Flat Panel TV's LCD or Plasma?

[rollinhonda]

Based on a 40hr of viewing a week, either technology should still be putting out 1/2 the brightness about 25-30 years from now.
Of course, other things like caps in power supplies, etc. will likely fail before then.
Considering today's HDTV owners are replacing their displays an average of every 6.5 years, I don't think there is much to worry about.

[MoosePond]

Originally Posted by IanRTL

I assume you're talking about Pioneer quitting the business. Pioneer's TV division was always a small-scale project. Pioneer, of course, makes many things related to home theater products. Some of their best engineers were used for the production of their plasma TV's. They were basically the pioneer (no pun intended) of the technology. They were the best. If you were lucky enough to purchase an Elite plasma five years ago, you still own one of the best plasmas that exist. The technology and quality was just that good.

Unfortunately for videophiles everywhere Pioneer had some new technology that they called Advanced Concepts Kuro in the works that they showed to the trade just a few months before they decided to get out of the display business. Saw a demonstration of it at CES that year and it was absolutely the best flat panel display that I've ever seen in terms of black level performance. Absolutely totally pitch black and side-by-side with a current generation Kuro display (hailed by all as the very best at the time) it made the older technology appear charcoal grey by comparison. I believe that some Kuro technology did get transferred over to Panasonic (who manufactured the final few months of Pioneer plasma production) but not certain if that included the Advanced Concepts technology. Sadly, both are now nothing but memories of the past.

[IanRTL]

Originally Posted by Tribble

I applaude you You have an impressive knowledge of technology!

I apologize if it seemed as if I was trying to undermine you. Your statement of the longevity of each technology would have been accurate about 10-12 years ago, but each have advanced so much since then. Many still believe that plasmas don't last very long just like many still believe their oil needs to be changed every 3000 miles - they're just things that were standard at some point in the past that are just simply outdated.

Originally Posted by MoosePond

Ian is precisely correct. I have calibrated a number of plasma displays that were more than 5 years old and every one of them was still able to produce images that were completely in line with industry standards and all of them were still making absolutely beautiful pictures. I suspect that at some point LG and Samsung will also exit the plasma business but until then I will continue to recommend plasma to family and friends who want the very best HD performance, particularly if they're sports fans.

I was at BB this weekend browsing for a few things. I saw the 60" Samsung plasma that I thought I wanted for the first time. It's currently $999 and one heck of a deal for such a large screen. Sadly enough, it was not good at all. I was 8' away and I could still see the pixels. Of course, the TV was on it "Retail" settings with ridiculous color and brightness. I grabbed the remote for a quick "tuning" session. I put the picture settings to ones very similar to that of my current 50" Samsung plasma. It was sitting next to a 55" LG LED-LCD and it just simply didn't have the black performance or the crispness of the LG. The colors just seemed off. It was truly disappointing. Now, I know it's very hard to compare TV's in a store setting, but this was blatant. Even my wife, who is anything but an A/V geek, said the LG had a much better picture. Once we were to get the Samsung in a room by itself, I'm sure I could make it look better, but it's always hard to sell a plasma when they're sitting next to LED's. 90% of people out there think "bright colors" means "better picture." They don't realize that those bright colors are wayyyyy beyond what normal is.

[rollinhonda]

In general you have to pay a lot more for great black level.
It is extremely hard to get a good picture in that environment IMO.

Keep in mind, LEDs also have a brighter picture and for that reason will appear to have more contrast or better black levels. The really tough scenes in some movies are what really expose good or poor black level. Not just the obvious differences in contrast.

My contrast ratio went over 2X after a professional calibration from the settings I had used with a calibration disk.
Granted, my almost 5 year old plasma is not equal to what is available today.

My point is, play with the controls all you want, and you will still be 'guessing' although newer sets are much closer to the standard than they were a few years ago.

[zroger73]

Saw this in news this morning. Too bad it doesn't output via AirPlay since I have an Apple TV, but not an iPhone to HDMI cable.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-th...-of-your-hand/

[MoosePond]

Originally Posted by zroger73

Saw this in news this morning. Too bad it doesn't output via AirPlay since I have an Apple TV, but not an iPhone to HDMI cable.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-th...-of-your-hand/

Looks okay and probably a whole lot better than either leaving your HDTV in some factory-setting mode or trying to adjust it without any tools. However, from what I can see it's not nearly as comprehensive as the

Disney WOW

Disney WOW

disc and at $49 for the Lightning Digital AV Adapter or $39 for the 30-pin Digital AV Adapter it's gonna cost more to do less. Nice try THX, but IMHO no cigar for this one. Bring out a version with AirPlay that's a bit more comprehensive and you might have something that you could sell on the App Store for quite a bit more than a couple of bucks.

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally Posted by zroger73

Saw this in news this morning. Too bad it doesn't output via AirPlay since I have an Apple TV, but not an iPhone to HDMI cable.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-th...-of-your-hand/

Thank you, sir. I purchased a plasma set for Christmas and although the Panasonic has some sort of built-in THX calibration routine that's supposed to be pretty good, I now wonder what this app does that might be better.

A friend of mine also recommended that Disney disc that MoosePond mentioned. I'm not really an A/Vphile, so much of this stuff is sort of Greek to me. I know a little Latin... but no Greek.

[MoosePond]

IMHO the beauty of the Disney WOW disc is that you don't have to be an A/Vphile or even know much about what it takes to make great pictures or sound. You just have to be willing to invest a little time and pay close attention to the instructions and I can pretty much guarantee that you'll wind up with both picture and sound that are considerably better than factory settings. Not as good as what you'd get from a professional calibrator, but almost certainly a better value on the price/performance curve. For someone who really pays attention and follows the Disney disc all the way through it's possible to get to within 10% of so of where a professional calibration will take you and for most folks that's plenty good enough and most likely the best video they've ever seen, much less lived with on a daily basis. That last little bit that you'll get from a professional calibration is really important for videophiles but, like the difference between 720p and 1080p, not all that noticeable to the average viewer, particularly those coming from non-HD displays.

[pudgiesinwaverly]

I will only buy Plasma.

[MoosePond]

Originally Posted by pudgiesinwaverly

I will only buy Plasma.

Better stock up 'cause there's only 3 panel manufacturers left (Panasonic, LG and Samsung) and Panasonic may drop the technology in the next year or so. There are some other plasma brands (Runco, Insignia, etc.) but they're made by one of the three. As OLED and LED/LCD technologies improve and those costs and retail prices continue to come down it will eventually lead to the death of plasma, just as flat panel technologies killed CRT and rear projection.