MACD23

I noticed at best buy the other day they are starting to make the LCD panels in much bigger sizes. I believe I saw a 30" widescreen LCD panel.

my question is, which is better a 30" LCD or a 30"+ plasma? can both view HDTV? whats the deal guys?

also, do you expect plasma to come down more in price anytime soon?

eedoon

I believe plasma and LCD can view HDTV, but it depends on the model. If I had the bucket of cash, I'll prefer plasma for its image quality. The price plasma are dropping, but not that fast.

MACD23

no one else has any insight on this? i noticed best buy has a 30" lcd thats more money then some of the 42" plasmas....whats up with that?

Cusm

Best Buy has had the Panasonic 40" and 45" LCD for $4000 and nopw a lot less for over 1 year now. Any reason you are not looking at DLP?

X

I believe LCD will last much longer than plasma. It only needs a backlight to be replaced, the active pixels should last a very long time. And LCD is not subject to burn-in.

From the little that I have looked at large LCD, it seemed to me the pixel size was much smaller than plasma. If that's the case, and they can address them individually, they should be capable of much higher resolution than the run-of-the-mill plasma screens you see.

If you're considering LCD, make sure the response time is fast enough on the model you're looking at. Watch fast-motion scenes and fast scene changes to make sure there's no "smearing" or ghosting.

gotapex

I believe MACD23 is talking about LCD panels. At least htat's what makes sense to compare with plasmas. Panasonic's rear projection LCD television sets are something completely different, as with DLP projection sets.

Adding on to what X said, plasmas tend to have much better black levels and shadow detail than LCD's. They're also the brightest displays on the market. They also have wider viewing angles than LCD panels, though not by as much these days.

MACD23

thanks guys. i guess i am referring to lcd panels, as they were pretty flat. i guess i am asking what the future best tv on the market will be, plasma or lcd? and why?

also, what is dlp?

RayChuang

If you have the space for a DLP rear-projection TV, I highly recommend them.

I've seen Samsung's HLM437W and HLM507W units and they run rings around most CRT-based rear-projection TV's, no contest. Feed it an HDTV signal and watch your jaws drop looking at the unit's breathtaking clarity. Best of all, since the HLM437W and HLM507W both sport the Faroudja DCDi video de-interlacing chip, you can plug in any DVD player that has component video connections and get nothing short of OUTSTANDING picture quality (no need to enable progressive scan output mode on the DVD player ).

hoyalawya

You can check out the Sammy DLP at most Best Buy and Circuit City. The model number would be HLN507W and HLN437W at Circuity City and HLN5065W and HLN4365W at Best Buy. The difference betweeb the *7W model and *65W model is only external cosmetics difference. The internals are the same. The HLM model is an older model and has been discontinued.

MACD23

I was at best buy again and I looked at the large size LCDs.....they looked HORRIBLE. the picture quality was all pixelized and the colors were drab compared to the high end plasmas.

Josh Z

You can't accurately judge a technology by the way Best Buy sets up their TVs on the showroom floor. You have no idea what settings they use or how they decided on them. Some stores intentionally calibrate the more expensive sets to look better to sway people into buying them.

Nausicaa

I've got a 60" Grand Wega HDTV LCD screen, and the image is FAR from horrible. It looks identical in clarity to any of the Plasma screens on the market. The only difference is that, as a previous poster noted, the blacks aren't as black, and the whites aren't as white. This is a very minor concern though, considering how much cheaper LCD screens are to plasma. Of course, we've got an awsome Pioneer Elite DVD player hooked up to it. I don't think Best Buy demos the best DVDs on the best players...

Jim

MACD23,

With all due respect to this excellent forum, for plasma/LCD info you should head over to AVSForum. A wealth of information about flat panel displays is in the plasma/LCD forum there. I monitored the forum there for most of this year to research my purchase decision. I'm very happy with the result.