What's the REAL difference between plasma and LCD T.V.'s? Which one is "better" and why?

Question

I'm shopping around for a new TV and am a tech-idiot. I also don't trust sales people. I'm just starting to research and thought I'd come here first before I hit the internet. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Plasma

+Best picture (blacks are black and whites are pure white)

+60,000hour life span= 22yrs if 8 hr watch per day (granted you don't buy a vizio, insignia or other off name brands, stick w/ Samsung or Pioneer or LG)

+Price is lower than LCD if 720p

-Runs a little hotter

-the 1080p are very expensive

-Affected by high altitude

LCD

+Technology been out longer

+Lower glare from windows

+ Price is descent on 1080p

-Blacks are more grayish than black should be

-The bigger the more expensive

These are just a few differences, now as long as you stick with a good brand you will be ok. Just remember that whichever technology you get, the picture is only as good as your source and cables, so get HD Satelite and connect with HDMI cable for the best picture and fiber optic if you have a surround sound with it. Monster cables are the best and they have lifetime warranty so you never buy the cable again if it goes bad.

Answer 2

Can't really talk about the technical side of things, but I definitely prefer plasma. Picture seems to be far more defined and intense. Although the life ? seems to be fine so far ( had for 1.5yrs) .

Answer 3

Plasma: Uses phosphate gases that when electrical pulses are sent through them they turn the pixel the desired color. Since they use "burning" gases some logos from sports games or video games can burn in the screen and kind of leave a ghosting affect but that is not a problem anymore for plasmas. They are usually made in larger sizes. They have sharper pictures and blacks. They have quicker responce and blur between frames of movies and tv.

LCD's: liquid crystal displays use electrical impulses to change or twist little crystals that light shines through into different colors. Since lcd's use light to make pictures the darker colors and blacks are not as dark as plasmas because blacks and darker colors are when there is no light present. LCDs will have to turn these pixels (little lights so to say) off to get desired blacks. LCD's might get a little blurry when there is a lot of motion and color changes (especially with blacks) because of this. LCD's are very vibrant, physically light and good for any size up to under 40" range. They also use next to no power and can be used as computer monitors easily.

If you are looking to get a larger tv i would say get a plasma because right now they are the best solution for a tv right now because their major problems are nearly gone and they come in huge sizes. If you want a personal tv like in a bedroom i'd say get an LCD. I have a 32" in my room and love it but for a living room get a plasma. I notice in some movies like lord of the rings their eye brows kind of bounce around or float because the pixels change too slowly from black eyebrows to bright skin of orlando bloom in close up action shots. Try finding tv\s with the highest responce time, contrast ratios and whatever catches your eye in store.

You can also check out other tv technologies like DLP which come in really large sizes and are still bulkier but cheaper then plasmas. Not quite as sharp but honestly unless you have high definition everything (blu ray for example) it doesn't really matter.

Answer 4

I prefer LCD's because the image is always "sharper".  I find Plasma's having a fuzzy image, which always makes me think that it is a little out of focus (or the resolution is slighlty wrong).  LCDs are more expensive, but I believe worth the extra money.  

Best thing to do is look at both an LCD and Plasma side by side.  Make sure that the settings on both are the same (sales people change the picture settings to, for example, 'dynamic' or 'dark' if they want to increase the sales of particular models).

Answer 5

Personally I think Plasma screens make better TV's and LCD's make for better computer monitors. If your budget is tight I wouldnt recommend a cheap LCD as they are mostly poor quality especially with standard definition signals.

As for cables if you are thinking to use a HDMI cable do not worry about quality. They are digital and all deliver the same amount of ones and zero's so don't be fooled. The only video cable worth spending extra money on would be a component cable

Before we bought our 50" Panasonic Plasma we decided that we would hire a few different models and keep them for a week. The guys at http://www.platinumavs.co.uk setup and collected from our house each time. It was a good way to judge many different tv's from actual front room usage

If not defo check the shops to see how the screens look for yourself as just ordering from the net could turn out to be a disaster