Plasma or LCD?

[gtscode]

Plasma - on its way out - uses a LOT more power than LED, and more than LCD.

LCD - good value as prices are low and will continue to fall. Been arouind a bit so there's life time data on them.

LED - new kid on the blockm, uses a LOT less power (I think a 42" set uses 40 watts)

I've read that deals will continue to be popping up. I'm waiting as my sets are all functioning and can wait. If I was to purchase, I would check out what's available from Vizio, while it's assembled in Taiwan, the profit stays here in the US as it's a US based company.....

Great summary and dead on. LCD has great picture and value. When it comes to home theatre I am value oriented. I have a 60" LCD that was a heck of a deal and would take hands down any time of LED.

 

[B67FSTB]

If I were to buy right now I would get a LED LCD. Great picture and you could find some good prices.
Plasmas run hotter and are heavier and also are less energy efficient.
LCD is lighter, cooler.
LED is the most energy efficient. The thing about plasma is they have the darkest black and you have better viewing angles. The current crop of led/lcd really levels the playing field.

+1 here

 

[Flysure1]

Hey Vinny, I bought a 50"panasonic plasma a few months back after much research--a lot was the price---bigger tv's tend to favor plasma right now for price, if I was going 42 I would probably lean toward led-lcd. I dought if cost to operate is a factor for you, ---here are some plugs on tv's off of net---
Overall Picture Performance ADVANTAGE: Plasma
Both technologies are extremely close in this respect in that both plasma and LCDs are capable of excellent picture quality - with bright, crisp clear images, high contrast levels, and excellent color reproduction. Yet our thumbs up in this plasma vs LCD TV analysis goes to plasma televisions. Plasma TVs still have an edge over their LCD counterparts when it comes to displaying deep blacks - thus enjoying better contrast and detail in images when dark and light content is shown simultaneously.

Some may argue that the latest LED TVs with full array local dimming can exhibit similar deep blacks as the best plasmas. This is true but it is also true that LED TVs suffer from a far restricted viewing angle beyond which black levels - and hence perceived image contrast and color saturation - fall sharply.
Picture first #, Features second #,Value Third ,Overall fourth (based on 100)
Samsung PN50C8000 Plasma 95 96 92 94.5
Samsung PN50C6500 Review 91 91 95 92
Samsung LN55C650 LCD TV 92 87 97 92/100
LG 55LE5500 LED TV 89.5 94 89 91/100
Panasonic TC-P54G25 Plasma 91 87.5 94 90.87
Panasonic TC-P50VT25 Plasma 91.5 89.5 90 90.6
Sony KDL-52EX700 LED TV 91 92 88 90.5/100
Panasonic TC-P50S2 Plasma 92 87 89 90
Samsung LN32C350 LCD TV 89 86 95 89.75/100
LG 60PK550 Plasma 86 91 95 89.5
Vizio VF552XVT LED TV 82 92 89 86.25/100
LG 50PJ350 Plasma 79 92 94 86

Despite their similarities, the two technologies are very different in the way they deliver the image to the viewer.

Plasma technology consists of hundreds of thousands of individual pixel cells, which allow electric pulses (stemming from electrodes) to excite rare natural gases-usually xenon and neon-causing them to glow and produce light. This light illuminates the proper balance of red, green, or blue phosphors contained in each cell to display the proper color sequence


In addition, when it comes to picture quality, one cannot take the level of black on its own; equally important is the overall black level performance with different content incorporating a mix of both dark and bright areas shown simultaneously.

Another issue is screen brightness uniformity, or rather the lack

Plasma gives you a bigger screen for your dollar, deeper blacks, better pixel response times, and better 3D performance.