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full throttle
12-30-2006, 11:29 AM
Looking for a new TV for the bedroom, and have decided on a 42" to hang on the wall. Looking for insight on the choice between the Plasma & the LCD. I am not going to subscribe to HDTV now, just have regular dish network sat. Better picture? Lifespan? Need help.

Riverless
12-30-2006, 11:46 AM
Looking for a new TV for the bedroom, and have decided on a 42" to hang on the wall. Looking for insight on the choice between the Plasma & the LCD. I am not going to subscribe to HDTV now, just have regular dish network sat. Better picture? Lifespan? Need help.
lots of threads on this, do a search.

HOTPURSUIT
12-30-2006, 11:47 AM
I personally like LCD's better..I have a plasma in the living room and an lcd in my bedroom... LCD's are more expensive, but are lighter in weight and I have heard that the picture lasts longer.. I really dont know if one has a better picture than the other.. Plasmas definitely have a standard darker picture tho.

RP2
12-30-2006, 11:48 AM
I have a Plasma in the family room and an LCD in each bedroom and garage. I would go with the LCD hands down.

beaverretriever
12-30-2006, 11:59 AM
I would have to disagree with the LCD being better, especially in larger sizes.
I currently have a 50" Fujitsu Plasma and it is great.
LCDs are darker. I hate watching movies like Miami Vice or Sin City and having to try to see the small details. Just my humble opinion.
Good Luck.

Beer-30
12-30-2006, 12:07 PM
Plasma will be a better picture than LCD, hands down. The only reason to go LCD right now is if you want 1080p, they are the only "reasonably" priced models.
I just got a Panasonic TH-50PX6U. 50" Plasma for the bedroom. Had it about 2 weeks now and just love it. I would have gone more bells, whistles, and resolution for living room - but this is absolutely ideal for bedroom. $2290 out the door from Costco, and that was with the $85 angle-wall mount. I didn't care about 1080p, just wanted a nice, affordable 1080i with an HD tuner built in. This is the entry level for that.
I also have standard (for now) DishNetwork, and it is a catch-22. The picture is better than my old tube, but the Plasma is so nice that it shows all the flaws in broadcasts.
My bro in law brought his Playstation-III with him during Xmas stay. We watched a blu-ray DVD at 1080i via HDMI cable, and it was stunning. Too nice for a bedroom TV, so I am happy with my purchase.

cc322
12-30-2006, 12:36 PM
After shopping for a new tv I went to Howards and the guy told me that plasmas were going on there way out, and that lcd's were going to take over, and as far as quality he fills that the Sony has the best lcd technology out at the moment, Mitsubishi has the best dlp. Not sure how much of what he said is true, but I believe the guys at Howards (they are very well trained on product) way more then the teenagers at Best buy or Circut City. Needless to say I walked away with out a tv:confused:

Aqua Boogie1
12-30-2006, 12:48 PM
I have a LCD in the livingroom. I looked at a few, but I did hear LCD does last longer per Best Buy and Frys.

Wheeler
12-30-2006, 03:09 PM
Looking for a new TV for the bedroom, and have decided on a 42" to hang on the wall. Looking for insight on the choice between the Plasma & the LCD. I am not going to subscribe to HDTV now, just have regular dish network sat. Better picture? Lifespan? Need help.
Go to Fry's, spend a few hours looking at all the units.
I have both, lcd and plasma, the lcd's picture quality is far superior. When I was looking at Fry's, I did not find any plasma that could compare with the lcd. Then again, " beauty is in the eyes of the beholder"

Havasu1986
12-30-2006, 03:18 PM
I have a 50" Samsung DLP w/HD and the picture is awesome.

HBjet
12-30-2006, 03:21 PM
I have also found that Plasmas run hotter then LCD's, and when they are turned off, the Plasma is like a mirror. Could be a good thing but I don't like it. 40" Sony LCD is the way to go IMO!
HBjet

Jyruiz
12-30-2006, 03:43 PM
For picture quality, the plasma will best the LCD, the color will be represented better, the black details will be better and the white won't get crushed. Plasmas now a days have a life of 60,000 hours just like LCD's. All that said though, the plasma is heavier, uses more power, will reflect everything if you don't have light control and could be susceptible to burn-in if a static image is left on too long, although I have never seen this happen on a properly calibrated plasma.
The biggest thing that bugs me about LCD's is, the slower response time, the gap between pixels and the lack of black detail, LCD's blacks are really dark gray. Pick your poison and good luck.

Jyruiz
12-30-2006, 03:45 PM
Plasma will be a better picture than LCD, hands down. The only reason to go LCD right now is if you want 1080p, they are the only "reasonably" priced models.
I just got a Panasonic TH-50PX6U. 50" Plasma for the bedroom. Had it about 2 weeks now and just love it. I would have gone more bells, whistles, and resolution for living room - but this is absolutely ideal for bedroom. $2290 out the door from Costco, and that was with the $85 angle-wall mount. I didn't care about 1080p, just wanted a nice, affordable 1080i with an HD tuner built in. This is the entry level for that.
I also have standard (for now) DishNetwork, and it is a catch-22. The picture is better than my old tube, but the Plasma is so nice that it shows all the flaws in broadcasts.
My bro in law brought his Playstation-III with him during Xmas stay. We watched a blu-ray DVD at 1080i via HDMI cable, and it was stunning. Too nice for a bedroom TV, so I am happy with my purchase.
Just so you know, plasmas are 720p (1080p's as well) displays, no fix pixel display can do 1080i (i=interlace) so it converts the 1080i signal to 720p.

Beer-30
12-30-2006, 04:06 PM
Just so you know, plasmas are 720p (1080p's as well) displays, no fix pixel display can do 1080i (i=interlace) so it converts the 1080i signal to 720p.
I know you know your biz on this stuff, but I am confused. When I hooked HDMI to a BluRay player and put in a BluRay DVD, I checked the tv status. It showed 1080i, along with the other info. It normally shows 480i with all my other inputs. I turned the blue ray down to stop the 1080 feed and limited it to 720p. The tv showed 720p as the input, but the 1080 pic was much better than the 720. It must have upconverted, as my "native" capacity is like 763 or something.

Jyruiz
12-30-2006, 04:29 PM
I know you know your biz on this stuff, but I am confused. When I hooked HDMI to a BluRay player and put in a BluRay DVD, I checked the tv status. It showed 1080i, along with the other info. It normally shows 480i with all my other inputs. I turned the blue ray down to stop the 1080 feed and limited it to 720p. The tv showed 720p as the input, but the 1080 pic was much better than the 720. It must have upconverted, as my "native" capacity is like 763 or something.
The plasma is just telling you which signal is coming in, but it converts it to 768 as your plasmas native resolution is 1366x768. If the plasma is wating for both 540 (1080i= two fields of 540p) fields that make up 1080i to convert it to 768p, then it will look better because 1080i has more information than 720p.

Beer-30
12-30-2006, 06:06 PM
We all have our special fields that "click" to us, and you have definitely done your homework on this stuff. Thanks for taking time to post the important info that we all crave. I, for one, appreciate it.

full throttle
12-30-2006, 06:45 PM
Thx for all the replies. Gonna try the 42" LCD Visio

Beer-30
12-30-2006, 06:53 PM
Thx for all the replies. Gonna try the 42" LCD Visio
I was gonna do the same, since it is just for the bedroom. When the wifey and I went to look at Costco, the Vizio was right next to the Panasonic. The picture was significantly better, as noticed by the wife even more than me. The Pan was only a coupla hundy more, and I trust the name.
The head of our bed is about 16 feet from the TV, and the 50 is perfect. I would have been unhappy with the 42. Just personal experience.

Wheeler
12-30-2006, 06:53 PM
the last few times, I was in the market for a TV, I brought my lap top with me. I went from set to set with the lap top. This helped with my decision.
Since I was in the market for a 42" that is all I tested for.

Wheeler
12-30-2006, 07:02 PM
The head of our bed is about 16 feet from the TV, and the 50 is perfect. I would have been unhappy with the 42. Just personal experience.
This is great advice, when I placed a 50", twelve foot from the head of the bed, I realized it was too large. Sixteen foot on a 50" sounds about right.

Jyruiz
12-30-2006, 08:17 PM
We all have our special fields that "click" to us, and you have definitely done your homework on this stuff. Thanks for taking time to post the important info that we all crave. I, for one, appreciate it.
You are very welcome.

Jyruiz
12-30-2006, 08:19 PM
This is great advice, when I placed a 50", twelve foot from the head of the bed, I realized it was too large. Sixteen foot on a 50" sounds about right.
I actully think 16' is too far back, but we all have different taste. The good thing is, the farther back one is to the TV, the better it looks.:)

Beer-30
12-31-2006, 09:07 AM
I actully think 16' is too far back, but we all have different taste. The good thing is, the farther back one is to the TV, the better it looks.:)
True statement. If I walk up to it, I can see all of the "grain" in crappy broadcasts.
From 16', you can't see any of it.:D

johnny8052
01-01-2007, 12:37 PM
Does pioneer make the only 1080 p plasma? That is what i am leaning toward

Jyruiz
01-01-2007, 08:31 PM
Does pioneer make the only 1080 p plasma? That is what i am leaning toward
No, Panny has one as well, but it is a 65" and retail is $9,999.00.

Beer-30
01-02-2007, 12:47 AM
I would not even remotely be looking at 1080p displays right now - or BluRay or HD players, for that matter. 6 months from now they will be considerably cheaper. Or, wait 'till xmas this year, if you can wait that long. Why pay 5 or 10 grand now for something that is going to be 2500 or 5 in that amount of time? HD players are already down to $400 and BluRay is already cracking the 7s. A handfull of months from now, it will all be more affordable.

Waist Deep
01-02-2007, 04:58 AM
Just bought a 50" plasma from Depot for $1,500 plus 20% off so it was only $1,200.00.
It's a Magnavox and at first the pic was not as good as our panasonic, but by tuning it right, it comes pretty close.