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General >> Off Topic Subjects >> lcd or plasma
(Message started by: bootiful-scorpios on May 12th, 2006, 9:50pm)

Title: lcd or plasma
Post by bootiful-scorpios on May 12th, 2006, 9:50pm
thinking about getting a big tv but wondered what all your views are on which one is best , as im not sure ?

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by monghad on May 12th, 2006, 11:06pm
LCD is the TV of choice that I recommend, I have been a TV installer for 2 years now and have installed everything from a 14 inch CRT to a 50 inch Plasma, my humble opinion is that the LCD in general is the better of the two, another alternative is rear projection, they have came along in leaps and bounds, I have a Toshiba rear projection and it has never gave me any trouble in the 18 months that I have had it.
Of course you want it to be HD ready and 100hz. Humax is a brand that I deal with regularly and can recommend them, they build LCD's with internal hard drives and built in freeview. The website of the company I work for is- www.martindawes.net they have a selection of goodies to tempt your purse strings, hope this is of some help. :)
                                                                                                          Chris

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by bootiful-scorpios on May 12th, 2006, 11:15pm
thank you . can you tell me is it rear projection tv s you cant play xbox  games on ? and can you play them on the other 2? sally

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by monghad on May 13th, 2006, 12:42am
You are quite correct about the rear projection, they don't like it much and reduce the life of the projectors within them. Most LCD's come with a computer cable and can be used as a monitor for your comp/laptop, a lot of the LCD's that I install are connected to games consoles,Playstations, Xbox's and everything in between, the xbox 360 put through an HD  ready LCD is a wonder to behold. I have an xbox 360 but it is through a Toshiba 14'' portable  :'(...not quite the same ;D.
The LCD is by far the most popular purchase from the company website up hear in Scotland and seems to be bought more so by our more MATURE customer, always a pleasure installing an LCD with built in freeview and a DVD recorder/Hard Drive Recorder into customers homes and watching their faces as you introduce them to the wonders of their new purchase...Brilliant, I always get a buzz, especially when introduce them to channel 5 for the first time then BBC3,BBC4 ITV2,ITV3 and on and on. ;D. Great Job.

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by Baz on May 13th, 2006, 1:36am
I have Humax 20" lcd tv's in 3 bedrooms and the conservatory. I can't recommend them enough. Got all mine from Dixons in St Helens for a song!!

Go for LCD, plasma is so 2004!

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by Baw_Flinger on May 13th, 2006, 2:03am
Plasma will be one of those things in about 10 years when you joke to yur mates 'remember the big fuss about plasma TV's'.... chuckle..... In very much the same vein as BETA V's VHS a few years ago. ONLY go for LCD HD with at least 3 years W!!!!
HD-DVD & Blu-Rae are about 3-10 years out from taking over from DVD, so who gives a proper toss about HD at the moment anyway???? Not the millions of folk who have spent a fortune on DVD's anyway!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by mr._floppy on May 13th, 2006, 11:02am
How come then  that     TV  Technical  Magazines  regularly   say  CRT   TVs   still   outdo  Plasma  and TFT    for picture quality,  contrast, colour rendition, brilliance , Etc.

 I'm confused. :-[

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by Paul B on May 13th, 2006, 11:40am
Recently bought a Samsung 26" LCD TV (HD ready).

I reckon its a good telly  8)

The flat LCDs look crap when you catch them at an acute angle, but square-on they're great.
Maybe thats why they say the CRTs are better  :-/

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by Kjetil S on May 13th, 2006, 1:15pm
Good CRTs often have more natural colors than plasma and LCD (and they don't have the lag that LCD has), but LCD is the winner when it comes to crispness. The LCDs (and perhaps plasmas, haven't tried one for a sustained period) are also less tiresome for the eyes.

Imho (and many experts), plasma screens are the best choice for watching movies and television (since they "soften" the image a bit), but they don't stand a chance against LCD when it comes to playing games, since computers and most consoles can actually deliver near perfect picture quality.

If you have an xbox which you use regulary, I would recommend getting a good LCD with component inputs (and preferably a monitor input, just in case). I know the old xbox support component out, which is the best "regular" output available, and many of the newer consoles support monitor connections. I think the xbox 360 does.

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by DJWerkz on May 13th, 2006, 8:15pm
LCD has the capability in terms of it's technology to go much further than plasma can/will be able to.  LCD is not there yet in terms of it's ability but it has already been pushing plasma aside for the past year or so.

Don't subscribe to the American philosophy of having the biggest screen either.  Viewing distance form the screen is still important and on large flat screens such as plasma or LCD you will see lots of pixelation if you screen is way too big for your listening room, especially if you do not employ any video scaling to correct for weaker video signals.

Also, don't be fooled into thinking that just because the current marketing ploy of all manufacturers and AV outlets is to say that their sets are 'HD ready' that they are true HD sets.

This annoys me a little because true high definition will always be a 'progressive scan image' whereas all HD ready sets on the market are still only interlaced (1080i).

Most sets are only true HD in 780(p).

Plus, be very very careful about jumping on the whole HD band-wagon too, this is at it's very early stages of development and I've not seen anything from any of the World manufacturers that looks convincingly natural or realistic.  IMHO I feel that like we have been with sound we are now being dictated to as to how a video image should look.  

I've already heard complaints from customers who have bought HD screens and when they get them home say that the colours are just way too vivid and unrealistic.


Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by PeteB on May 14th, 2006, 4:57pm
I'd say LCD, and I would deffinately get a true hd one if your a gamer the ps3 will ship with hd as standard.

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by howiedintheplace on May 18th, 2006, 9:22pm
Well I will buck the trend & say plasma.
We have a big room & need a big telly. All the bigish LCD's I have looked at don't seem as good to me as a plasma.

We have had a 40inch rear projection telly for 5 years now, one of the lights went in it & after some research I found that a hell of alot of these kinds of t.v projection lights fail within 5 years, infact there is some court cases going on in the states concerning the life of these t.v's.

Hence I am looking for a replacment >:(

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by Kjetil S on May 19th, 2006, 1:13am
For TV and movies, plasmascreens do have the upper hand since the pixles are rounded and therefore gives a much less jagged image. This is also the back side of plasma, as the picture quality gets slightly poorer (mainly a problem when it comes to high resolution gaming).

So to sum it up:

LCD - sharp and detailed image (not always an advantage)
plasma - smooth and pleasing image (not always an advantage either)

:)

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by DJWerkz on May 19th, 2006, 8:34am
This discussion is right up my street but surely the threads that state X or Y is better because of reasons surrounding 'gaming' should be taken with much caution.

In my experience of the high-end AV arena, gaming represents one of the smallest 'needs criteria' for any user.

Most people want a screen they can use for everyday needs such as watching TV (now that many people are going digital and can enjoy widescreen broadcasts they can benefit from using a plasma or LCD), or DVD viewing.

I would personally say that a screen should not be judged on how it play's games.  IMHO once you choose a screen for realistic viewing, once you have it in your home and play games it will be fine.

Best thing to do is choose some sample sections of live action movies, one of the most demanding over recent years has been the beach landing scene in 'Saving Private Ryan'.  I have seen alot of flat panel screens struggle badly to keep up with the action and cope with the colours and in particular, bright explosions.  It's the same for audio; many people think, 'let's get a really loud rock or dance track with real low bass to test the audio system with'.  While this will test frequency extremes this is not the best form of music to test an audio systems ability to do everything well.  One of the best forms is Classical music as this is the most demanding music on a system in terms of all it's attributes.

...anyway, I digress...

Trust me, for most people, they will be very disapointed if the screen is poor at doing movies than it is with games.

Just find some good test pieces to try your screens with. ;)

For me personally, CRT still offers the far better picture as flat panel technology is still not there and as for HD, well that as yet to be developed properly.  I have a Sony KV36HQ-100 set which was Sony's top of the line CRT set.  Picture quality on this is awesome.  In fact, it's too good.  It has two 100 Hz viewing modes and if you use the advanced setting it is so clearly defined that movies take on an almost 'amateur' feel; it makes movies like 'Lord of The Rings' seem like a bunch of people running around in scraggy costumes and it show's up alot of tricks that studio's use to create a feeling of ambience and atmosphere.

The advanced setting is great for sports though, but you have to have a digital broadcast to get the most from it.

Title: Re: lcd or plasma
Post by DJWerkz on May 19th, 2006, 9:08am
You might want to check this linkk and listen to the latest link on HD technology, it expresses my own concerns over the whole HD debate:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/view.php?pg=podcast



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