KindredMAC said:
I don't get the 3 posts on here that say LCD's are better than Plasma...
I was at Best Buy on New Year's Eve Day to do some research on the differences between Plasma and LCD and I have to tell you that after I looked at every TV there, the Plasma's had the superior quality pictures compared to the LCD's at larger dimensions over 40".
No one has yet said why they think LCD's are better than Plasma's... It kinda sounds like the classic "Macs suck...my buddy said he knew someone who had one that crashed all the time."
All the LCD's I saw had horrible artifacting that was visible up to 5 feet away. The Plasma's had better color, better Blacks and Darks, and smoother motion. For my knowledge, I would love to hear someone's honest and real reasons they think LCD's are better.
In addition to Arn's comments (LCDs tend to top out at around 40"), I'd add a few notes:
1. LCD "lifetimes" vs plasma "lifetimes" are generally equivalent, although if you really wanted a "like new" LCD at the end of that lifetime you would replace the back light, and if you wanted a "like new" plasma at the end of that lifetime you just can't. That having been said, I don't see anyone out there offering to replace LCD backlights significantly cheaper than just buying a new set, so effectively you're in the same boat. Well, except that if you just replace the backlight you make Gaia happy and full landfills make Jesus cry.
2. "Artifacting" on LCD vs plasma ... I'm not sure what you're talking about here, as artifacting in the classic sense is a result of the image processing chip, not the display technology. However, LCD and plasma do have different color spaces, and I do notice "blotchiness" in dark shadows on my LCD sets which might not be there on plasma sets. The key is how well differentiated the color space is in certain ranges. That having been said, this isn't an inherent problem in LCDs in general, and I "fixed" my personal LCD screens by adjusting the gamma (and lowering the brightness from the factory default - I don't need a screen the brightness of the sun to squint at!). Best Buy, IMHO, is notoriously bad at mal-adjusting whatever sets they aren't "pushing" that week to make their "incentive" sets look better. That having been said, there are very real color space concerns with LCDs which aren't as much of a concern with Plasmas as Plasmas have
3. "Better motion" in plasma sets is a result of "image retention". Plasma pixels, somewhat like CRTs, have a noticable ramp-up and ramp-down stage, whereas LCD pixels are essentially either on or off. As a result, each frame tends to blend slightly with the last. Some people like the effect (it makes motion seem "smoother") while others dislike it (it also hides details in fast-moving scenes).
4. Other: LCDs are lighter and thinner and use less power (for same size screen), don't have altitude problems (also a big deal when shipping ... but not an issue for most people), don't burn in (more recent plasmas have a hard time burning in, and unburning them is fairly easy, so this is really only a minor issue any more), are marginally brighter and higher contrast in "real world" settings, and are less likely to be broken due to a short fall. Plasmas, on the other hand, don't have to deal with stuck pixels, poor black levels, and limited screen sizes. Other claims that are simply bogus: plasma sets have a much faster 'refresh' time than LCDs, but as I said above, that's with image fall-off, AND the LCD refresh times are still significantly faster than video frame rates; "lifetime" claims shouldn't be translated into hours of viewing, but viewed as comparative: while a screen may have a half-life of 30k hours, that's just when the screen is at half the original brightness, and a good 20k or more hours after you've started noticing that the picture kinda sucks! That having been said, at equivalent half-lives, the LCD after 30k hours is about the same brightness as the plasma after one ...
As with most competing technologies, there really is no universally "better" solution (otherwise the competition would have ended a while back), but there are many people out there saying that their chosen tech can use its left hand to slap the other tech silly while wearing a blindfold. But, of course, Gaia weeps if you choose plasma.
Clear as mud?