Plasma Vs. LED

[Brother_Bliss]

I moved into a house last year, and my TV is just dinky looking in my new and larger space. This year I am in a position to upgrade to something a little larger and a little nicer.

I have been reading reviews of the different TV technologies in the market today, with LED being the newest hottest thing. My dad even has on and it is indeed superb. I went to the store to discuss TV's the other day and was told that basically the LED is just riding on a wave of hype right now, and that Plasma is the way to go.

I return home, start reading, and it seems that this may be true. I am having a hard time deprogramming myself from all the love for LED I had heard up to this point. But if it is true, then wonderful, because Plasma TV's are available at a significant savings over the new LED's.

Your thoughts?

[Áine]

We have a LCD is that the same as a LED ??

[Brother_Bliss]

An LED is really just an LCD just evolved some. Instead of a single flourescent backlight, it has LEDs all around the perimeter, and being able to turn lights on and off, you get better contrast ratios and deeper blacks.

[rocket]

We have a 42" LCD and are happy with it. They say the bigger you go, plasma is the way to go. Check out the side view as with some models, you have to be right in front or the picture distorts or dims. With the LCD/LED one can adjust the contrast to save considerably on electric bill. They are like a 500 wtt light bulb at normal brightness. Check out the projected life span of the plasma vrs LED.

[rahabnruth]

i have led lcd tv its picture is wonderful and i am very happy with it i dont know anything about plasma and mine is only a 22 inch

[retroHelen]

Some Tv systems use up a lot of electricity in just heat, so if your power bills are getting higher it's something to consider.

My matsui LCD TV/DVB has just stoppped working - get great sound, but dark virtually non-existant picture. For a while it was taking 10 minutes to give me a picture after I turned it on, but it's not coming up now.Some say it's because so many joints in modern flat-screen TV's are thinly soldered and constant turning the TV on and off heats them up and dries them out and they crack apart easier these days.Can't get into it at the back to do any re-soldering because of funny screws that I haven't the tool for, so I think it may not be repairable, only had it 3 years.

[Musky]

Some Tv systems use up a lot of electricity in just heat, so if your power bills are getting higher it's something to consider.

My matsui LCD TV/DVB has just stoppped working - get great sound, but dark virtually non-existant picture. For a while it was taking 10 minutes to give me a picture after I turned it on, but it's not coming up now.Some say it's because so many joints in modern flat-screen TV's are thinly soldered and constant turning the TV on and off heats them up and dries them out and they crack apart easier these days.Can't get into it at the back to do any re-soldering because of funny screws that I haven't the tool for, so I think it may not be repairable, only had it 3 years.

Sounds like the inverter board. I've replaced them on LCD computer monitors and the principle is the same with the LCD TV's. The symptoms sound the same.

http://www.lcdparts.net/LCDTVInverter.aspx

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=604675

[retroHelen]

Thanks Chuck I'll pass the information on. I gave the TV to a brother in our congregation to look at who likes tinkering with PC's and other gear. Another brother has sold his Samsung 40" LCD to us cheap as he has got a larger screen for his bigger room. If I get the small Matsui fixed it will go in the kitchen.

It's a real pain in this country when the yearly TV license costs more than a new TV. It's £145.50 each and every year and I paid £119 for the TV!We get 11 channels on Freeview in this area as we were the first town in the country to get digital in 2007 and they would not build new transmitters for us. Other areas get many more channels.Freesat is not much better unless you can understand German TV or Asian channels.

Sky starts at £37 per month , after you've paid for the equipment and installation, this gives you most of the freeview, loads of European language TV and 40 Sky channels, then if you want their movie or sports channels it goes up even more, so is way out of most people's league in these economic times.Sky can provide broadband in some areas, but not ours. Cable TV is none-existant in our area only in some cities.

[colint3]

Plasma tv's use more electricity and need to be de-guassed after about 5 years.

[Micah]

Plasma is bad! Why? You have to recharge the plasma, depending on how much tv you watch. It can be costly. I have heard up to $750!!!

[Brother_Bliss]

I ended up getting a plasma after all, a 51"

It was Samsung's 2nd highest model. It was discounted considerably and came with a free 3D blue ray player and 2 glasses. The picture is amazing and I am totally satisfied with my purchase.

After doing considerable research, the things that I had heard were true: 1. Plasma is the still reigning king of picture quality, motion blur, color and contrast ratios, despite advancements in LCD/LED technology. 2. Known former plasma issues with burn out, etc, have been corrected and improved over the last 10 years to where they are not issues anymore IF you buy a quality plasma television.

I was warned that plasma's will appear dim in a room with natural lighting (since the image is not lit with a gigantic flourescent bulb behind the screen). This is true, but nobody else in the family seemed to notice. There are picture settings that can be adjusted to almost totally overcome this, but we don't use them unless playing video games.