One of the biggest negatives most people (usually lcd supporters) say about plasma is its reflection/glare. Did none of you have CRTs? It's the same thing! Suddenly you are blinded by the light? Oh, and I have my plasma in the right corner of the room. There is a window about 3 feet to the left of it and it never reflects light. The only time I have even seen a reflection is when I turn the overhead lights on and I really get at an angle where I can barely see some reflection on the tv. It's all about placement. If you have a big window can't you just move the tv over a bit, or gasp shut the blinds during the day? To me I prefer the glossy look of the glass and it gives more of a 3d "looking through a window" look to it. To each his own I guess. The color and blacks are so much better than an lcd its not even funny.

You are exactly right. I got my first plasma a few hours ago, and the thing that surprises me the most is that is has almost no reflection. Mine is sitting between two tall windows, and there is another window to the left and about six feet in front of the TV. I sat right in front and then to the side of the TV, and saw either no or a very, very slight reflection when the picture was dark. I turned the table lamp on. No harsh reflection. I turned the 8-blub ceiling chandelier on. Same thing. I went as far as going right up to the TV and putting my face close to dark parts of the picture, and I could barely see it. As you said, I'm sure the placement helps, but still...I was a little amazed. and this is coming from someone who has watched a RPTV almost exclusively for the past dozen years.

Would you like to share the brand?

I own both a plasma tv (Pioneer 5070hd) and an LCD television (Sharp 52" 92u).

I love both of them, but when I had the Pioneer located up in my entertainment room (which has a bay window), the reflections were quite annoying. During dark scenes in movies, you could clearly see the room reflected on the screen. In fact, you could even see YOURSELF reflected when watching. The worst part: once you've noticed the reflections, that's all you can concentrate on.

So I moved the plasma down into the basement (no windows) -- and I absolutely love the picture quality with it in that room.

My LCD is now up in the entertainment room, and it looks absolutely fantastic too.

You can pretend all you want, but reflection is certainly a factor with plasma televisions.

Of course, the amount of reflection varies with each model (and with each viewing environment).

It's a factor... but I was never a fan of non-glare screens. They tend to muddy up the image somewhat. My old RPTV's screen got scuffed and scratched and marred over the years, so I eventually just took a plastic polish to it and buffed out the scratches and removed the non-glare coating completely. It was much improved in terms of clarity and picture quality at the cost of a bit more glare.

Without the non-glare coating they put over the plasma's we could clean the bloody things with windex and any accident short of chipping or shattering wouldn't leave a mark.

Plasma's reflectivity can be a serious problem in certain environments, but it's not necessarily as bad as the LCD camp would have you believe. At my friend's house there is no way we could have made a plasma work due to a large bank of windows behind the seating postions, so i talked him out of plasma and got him to get a big LCD instead and he's plenty happy with it - especially since he can watch it during the day. In my case, it's only a problem for a few hours in the afternoon if i want to leave my blinds open, whereupon i can see the whole room reflected in the screen especially in dark scenes. I can adjust my blinds to diffuse the sunlight, or just close them all the way to cut out the light almost completely but not everybody has that option.

Here's a thread about it -

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9182361#post9182361

I'm not in either camp. I'm in both.

And both sides have their pro's and con's.

One of the cons of most current plasma televisions is reflection. It doesn't mean that they're not great televisions. It just means that the buyer should be aware of this if they're planning on placing their television in a well-lit room.

Not sure why plasma folks try to deny this (or why LCD folks try to deny some of the shortcomings of LCD either).

It's a bit like a Cadillac owner trying to tell a Jeep owner that their car is just as good offroads. Or like the Jeep owner trying to tell the Cadillac owner that their car is just as comfortable.

Different technologies for different viewing needs.

Hehe one of these days I should take a picture of my plasma in the early morning when the sun is beating in through the blinds/sliding glass door on the east wall, (plasma is on the west wall). Unless I close the blinds, it is unwatchable where the reflection is (so intense you can't even make out the picture). However, block a little light and it is very watchable. Add in the fact that I do the majority of my viewing at night, and it is really a non-issue for me. None the less, the glare/reflectivity argument is blown way out of proportion most of the time. It is not as bad as my CRT was there, and all I have to do is tilt the screen a few degrees up to get rid of the issue if I really care enough.

The CRT I replaced had worse reflections than my Pioneer PDP-4271HD.

Would you like to share the brand?

Ya talkin' ta me? :cool:. If you are, it's Pioneer 4270. As I said, it's facing away from two windows, but I was surprised it did'nt get reflections from the side window, or glare from the lamps. I do not have to watch this thing in the dark. I guess I'm fortunate to have east and north facing windows in the room.

Ya talkin' ta me? :cool:. If you are, it's Pioneer 4270. As I said, it's facing away from two windows, but I was surprised it did'nt get reflections from the side window, or glare from the lamps. I do not have to watch this thing in the dark. I guess I'm fortunate to have east and north facing windows in the room.I looked hard and long at the Pioneer 4271HD and 5071HD at BB/Magnolia a few weeks ago along with the PX60U and the new 50PX75U and the Pioneers were a little less reflective than all the other plasmas on the wall.

The CRT I replaced had worse reflections than my Pioneer PDP-4271HD.

My 50" Vizio does not have reflection problems. There is window to one side, and a light to the other side. I do not notice glare at all. But at the same time I am not shining a light directly at the screen.

I replaced a Sony 32" WEGA crt with a Samsung 54 series plasma. The glare on the Sony screen was sharply defined and very irritating. The Samsung plasma shows less than half of the glare of the Sony. :)

Ya talkin' ta me? :cool:. If you are, it's Pioneer 4270. As I said, it's facing away from two windows, but I was surprised it did'nt get reflections from the side window, or glare from the lamps. I do not have to watch this thing in the dark. I guess I'm fortunate to have east and north facing windows in the room.

Yes I was and you did answer my question and Randy above did as well I figured it was a Pio.

YOu're not going to have bad reflection problems unless you have windows behind your seating position, facing the TV.

Anyone with skylights in the same room have any comments on glare? I am still at crossroads in deciding which to go for, LCD or Plasma. Currently looking at samsung 4661 lcd and samsung 5054 plasma.

Our new 5070 is in an extremely brightly lit room. But our viewing angles are such that reflection is not a problem--plus most of our TV viewing is at night. If the viewing angles were different there would be no way we could tolerate the reflection.

Anyone with skylights in the same room have any comments on glare? I am still at crossroads in deciding which to go for, LCD or Plasma. Currently looking at samsung 4661 lcd and samsung 5054 plasma.

I haven't seen the 4661, but I did see the 4665, and its screen is as reflective as a plasma screen. hopefully the 4661 doesn't have the same screen.

It hasn't bothered me much, but I can definitely see how it could bother some people, depending on how their setup is. Here is a picture of my plasma right after I hung it on the wall, before we had curtains or blinds. Not bad, but it would have been a different story if the picture was taken from the other side..... :p

Daylight Plasma Picture (http://webpages.charter.net/sandj27/House/NEC2.jpg)

Anyone with skylights in the same room have any comments on glare?

Seconding that question.

scutfargas:

Thx for the picture, you basically answered my own questions about reflection there. You seem to have a similar TV position as I'm planning to have with the windows on the side. We'll be moving in a new condo soon and I've been holding out on which technology to buy since we have a lot of windows. You setup looks like what i'm planning, just reverse the walls on the windows (windows to the left of TV).

Anyone with skylights in the same room have any comments on glare? I am still at crossroads in deciding which to go for, LCD or Plasma. Currently looking at samsung 4661 lcd and samsung 5054 plasma.If the skylights bathe the area in light to the point that you can see things in the room reflected in the screen, or if the sunlight beams directly on the screen itself then it will be a problem.

What you should do to test this out is set a 24" high by 43" (the size of a 50" screen) wide glass-faced picture in the exact spot where the Plasma would be then look at it at various times of the day, and at night with the lighting set in TV-watching mode and examine the reflections. Sometimes simply turning the display a little can eliminate a pesky reflection.