What is better a plasma or a LCD?What is the best brand to buy?

Question

I'm planning to buy a new TV for my house. I was wondering which one is better a Plasma or a LCD. And I was wondering which brand should I buy.

Answer 1

Go with LCD, Sharp or Samsung.  The contrast ratio is higher than most other brands.  They have execellent picutre quality.

Answer 2

lcd

lcd

lcd

lcd

lcd

lcd

as for brand do your research but lcd

plasma over price and if u do play games it will leave heat marks on the screen.

lcd are soo crystal clear and such a nice picture.



so once again

lcd lcd lcd lcd

Answer 3

LCD is the best choice today, if you're careful what you buy. Many are still processing too slow (read motion blur) and their blacks are dark grey.

I like the product coming out of Sharp's Kamayama2 factory. The blacks are black and they are twice as fast as the other Sharps (like the ones sold online or at Costco) as well as most other brands.

Sony would be my second choice, but again, only their better line.

Plasma offers the best price/performance but they won't last as long on average and it's not recommended to use them with game machines or computers. Plasma's blacks have always been black and they solved the motion blur problem years ago.

Edit: re plasma longevity

While plasma has enjoyed some honest improvement in longevity, there are many tricks being employed to stretch the hours to the level some manufacturers are claiming. In order to make "TV white," which is 6504 kelvin and referred to as D65, you need 59% green, 30% red and 11% blue. Green is driven at twice the level of red, and almost six times the level of blue, just to make white. Trick number one is to limit the amount of time the green pixels are on. The most insidious trick being employed is to turn off the pixels 2/5ths of the time, which gives a lifespan rating of 2/5ths longer. Trouble is, you are only seeing 3/5ths of your picture at any given moment in time. Would you rather see a picture using all the pixels, all the time, as intended, or would you rather see 3/5ths of your picture at any given moment in time? The larger the plasma, the more obvious the cheat.

The secret ingredient in plasma displays is the same as in picture tube displays--phosphorous. To make a color at a certain brightness level, you must excite the phosphors to the same level regardless of display type. Exciting the phosphers is what wears them out. In order to claim life expectancy numbers that are more than picture tube displays (many plasma makers do) you need to employ cheats, tricks or magic phosphors. Obviously magic phosphorous would be the most desirable, but it only exists in our imaginations.

This is purely about the money. Some manufacturers are invested heavily in plasma technology and they can't afford to give it up. They were forced to do things they might not normally do in order to offer specs that compete in the market place. They understand that most consumers will trust the claimed longevity figures rather than explore the trade-offs employed to acheive them.

Who am I trying to kid. Manufacturers will say anything short of fraud to get their products sold. If there is a negative aspect, give it to the marketing department. They'll figure out how to turn it into a feature, and give it a cool name, like: orbiting. "Wow, cool, my plasma display has the new orbiting technology." A few years back, Texas Instruments very clearly stated on their web site that the chip they were selling for DLP RPTVs was 720 x 1440 pixels. But somehow, these chips were employed in televisions claiming to be 1080p. That's just not possible without cheats. Some manufacturers called that cheat "wobulation." They might have at least thought up a better name. lol

Miguel is right to correct my statement "plasmas don't last as long on average." I should have said the pixel drive time has been nerfed to achieve similar life spans to LCD, but it wouldn't have made sense without this lenghty explaination.

Answer 4

If you want bright, unnatural, slow moving picture - get LCD.

If you want movie-like experience - get PLASMA.  The bigger - the better.

Pioneer 60" KURO and Panasonic 65" are unreal!  Smaller ones are great too...

Answer 5

I don't believe anyone has addressed this but, What will you be doing with the TV.

For movies, not Broadcast television, Plasma has a much warmer, life-like picture.

For gaming and Broadcast television, LCD has a great picture and the new LCDs have fixed the "Pixel" problem associated with text and fast motion.

Plasmas use a lot of electricity and run very hot.  LCD runs cooler with less power.

For the price of a large screen TV, either Plasma or LCD have you considered a Projection TV?  DLP screens have an excellent picture and contrast for gaming, movies and television.

Brands are owner biased.  Since I own a 73" Mitsubishi, I'll tell you that it is the best.  But is it really?  Do some research and take your time.  There is no rush.  It is for you to enjoy, not for your friends to be impressed.

Answer 6

I believe the LCD is the best one because after years of use it will not lose its color, brightness and more just like a PLASMA T.V. could.

Answer 7

lcd is better for the long term

Answer 8

Go for Sony if you have the money... LCD is best and will last a lot longer than plasma - the plasma has a habit of burning out after a couple of years and you can get screen burn.

Answer 9

Doesn't anyone read the AV industry news anymore? Plasma TV does NOT have a short lifespan and hasn't for about 4 years. With a 60,000 hour half life(the SAME as LCD and some are even longer) plasma TVs take over 30 years at 5 hours a day to loose half their brightness. Because of the longer life expectancy burn in isn't nearly the problem it used to be. (burn in is due to uneven aging of the phosphors in the plasma cells and they take much longer to age now) besides with more HD content available you won't get the bars that were burning in the TVs in the first place. Plus now plasmas have anti-burn in techniques like orbiter to prevent burn in and the game systems that used to be a problem aren't anymore because they are widescreen and don't have the static images anymore and have screensavers. As Earth said avoid them for computers. Plasma is a much better choice now than it was 3-5 years ago especially if you want bigger than 52". LCD is good if you are not into sports or action stuff unless you get one with a 120Hz frame rate or if you are going to watch a whole lot of Bloomberg and Fox News which has lots of stationary high contrast information bars that could challenge the anti burn-in features of the plasmas OR if the TV will be smaller than 42".  Most LCDs have a matte surface so they get less direct reflection making them better if you have a reflection problem but watch out for LCD with super high contrast in those cases because they use a glass surface to attain that high contrast so you get the glare again.

Industry average repair rates for BOTH plasma and LCD over the first 4 years is just 4% making them about the most reliable devices out there. That study did list that the average was taken from major brands and mentioned Sony, Samsung and Toshiba at the top of the LCD list and Panasonic and Pioneer for plasma. Sharp was ok but a little lower than average with respect to reliability.