erichbergen

I was fully intending to buy a Panasonic 42" Plasma. But I went to Fry's today, and the guy there sorta convinced me that the Samsung 40" LCD was the way to go. Costs a lot less too.

I was wondering what people thought of that? I mean the Plasma looks great, but so did the LCD, and no chance of burn in and no glare.

I watch everything, and I am going to be upgrading to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. I watch HDTV and Standard DVD. Can you recommend what would be best?

TGM

Samsung LED engine powered models, ie: HLT5687S. No burn in there. Can get a much bigger screen for cheaper price. But my opinion is of course biased, as I own one.

Mr. Salty

It should be pointed out that this is a DLP set, not plasma or LCD.

If the choice is between the Panasonic plasma and any LCD, I'd take the plasma. I'm not a fan of LCD sets because most of them still have weak black levels compared to plasma. Respect the recommended burn-in period for plasma, and make sure your settings are right (in other words, don't have the brightness turned all the way up), and you'll be fine.

Dr Mabuse

another vote for the samsung LCD... the latest generation of the samsung's are spectacular... they have resolved all of the hdmi synch issues... this is my model... Link...

the customer service and support has proven itself to be stellar across the country... in my case to resolve my hdmi synch issue, with my PS3 in my case, they sent a tech and replaced the mainboard with a new one and upgraded it to the latest firmware... which also had some minor picture improvements in it... and i didn't have to walk through fire to get that done...

and watching blue ray on mine is just amazing...

i recommend it...

so do many reviewers around the web...

in all fairness... for the most part the LCD black issues have been resolved in the samsungs at least... and also for the most part the burn in issues have been greatly resolved on plasmas on the better models...

the industry has been working hard on those...

the question to ask is... kind of the unbiased question... why have 3 major manufacturer's stopped making plasma TV's in the last year or so?... there are some issues with plasma that have not been resolved...

toddly6666

Sony LCD is awesome! Whenever I see a highly-respected Samsung HDTV, it has this pasty visual effect. Sony is visual perfection for me.

Spiky

In all fairness...none of the tech mentioned in this thread is all that great on black levels. LCD may have closed the gap on plasma a bit, but that just means it has moved into the middle.

DVD Polizei

erichbergen ,

If you're saving a considerable amount of money on the television versus the plasma, then go for it. If it looks great to you, then go LCD.

But Burn-in isn't a problem. I have a 50" plasma and I get a minor image retention issue (which is normal) when playing a movie that doesn't fill the screen (such as a 2.35:1 movie). Glare could be a problem if you have the set in an area where the sun shines--just like with any tv so proper positioning is a good idea. But at night, watching movies, the plasma really looks great.

day0day

I think Samsung 40" LCD is a good choice, what's more you can save some money ,that's a good idea .

Brian Shannon

I recently purchased a 42" Panasonic Plasma from Costco and could not be happier. Excellent blacks, contrast and the anti-glare screen is great. I have no image retention issues.

SoSpacey

Who is that? Sony stopped making plasmas because their plasmas weren't that good. They were being outsold 5-1 by companies like Panasonic and Pioneer because they had far superior products.

I would love to know these issues. I tend to only hear about them from people who spent too much money on a 1080p LCD that isnt even big enough to see the 1080p but got duped by some $10/hour best buy employee.

plasma and lcd both have their place. i own one plasma and 2 LCDs and I would take the plasma over the lcd in my main viewing area any day of the week.

i spent all day yesterday watching a brand new 46" Samsung 1080p flat panel. the picture looked nice and clear but 5 of the 6 guys there thought my 720p plasma looked much better. Both his LCD and my Plasma are calibrated properly.

Plasma "issues" are a thing of the past. And all of my above statements take into account top rated plasmas and lcds. if we are doing a comparison on Vizio LCDs v. mustek plasmas its a different story.

Subgeniusguy

I went to a store yester day to look at a Samsung HLT6187S 61" Slim LED Engine 1080p DLP and also checked out the Samsung LNT5265F 52" 1080p LCD. I have to say this was the best LCD television I've ever seen. The blacks looked fantastic maybe due to the high contrast ratio. I haven't made a final decision but I think I'd be willing to trade the HLT6187S's size for the better image quality of the LNT5265F. The LCD's B&M price tag though is about $3500 although it can be had on Amazon for around $2800. Like I said, I have not made a final decision and I'd like to hear opinions from others here as I'm sure plenty of you know a lot more about these TV's than I do.
Only thing is my TV died and I had not planned on a TV purchase. My wife does not want me to lay down all the cash at once. Most B&M stores have special no interest financing deals. Amazon does not seem to offer any such financing. So should I just set money aside to buy it outright for the purchase or does anybody know an alternate way to finance it through Amazon? I'd rather wait a couple of months than pay riduculous interest rates. Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread from the OP but I too am interested in the Samsung LCD.

GreenMonkey

An LCD performs better in bright environments: no glare, weak black levels minimuzed, etc. That's why I have one for daytime use (that, and it was much cheaper as a secondary display).

A plasma performs much better for blacks and black details, and generally color accuracy.

Pick whichever works best in your setup. I wouldn't touch an LCD for a serious dark-room HT experience, but for bright-light and daytime conditions, it's the better device.

There is no "best" device. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. Pick the one that reflects best what you want from it. I tend to see LCDs at the bottom of the pile (I use a 24" CRT as a computer monitor for example), but its strengths made it a worthwhile buy for daylight watching.

DVD Josh

To me, a Plasma looks and reacts the closest to a CRT, which is the benchmark for any video quality. That's why I prefer it.

Fielding Mellish

If wall-mounting isn't a requirement, I would strongly reccomend you consider his suggestion. This is a fantastic set, with a lot of advantages over both LCDs and plasmas.

ANDREMIKE

ditto

nateman

Couldn’t agree more; CRT TVs still have the best picture quality & I’d say that Plasma would be the right choice as well.

However, don’t take my advice over people who actually own Plasma TVs. I’ve checked out Plasmas in the store & I have a friend who has one & I think they have the best picture & are on par with the quality of CRT Televisions.

I’ve never liked the picture quality on LCD TVs. I just don’t think that they are at the same level, picture quality wise, as Plasmas & CRT TVs. I’d recommend a DLP Television as my 3rd choice for a new television. DLPs aren’t quite on par with CRTs & plasmas but they are better than LCDs.

Subgeniusguy

Referring to my earlier post^^, I took the advice you guys provided and did not go with the LCD. Too much movement aritifact although still images look great. The 120MHz LCD's look like like they might be a contender but for the money why not go plasma. I ended up getting the 61" Samsung LED DLP HLT6187S. Looks much better out of the box at home than it did in the store. For the size screen I wanted and the money I was willing to spend, I think this was the best option. Have yet to hook up my components since I'm working all week. One feature I was not aware of was the 3D potential for the newer DLP's. I would love to see some of these animated films that get released 3D make it to my HT, especially Nightmare Before Xmas. Thanks for input.

stonewall

I have a CRT HD Sony XBR and a Panny Plasma 50" 720p. The Panny I have is on par or better with the Sony for HD Broadcast. My "man cave" houses the Sony to go with my 360 for games. Sd Dvds look great on the Panny but to be honest, the Sony plays them a little bit better. I am hoping that an upcoverting DVD player or HD player will make up the difference on the Panny for SD Dvds.

nateman

Yeah, I’ve noticed that as well with SD DVDs. I mean, they still look good on Plasma TVs but CRTs make SD DVDs look just a hint better. People who don’t care about picture quality probably won’t notice it, but we do!

I think an upcoverting player will do the trick though & it should look exactly the same. I'll phone up my friend tonight & ask him if it would make a difference. My guess is yes.

Spiky

Original CRT HDTVs had 480p as a native resolution option. DVDs are meant to be shown 480p, so they look fabulous in this mode. Later models dropped this scan rate.

paradicelost

Just out of curiousity, what model was the plasma that cost more that the samsung. I haven't seen the 1080p 42"panasonic yet, but when i've seen both 720p models, the Panasonic is usually cheaper by a few hundred dollars.

I need to come here more and ask questions about hd sets. When i first got a job selling electronics(not at best buy and i usually make more than $10 an hour ), i tried to research as much as i could, and after going to probably 100 websites, the majority basically said if you want a bigger set at cheaper price go plasma, if money was no object go LCD. And while Plasma did have there benefits, LCD still came out on top. Again from reading some of these posts, I found some much more detailed arguments for plasma.

cgray

Deciding between the

Sony Bravia SXRD KDS-55A3000

and the

Samsung HLT5687S.


Mostly watch movies (HD and SD), very little to no t.v.

Environment is pretty sunny during the day (thinking about glare), but do most of our watching at night.

Any suggestions or additional thoughts would be appreciated!

SexualPudding

It depends on how important certain things are to you. Both sets have their pros and cons just like any other.

I just bought the 60 inch version of the Sony you're looking at, and I decided to get it over the 61" model of the Samsung you are looking at.

The Samsung is LED based, so no lamp replacement. That is probably it's biggest advantage over the Sony. Both sets have very nice pictures, but I liked the Sony better. It just looked a bit more natural to me. I had also read about many people having issues with their Samsung sets, either with geometry, or, much worse, a weird halo prism effect on the screen. The halo issue seems to be very prevalent, too.

I also am not crazy about the build of the Samsungs. The actual housing and bezel looks nicer than the Sony, imo, but they also seem really flimsy, which can easily contribute to geometry issues.

The Sony is prone to slight geometry issues as well, as is really any rear projection technology. If you are viewing 4:3 material with the black pillar boxes on the sides, on many sets you will be able to notice in one or more of the corners that the picture "pushes in" a little. Basically, the lines are not 100% straight. It is not noticable at all with any full screen material, but just an FYI. Super anal people will go through 4 or 5 sets for something like this.

The Sony also does 120hz, where as I do not believe the Sammy does. Both will display Blu-ray and HD-DVD at 1080p/24, though, I believe.

I prefer the Sony, and with the price of them dropping so much in the last couple weeks, it is a better value, but I would go look at them in a few different stores if you can, and make sure to screw around in the menus to take them out of torch mode and disable all the crappy picture "enhancement" options. You still won't be able to get the best gauge, with the bright flourescent lighting and all, but it will be a more realistic comparison.

cgray

Thanks so much for your input. Lots of valuable information for my decision!

nodeerforamonth

Do you play video games? If so, don't get the plasma.