Home audio & video forum: Ok now I have three more LCD/Plasma questions

Because the TV's I was looking at were all $1000 and the plasma he directed me to was also $1000 so he wouldn't be making a better comission. On top of that he informed to check out CNET to see for myself and apparently if you just display a white screen on a plasma for awhile the burn-in will go away. I thought this was odd since i've been here for a month and have learned countless things from the people here (that not being one of them).

Just FYI, leaving a plasma display on a bright white screen for a while doesn't really "make burn-in go away", in a strict sense. What it does is burn in all of the pixels until they're all burnt to an even level. It fixes the burn-in issue in the short-term, but shortens the life of the display in the process.

Newer plasma monitors advertising "anti burn-in" features do the same type of thing automatically. They burn in the whole display evenly at set intervals, masking any burn-in problems you might create.

If they are then the lcd has better resolution.

That guy is an idiot.

LCDs do not burn in. Period. The design of the pixels makes it impossible. Response time can be a factor, but you'll never notice it. The newer LCDs have a response time of around 5 ms. That's practically zero.

Go to a different store and compare the two side by side. Buy what looks best to you.

though it was just what I found for one set per maker - may not be consistent across all models.

Samsung 2ms
Sharp 4ms & 6ms
Sony 8ms
Olevia 8ms
Panasonic 16ms

See, there are plenty of different screen refresh rates. Obviously you must check out individually, each set you consider.

This tube Sony is about the only t.v. that cnet folks agree on. Every other display type its like world war 3. A year ago I bought a 73" Toshiba d.l.p. monster And boy was I bashed ha ha screen door effect, lamps . color wheel, fans I thought I had just bought a Pinto.But the truth is the set has been trouble free and picture quality is stunning But after one short year my t.v is model T technology but until 70" Plasma sewts are on sale for $4000 Iam happy stewee

What is DLP and is it better than Plasma or is it the same thing? I am confused.

Response rate should always be measured in 'rise and fall', that is: how quickly a pixel can illuminate to it's peak luminescence and then deplete before refreshing with its next required color.
Some mfr's are now advertising a response rate that calculates 'grey-to-grey'...this is NOT an accurate representation of true refresh rate. Most LCD panels have a native refresh of 8ms. Compnaies like Sharp will advertise a r/r of 4ms, or with their gaming panel a r/r of 5ms. Typically acheiving these refresh times requires the use of 'add-on' video processing. Sharp's nick name for the boosted r/r on their gaming display is 'Viper Drive' technology. Even the Sharp set that advertises a 4ms response time has an asterik in the tech spec's that states this r/r can only be acheieved if 'Fine Motion Mode' is enabled...to me this is a head scratcher, I'm a little weary. Look for LCD panels in 2007, 2008 to have a native panel r/r of 4-6 ms's.
To answer your question...LCD's do not, will not, cannot--burn in--period.
Plasma's have per-pixel illumation and thus better picture truity from all viewing angles. They also typically create (when properly calibrated) a more 'realistic' looking image. LCD's suffer from the use of false contouring and the like, which often leads to sharp yet 'digital painting' images. Black level is up for grabs depending on the set...although neither at this stage do a suberb black. Plasma's get the slight nod because each pixel is individually lit, and therefore not subject to an ever-present backlight as is the case with LCD. Look for better contrast ratio's (100,000:1) in the coming generations to cure that 'black level' issues most current gen sets experience. Interesting to note that Samsung just released a prototype wherein their LCD panels are backlit with LED's that can turn on an off, therefore allowing for a much deeper black resulting from the absecnce of backlight when the LED is off.
In the end for pure picture quality I would recommend Plasma...don't concern yourself too much with resolution, it actually ranks number 3 or 4 on the ISF's overal video quality scale. There are more important things such as color accuracy/reproduction etc. A 50" 1365 X 768 720p native PDP like the Pioneer for example will do the job amazingly, and also r/r is never an issue so you can enjoy sports, action moves and video games without any discernable ghosting.

That was a good detailed answer. The general rules to remember are 1.LCD sets run a little cheaper than Plasma. 2. Pixel response is better on Plasma and noticeable on "larger" screens when viewing fast action sceens (such as sports). 3. Plasma screens have a slightly wider viewing angle and deeper blacks, while LCD might have brighter colors.

Overall, most of the critics have said LCD is the choice up to and including 42" and Plasma is the best choice for 42" and larger. This means they tie overall at 42".

If you're looking to replace a standard TV with an LCD or Plasma, make sure you go for a screen size at least 20% larger. This will give you a set with the same screen height as before, but with a wider view. If you replace a standard set with the same size flat panel it will look like a smaller screen.

Never say never. I have seen a number of LCD computer monitors where a company logo has been displayed for weeks on end demonstrate clear burn-in. Maybe this doesn't happen with LCD TVs, but I wouldn't be completely certain on that. Still, probably less likely than with plasma.

LCD may not have burn-in, but everybody keeps forgetting that LCD panels may come with defective pixels from the factory, which may give you a burn-in effect right away. The best kept secret that every panel may have certain percentage of defective pixels. Better names in LCD panel manufacturers manage to keep it to a minimum. For eample my computer LCD monitor from IBM came with several defective pixels, I can see them when I seat close to it. The monitor is made in China.
You are better off staying with Japanese and Korean makes (s.a. LG and Samsung, which makes LCD panels for SONY)

Im sorry so many people have bad exsperirnces in BB. Before I worked there I did too and it was part of the reason I wanted to work there. I think bad sales people are more a reflection of bad managment really. Wrong people in the wrong jobs. Plus we have training material we're all supposed to go over, which if every actually used, they would all be experts but they dont. So I guess just like anywhere else it can happen.

I just bought a plasma at the "Magnolia" center in Best Buy, which shows their upper end Tv's. I got lucky & got somebody super sharp who helped me focus on what I was seeing & the way they were displayed, not being in rows, where I could see them in the same line of vision was a big help! So it can happen at Best buy if your fortunate! I'm going to make a new thread to report what I found in thanks for the good advice I found here . But I settled on the Panosonic 50" 600U after comparing it to the Samsung 56" DLP with their new LED light. I might have bought it if it came in 61" since I came from a 4 year old Mitsu 65" HD. After seeing them in the same line of vision it was, in my eyes, a no brainer! Couldn't be happier I think I'm wearing 3D glasses sometimes!
Best to all! Steve

As you probably saw, everyone has miss information and I would not go as far as saying they do not know what they are talking about or they are lying to you. People get pieces of information and then try to connect dots that do not really connect.

Saying an LCD does not have burn depends on the what you mean by that and under what conditions. All Displays/TV/Monitors have some sort of "Burn-in" or residual image that will occur. Burn-in on an LCD for a computer does occur (as someone pointed out) since the image many times does not change much over time. Saying that about a TV LCD is not true since the image usually is changing all the time. Many times your hear about image burn-in on HDTVs because if you display a non-HD image it tends to only fill part of the display and many TVs fill the non-image space with gray or some other non-black color this will cause the burn-in if you leave is like this too long. This has occurred since people bought HDTV and did not have an HD source for their primary viewing.

With that all said this is not a reason not to buy, it can be controlled so it never happens. The old Picture tube TV is the worse for this, followed by plasma, then LCD. The only reason I put LCD last is usually you can reverse the affect. (This based on my own experience of many years of testing LCDs for the Computer industry)

The other issue you brought up and there is lots of different information out there is refreash/response rate. Again someone gave you lots of good information about this. Now you have to ask yourself how will slow refreash affect my viewing experience. Again in general computer use of an LCD this is not much of an issue especially if all you are doing is reading emails. Response rate comes into play when you are watching an image that is changing and how fast that image changes. If all you do is watch soap operas then you would probably never notice a slow response rate, but if you are a NASCAR fan, you probably see the your favorite drivers car blur across the screen.

Too many times people put together punch lists of features and compare the numbers and say faster/more/bigger is better than slower/less/smaller. Many time non of this matters, it is all about your experience. If it works for you and you like how it looks then that is all that matters, because having a feature you never use is not worth what you paid for.

One last thing, most people who sell usually do not understand what they are selling and if throwing out numbers makes a sale than that is all that matters to them. So get all the facts, find someone who can translate the numbers and fact into a real world experience for you, then you decide what you want to pay for.

If you get a person asking you how you use something and what you plan to do with it and other related questions usually the person cares about your experience and will guild you to what you want.