I curently have a 2 year old 50" 720p LG plasma tv. I'm debating upgrading to a same size 1080p led. Popular "tech site" opinion is that plasmas are better in a lot of ways, but I'm not sure if that applies with mine being a couple of years old. I'm looking for real world opinions.
Will i notice the jump to 1080p? Are black levels really that much worse? What about general picture quality?
FWIW the couch is about 8 feet from the tv and use it for a fair amount of gaming.
You should see the difference between 720p and 1080p at that screen size. Black levels are better on the plasma but supposedly getting closer. Also, don't forget an lcd/led TV will save you a bunch of money on electricity.
Added a 2ND tv to the house. Older one 720 32in new one is 1080 40in both are Sony. There is a very noticeable difference between the two.
Edit. Both are LED
I'm a plasma fan, and will be hanging on to my 42" Panny until it dies. And no, I wouldn't replace a 2-year-old TV unless something was wrong with it.
A 50" plasma will generate a E36 M3load of heat, too. To be fair, I have a 42" Hitachi plasma and a 40" Toshiba LCD, and I prefer gaming on the Hitachi. Both 1080, though I think they're only 60hz- they're pretty old in TV world.
Plasma forever.
I'm not a fan of plasma myself, but I see no reason to replace it while it works.
I learned a ton about TVs here:
http://www.rtings.com/
Appreciate the opinions. I think I might just wait until the curved 4K OLED's come down to a rational price. At the rate things have been going that should only take a year or two. Taking a few minutes to calibrate the picture a littler better would probably help too.
The plasma does generate a lot of heat, but it's actually nice come winter. The biggest thing I've been worried about with the plasma is burn in/image retention. I played a couple longish sessions of Minecraft and there was some pretty gnarly image retention for a week or so. At the same time unless I go nuts leaving static images up it is just image retention and will go away in due time.
Woody wrote: I learned a ton about TVs here: http://www.rtings.com/
Bookmarked. That looks like a handy little site.
me too … I still using a "free" 28" picture tube Magnavox …. the biggest thing holding me back from replacing is … sonofagun this thing is heavy 
plasmas do suffer from burn-in pretty badly. When I worked at Harrah's AC, we had a bunch we used for parties, meetings, and conventions. I think they were all LG. We got a kick out of how they all had a screen saver that flicked a small logo all over the screen.. to the same place every time.. so it's image was burned in all over the screen
~3 year old 60" LG plasma here (1080p). The picture on this tv is berkeleying amazing. I literally say that every time we sit down and get to watching a movie in HD or blu-ray.
I do notice "burn in", but it always goes away after a couple minutes of the tv being switched to another channel or whatever. Never seen anything permanent on our TV. And this also goes for me vegging out and playing a video game for several hours too.
Consider the room you have the TV in, are you getting a lot of glare off the screen of your plasma? Ours is in a dark room of the house so we dont have that issue. We have a smaller 720p LED tv in another room that gets a lot of sunlight the picture is much brighter and of course the screen doesnt reflect the light in the room either.
Tom_Spangler wrote: I'm a plasma fan, and will be hanging on to my 42" Panny until it dies. And no, I wouldn't replace a 2-year-old TV unless something was wrong with it.
I came in here to say this. I also have a 42" Panasonic Plasma, and I love the thing.
We have a 50" plasma that is now about 4 years old. I do notice burn in after Chuck has had a long gaming session, but the tv has a scrolling screen saver thing with white and black bars that I can run for a few minutes and that takes care of it. Plasma all the way for the "entertainment" system, but I have been thinking about an LCD for the kitchen.
It's like VHS/Betamax all over again. Inferior tech wins!
Just got a cheap Vizio 50" LCD for the living room, which has lots of windows. The 43" plasma in the bedroom will stick around until it dies. No complaints about the Vizio, though. It's a big step up from the 32" CRT that it replaced.
the nice thing about LCD...take a good look at the back. Most of them use less than 50watts of power
I'd say it might be a worthwhile debate if you were getting a new HDTV as to which technology you should get. Since you already have a good HDTV, I'd just stick with what you've got.
And the reason that LCD is more popular than plasma, is that it's brighter, not better picture quality. When you're in a retail store with a bunch of demos, the LCDs drown out the plasmas.
Well, my Samsung plasma is at least 5 years old now, its a 1080/600hz though. The picture is amazing and I never see pixels(I can notice them on 240hz refresh LCD/led) Whenever it dies, it will get replaced by another plasma.
Nice thing is plasmas are dirt cheap.
yamaha wrote: Well, my Samsung plasma is at least 5 years old now, its a 1080/600hz though. The picture is amazing and I never see pixels(I can notice them on 240hz refresh LCD/led) Whenever it dies, it will get replaced by another plasma.
Not unless you buy a used plasma set. The technology is dead.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/07/plasma-tv-is-dead-so-go-buy-one/index.htm
1988RedT2 wrote:yamaha wrote: Well, my Samsung plasma is at least 5 years old now, its a 1080/600hz though. The picture is amazing and I never see pixels(I can notice them on 240hz refresh LCD/led) Whenever it dies, it will get replaced by another plasma.Not unless you buy a used plasma set. The technology is dead. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/07/plasma-tv-is-dead-so-go-buy-one/index.htm
And it's a damn shame. IMO, plasmas will always have better picture quality than LCD, and they don't need any motion-smoothing BS, either.
Plasma is dead, yes it's blacks are superior, but put a modern back-lit local dimming LED LCD next to it, and you'll be hard pressed to tell a difference, plus you can watch the LCD with the blinds open on a sunny and there's no concern of burn-in.
Damn, I missed out on a 65" continuation of mine for $500 last year new.....
Hopefully by the time mine dies, high refresh rate will be standard. Because that has been my biggest beef with the others.
Swank Force One wrote: Plasma forever.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO SFO GO SFO GO SFO!!!
Plasma forever! Get your slogan shirt now!
Seriously, get a plasma again. Worth it every time I watch a movie on it versus our LCD tv.
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