Best HDTV's: Plasma VS LED

[dandragonrage]

The "CRT noise" has absolutely nothing to do with a 60Hz refresh rate. It has to do with noise powering flyback transformers.

Wrong - pixel clock affects the noise as well. In NTSC CRT TVs the noise is fixed at the NTSC horizontal pilot frequency of 15,734Hz. With CRT monitors, it varies depending on the pixel clock.

Don't correct people when you don't know what you're talking about. Thanks.

Also I do see flicker in many fluorescent bulbs, but you're also wrong about 60Hz AC frequency being the only factor. In monitors, different phosphor types can "store" the image for different amounts of time. TVs typically used long-lasting phosphor to reduce flicker while PC monitors used shorter duration phosphor to support higher refresh rates (making lower rates suffer more flicker) and even then it varies by brand and model. Different types of fluorescent bulbs and ballasts can affect the amount of flicker seen, too. The 60Hz AC frequency is only one factor.

Again, don't correct people when you don't know what you're talking about. You won't find any holes in anything I've said in this thread, anyway.

 

[defaultluser]

Wrong - pixel clock affects the noise as well. In NTSC CRT TVs the noise is fixed at the NTSC horizontal pilot frequency of 15,734Hz. With CRT monitors, it varies depending on the pixel clock.

Don't correct people when you don't know what you're talking about. Thanks.

Also I do see flicker in many fluorescent bulbs, but you're also wrong about 60Hz AC frequency being the only factor. In monitors, different phosphor types can "store" the image for different amounts of time. TVs typically used long-lasting phosphor to reduce flicker while PC monitors used shorter duration phosphor to support higher refresh rates (making lower rates suffer more flicker) and even then it varies by brand and model. Different types of fluorescent bulbs and ballasts can affect the amount of flicker seen, too. The 60Hz AC frequency is only one factor.

Again, don't correct people when you don't know what you're talking about. You won't find any holes in anything I've said in this thread, anyway.

This absolutely.

You ever wonder why you don't notice flicker on CRT televisions nearly as much, despite the fact that the field rate is roughly 60 Hz? It's entirely due to phosphor persistence.

If you build a monitor that can show only 60Hz or lower, you can use slower phosphor decay. If they stay lit long enough, it's enough to convince your brain that they were constantly lit.

If you build a monitor that can display 100 Hz OR MORE without significant motion blur, you have to use faster phosphor decay (so the previous frame is *gone* before you drive the next one, to reduce blur). If you drive this display at only 60 Hz, the display is black for a much longer portion of time, leading to flicker (constant change between on and off)

This is the same general concept that drives the Lightboost strobe backlight feature for fast LCDs: you make the two frames more distinctive by toggling the backlight in-between.

 

[Godmachine]

IF you have a room with tons of light going into it then LCD is superior any day of the week if you do a lot of day watching.

If you don't have a lot of light going into the room and/or you watch most of your content at night , Plasma is superior by far.

As far as anything else is concerned Plasma has better motion handling and contrast (big a large margin) but uses well over double sometimes triple the power and even to this day there are still image retention risks. LCD is better for gamers because many Plasma's use lots of processing and that equals latency plus I would never recommend anyone use a Plasma as a computer monitor while an LCD TV can make an excellent computer monitor with no risk of image retention.

If you are absolutely about PQ though Plasma wins , for cost you'll have to spend double if not more on an LCD to achieve the kind of picture you can get with a Plasma.

 

[BallerX]

End thread.

Agree. If you haven't seen one you need to. Best TV I have seen. One of my customers has one and every time I go over there, the thing is almost mesmerizing. It doesn't hurt that it was properly calibrated. So is my LED LCD. There is simply no comparison.

 

[bvbz]

I love my plasma. It is gorgeous. 65VT50.

My friend's dad who spent over twice as much on an OLED (when they first came out) was very impressed with it and damn near had a heart attack when we discussed pricing. Then the lights came on and it made more sense to him haha. It will not get anywhere close to a PC-hdmi out because I am terrified of seeing a start menu whenever I start up Gladiator. There are no perfect TV's. Dark room plasma picture quality is, so long as you get to a certain level of television, something special to see, but if you like running a television for background noise or casually watch as you move about in a lit room, they tend to suffer.

Would I make the same purchase again? Who knows. At this point I think guests get more out of it than I do as I have gotten quite "used" to the way it looks.

On another note, I get advertisements in the menus of my TV's content! Is that a normal trend these days? It feels rather low-rent to pay for a nice TV only to get banner ads for men's razors! I didn't think the Kinect was able to tell I'm a hairy mofo!

 

[Godmachine]

Agree. If you haven't seen one you need to. Best TV I have seen. One of my customers has one and every time I go over there, the thing is almost mesmerizing. It doesn't hurt that it was properly calibrated. So is my LED LCD. There is simply no comparison.

Problem is that they still cost a mint and the ST series finally comes VERY close in terms of Contrast so its a waste of money if you are buying a new TV to blow it all on a slightly better and much older plasma.

Unless you can get on for a steal , not worth it anymore.

 

[Etherton]

I love my plasma. It is gorgeous. 65VT50.

My friend's dad who spent over twice as much on an OLED (when they first came out) was very impressed with it and damn near had a heart attack when we discussed pricing. Then the lights came on and it made more sense to him haha. It will not get anywhere close to a PC-hdmi out because I am terrified of seeing a start menu whenever I start up Gladiator. There are no perfect TV's. Dark room plasma picture quality is, so long as you get to a certain level of television, something special to see, but if you like running a television for background noise or casually watch as you move about in a lit room, they tend to suffer.

Would I make the same purchase again? Who knows. At this point I think guests get more out of it than I do as I have gotten quite "used" to the way it looks.

On another note, I get advertisements in the menus of my TV's content! Is that a normal trend these days? It feels rather low-rent to pay for a nice TV only to get banner ads for men's razors! I didn't think the Kinect was able to tell I'm a hairy mofo!

I have the Panasonic ST55 and love it. I have it connected to my HTPC and have never experienced any burn in/retention issues. Also if you have your TV connected to WiFi/Ethernet then yeah you will see "ads" when turning the volume up/down.

 

[The Lurker]

it will not get anywhere close to a PC-hdmi out because I am terrified of seeing a start menu whenever I start up Gladiator.

Your worries are unfounded.

I have a Plasma from 2001. Its connected to an HTPC, granted its running MCE front end 99% of the time but if I leave anything hanging for more than a minute burn in is highly noticeable but play something for maybe 3 minutes and its gone. You gotta relax and enjoy.

 

[dalekphalm]

Your worries are unfounded.

I have a Plasma from 2001. Its connected to an HTPC, granted its running MCE front end 99% of the time but if I leave anything hanging for more than a minute burn in is highly noticeable but play something for maybe 3 minutes and its gone. You gotta relax and enjoy.

This is also a Plasma TV from 2001. The technology has evolved A LOT around anti burn-in technology since then.

On my Plasma TV, I have experienced no burn-in, and it's been connected exclusively to an HTPC since I got it (something like 4 or 5 months ago now). It has even sat on the desktop or paused for more than 20 minutes on occasion. Now, it's still a good idea to prevent static images from staying on the screen for long periods, but as long as you turn your TV off when not in use, or set the PC Screen Saver to kick in after ~15 minutes, then there will be no problem. Pausing a video for a few minutes will NOT cause burn-in on a modern Plasma TV.

 

[The Lurker]

This is also a Plasma TV from 2001. The technology has evolved A LOT around anti burn-in technology since then.

On my Plasma TV, I have experienced no burn-in, and it's been connected exclusively to an HTPC since I got it (something like 4 or 5 months ago now). It has even sat on the desktop or paused for more than 20 minutes on occasion. Now, it's still a good idea to prevent static images from staying on the screen for long periods, but as long as you turn your TV off when not in use, or set the PC Screen Saver to kick in after ~15 minutes, then there will be no problem. Pausing a video for a few minutes will NOT cause burn-in on a modern Plasma TV.

That was basically the point I was trying to make. My TV is ancient by comparison to anything people have in their homes today and even then its not the huge problem people make it out to be.

 

[dalekphalm]

That was basically the point I was trying to make. My TV is ancient by comparison to anything people have in their homes today and its not the huge problem make it out to be.

Well... then we are in perfect agreement

 

[dan87]

Wow, 2001. That must have cost a fortune back then.

 

[MacLeod]

End thread.

This time a million! Best TV's EVAR in my opinion.

 

[bvbz]

I have the Panasonic ST55 and love it. I have it connected to my HTPC and have never experienced any burn in/retention issues. Also if you have your TV connected to WiFi/Ethernet then yeah you will see "ads" when turning the volume up/down.

So if I were to, say, kill the Wifi and then run Netflix/APrime off of my Blu Ray they would go away? It bothers the shit out of me that I paid to be advertised to.

 

[bvbz]

Your worries are unfounded.

I have a Plasma from 2001. Its connected to an HTPC, granted its running MCE front end 99% of the time but if I leave anything hanging for more than a minute burn in is highly noticeable but play something for maybe 3 minutes and its gone. You gotta relax and enjoy.

This is also a Plasma TV from 2001. The technology has evolved A LOT around anti burn-in technology since then.

On my Plasma TV, I have experienced no burn-in, and it's been connected exclusively to an HTPC since I got it (something like 4 or 5 months ago now). It has even sat on the desktop or paused for more than 20 minutes on occasion. Now, it's still a good idea to prevent static images from staying on the screen for long periods, but as long as you turn your TV off when not in use, or set the PC Screen Saver to kick in after ~15 minutes, then there will be no problem. Pausing a video for a few minutes will NOT cause burn-in on a modern Plasma TV.

Realistically, how long would one need to leave an image up for it to be an issue? The guy at the store made it seem like they saw plenty of issues with it, but then again he was trying to sell me on their most expensive LED tv.


And lol at the screen saver! Will find my old "After Dark" discs haha ... somewhere some eco nut will have an aneurism at the thought of someone running a screensaver on a power hungry Plasma home theater setup. I might look into this....

I just had a Captain Planet villain flashback. So I built 'zis machine 'zats primary purpose is to billow smoke into 'ze clouds.......

 

[oneforspeed]

Panasonic GT or VT series plasmas (think they have a new series now) are insanely good. Thin, lighter and the picture is stunning!