[Closed] Plasma or Lcd Tv...driving me mad chosing TV...

I bought plasma (37" Panasonic) because the picture was better for the things I watch - LCD gives better colour on cartoons & video games, I compared a few plasma & LCDs side by side in [url= http://www.richersounds.com/productgroups.php?cda=productgroups&pgroup=LCDTV ]Richersounds[/url]

I have a 50" plasma however I'd never buy a plasma over an LCD, ever.

The new LCD panels are fantastic.

Pioneer who were the largest producer of plasma panels has just pulled out of the business meaning Panasonic who use their panels (and was arguably the best plasma TV manufacturer) will also 100% switch to LCD.

The cost of running and cost of repair should make you buy LCD.

TBF you would not be disappointed with either. As you have already found out, one has benefits over the other but the other has further benefits over the former. So either way you are compromising but either way you will be happy.

I think its the other way round as Panasonic manufacture there own panels at the Matsushita Electric Industries plants they own.

snaps, Pana dont make any panels.

I work in the electronics industry, specifiacally in this area 😉

TBF you would not be disappointed with either

Well I was in a store recently looking at the various TVs and they were all showing the same film withe the credits rolling. Some were really jerky whilst others were as smooth as you'd expect. Not sure why but I'd think I'd wasted my money getting one of the jerky ones.

[i]I work in the electronics industry, specifiacally in this area[/i]

Panasonic did supply Pioneer your mixed up.

Oops Sorry my mistake Panasonic make the glass. 😳

mudshark, thats my problem if you go into Currys or Comet to get some ideas some of the pictures are crap, like you say very jerky which is why the reviews on the Plasma got me thinking, the only problem now is getting the Plasma with a decent warranty..

Cheers so far everyone

The new LED backlit ones (LCD) are meant to be seriously impressive, but think they're still quite pricey.

Recently purchased Toshiba Regza 1080i from play for about £550......cant say anything bad about it, works a treat, highly recommended

i'm just glad you lot are buying all these tvs now so that when they finally get them right i can buy a decent one. 😯

Some were really jerky whilst others were as smooth as you'd expect. Not sure why but I'd think I'd wasted my money getting one of the jerky ones.

But you misunderstand me - inherent picture quality of one over the other is negligible. Obviously anyone would be daft to buy a set that is simply not as good as another - but that is down to the electronics driving the screen, not the screen itself.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/sections/news/Details.aspx?NewsId=24012

[url= http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Matsushita_To_Build_Worlds_Largest_Plasma_Panel_Plant.html ]Panel production[/url]

snaps - You must have faked that site, he works in the industry you know?

Well when I bought one recently I decided I didn't want to waste energy, so didn't go for plasma. That and the fact they need cooling so they have a fan inside. Then I went to the lcdtvreview site (I think it's that with a .org) and they said Sony was best, and I got a good deal on one so that was that. I can't stand shopping around too much, it kills all the enjoyment 🙂

Note though that it looks far far better in my house than it did in the shop. In the shop you had to stand too close, so you can see loads of picture artefacts. In my house though I'm the right distance away and it looks lovely.

don't bother

[url= http://www.onlyoled.co.uk/meet-the-sony-xel-1-oled-tv ]buy this[/url] and just sit a bit closer 8)

I thought plasma had a fairly limited life-span or is that not the case anymore?

Friend of mine recently splashed out on a huge 1080p Sony (I think it's 40") and using his PS3 blu-ray discs look absolutely stunning on it.

I have a Panasonic Viera, my in-laws have a Sony and my mum has a Samsung. All LCD.

The Sony is flat and lifeless (I did play with the settings and got it much better, but my father-in-law didn't like it and put it back to factory settings). The Samsung plays standard broadcast quite well but is very 'soft' - which is, I assume, their attempt to hide pixelation. The Panasonic generally shows pictures very well - certainly on DVDs, BluRay and gaming. It does fall over a bit sometimes with some daytime broadcasts/broadcasts from older originals.

You simply have to go into a shop and compare, like-for-like, different sets showing the sort of programming you watch most of.

How much of the screen 'quality' comes from the processing in the Freeview box or whatever? I would have though pixelation and other artefacts come more from the source than the screen?
Do most TVs have built in freeview now? We've got a great 32" Sony CRT and aren't planning on upgrading anytime soon, so have a Thomson freeview box (which is a piece of dog poo).

I bought a Panasonic 42" plasma last November after much online research and instore viewings. Very happy with mine, great sound and picture quality with Standard Definition (SD) broadcasts and now I've upgraded to HD....wow....absolutely stunning!

JohnLewis.com is your friend, they offer free delivery and a free 5-year Guarantee. Do your homework and then order online!

Screen quality can come from any point along the line. Just like a poor quality set-top box or a crap signal, the internal electronics of the set have an impact on the picture quality. To a MUCH lesser extent, the quality of any scart/composite/rgb/HDMI cables used will have an effect too - but bizarrely some people will happily spend silly money on them in the expectation that it will revolutionise the quality of the picture.

things to remember -

freeview is crap, digital terrestrial (and non HD satellite) broadcast in no way compares to the picture quality of analogue

a high proportion of the image quality (contrast etc) comes form the set up of the screen itself, most manufacturers ship them with default setting which are rubbish (like 100% backlight level)

unless you need the space, buy a crt!

Another way of explaining this is the 'digital camera' situation - some people assume that more pixels = better quality, but it is the internal electronics and how they interpret the image that have the greater impact on the picture quality.

unless you need the space, buy a crt!

here here, if you can still find one. i started looking at chrimbo when our crt started playing up. fortunately it sorted itself out.

I use HD crt monitors from time to time and they are still used in film making

they are STUNNING but getting rare in the consumer market

Don't forget HDMI is the same as DVI so even a CRT computer monitor with a DVI input and a decent scan rate will work

Wait and buy OLED if you can that is.

I would have though pixelation and other artefacts come more from the source than the screen?

Most of what you see on a nice HD telly is the effect of converting the SD source to HD, and that is different on different tellies. They do do a lot of processing inside though even for HD sources.

I dunno about freeview being worse than analogue. Doesn't look that way in my experience. However SD stuff on an HD telly doesn't look as good.. if you upgrade from traditional telly to an HD one with built in freeview, things could well look worse - if you sit too close 🙂

richer sounds had an LG 37" lcd for 400 i think? think was/is full HD

SD source on an HD depends on how well the TV deals with sample phase, in general they do it pretty well, a 1080 panel will do this better than a 720 one because of the higher number of lines available per sample

The bandwidth of terrestrial SD digital broadcast is far narrower per channel than it's equivalent was on analogue and the quality suffers as a result. i'm talking rural situations with no RF reflections here though.

Life is tough isn't it?

You simply have to go into a shop and compare, like-for-like, different sets showing the sort of programming you watch most of.

My tips are... Ignore the TV HD loops they show all day, especially if there's cartoons. Make them show some DVDs (and BluRay), and even if you hate sport, make them show a footy or rugby match. Then decide. Even now you see TVs where the grass pitch keeps jumping between crystal sharp and blurred as the camera pans/scans, enough that I felt physically ill in the store and had to leave.

Currently looking for a 37in LCD. Panny Viera and Philips are top of my list at the moment. Any ideas how to get rid of a 32inCRT that's so heavy I can't lift it?

You can buy very high quality CRTs off Ebay for peanuts these days. Which is great, will keep me going until this flat screen stuff is preperly sorted out.

Will John lewis order anything or has it got to be a Tv from the website, they don't have a huge stock....

Andy which Panny you looking at, there are 2 on Play.com seem very alike and one is £639 the other £649

[i]You can buy very high quality CRTs off Ebay for peanuts these days.[/i]

Care to point me in the direction?

Why do I even bother 😆

right have i got this right....
£659 at play..
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/8115839/Toshiba-Regza-XV-Series-37-37XV555D-HD-1080p-Freeview-Widescreen-LCD-TV/Product.html

£549 at John Lewis...
http://www.johnlewis.com/230527619/Product.aspx?source=35735

and today only £459 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-37XV555DB-Widescreen-1080P-Freeview/dp/B00179SI3E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236088465&sr=8-1

So first of all is this the same Tv and if so can i go to John Lewis and do the price match thing...

Any views on the TV...

Cheers

crazant,
Panny was 37LZD80, LZD85 or LZD800. Shop has the 1st 2 on display, but not the 3rd, both reduced to just under €1000 I think, but I'm sure there's better deals out there.
If I buy, it will be FullHD. Current CRT picture keeps going pink, but a power cycle usually sorts it.

Hi andy yes Play has the LZD80 and the LXD85 there is only a tenner between them, which do think is best..just a bit worried about only getting 12 months warranty, i can get another year using my credit card but still not a patch on John Lewis..any thoughts on the Toshiba in my above post ..seems a bargain..
Cheers
Anthony

Never really been impressed by Toshiba and Sony LCDs (in the budget to reasonable cost range), but to be fair I've not really checked the latest models. Hardly any difference between those 2 Pannys. They look identical, picture looks identical, but I think 1 has an extra HDMI socket (4 instead of 3).

I once tried to get one of the Amazon offers. A week after they took my money I got a mail saying they didn't have the set and couldn't get it at that price.

Unless you just want a CD/book sending to Auntie Ethel in Edinburgh, they are a useless set of useless people.

You can always ring your 'local' John Lewis store. I learned when I bought my Panasonic that the John lewis website and the John Lewis stores are completely separate, they have different stock, different warehousing, etc. JL Cheadle had stock of the TV I wanted, whereas the JL website was out of stock. JL Cheadle store took my order, arranged free delivery with the free 5-year Warranty. Exceptional service. Exceptional TV! Another very good source of information is [url]www.avforums.com/[/url] More information than you could possibly want from AV geeks, plus details of special offers, etc.

Bought my Sony 40inch 40V4000 from Richer sounds at bargain price of £599, cannot reccommend it highly enough , rigged up to home cinema, blu ray player, sony handycam, mac book and just waiting for sky + HD to take advantage of the excellent picture (LCD).

I have a 50" plasma however I'd never buy a plasma over an LCD, ever.

The new LCD panels are fantastic.

Pioneer who were the largest producer of plasma panels has just pulled out of the business meaning Panasonic who use their panels (and was arguably the best plasma TV manufacturer) will also 100% switch to LCD.

That's not strictly true, as I understand it (as told by my Pio' dealer) they are still going to produce the higher-end panels with a review somewhere around 2010.

This whole buying a new TV thing, it's a little like buying a bike. Would you buy a GT Avalanche 1.0 to race competitively on? no? why not? its got 20 odd gear, disc brakes, aluminium frame and some 'shimano' bits on it.

Well, its a bike, and has all the right bits.

OK, now go and ride a carbon Scott bike, its got the same amount of gears, similar branding of components and is a bike.

The difference is in what lies beneath all that advertising, in this analogy, its the frame design and quality of components bolted to it.

1080i is just silly unless you have a 50" TV - can anyone here notice the difference between 720p and 1080i on anything less than 50"? I doubt it - if you can, go to the ISF website and look at becoming a screen calibration engineer as you've got better eyes than most professionals.

LCD is inherently slower to respond to movement on the screen, poor contrast ratio's and lesser viewing angle.

Plasma, better contrast ratio, better viewing angle, faster response time (that jerky thing someone spoke about)

However - Have a look at Pioneer Kuro's - they are excellent panels. or the panasonic commercial range NOT the viera (its old technology now)

I know this is more than you want to spend, but its this range of Panny's: http://cyberselect.co.uk/product/916

the Pioneer Kuro being akin to the Scott race bike, the Panaonic being akin to a bike costing approx 2k. - these items are both 'up there' in terms of performance and picture quality.

I dont have a problem with TV's from other companies, but, the two P's are both highly regarded Plasma firms, and we don't install anything else, why? because they're flipping excellent TV's and look superb.

sorry to waffle on, its been a long, long day today.

jt

 

Blingbling - Panasonic do manufacture Plasma panels, they even have a manufacturing site in Europe (nr Prague) - for screen sizes upto 65". The 103" is manufactured in Japan.

IMO - Plasma everytime for video applications (ie home use). LCDS' have got better over the last few years but PDP's have the edge.

Purchase from John Lewis, they do price match any other bricks and mortar retailer.

Go with Panasonic...finest PDP's money can buy.

What constitutes a poor contrast ratio jontawn? 33,000:1?

Completely subjective and, I admit, from a layman but I just bought a Samsung Plasma and the picture quality is better than any LCD I've seen. Very impressed. Would buy Plasma again before LCD.

enough that I felt physically ill in the store and had to leave.

Your TV makes me wanna puke!

As for CRTs...well my 10 yr old 25" Panisonic started getting strange multicoloured lines going across the top but I got a 28" widescreen Philips from someone on Freecycle to replace it. I had a look for the model on Ebay and found them selling for around £30 but obviously you need to find one close to home. Gotta be the bargain way to watch TV these days.

Hi Molgrips

I'm not sure what panel it is you are using, but, using one of these: [url= http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ht-cfp.php ]Datacolor[/url] will accurately measure the details of the screen, Fuji panels used to be pretty good and well within the tolerances stated too.

A lot of quoted figures are dynamic and not native to the panel, ergo, quoted figures are generally a bit of a 'my panel's CR is better than [i]yours[/i] 😉

(if you've got a 'spyder' calibration unit, calibrating your tv makes a whole world of difference with a much more accurate colour reproduction) (spyder units are a load cheaper than the colorfacts package)

jt 😉

Well I'm not gonna spend $3.5k just to win an argument on STW.. 🙂

The quoted contrast ratios on the newer Sony tellies (Bravia 2) were loads better than the older ones, was my point.

Try [url= http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/selector.php ]this link[/url].

[i]You can buy very high quality CRTs off Ebay for peanuts these days.

Care to point me in the direction? [/i]

you know - Ebay?

Just put a search in for TVs within however many miles of your postcode that you're prepared to drive. There's usually plenty going.

mrmichaelwright - Member

things to remember -

freeview is crap, digital terrestrial (and non HD satellite) broadcast in no way compares to the picture quality of analogue

Utter tosh! Freeview performance varies according to the receiver being used, the quality and type of connection to the display and the ability of the display to render the image.

My ageing Pace Puma Freeview PVR connected via RGB scart to my Hitachi Plasma screen produces a stunning image (Pre-HDMI hardware). The kit is old now, but I have seen so called HD broadcasts in shops and at a friend's that were simply no better (or worse). Several people have asked me if my setup is HD too, so i'm not having delusions!

The thing to remember is that it's the everyday source signal that sets the good TV's apart from the mediocre ones. All the HDMI sets i've seen are superb when a directly connected Blueray player is feeding them a signal. It's a very different story when you choose a different signal source and/or you are using some nasty interconnect. Plasma generally fares better than LCD on low res. inputs.

And another thing. Is it me, or has standard definition Sky not as sharp as it used to be?

I have recently seen Freesat HD and standard def. on a direct feed and it was pretty awful, but this was through a Samsung series four 32" LCD. I own one of these TV's and it's built in Freeview tuner produces a much better image.

TV confusion!

I'm sure the prices will go up with the weak pound so if you are thinking of upgrading, now's the time.

Got two 40" lcds in the house..Had plasmas and the pics not as good..
The blueray is amazin on them to.

Just picked up an LG 42PG6000 (google it) plasma for 550quid. its fantastic - particularly good at SD broadcasts compared with pannys and samsungs.
looks great with the plate glass screen bezelless design. 4 hdmi inputs and was recommended by local indy dealer as a secret bargain. getting even better as it runs in too.