Buying a television: LCD vs. Plasma vs. LED

[Ryan D]

The girlfriend and I are moving into an apartment next week and between the 25" Hannspree LCD (seen here) and the old 27" CRT I have we are in the market for something larger. With that said... I haven't purchased a television in ages. The plan is to purchase something in the 40"-50" range for the living room and use the 25" LCD in the bedroom until we can afford purchasing a second television in that size range.

So... I don't have much experience with plasma or LED so what are everyone's thoughts? The picture isn't bad but I have no idea what the refresh rate is. I saw this 40" Sceptre on Slick Deals.

Thanks for any input!

[sonicGLI]

I own quite a few LCD's at home and the office and two Plasma's (40" and 55")

Basically:

LCD:
-low power consumption
-low heat
-all over the map on quality of display (viewing angles, color richness, black point/contrast, ghosting, mhz, etc.)
-far more expensive for quality units than plasma

Plasma:
-big power consumption
-lots of heat
-Panasonic has amazing Plasma displays at 40+ inches for incredible prices. Only my way-over-priced Sony LED LCD comes close in picture quality. Plasma's simply have a color richness and contrast that few LED's have yet to reach, unless you go expensive.

LCD's make a lot of sense on paper because of power consumption and heat, but they start to make a lot less sense once you see a decent plasma in comparison at half the price.

IMHO, anyway.

[JettaGT8V80]

do you watch alot of action/sports if so you want plasma

anything else id go led

i got a great lesson from one of the sales guys at pauls tv we bought a plasma 51" samsung and its beautiful and i havent looked back

[Ryan D]

I do watch a lot of sports.

What you guys have posted is pretty much what I thought the response was going to be. It's such a tough decision!

[JimmyD]

I don't really follow the techie specs on TVs like some of you guys... keeping that in mind, I'm curious:

When flat panel TVs first came out, "pundits" would state that CRT TVs still had superior color depth (especially with darker colors and black). Is that still the case, or has technology advanced the color depth of plasmas (and maybe LCDs too) beyond that of the old CRTs?

[sonicGLI]

With Plasmas, I would say that a decent model would be perceptively as good as the absolute best CRT's, and perception is everything. That's not to say that there still might be a technical difference, I just don't know without googling it. LCD's? I'd have a hard time beating that, although I am very impressed with the LED set I have.

[silver_slayer]

another thing to consider is the room you are in. All Plasmas have glass screens, so glare is pretty bad with them....however, if you dont have windows behind you, it is the only way i would go these days. if you are worried about it, i would still consider plasma, but LCD would probably be the smart decision. i have 2 large windows right behind where i sit, glare is pretty bad, but i got used to it after a week or so.

FWIW, i bought a 51" samsung plasma, 720P (720P should be plenty for the size you are looking at and from over 8 feet away) 3D tv with 2 pairs of 3D glasses for $600. you cannot beat the price, picture quality, and overall look of the TV (thin bezel and thin profile)

after some minor tweaks to the picture settings, i have yet to come across another TV that looks as good as this one does, and that is looking at my friends samsung LED, sony LCD, panasonic plasma, and all the cheaper LCD's.

[HI SPEED]

I bought a plasma in the early 2000s back when people would walk into your house and drop their jaws at how thin it was. It was like 7 inches thick, which is laughably thick by todays standards, but was amazing at the time. Anyway fast forward to last year. The thing was still functioning flawlessly, but we were reorganizing the house and decided to go without a TV for a while. So I sold it to a kid on CL for $350. Big mistake.

I bought a midrange Sony LED LCD, and it cannot compare picture wise to my old TV. I can just imagine the picture if my old TV if it had HDMI inputs.

TL DR

Plasmas are pretty reliable, despite what people say. Former plasma owner has buyers remorse for buying led lcd

[TwoLitreVW]

I own quite a few LCD's at home and the office and two Plasma's (40" and 55")

Basically:

LCD:
-low power consumption
-low heat
-all over the map on quality of display (viewing angles, color richness, black point/contrast, ghosting, mhz, etc.)
-far more expensive for quality units than plasma

Plasma:
-big power consumption
-lots of heat
-Panasonic has amazing Plasma displays at 40+ inches for incredible prices. Only my way-over-priced Sony LED LCD comes close in picture quality. Plasma's simply have a color richness and contrast that few LED's have yet to reach, unless you go expensive.

LCD's make a lot of sense on paper because of power consumption and heat, but they start to make a lot less sense once you see a decent plasma in comparison at half the price.

IMHO, anyway.

pretty much nailed it.

i picked up a 50" Panasonic plasma for $900 3 years ago during a Best Buy sale, and it's still by far one of the best TVs i've come across.

in fact, BB has been clearing out some of the 60" models of the same TV for around $800 now, and i think i'm gonna jump on one to put in the living room of our new house. i'll put the 50" in the bedroom now.

[sonicGLI]

For what it's worth, when I purchased my Panasonic 55" two years ago, a buddy of mine purchased his at the same time, but got a 50" Samsung instead. To this day, he regrets it, his picture quality doesn't come anywhere near the Panny, but he felt (in his words) "gay" buying the same Plasma as me and that's why he settled on it.

I've had other friends with 40" on up Samsungs and have yet to see one that is anywhere near as good as the 50"+ Pannys. But, most of them are a couple years old so Samsung may be doing a bit better now, I dunno.

The Panasonic VIERA series has a cult following for a reason: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIER.../dp/B004MME77E

[DantheVWman]

how baller do you want to be?

I have bought Sony TV's since I could afford them and they havent dissapointed. my most recent is an Full Array Local Dimming LED backlit LCD. Best TV I have ever owned. All my friends with LG, Samsung, Vizio....dont even compare. Great TV but you pay for it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...yet-this-year/

[Hostile]

I love our Sammy LED LCD, it's a 46" 6400 series.

[Jesse]

Panasonic Plasmas will give you the best picture for the money, bar none. As mentioned above, you need to spend a lot on an LCD to match the picture quality in a light controlled environment, and even then, they will not be as smooth as the refresh rate is limited. Not all LCDs have anti-glare coatings, and many have a shiny glaring screen.. although the LCD panel itself will retain contrast better in direct sunlight, glass coating aside.

IMO, unless you want a very thin display, are worried about weight/power consumption, or are going to watch the set in direct sunlight.. go with a plasma.

[Ryan D]

how baller do you want to be?

How baller do I want to be? Very. How baller can I be? Not very.

[6cylVWguy]

I had this similar debate last year about this time and went with a plasma TV. I generally liked the fact that they were less expensive than an LCD or LCD-LED TV and in many instances were noted for simply a better picture. So to me, it was kind of a no-brainer. So I did a lot of research of CNET, av forums, crutchfield, and some other AV based online sources and picked what I thought was the best TV for me, which ended up also having 3D. The LG I got was highly rated, though not quite as good as the panasonic plasma TVs. But then again, I also saved about $700 vs the panasonic, so I don't regret it one bit. However, it seems like the current LG plasmas aren't rated as well as those from the previous model year.

[Impeccable]

I don't really follow the techie specs on TVs like some of you guys... keeping that in mind, I'm curious:

When flat panel TVs first came out, "pundits" would state that CRT TVs still had superior color depth (especially with darker colors and black). Is that still the case, or has technology advanced the color depth of plasmas (and maybe LCDs too) beyond that of the old CRTs?

Call me old school but im staying with HD CRT's they look better than most 1080p LCDs even though they run 1080i which all "pundits" say sucks.

[Jesse]

No HD CRT was capable of displaying true HD.

A handful of sets near the end of life could display 1440x1080i, but a majority were stuck with 853x1080i.

[sonicGLI]

No HD CRT was capable of displaying true HD.

A handful of sets near the end of life could display 1440x1080i, but a majority were stuck with 853x1080i.

Not to mention, lifting a 55" CRT over my fireplace just wasn't ever gonna happen

[Jesse]

Not to mention, lifting a 55" CRT over my fireplace just wasn't ever gonna happen

Weaksauce.. everyone should be able to deadlift and press a 4x4 box with razor sharp edges that weighs 230lbs above their head.

[sonicGLI]

[Impeccable]

No HD CRT was capable of displaying true HD.

A handful of sets near the end of life could display 1440x1080i, but a majority were stuck with 853x1080i.

While most people say it isnt true hd, looking at even a lower end sony hd crt it looks better than most "true" hd 1080p lcd tvs.

Resolution isnt 100% of what makes up a good picture, just likein a digital camera megapixels doesnt = the best picture

[Clean PG]

i had a similar debate last fall and it really comes down to what you'll be using the tv for and what you want the tv to be capable of. i do a fair amount of gaming so immediately i opted for the plasma due to it's higher refresh rate. aside from that i also needed/wanted usb ports and enough hdmi ports.

once i figured that out i was able to narrow it down to 2 mid or slightly high-level plasmas which was a panasonic or a samsung. i went with a 51" 1080p samsung because it had identical specs as the panasonic but a few additional ports. i have no complaints with my samsung, granted it's only been 5 months, but i think anyone in the market should figure out what they're going to be using the tv for and it will make the decision much easier.