42" Panasonic Plasma or 42" Olevia LCD
 

Well, it looks like this summer I'm going to have enough cash to buy either one of these. And price-wise, they are about the same (maybe around $200 difference at most). I'm leaning towards the Panny Plasma but I am also re-thinking this too as described below. I don't particularly need anything larger than 42" because I just can't justify it and I also want something relatively easy to move around if need be.

My friend's 37" LCD is quite nice and I enjoy it so a 42" should do me just fine. A year ago, I would have discounted a plasma, but they are getting better and the 60,000hr lifespan is much better.

Now, here is what concerns me:

42" Plasma: 1024 x 768 / 10,000:1

42" LCD: 1366 x 768 / 1600:1

So, am I better off with the LCD because of the higher resolution? In order to display future HD signals, you would need at least a 1280 resolution (for 720p that is) on the width, correct? I'm thinking if I do decide to go with a 42" size TV, that LCD is my only option unless I go with a 50" plasma which has the higher resolutions.

Any comments appreciated.

I don't know what you mean by "future HD signals." The current HD format we have now will be around a lot longer than the life of whatever set you buy.

Besides, resolution is only one factor when it comes to image quality, and it isn't even the most important one.

Between the sets you mentioned, the Panasonic is far and away your best choice. In fact, the Panasonic plasmas stand with the best of any HDTVs made. They're great bang for the buck and will blow virtually any LCD TV out of the water in terms of contrast, black levels, color fidelity, viewing angle and just about any other criteria you can come up with.

Go with the Plasma. Don't trust the contrast ratio figures that MFG's put out.
There are many different ways used to determine a contrast ratio, and there is no law governing that there should be one set standard.
As for the resolution. It shouldn't make much of a difference. Even if it was between a 1080p 42" LCD vs a 720p plasma, the plasma would have the overall better picture quality, and most people couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p anyways.
Panasonic has a Plasma with a 1366 x 768 resolution, TH-42PZ700 , not sure when it's coming out though. Plus they'll have some 1080p plasma's that are that outrageously priced.
As for the best Plasma's I'd have to say Pioneer makes the best. The PDP-5070HD got great reviews, but is a 50"
Stick with the plasma!

Funny, when I first read this, my thought was "yeah, that contrast ration would concern me as well." :)


I would go plasma. Heck, when I had a choice between a 52" 1080p Sharp LCD and my Panasonic plasma, I chose plasma as well.

Plasma just looks better.

I was just commenting in order to play 1080p in the future. Not too much of a concern.

Looks like I'll stick with the Plasma, then. :)

The resolution for 720P is 1280 x 720, and I was just wondering about the horizontal resolution difference of 86 pixels. Which isn't much. I'm guessing the plasma will outweigh the slight pixel increase of the LCD.

panasonic plasma.

I'd go with the plasma, but I also don't care much for the picture of an LCD.

Do you ever plan on using the TV as a computer monitor? If so, then the resolution on the plasma may be an issue.

Will you have the TV is a room with a LOT of bright light shining on it? If so, that might be another reason to go with the LCD.


Short of some issue like these, I'd buy the plasma.

Dead,

At this point, I won't need the TV to be a monitor. I have a 24" Eizo which is good enough. As to the bright room thing, I'm not really sure on that. However I would think it won't be too much of an issue, right? Most of my movie/TV watching is at night or later in the day and if need be, I'll cover the windows in the daytime if the sunshine hits the TV directly.

But now, the new dilemma is to buy a slightly older 42" Panny Plasma (TH42PX600U) or the latest 42". I may just go with the slightly older because for one, the price has dropped on it, and two, I'll more than likely be purchasing another larger one in the next 4-5 years anyway.

I do not want to get into an argument with the majority here, favoring Plasma over LCD, but would like to make a few points. Hopefully they will help you make a decision:

1. First of all there is plenty of generic talk here coming down to LCD vs. PLASMA (in general). Meaning that there is absolutely no direct comparison between certain models by some of the members who insist that the Panni is the best set on the market (in the previous thread where I asked for some info was noted by members that many have not seen the Bravia). As noted in previous threads a lot of the people who seem to favor (Pani)-PLASMA over LCD have ALSO NOT seen or done at home a direct comparison between the top LCD (Sony Bravia, which I now own) and the Panni Plasma! (Hence I can not take seriously quick dismissals where PLASMA is topping LCD which is simply a none sense talk...as I also do not take seriously claims that Plasma is more likely to develop a burn-in issue. The logic should be obvious here.)

2. In the last 3 weeks I had three sets delivered to my house (thanks to a BB manager who gave me green light to test all 3 of them based on my agreement to buy one from his store) and hands down the Bravia XBR3 is the best set for my money.

3. No clouding issues on my set so any preliminary dismissals based on "what about the Bravia clouding" do not apply here. Solid blacks matching the ones on the favored Plasma. (For the record the Pioneer HD1 set had the best resolution of all 3 sets I tried at home and I did take my time with it).

4. Played with the PLASMA Pani for 2 days. The one thing no one seems to mention here is that these sets do produce plenty of minor jitters, close to ghosting, during fast-action scenes. I am not oversensitive to it but I do notice it when present and I clearly see it here. This is a major setback for me and as other people here have suggested here you need to choose your poison when it comes to the two technologies (PLASMA-LCD). The above mentioned issue clearly eliminates the Panni for me as I see what I described above. I suggest you take a close look and see what you…see!

None of it is visible on the XBR3-Sony (played with plenty of PAL discs as well to see what the effect would be).

5. I mostly watch films at night so the daylight factor for LCD viewing isn't what forced me to own one. Still, the contrast difference between the two is visible even for the untrained eye. (To be fair the much more expensive PioneerHD1 had the most natural contrast after I played with for a while).

6. I do not play games so this isn't a factor for me.

7. Finally the stylish design on the XB3 set is something I really like. It was not a deal-breaker for me that the Pani was not that sharp looking as after all I would have gone for it if the picture quality was better but the finesse on the SONY set is something to note.

That is it. Make your mind but clearly take a look at all top sets available in your area before making a final decision.


Ciao,
Pro-B

pro-bassoonist,

I will be physically viewing the television I buy for the final decision. However, it is interesting you would notice ghosting-like behaviors on a plasma. If you have a specific movie and scene you noticed it on, I'll grab the movie myself and use it at the local A/V store for comparison when I make my final choice.

Also, maybe the "wobbling" feature on the Panasonic was giving you problems. There are two settings. "ON1" shifts the image over time. "ON2" shifts the image depending on screen-detection. So, maybe ON2 was selected which gave you problems because of the movie interaction with the Panasonic. Just a guess.

Panasonic manuals warn the user about viewing 4:3 video content in "Normal" mode for burn-in issues. I also viewed the Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR3 manual and there was no warning about "Normal Mode" burn-in issues. So, for those who say LCD has fewer burn-in issues, I'd be inclined to agree with them to a point, but any screen can develop burn-in, depending on the still image brightness and colors, and how long it was displayed.

I have seen the Panasonic Plasma.
I have seen the Olevia 42" LCD.
In addition I currently own a Olevia LCD HD TV (27" model).

The Panny is much, much better for picture quality. It is not close.

I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to he XBR3, however I notice that of the three sets you had in your house, none was an Olevia. You compared three very expensive, generally highly rated sets. The Olevia does not belong in that group.

The OP is not asking about LCD v. Plasma. He specifically asked about the Panny Plasma v. the Olevia LCD.

This is not to say the Olevia is not a decent set. It is bright, and would be considered a great value had the price of the Panny's not come down.

BTW, I'm glad you picked up a set and are enjoying it!

Yeah, I'm not paying over $1500 for a television at this point in time. I'm sure I could find an LCD which could match a Plasma's performance but price would have to be taken out of that equation to do so, so I'm not doing it (we're talkin' $2500 for a 40" Bravia, right?). In fact, I may go with the Panasonic "monitor" plasma version, which is around $1000.

DVDPolizei:

I literally have to run now but as soon as I get back tomorrow morning I will reply to your questions. :)

Pro-B

Oh looking at the commercial version of the panny? Sweet! That is even better. Physically a great looking, clean looking set. Plus lots and lots of adjustments. You can really tweak that bad boy to get an even better pic depending on source and room.

Hey there. Yeah, I've been reading about this all day and I think this is the one I'm getting for sure. I've been reading the manual and it has A LOT of adjustments and settings. Right now, a person can get it online for about $1K from Newegg. Of course, this is a bare display, with no HDMI or tuner, but I don't really mind. It has component ins so that's good enough for me. The only thing I'd need is the stand and possibly the matching speakers which go on the sides (not sure if they are worth the price though). I'm hoping a local A/V store has this and I can see it in person.

LCD has NO burn-in issues. It cannot. Just like a hamburger cannot have image burn-in issues.

Na...skip the stand and speakers. Hang it on the wall and get some speakers mounted on the wall or something. Keep that nice clean look.

And if you got a few bucks to spare you can really up the WAF and go to the Panasonic site and check out their custom framing for these. Pretty sweet.

http://www2.panasonic.com/static/Con...edplasma_b.jpg

Two words fer yah. Image. Persistance. But enjoy your burger, regardless. :D

Agreed! And that is why I only partially addressed the Panny in my post given what my experience with the set was.

I did a week of testing on the XBR3 alone (I do not like the way the XBR2 looks). This is a high-end set that truly gets everything right for my taste: from color and contrast reproduction, to solid jitter-free movement(s), to a fantastic looking shell-design (the piano frame is outstanding). My only issue with it so far is that the TV, taken right out of the box, does a great deal of overscanning. I have not had any time yet to figure out what needs to be done here but as of right now on a anamorphic 1.66:1 reproduction I don't get any black bars on the sides.

Looking at the manual there are hundred different ways to address the issue though.

So far I love everything about this TV.

Pro-B

Yeah, my PC LCD monitor has image persistence. It is yuck. Don't kid yourself, any set can develop burn-in of some type, regardless of what you call it. If it's there when it ain't supposed to be there, it's a negative.

Since my flood, I found out I had another 3 weeks to wait to get my new carpet installed, so I decided to take my Panny TH-50PX600U out of its box (it was delivered just 2 days after my house was flooded due to the water heater turning into a sprinkler while I was at work). So my new plasma TV set was just sitting there in the garage, taunting me silently, and finally I gave in and set up in my living room Friday night. I found it that it was possible for one person to install the mounting base and get it upright on a TV table. The trick is to use a bed to lay the TV flat (screen side facing upwards), and then flip it so the bottom edge is facing upwards, and then drop in the mounting back upside down and screw in the mounting base, and then let it back down and carefully flip it onto the TV stand (you have to immobilize the stand so it doesn't move during the flip when the TV butted up next to the edge of the bed).

So my plasma is in that first 100 hours phase where you just run it with all the video setting at 0, so that's where I'm at. I do like what I see of the OTA HD channels, and SD performance is acceptable (for recordings from my ReplayTVs and VCR, and even LD).

I have seen the Bravia XBR3, and I still don't think its black level performance is all that good (just watch the CSI clip if you're at a Best Buy, and compare it to any plasma running the same clip, it's not even funny how murky the dark scenes look on the LCD set). For now, I still won't recommend a LCD until I see one that has really good black level performance. Plus, the colors seem just too vibrant to watch on a steady basis (sure, I know, you can tone it down, but it's more about the backlighting that makes the image not as appealing to my eyes).

DVD-Gone in 60 seconds!

This does not mean anything though...pick any DVD with fast-action movement and test it on a Panny...see if it bothers you!

As already suggested since cash is an issue here (and it should be) my suggestion(s) above is/are simply a moot point. XBR2-3 are clearly out of your range to consider and as such I don't see why you should not opt for the PLASMA favored here. That is a rather easy call.

One thing I would not hesitate to repeat here is this: YOU must go and see for yourself which TV works best for your taste. After all it is YOU that will be watching it and what anyone, me included, suggests on this forum means absolutely nothing.

It is your money that will be spent and it will be a TV you will own. YOU have to make a decision...not the forum members :)

Good luck!~~ :up:

Ciao,
Pro-B

The beauty of the professional Panasonic plasmas is that you can easily buy an HDMI blade or any other type of input you need and install it yourself. And you can do so now or years from now, so as HDMI evolves, you can just buy an updated HDMI blade. People with the consumer version are stuck with whatever inputs came with the set.

Image persistence ≠ burn-in.

Image persistence is caused by poor electronics, so you should be able to avoid models that are more prone to it. It is not an inherent/necessary problem to the technology like burn-in is to CRT and plasma. Those MUST burn-in as they age, you just want to avoid uneven burn-in, which gives the ghost-like image problem.

Stuck pixels are another issue for LCD, as well. And for some models, refresh speed is another. I'm not saying LCD has no problems, but let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

I'm not a pro-Plasma or pro-LCD guy at all, so I really don't care about which technology outdoes one another--and we can debate both technologies until we're blue in the face because both have their cons. What I care about is the best bang for the buck, and at this point, the Panasonic plasmas seem the best choice.

Mr. Salty,

Yeah, one thing I like is the upgradeable terminals ("blades"). In fact, I may not even buy an HDMI blade because personally, I think component inputs are good enough.