sideview1

Hello all, I've been batting back and forth the idea of a plasma tv or projector, I'm leaning towards plasma because of hte cost of replacement bulbs for projectors. From previous questions, I have noted that in a plasma, I want to look for a high contrast ratio. Well Costco.com has a 42" NEC that has 3000:1 ration for I believe $4200. Is this a rebadge of something else? what is NEC quality?

Thanks for the help


Ben

By the way, I'm absolutely loving my onkyo set up that I got from 6th ave.com for $398(previous thread) thanks for all the help with that purchase.

By the way, I'm thinking about putting my plasma over top of a gas direct-vent fireplace, will this be a problem? the heat is pushed into the room, and exhaust directly out the back, so I wouldn't think it would have the same problems as a real fireplace...Thanks

gotapex

Strange, I wonder where they get the specs. It's not even on NEC's site. NEC does make their own panels.

http://www.necvisualsystems.com/appl...Product_id=410

Honestly, for me, $4200 is a lot to pay for a 42" plasma. 50" ones are quite a bit bigger (area wise), have higher resolutions (up to 1366x768), and use square pixels.

Heck, Circuit City was selling the Panasonic TH-50PX20 for $4500 just a couple weeks ago (after the TH-42PX20 sale). The 50PX20 is an awesome set.

sideview1

Interesting. I was eyeing the Panasonic, I didn't know it dropped to 4500, maybe that's a sign it'll drop and stay at some point soon.

Does anyone forsee a problem hanging the 50 in above a direct vent fireplace?

JimRochester

I think that looks better in pictures than in actual use. Above the fireplace is pretty high and you end up looking up.

sideview1

My room is fairly long and narrow, so the looking up wouldn't be a very big deal. I'll try to get some measurements and post it when I get a chance. I want to say it's like 12 x 24 or something, but I could be way off. It has a big bay window to the left looking towards the fireplace, and the opening to the dining room on the right.

gotapex

I have my screen above the fireplace mantle, and it's not bad at all. It depends on how high your mantle is, and, of course, how far back you are.

BTW, if you're more than about 8' back, you may want to seriously consider a 50" instead of 42".

RandyC

Where would the bottom of the screen end up?

Our mantle was too high, something like 51" off the floor. We wanted to put the plasma there, but decided it was not a good idea. To test it, we put an actual size poster where it would be (thanks Gateway!) and pretended to watch it. It felt awkward. Perhaps we would eventually get used to it, but I don't think so.

We put one below the mantle.

P.S. We got 42" and sit back about 10 feet. I like it. And the price point was good.

As you can see, the plasma for us would have been where that picture is.


We lost some "coolness" of a thin TV by putting into a box that was deep enough for a tube, but on the plus side, it gave me a better place for my subwoofer.

Pistol Pete

I don't want to burst your bubble here, but being able to replace the bulb should be considered a good thing. The half-brightness lifespan of a plasma screen is about 10,000 hours. This is roughly equivalent to the replacement period of a projector bulb. If a bulb lasts 4-5,000 hours, figure on the cost replacing 2 bulbs vs the cost of a new plasma screen. Also figure that the projector may cost less to begin with. Then there's the problem of burn-in on plasmas. I don't know about you, but I actually like to watch CNN.

I just don't get the general public's love affair with plasma screens. Relative to the other technologies available the only advantage is thickness. It falls short on just about all other metrics.

danwiz

Hmmm, Interesting! If you visit the sharpusa.com web site they have a section which lists the advantages/disadvantages of LCD vs Plasma TVs. They say that the life of an LCD TV is 60,000 hours, now if you calculate that out, you could leave the TV on 24 hours a day for about 8 years. They say the life of a Plasma Screen is 20-30,000 hours! They say Plasma is subject to burn in, whilc LCD is not. They say that several other items are better with LCD TV than with Plasma. Now, they don't sell Plasma TVs, and I own neither, so I don't know how much is propoganda and how much is true. I would like to see some comments from people in the know. Take a look at sharpusa.com and check out the advantages and tell us what is true and what's not true!

sideview1

We'll I wish someone would find good consistent numbers, cause I've also seen where the plasma life span is now upto 50,000 hrs, while the projector bulb is 2000 hours. I'm sure it's all what you buy. Anyone know of a good source for accurate life span of these various things?

RandyC

If life and burn in were that large of an issue, I think one would see less plasmas in financial centers, airports, etc.

FWIW, I have not had any burn in problems with my plasma. At first, I was careful about it. I am not now. I leave static screens on it all the time. I can watch CNN or anything with a logo for many hours.

A couple days ago, a DVD menu was left on for about 4 hours. When I turned off the DVD I could definitely see the image on the screen. 10 minutes of watching other stuff, it was gone.

This is my real experience. When I was researching plasmas, I read over on avsforum similar things. It was very hard to find anyone that had ever had burn in.

Pistol Pete

A few years ago I extensively tested plasma screens for an advertising application. The quoted half-life was 10,000 hours. I did not test the actual half-life.

Burn-in was a serious problem. I left a rotating graphic on overnight and it was plainly visible the next day. The monitor even had a "reverse" display mode so that you could even out the burn by displaying the inverse of the burned image. The manufacturer suggested that we show the graphics normally during the day and then in reverse at night. That would double the on time and cut the usable lifespan in half.

Funny that you should mention plasma screens in airports. When Delta first installed the plasmas at the gates in the Atlanta airport, they were beautiful. Within 3 months, every single one of them was burned by the graphics. They have since replaced them and don't seem to have the problem anymore. I don't know how often they replace the screens.

Just my personal experience.

gotapex

Half-brightness life for current generation plasmas is 60k hours for video use.

Burn in is tied into lifespan. Current plasmas are far less likely to experience burn in than ones even a couple generations back.

sideview1

Well I just got called into work, dang it all. I'm going to try to post a pic of my room today, and people can make suggestions. I've started putting the money aside for a plasma, I've been eyeing the Pan50, so I'm at $800 towards it, maybe I can get it before the end of the summer...but I want to redo my kitchen too...hmm.