LCD or plasma? HD DVD or Blue-Ray?

[Barry]

OK, it's time to buy a new TV. The picture on the old one is dying. I've done some research on the LCD vs. plasma issue and would like to hear from some of you who already have these what your experience has been. I'm thinking LCD is the way to go. My biggest concern about plasma is the reflection issue. I don't want to have to have all the lights off to watch TV (what little we watch) to avoid seeing glare and reflection. For those of you who have plasma, do you tend to watch with very low light for best picture?

Pros, cons?

[chevydmax04]

1. Plasma- images can burn into the screen
LCD - Not a problem

2. Plasma- much thicker and heavier than LCD

3. Plasma - uses more electricity and generates more heat than an LCD

4. LCD picture quality is just as good as Plasma

[m.zook]

Plasma is the way to go! imo. I can be at my computer and look back at the tv at an angle and the picture still looks awesome!! Ive had it for 2 year's with no problem's I have a 50" 720 p LG hooked up with HD and you can see when some one has a black head on there face.I do run a HDMI cable between the box and the tv and it also make's a huge difference.I also have 2 20" LCD tv very nice picture if you are looking strait at them. But for some reason im never strait in front of them.All the new one's are 1080p.but some say you really can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p or 1080I

Hope this will help you :D

[giant pumpkin peep]

WE have both. I personlly like the plasma better. With a LCD you have to look at it at a certain angle or the picture will look weird.

[brac]

Plasma is the way to go, (in my opinion) I would stay with panasonic, samsung, or pioneer. No one else comes close. Another great bonus is no static, ie. no dust collecting on screen.

[comb]

recently bought sony bravia lcd love it no problem with side viewing or blurring

[randydrivesabus]

We have an Samsung 40" LCD. The room it is in is very bright but it is never a problem. I think it would be with a plasma. But I think you get more bang for your buck with a plasma as far as size goes.

[Brent Bean]

Average life of plasma before repair work, 6 years, LCD much much longer. In the war of TV formats, Plasma is going the way of Beta VCR’s and eight track tapes.

[TwT]

I am glad you asked this Barry, I always wondered which was best because I am going to get one before long, after reading this post I still aint sure which to get :doh:

[Barry]

I see no one yet has addressed my main concern about reflection with a plasma. My brother's laptop has screen like a plasma (glass-like) and I can't stand it. Mine is like an LCD which gives no reflection. I don't want to have to have lights off, window shades closed, to watch without reflections. For this reason alone, I'm leaning towards an LCD even though I can't get a plasma cheaper.

[m.zook]

Just cheked my plasma for a reflection. I have a sliding door strait in front of it with alot of light comming in. When the tv is off it looks like you would never see a thing. When the tv is on you cant see any reflection. As far as the lifespan I think I heard about 30.000 hrs

[Barry]

I just hate it! You update one component only to find that none of your other components are compatible! Looks like my DVD player won't work with a new HDTV. Looking into that I see we must make yet another decision as there is not just one industry standard, but two different ones. Beta and VHS are over again! :s :scratch:

[m.zook]

LOL!! had the same prob!! Congrats on the hdtv. :thumbsup: The day after I got mine I went ahead and got a ps3. Great blueray player as well as games and topped it off with sony bravia surround sound. so much for a tax refund.

[brac]

Looks like my DVD player won't work with a new HDTV. Looking into that I see we must make yet another decision as there is not just one industry standard, but two different ones. :

Wrong on both counts, any new hdtv will have several types of inputs, your DVD player will not put out an HD signal, however it will work with any DVD player. As far as HD DVD vs bluray, the format war is over and only Blu Ray remains.
Also I have no glare problems with my plasma, ever! As far as lenght of life my panasonic plasma (commerical monitor) came with a 6yr warranty.

Commerical monitor, has the very best components, however they do not have a tuner or speakers. As I have Sattelite service, and a great sound system I would have no use for those things anyway.

[Barry]

any new hdtv will have several types of inputs

. . . and none of them match my existing DVD player. So at a minimum I'll have to go buy a new patch cord(s), which could be pricey if it's not a standard item.

[m.zook]

I Just saw an LG dvd blueray on newegg for $99.00 UNDER ULTIMATE DEALS and a hdmi cable for like $6.00

[Barry]

All the cables I see are either square are rectangular. My DVD player uses a round plug with 4 pins in the middle. There are no round jacks on the TV.

[brac]

I can't imagine you have a dvd player with a coax connection. What is the DVD player? brand/model?

[KQ6AR]

We have a 1080p JVC projection TV it works well even with the light on.

If you want to use blue ray get a 1080p television, or there's no reason to get blue ray.
For blue ray we bought a playstation, watch BR disk & play tiger woods golf.

Have you looked at the new LED tv sets. they use far less electricity. These big sets suck a lot of juice. I haven't seen one yet, but have heard good things about them.

[Barry]

I can't imagine you have a dvd player with a coax connection.

I guess it's called an S-video connection. The TV's equivalent is a HDMI connection. DVD is a Panasonic DVD RV-20.
Hehe, the date stamped on the back is June 2000.

[walking bird]

HDTV's have S-Video inputs (at least, all the ones I've seen), so you should still be okay.

Go with LCD if you're concerned about energy usage. They're hogs too (although some proposed legislation may curb that soon, at least here in CA) but my understanding is they're not as hungry as plasma.

[dragonfly]

We bought a 50" plasma a couple of years ago, and it helps keep the house warm during winter.;)

Aside from that, we love it.:)

[Jesse]

Dad bought a 54" panasonic plasma for the bar at the start of football season. Only complaint is the glare - very bad at sunset. While they have fixed burn-in issues with plasma and energy issues are getting better, it seems the manufacturers are going towards LCD. Panasonic is the way to go for Plasma.

I just bought a 40" Samsung LCD last night on amazon LN40B630 ($799 free "white glove" shipping i.e. they set it up - connect cable, blu-ray etc.) - it has a semi-matte panel that is supposed to help with glare and is 120 Hz. The reason you would want 120 hz is the refresh rate - movies are shot in 24p - you want your tv's processor to be divisible by 24 so that it helps to eliminate "shudder" - you'll see different processor rates advertised - 60, 120 and even 240, 480, 600hz now - 60 being standard. This only really helps out if you watch a lot of sports or movies.

There is a caveat - some people don't like the faster processors because they aren't used to movies being that smooth. They can look kinda like a soap opera.

There is a difference between 720p - 1080p but it isn't noticeable in smaller sets or if you sit far away from the set. If you are looking at Tv's 46" and up and/or are interested in blu-ray - i'd go 1080p - the cost difference is shrinking and honestly, it's getting hard to find large sets with 720p.

I do have a 32" samsung LN32B460 - and blu-ray's look amazing on it even though it's 720p.

Contrast ratio is also important to me - higher it is, the more colors the set has - blacker blacks, wide range of greys, etc. This number can be misleading, there are a few ways to advertise this and the numbers don't always make sense.
Comparing side-by-side is always the best - even if under the bright lights at Best Buy.

Sony and Samsung seem to me are in the first tier (the same company makes panels for both) with panasonic right behind. LG and surprisingly, Vizio would be next in my opinion. Steer clear of Phillips and while sharp and toshiba aren't terrible - I wouldn't buy one. If money wasn't an issue I'd go Sony - but since it is for me - I'm a Samsung guy.

Hope this helps someone.

[brac]

Barry, your right that is an S-video connection. The type of connections used, in order of quality.
composite (low quality) single yellow rca conn. SD only
S-video (slightly better) round with 4 pins inside. SD only
component (consist of 3 rca plugs, red green and blue) this is an analog HD signal
HDMI (flat kinda thing) quality very similar to component, however this one is digital.

Now lets get a bit more tech. Your dvd player will give you an SD signal over component, which is the best that unit can do. As far as DVD player quality goes, there are standard dvd players that only put out an SD (480i) signal. Then ther are what we call upconverting DVD players these will not play HD or bluray disc but what they will do is convert the 480i SD signal to a 720p or 1080i HD signal. The caveat here is that because of copy protection many of these units will only put out the HD signal over HDMI. (the HD component HD signal is too easy to copy).
HD-DVD which is now a dead format, will also upconvert any DVD to HD (again HDMI)
Bluray players likewise will upconvert regular DVD's most only over HDMI.
So you have a few options, you can use a compoment cable, with your current dvd player, however you wont gain much quality.
You could buy a cheap upconverter, and use HDMI cable.
Buy any cable at monoprice.com, not in a store. (or pay shipping and I will send you one, depending on lenght)
So next option is buy a used HD DVD player, they are avail dirt cheap and do a great job of upconverting.
Last option is just get a bluray player, they can be found on sale around $100. Again you will want to get an HDMI cable.

[brac]

One more thing, I agree with the previous post, at 40-42" it's takes effort to see the difference between 720 and 1080.
One of the things people tend to overlook when buying an HD set is that you will be watching alot of SD pictures. The cheaper sets may look good with an HD signal, but most of them look awful when watching SD. Panasonic and Samung have the best SD picture.

[Fuzzy]

Barry,
All flat screen surfaces will reflect light. Both plasma and lcd do.. The trick is to have the angles optimized. If the viewer and the lamp are BOTH lower than the screen or higher than the screen the viewer will never see the reflection.
Having said that, the plasma manufacturing is all but DEAD. The Lcd has outsold it 8:1 and most manufactures have shut down the plasma lines. There are still many available, but they are already dead.
At this point, I would strongly consider the newest LCD screens that are using LED backlighting instead of flourescents. They consume so much less power, produce less heat, and should require no repair.

But that is just my opinion -- Fuzzy

[Barry]

Friday night we walked out of the store with an Insignia 42" plasma for a good price. As soon as we left the store I was restless about it. Left it in the car overnight and tried to educate myself some more on the issue. Went back the next day and decided to get the Samsung 40" LCD LN40B500, even though it cost $100 more. I'm pleased with the decision. Last night I was able to get a different antiquated DVD player we had hooked up to the TV using RCA plugs. The picture quality was pretty bad. We went looking at new DVD/Bluray players and was surprised at how much the cost has come down. I payed about $250 for my old DVD player. You can get Bluray for $100. I don't see us utilizing Bluray so will look for an HD DVD player which are pretty cheap. Thanks for everyone's input. I've been out of the loop for many years in this area and found myself suddenly facing way too many options!

[BeeTeach]

I went through the same plight last year at this time. My television sits near our patio doors and we get a lot of light there in the morning. While at Best Buy one day I posed this question to the salesman. He told me to look at the plasma and you could see the reflection of the fluorescent lights on the screen. Then we stepped over to the LCD, no reflection. His direction sold me. Good choice!

[brac]

You did right with the Samsung!

[JonEdangerousli]

True. We have a 32" Samsung LCD in the bedroom and a 42" Samsung plasma in our family room.

The HD DVD is curious though. Why on earth?

[JPK]

I'm thinking LCD is the way to go.

Depending on your budget you could consider the next gen of TV's they are releasing....LED.

Lower power consumption and MUCH MUCH thinner.

I saw a couple the other day and the picture quality was very good.

[Fuzzy]

Barry,

Again, the HD DVD format is Dead. That war was lost about 8 months ago. The major players all decided to use the Bluray format. So, either stay with standard DVD or go with
the bluray machines for HD.

Fuzzy

[Barry]

Depending on your budget you could consider the next gen of TV's

When it comes to entertainment technology, I'm quiet content holding the middle ground. I'll let other people pay the big bucks for the latest stuff and I'll catch it a few years later after the dust has settled.

I guess I'm still not clear on the DVD choice. I see most stores sell either HD DVD or Blu-ray. Don't they both produce the same picture quality from a standard DVD? If so, why should I spend more for a Blu-ray? I will not be spending the money to buy Blu-ray DVD's.

[brac]

Actually most of the toshiba HD DVD players do a better job of upconverting than the cheap bD players do.