hey there

I'm looking at getting between a 42 and 50inch full hd plasma to take advantage of the free offer panasonic is giving away (free camera, stereo or dvd player). They range from about 1600 for 42inch to just over 2k for 50inch.

Just wondering how they compare to lcd and if there's pros/cons and if i can hook my pc up to it without burning pixels?

Also, noticeable picture quality differences?

Ta.

Ive got the panasonic 50" plasma, its not "full HD" but its 1366x768 and looks sweet for everything I use it for. payed $1650 a year ago, couldnt justify the extra $1000 for 1920x1080 when I dont actualy have any content above 720p anyway.

Got it hooked up to a media centre with HDMI, looks pretty good. One thing I did do when hooking it up to the pc was to turn picture overscan off, so u can actually see all the picture from the media centre.

this is like arguing about beer, everyone has different tastes.
personally i'm a plasma man but LCD's have improved a lot recently and put out some good pics.
i run my 360 (gaming) off a plasma in the spare room and we have a 50" plasma in the main lounge with a STB and another 360 (for DVD and streaming).
both are great. gaming is good on plasma specially those darker FPS.

best advice is to do the rounds at friends who have various set ups (LCD/Plasma) and view some games and movies and also consider the room set up (lighting) people forget this factor. stores are set up to maximise your viewing experience so don't assume it will be the same at home.
bring beer and nuts!
good luck

What `ViPER` said, the not full hd one. I paid around $2.5k for a 42" 1920x1080 a year or two ago and tbh after comparing it with a 50" 720p I'd have to say get the the biggest one you can for your budget.

We have a standard 42" Panasonic plasma and it's fine for what we use it for. I couldn't tell the difference between that and the Full HD models, even when playing Blu-ray and they were side by side :/ (plus I didn't want to spend more $'s on a tv)

We paid about $1,100 about 18 months ago.

IN BEFORE SPOOK

in for the lolz

dude, just get a LCD it will last longer.

Go for the 50" model if you have the room and can afford it. You'll never go back to watch smaller TV :)

If you're getting the 50", full HD res then you should be able to get full benefit out of the resolution (given the source media and distance you're sitting from the TV ~1.5m).

As for comparison to LCD well that's just personal preference. I prefer Plasma "warmer" / more natural colours because I use it to watch movies. Not to say that it's crap for gaming etc but that's what I prefer.

Image retention is an "issue" I guess if you're pedantic but, it's nothing to worry about these days on a newer set of Plasma. Currently you can't beat Plasma for value-for-money when it comes to large panel display. I've said it before I'll happily buy LCD when they sell >= 50" LCD that I can actually afford and has similar colour range etc as the Plasma.

:) PS I love new TV thread

so it's not really an lcd issue as much as it is you being a tightwad ?

Yeah, plasma suck and lcd rule.




Or is it the other way around?

LED>Plasma>LCD

my sister just bought this Panasonic 50" and was able to talk the guy at JB down to 2k flat

so it's not really an lcd issue as much as it is you being a tightwad ?

Value for money baby, value for money :)

yeah in a years time you will be going shit should have got that LCD.

yeah exactly, you get what you pay for

I've got the 50" Full HD Pana Plasma.....it rocks. Got it hooked to my Media Center PC. The silly thing is with the media center hooked up I've never used the inbuilt tuners or any other input on the thing. Calibrated it once and never touched it again. I paid $2600 for the top 50" Full HD which is nice but when you consider its just a big monitor it seems excessive.

The choice between LCD and Plasma is a personal choice, I went for the superior picture quality and better value vs the over-priced inferior LCDs. Burn in on Plasmas is not an issue anymore. You might get the odd bit of image retention but its no worse than the old CRTs. LCDs don't suffer this problem but they can't do blacks and that was more important to me.

Its all moot anyways cause in 3yrs time we will all be hanging our 4mm 75" OLED screens on the wall wondering why we ever bothered with the LCD-Plasma debate.

^ yeh I concur.

Thats why I'm hanging onto to my 68cm CRT till it dies, which will be about 5 yrs from now.
Can you imagine how kickarse the standard LED TV will be in 2014???
That and I'm a massive tightarse.

Found this on Whirlpool and thought it was worth posting.

this and burn in have been the two things that swayed me toward LCD....

Oh boy... haha. You gotta really sum it all up.
Both LCDs and Plasmas have their pros and cons.
When I sell TVs, I explain these things.
I have added a importance scale *****/5

Things LCDs do well.

Brightness***
LCD screens are very bright, which allows for vibrant colours. This is due to the excessive backlighting, which leads to the problem regarding blacks levels I will describe.
Things LCDs dont do particularly well.

Motion Blur****
LCDs generally have a tendancy to smear with motion due to their relatively high pixel response time.
Black Levels*****
Imagine each pixel of a LCD screen like a stained glass window which can change colour. It changes the colour of the light passing though, but does not emit light of its own. Because of this, LCDs require a backlighting system such as CCFL, HCFL or LED. The problem is that even a black stained glass window lets through some light- enough that when watching dark scenes, it appears very washed out (some say 'cloudy').
Things Plasmas do well.

Black levels*****
Remember how I said that LCD pixels are like stained-glass windows, letting through light? Well Plasma pixels are like light bulbs which can change colour. Light bulbs that can change colour very (0.001ms) fast, and go from full brightness, to full darkness when needed.
Motion Blur (or lack thereof)****
Plasmas have a 0.001ms response time, which means that pixels can change colours at a rate of one thousandth of a second. This means when you are watching a movie or playing a game, your image will not smear with movement.
Price*****
Its a fact, Plasmas are cheaper- considerably cheaper- and this is usually a big point for consumers. People would rather pay $1500 and get a 50" HD plasma than the $3-4K for a 50" LCD.
Things Plasmas dont do particularly well.

Phosphor lag*
Phosphor lag is the little green red and blue dots which you can see when you get up close and personal with a Plasma TV. They are caused by the different discharge rates of these different coloured pixels. Some Plasma sets have lots of Phosphor lag, most have none. I have noticed that many LG panels have PL, as well as the Z series Panasonic.
Reflection**
Because Plasmas run a little hotter than LCDs due to their technology, Plasmas have a glass front panel. This reflective glass, as opposed to the matte plastic front on LCDs, caused no end of pain to early plasma adopters. Recently manufacturers, Panasonic specifically, have brought out anti- reflective coatings so that people can enjoy watching their Plasma during the day.
You might notice there aren't too many things I consider Plasma to do poorly.

Things people think Plasmas dont do particularly well.

Burn in**
Oh how I love burn-in. Actually, what I love is the fact that people still think it exists. At work, in a carefully controlled scientific environment (lawl), we left a 50" Panasonic PZ Plasma on a same image for over 48 hours. Sure, there was some temporary image retention, but some Free To Air television washed it away.

To who doesn't believe the authenticity of that experiment let me ask you this: Do you really really believe that coming up to their Nth generation of plasma panels, manufacturers would let such a potent issue such as burn-in really still be a problem?

Power Consumption*
Okay, this is a big one that LCD has over Plasma.
First of all I would like to say with Panasonic's new 'NeoPDP' panel, power consumption has dropped considerably. I challenge anyone to look around any store at all the energy labels which are now mandated on all new TVs- LCD and Plasma- and see the difference.

On a 50" G series Panasonic Plasma you will notice it uses about 1000 Kilowatt hours of electricity per year, using your TV 8 hours a day.
Whereas a 50/52" Sony/LG/Samsung LCD will use about 700-800 KWh per year. Yes, this is a increase of about 30%, but considering that your old 22" CRT TV used 2000+ KWh/Y, there really is not much of a difference. Definitely not soo much of a difference that it should sway your new TV decision.

To simplify everything, I know there are good LCDs out there that handle motion well, dont smear, and have reasonable black levels with the help of localised LED dimming.

But the fact is that you have to pay through the nose to get that $5000 50", 200Hz, 1ms LED LCD screen.

Why would you, when you can get the THX certified, top of the line, designed by Pioneer, 50" Panasonic V10 for $2500?

In the end.
Both technologies have their pitfalls.
You, the consumer, must make a decision on what your priorities.

Should you get a plasma, with superior black levels, a price half that of LCD, and ability to handle motion- suited to friday night movie/game sessions where there is minimal light?

Or should you get a more expensive LCD, with it's slightly lower energy consumption and brighter screen- tailored to someone who watches daytime TV all day?

Didn't read the replies but Sony has the PS3 deal on again. So that might be something to consider instead of panasonic.

Panasonic or Samsung for Plasma.
Some of the Panasonics have a Low Power consumption as part of some models.
theres a calculator for energy use too.
http://www.panasonic.com.au/energy-wise/calculator.cfm

Be advised you need a Visa or Amex card to claim your Panasonic gift.

In before Spook says LCD

I have the 60" LG plasma, its my second child and I <3 it
although we've just moved it out of our bedroom in order to get out of a bad routine where we'd fall asleep watching movies every night

from above, plasmas are fine if you dont mind settling

Plasma is only useful in weapons

Settling for what Spook?

Good contrast
Better black levels
No motion blur
natural colours?

I'll settle for that anyday.

^^^ Not to mention getting larger screen size for smaller price too mongie :)

I'd look at the Sonys with the PS3 bundle they have going on atm. Just my 2c.

GF's brother just bought one after asking me what I'd recommend. I said "LCD, they're just more prolific". He got the 50" full HD Plasma they're advertising at the moment from Panasonic with the free gift.

It looks OK I guess. He only has SD to play though it at the moment and I'll admit the SD stuff looks better then SD stuff through my LCD's but it was just things like music clips from the 70's on Foxtel we played so can't really judge there. I'll reserve judgement till he gets the blue ray player or I take my laptop over with some HD on it.

I wouldnt get anything larger than 40" if your watching foxtel (non-HD)
You still get the benefit of free to air HD with the inbuilt tuners though but you are going to grow tired of Low-Res Foxtel pretty fast after watching HD free to air.

What about HD TV? its 1080i (thats HD)

mongie, 1080i is shitd :D

I wouldnt get anything larger than 40" if your watching foxtel (non-HD)
You still get the benefit of free to air HD with the inbuilt tuners though but you are going to grow tired of Low-Res Foxtel pretty fast after watching HD free to air.

I watch for content not pretty mostly. When I first get some new thing (TV, Blue ray etc) I'm all about the pretty but after that I'd prefer to watch something I wanted to watch rather then something that just looks good.

My selection parameters were;

HD
HDMI
Price

So I ended up with a Sharp 42" LCD and a Bluray. Never looked back...

Do you get any blurring in Sport ?
That would drive me nuts.
I know the more expensive LCDs do a great job but this is still the number one thing that would bug the hell out of me.

i have absolutely no idea this blurring even looks like hey

i've watched rugby league, tennis and cricket on:

52" Samsumg series 6 lcd
46" Sony W series lcd
42" Sony V series lcd
2 x 32" Samsumg series 5 lcd

and i have no idea what this 'blurring' even looks like

i swear to god it's a load of shit that probably happend on lcd tv's and monitors like 10 years ago but it *does_not_happen* these days.

Do you get any blurring in Sport ?
That would drive me nuts.
I know the more expensive LCDs do a great job but this is still the number one thing that would bug the hell out of me.

Even on cheaper LCD's (or atleast ones in the last 3-4 years) this isn't an issue, especially when you compare the picture quality between whatever crappy old CRT the person was using before and the LCD.

no wai, you lcd losars, mongie says lcds blur

that dude didn't mention one of the maybe less obvious differences between plasmas and lcds.

plasmas pretty much all have a 12 month warranty, whereas many lcds have up to 3 years (but recently lcd manufacturers have been bumping that down). and when a plasma tv faults, it's typically pretty expensive to repair - it often needs the whole panel replaced. lcd repairs can be expensive too, but from what i've seen at work plasmas seem to be more expensive on average.

just something else to consider as well.

Ive seen the 12 month warranty on LCDs too. I thought it was a way for shops to make money off the TVs. sell them a warranty that really should be free.

no wai, you lcd losars, mongie says lcds blur

Its a pretty well known fact that at best LCD's have a 2MS pixel response, while plasma's pixel respons is a fraction of that.

The end result is bluring and smearing on LCDs, especially the cheaper ones.

gonna say what some others said. get a sony bravia for the free ps3.

also i read that sony is bringing out that addon device so you can record tv shows onto the ps3.

last edited by ravn0s at 13:57:13 03/Nov/09

got this today...
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/plasma-lcd-tvs/plasma-tv/lg-42pq60d-42-hd-plasma-tv/436164?utm_source=JB-AU&utm_medium=button&utm_content=buy-online-button-tvs&utm_campaign=buy-online-button

$1390 +5 year warranty in store. was $1290 in store.

its pretty sweet.
plays movies directly from usb on the side. Xvid.

Also has 3 power settings to reduce energy use.

the sound comes from the glass front. wtf ? SRS

Foxtel look a bit crappy but i wasnt using the best plugs so it should improve a little. It was ok though.
Free to air looked great.

Bang for buck its awesome. Being LG better get a good warranty.
(i would have preferred a Panasonic but this had more features.)

All the TV stations work except for SBS. drops out. but im using a 30 year old internal antenna. lolz

last edited by FaceMan at 20:12:18 03/Nov/09

its the govt, they dont want you to see that liberal channel

jesus christ the TV makes my monitor feel like its a 14"