What is the Downfall or disadvantage of buying a plasma tv over an lcd?
i want to buy a new tv for the upcoming season for football and i have found one but it is plasma and everyone i have ever talked to about plasma said it is a bad idea, something about the picture fading or something to that nature.
Those people don’t know TVs. Plasma delivers the best image quality you can get right now. Its still superior to the LED LCD (which is the best offering LCD can put up).
Plasmas are inherently near instantaneous in their refresh rate. They are flawless in motion playback. Its a lot like a CRT/tube or DLP in this way. LCDs (even LED LCDs) suffer from motion playback problems (motion blur/ghost trails). They try to fix this with 120Hz/240Hz rates, but it helps the problem, it doesn’t fix it (its not 100%).
Plasmas inherently deliver vivid color, true blacks, and deep contrast. They do this right out of the box. They are a better overall image. And so you get a better image and perfect motion playback without having to pay anything extra. CCFL LCDs (the majority) have muted colors, grey blacks, and so-so contrast. You can get near (but not quite) Plasma quality if you get an LED LCD. But you have to pay a HUGE price premium for that.
The main thing Plasmas actually suffer from are myths and misconceptions. The main ones being that they suffer from burn-in, they are more expensive, they have shorter life spans, and they are energy hogs.
Modern Plasmas do not suffer from burn-in. After they are conditioned, you would have to actually work hard to accomplish a burn-in. To condition a new set all you need to do is keep the brightness and contrast turned way down for the first 100-200 hours of use. After that optimize and enjoy.
Plasmas are not more expensive than LCD rivals anymore. Any especially with LCDs needing high end features like 120Hz and LED backlights to compete. Those features often make LCD far more expensive to buy.
Plasmas do not have shorter life spans. The reputable brands will deliver models that are rated to 60,000 - 100,000 hours. That basically means that in 10 years time, at 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would only really see at most about a 10% loss in brightness. So the set is likely well useable for beyond 10 years.
Current Plasma models are now energy star certified. This means no more being power hogs against LCDs. They can match LCDs in this regard. But every model is different. There are some LCDs that still perform better, and there are some LCDs that perform much worse. It changes ever year as new models come out.
Really, as long as you stick with a good brand, there aren’t too many disadvantages of plasma over LCD.
The worst things are their generally heavier weight, greater power consumption (which still would barely put a dent in your electric bill), slightly thicker panels, and slightly lower overall brightness levels. True, after tens of thousands of hours of use the phosphors will eventually start wearing down and the colors (especially green and blue) will become weaker, but by this time LCD’s will have exhibited a significant reduction in color clarity and overall performance as well.
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Those people don’t know TVs. Plasma delivers the best image quality you can get right now. Its still superior to the LED LCD (which is the best offering LCD can put up).
Plasmas are inherently near instantaneous in their refresh rate. They are flawless in motion playback. Its a lot like a CRT/tube or DLP in this way. LCDs (even LED LCDs) suffer from motion playback problems (motion blur/ghost trails). They try to fix this with 120Hz/240Hz rates, but it helps the problem, it doesn’t fix it (its not 100%).
Plasmas inherently deliver vivid color, true blacks, and deep contrast. They do this right out of the box. They are a better overall image. And so you get a better image and perfect motion playback without having to pay anything extra. CCFL LCDs (the majority) have muted colors, grey blacks, and so-so contrast. You can get near (but not quite) Plasma quality if you get an LED LCD. But you have to pay a HUGE price premium for that.
The main thing Plasmas actually suffer from are myths and misconceptions. The main ones being that they suffer from burn-in, they are more expensive, they have shorter life spans, and they are energy hogs.
Modern Plasmas do not suffer from burn-in. After they are conditioned, you would have to actually work hard to accomplish a burn-in. To condition a new set all you need to do is keep the brightness and contrast turned way down for the first 100-200 hours of use. After that optimize and enjoy.
Plasmas are not more expensive than LCD rivals anymore. Any especially with LCDs needing high end features like 120Hz and LED backlights to compete. Those features often make LCD far more expensive to buy.
Plasmas do not have shorter life spans. The reputable brands will deliver models that are rated to 60,000 - 100,000 hours. That basically means that in 10 years time, at 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would only really see at most about a 10% loss in brightness. So the set is likely well useable for beyond 10 years.
Current Plasma models are now energy star certified. This means no more being power hogs against LCDs. They can match LCDs in this regard. But every model is different. There are some LCDs that still perform better, and there are some LCDs that perform much worse. It changes ever year as new models come out.
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A plasma set will have higher power consumption, possible burn-in issues, probably shorter life span due to the higher temperatures, and they are usually made with a shinier glass making them generally unsuitable for anything other than home theatre rooms with complete ambient light control.
Pioneer also has dropped out of the plasma market. Their Kuro series of plasma TVs were the best TVs out there. That should tell you something.
Plasmas do have the brightest pictures with the best contrast ratio though and they handle on screen action scenes very well.
It all comes down to knowing the pluses and minus of each and knowing who makes junk and who doesn’t. There are certainly just as many, if not not more, junk LCD models on the market.
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