,cost-size-availibility-quality-= a panasonic 50" 60u this was my choice after research and looking a bit,$1999.99+$250.00 in home warrenty was 2249.99 and $2000.00 for a/video reciever and spkrs. does add up to a large sonic visual disturbence ,i like sports so the lcd and its blurring fast movement and cost was not for me! AFRAID OF PLASMA, NOT AN INFORMED PERSON,no burn in problems at all here,not any problems!
I'm scared too
by dscorca - 9/7/07 9:45 PM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesWell, here are MY reasons for avoiding plasma televisions for the here and now...
1) I cannot afford to replace all my AV equipment to support HDTV. If I do not use HDTV then I am not taking advantage of Plasma. Between my TiVo, DVD players, collection of DVDs, etc I am looking at a small fortune.
2) I have a really nice 35" Television and another 26". I have owned the 26" for 22 years now and it is still working great. I am affraid the new, large plasma sets will not last anywheres near as long.
3) I have a wife; we have a very nice entertainment center which houses our main television. A wide screen plasma TV will not fit in the unit. If I try to get rid of the entertainment center then I will also have to give up on my other favorite pasttime at home. My wife.
Solution... Convert the den into a movie theater with a nice wide screen plasma television.
YOUR SECRET DEN PROJECT BEGINS
by waveacle - 9/8/07 12:00 AM In reply to: I'm scared too by dscorcaWELL,youve tried to convince your self its not nessesary or practical to get a plasma hdtv,and you allmost had me beliving you too! trouble is you really do want a big plasma and youve allready have a room ready! ADMIRAL NIMITZ REALLY WANTED TO SINK THAT 4TH CARRIER AND HE DID TOO, your problem is your wife now, so maybe its for her! wow she would love it,her own theatre room! your a genius i think! lucky her!
not scared, but too many bad rumours
by killav - 9/8/07 1:45 AM In reply to: YOUR SECRET DEN PROJECT BEGINS by waveacleTwo reasons deterred me: one was the service issue, I had heard that you had to recharge the material that could only be done in your home by a technician once a year like your cars a/c system,2 is the burn in issue, my kids and I like to play alot of multiplayer video games and I've had burn in experiance with the old rear projection tvs. Thats why I opted out and went with a 56" lcd.
Oh my God! Do people actually think you have to top off the
by NM_Bill - 9/8/07 9:02 AM In reply to: not scared, but too many bad rumours by killavtank, so to speak, for plasmas once in a while. People, please decide on legitimate facts as interpreted by you for your best choice. I wouldn't rule out any format, myself. Between plasma & LCD , the plasma is obviously heavier & has a glass screen. So wall mount for an LCD is less scary. Reflection? Your conditions & your choice.
Anything telling, like the plasma extended warranty being more expensive due to plasma problems being more often unrepairable, well interpret it as you wish. That point is one plus for LCD. But you probably don't choose cars on the basis of some repairs being more high tech.
Lots of potentially argued points turn out to be non-issues for me. My older LCD has never seemed to have a motion lag problem to me. Burn in, likewise, is no problem or me to consider. I wouldn't leave a game screen on for like 24 hours between play time.
Plasma and repairs
by RALPHCALABRESE - 9/8/07 3:40 AM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesWhen I was shopping for a new tv last fall at Rex TV The plasma HDTV's and their warranties cost a lot more than the LCD's. I asked the salesman about the large difference in prices and he said that most Plasma tv problems were not repairable by service men and the tv was replaced rather than being repaired causing the almost double extended wattanty price. So I bought top rated 46 inch Sharp HDTV and have been very pleased with it.
Solution: Move to Australia
by 3rdalbum - 9/8/07 4:24 AM In reply to: Plasma and repairs by RALPHCALABRESEI'm serious. If you really want to sell plasmas, move down here.
Panasonic has had a big FUD campaign down here, claiming that plasma is better than LCD for 90% of big screen purchasers. Although they've put their name to the campaign, many of the customers come into our store and start sprouting all the things Pana has told them about LCD.
An actual exchange today while watching the AFL:
Customer: That Panasonic plasma looks nice. Oh, but that Samsung plasma over there looks sharper.
Me: You'll be surprised; that's actually an LCD!
Customer: I'm not interested in LCDs, I've heard that they're no good for sport.
So, they were watching a fast-paced sporting match and identified the LCD as having a sharper picture, yet were too happy to go against what their eyes were telling them.
Sometimes my job revolves around deprogramming our customers, so we can sell them what they actually need rather than what they've been told is better. 80% of our customers watch TV with light coming into the room, making LCD the better proposition. I've seen sport on plasmas and LCDs side-by-side, and (at least on PAL TVs) the LCDs are very nearly as good as plasmas for blur-free motion. You can only notice a difference at 46 inches and above; but then the LCDs have the edge on smooth motion as some of them have interpolation.
I'm not sure what the motion blur situation is like in America, with 29.97 fps as opposed to our 25 fps, but down here it's a non-issue.
Maybe you and I should swap jobs - you can come down here and sell plasmas like hotcakes, and I can go up there and sell LCDs like hotcakes.
Move to Australia
by RALPHCALABRESE - 9/8/07 6:30 AM In reply to: Solution: Move to Australia by 3rdalbumAs bad as our political system is I am very contented to live in the U.S. We watch tv in a darkroom and the Sharp AQUOS LC-45D40U ( not 47inch as I miss stated size in my last posting) was rated the top high definition tv in 2006 by PC magazine and C/Net. It is NTFS format has a black background with superior color and stood out in the Rex showroon side by side against all the other tv sets for color, motion clarity and sound. In fact everyone who visits us comments on the great picture on our set. I imagine since 2006 there are a lot of other brands that rate very high. Also my point in my last posting was the fact the extended warranty was twice as high for a plasma and the repair issues with plasma at the time I was buying.
Energy...
by Terry Browne - 9/8/07 6:24 AM In reply to: Why is everyone so scared of Plasma TV's by gabereyesThey consume way more energy according to some tests that I have read and that may be one of the reasons. It'll be one of the reasons that will make me choose an LCD at least. Also, the LCD's perform better in bright rooms.
Just my 2 cents.
Energy usage is different from model number to model number
by sexydarin - 9/8/07 10:22 PM In reply to: Energy... by Terry BrowneTo say plasmas use more energy than lcds is misleading. They vary from set to set. There are some lcds that use more energy than some plasmas. It isn't cut and dry. It is model specific.
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