LCD or Plasma

Ok, this is what I have found and researched. I used the DTV forum too, and my user name was Clueless2!

Plasmas are excellent for watching fast action movies and sport events. We have had one for over 12 months (Panasonic Viera HD) and it is lovely - we paid around $3200 for a 42 size. Simon, that is the one you are thinking of getting; we got the model just before that which has a black border and I think the new one has a silver border but all the insides are the same. We have always bought Panasonic brand and have never had a problem with them!

LCD's seem a little clearer, and you get a better view when watching at an angle; but they may blur when watching things that move quickly. (We havent noticed that though, but that is what is supposed to happen) HOWEVER they have come down in price, hugely, more than Plasma has with the good exchange rate.

My teenage son goes pffft at LCD's; we have just purchased one in one of our furnished (exec) apartments - Uniden, and was purchased for around $1000. 32 inch. It is excellent.

One thing, whatever you decide, is bargain. The price that is displayed is NOT the price you should pay - you should be able to knock off at least $200 off their display price. And that is the same at all stores.
 
If color is important Plasma is far superior, due to higher contrast ratio. Superior black and whites on the 8th Gen pioneers (i have a 7th gen 42" myself)

If size and price are important, get a LCD.

If you want quality and color accuracy, get a Plasma.

Cheers
Kris
 
Simon said:
I am steering my attention towards the Panasonic Veira range. A friend bought one recently and I watched a few movies with her and was quite impressed.

I can get a 42 inch for under $2K delivered. on eBay. I called a different JBHiFi that employs staff who are marginally more useful and they agreed to shave a bit more off to match the eBay deal. usually they don't even try so gotta be impressed with that.

Downside is that if I want to extend the 12 month warranty to 60 months it is an extra $300. Guess it is worth it though.

So does anyone own the:

Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX70A 42 inch (106cm) Digital HD Plasma TV, Certified HD Digital TV

Comments?

Thanks team,
Click to expand...

I have just bought a plasma, and resisted so long for the same reason.

Choice magazine thought the Panasonics were great bang for buck.

This is exactly the model I have purchased. Note there is a cheaper 42PX7A (i.e. 7A not 70A) available that differs mainly in style.

Best price I found was www.webpriceshop.com.au and http://www.theelectricdiscounter.com.au/asps/brand-class.asp?brand=panasonic&class=visual
 
I've had both for quite some time and I much prefer plasma. In either case go for 40" or above. Believe me, it will only seem big for a couple of weeks.

Plasma gives you a much more vibrant picture than an LCD and doesn't suffer the motion problems that LCD do.

In terms of contrast, plasma will generally win. Just think of how they work. In a plasma the pixels 'light up', in LCD technology the light is constant and the pixels block it out. As such the blacks are never really black.
Also a plasma suffers this in some regards. If you look at a plasma thats not turned on, you'll see thats its kinda greenish/grey. Obviously this is as black as its going to get.

One thing I've come to realise is that resolution isn't everything. Quite often the big exy LCDs you see in shops are fed a fancy HD feed from a special player. This doesn't give you a real indication of how it will perform in the real world.

It's generally a lot easier to scale an image down and make it look reasonable rather than scale it up. When you scale an image up, you have to invent information that was never there and its quite hard to do in realtime (on a moving image). This (IMO) is where HD LCDs doesn't perform so well( they are generally higher resolution). Of course you can use external scalers, and some internal scalers perform better than others. But lets face it, the average joe doesn't want to be worried about this.

So for a generally nice picture I'd be happier to go for a model with a lower res than the HD standard rather than higher (unless you have $$ to spend). You will be happy with the result.

I ended up with Panasonic plasmas and couldn't be happier. They are well regarded, and have a long history in the business and are good in terms of price/performance.

The current HD models are well regarded and there generally is quite good competition on them.

dtvforum (mentioned earlier in the thread) is the place to go. If you visit you'll find a thread dedicated to pricing just on panasonic plasmas.

Other things to consider:

Inputs: of the two entry level (HD) panasonics the only thing that really varies is the number of inputs. Make sure you get one that will suit your now (and future) needs.

After market warranties: Its generally considered wise to purchase an extended warranty with such an expensive CE item. You don't want to be one of those people on today tonight cos you $x000 plasma went bang and cant be repaired. The warranties vary quite substantially in cost between retailers but their is a big markup so wear you bargaining pants :D

Wall brackets: Vendor wall brackets, and even after market ones that are in the retailers are very expensive. If you're going to wallmount, go the ebay route and you should get change out of $50. (NB some vendors say that you'll void warranty if you use an aftermarket bracket but i dont think its enforceable).

Beware the monster-cable: When you've bought your shiny new plasma something strange happens. Just like when you buy a new car and they try to sell you all manner of overpriced accessories, you'll be offered the most exhorbitantly priced cabling to match. While there is some merit in not scrimping in this department. There certainly is no justification for forking out mega $$ for cabling. Again ebay is your friend.

There is an online retailer called "the electrical discounter" and this is a good place to use as a yard stick to pricing. At the very least go to the bricks and mortar stores armed with a printout of their website.

Hope this helps rather than confuses

Bruce
 
Hi Simon

We bought a 42" Samsung plasma about a year ago, having read a million plasma versus LCD reports until we were even more confused. In the end the way we selected was simple we went into all the big stores and looked for the stand out pic in the room and in all 3 it turned out to be the same tv so that was the one we went with and its brilliant! It has the built in HD tuner and the picture is fantastic. The only regret is that we couldn't afford the 50" at the time but I am sure the price will have come down by now.

Over the years we have tended to go for Samsung, Sanyo and Sony products in stereos, tvs, videos, dvd players etc etc. None of the gadgets have ever let us down or packed it in but have always been put out to grass when we have upgraded, some of the brands may not be recommended by the 'experts' but they have served us very well!

Sparky
 
Thank you everyone. I wish I could give you all kudos but the forum just has a daily limit.

I bargained over the phone and bought myself the

Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX70A 42 inch

For $2000 including the extended warranty. In home visits for all repairs which suits me.

The eBay dude was helpful but only a fraction cheaper and of course a week turnaround. Plus I wasn't real happy with couriering one down from Brisbane when I could get one for $10 more just 2km down the street.

So now I have a big box waiting for me to unpack - is like Christmas.

I must thank my dog for thie early Christmas Pressy :)
 
Simon said:
Thank you everyone. I wish I could give you all kudos but the forum just has a daily limit.

I bargained over the phone and bought myself the

Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX70A 42 inch

For $2000 including the extended warranty. In home visits for all repairs which suits me.

The eBay dude was helpful but only a fraction cheaper and of course a week turnaround. Plus I wasn't real happy with couriering one down from Brisbane when I could get one for $10 more just 2km down the street.

So now I have a big box waiting for me to unpack - is like Christmas.

I must thank my dog for thie early Christmas Pressy :)
Click to expand...

Gotta love a forum where there's such a wide variety of people from all walks of life. I've always found the somersoft folks to be very level headed in their decision making and someone ALWAYS knows something. I doubt i'd get as good a response starting a property thread on dtvforum!

Congratulations on your purchase, Im sure you'll enjoy it.

Now for the 7.1 surround amp, pvr, mediaplayer, blueray... lol
 
BruceW said:
Congratulations on your purchase, Im sure you'll enjoy it.

Now for the 7.1 surround amp, pvr, mediaplayer, blueray... lol
Click to expand...

enjoying it right this minute :D

I see you are from Gooseberry Hills! I grew up in Lesmurdie and went to Kalamunda SHS!

Cheers,
 
sparky23 said:
having read a million plasma versus LCD reports until we were even more confused. In the end the way we selected was simple we went into all the big stores and looked for the stand out pic in the room and in all 3 it turned out to be the same tv so that was the one we went with and its brilliant!
Click to expand...
I have heard though, that if a store wants to offload a large number of the one brand, they will tweak the pictures so that the brand they want to offload looks way better than the others ;)
 
Simon said:
enjoying it right this minute :D
Cheers,
Click to expand...

Simon,

Good choice, congratulations.
Is the reception good on all stations?
With High Def. there is a lot of data crunching so sometimes people have to turn their antenna a little to boost the signal of weaker stations.
Cheers
 
We don't have a 24/7 HD signal yet in Newcastle. But all the SD stations are great.

Every now and then one drops off for 5 seconds. But it also did with our old set top box. Is this normal?

The manual also says I must chain the screen to the wall to prevent it falling over and hurting me. I cannot recall the shop ones secured like this nor seen anyone's elses big telly chained to a handy wall.

Do people really do this or is it just an out for the manufacturers if someone does get hurt?

Thank you everyone for your help,
 
Simon said:
Every now and then one drops off for 5 seconds. But it also did with our old set top box. Is this normal?
Click to expand...
Simon,

No it's not normal.
It's not NBN is it?

Check with your neighbours, in case they are experiencing the same problem.
it could be something unique with your location.

See if it happens on all stations or just on a couple, note how often it happens and the duration. When it drops off what message do you get on the screen?

Cheers
 
Didn't read all the posts so I'm assuming you've bought by now Simon though in answering your question.

"So does anyone own the:
Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX70A 42 inch (106cm) Digital HD Plasma TV"

I do and you cannot beat the Panasonic Viera Plasma range cost/benefit wise and they are very highly ranked in reviews.

The only advantage of LCD over Plasma is greater ease of viewing in bright conditions. If you are going above 37", Plasma all the way.
 
Simon said:
enjoying it right this minute :D

I see you are from Gooseberry Hills! I grew up in Lesmurdie and went to Kalamunda SHS!

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Small world!

What sort of vintage are you? Im a recent blowin to these parts but my wife and just about everyone else up here seems to have been here forever.
 
ggumpshots said:
I recall 2009 as the production date but maybe this has changed for LASER TV.
If you want quality then this unproven product may be the way to go.

Just adding some confusion to the equation .

A phone call could throw some light on to this if you are reallly serious about getting th ebest

http://www.arasor.net/consumer/consumer.asp
Click to expand...

Not serious about getting the best - just getting the best on a limited budget. Sure I could afford to buy the top of the line but that goes against everything I espouse.
 
The promo blurb seems to indicate a cheaper price..........see below

Laser based displays offer significant benefits over traditional light bulb driven displays, the most striking of which is an increased visible color gamut which creates images with richer reds, blues and greens than existing television or lamp projector displays can offer.

Laser display TVs offer significant advantages over Plasma and LCD TVs including:
Expanded color range: 200% of NTSC/HDTV
Brighter & more vibrant color (Instant on/off, No burn-in)
Easy to scale up in screen size
Half the manufacture price of same size plasma
Significantly longer life and decreased need for power
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dex
Tenant wants 3 year old TV replaced.. any TV experts here?
Replies
15
Views
2K
willister
W
K
Is this reno viable? First time!
Replies
8
Views
5K
Ace in the Hole
Ace in the Hole
The Y-man
The Micheal_X story
Replies
1
Views
6K
The Y-man
The Y-man
Michael_X
My Story 10+ Properties by 30 yo
8 9 10
Replies
188
Views
51K
Michael_X
Michael_X
K
20 US properties in 4 1/2 years
2 3
Replies
57
Views
14K
MTR
MTR
Back
Top