hi,
I watch tv mainly in evening (no sunlight) usually with a lamp on in room.
I love the film like quality and richness of the pioneer plasma,samsung 5084 looks good and samsung 5271 lcd. black level looks good on the lcd but not as good as the 5080 pioneer. would having a bit of light on in room defeat the better blacks of the pioneer? do most movie lovers like the film like quality of plasma better?

Most film lovers go with plasma over LCD, especially in darker environments.

I have a similar viewing environment - very much on the dark side. When I was finally ready to "go HD", my "finalists" were the Pioneer 5010/6010 plasmas and the Samsung 71/81 series or the Sony XBR4 series LCDs. The better black levels and off-axis viewing performance of the Kuros were the decisive votes - I ended up with the Pioneer 6010 and have been a very happy camper.

A couple of recent magazine articles have pitted plasmas against LCDs. Check out the Feb. '08 issue of Home Theater (not yet posted to their website); the Pioneer 5080 (a 720p set) won out over six 1080p sets (DLP, LCD, LCoS, plasma). Also, Sound and Vision did a "shoot-out" between a Pioneer Kuro Elite plasma and a Samsung 5281 LCD; it's a good overview of the pros/cons of each technology:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/779/plasma-vs-lcd-round-ii.html

Another thing to consider is bias lighting - supposed to improve the appearance of black levels and color balance, and reduce glare and ease eye strain in a darkened room. Here's a thread devoted to that:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=451527

Good luck!

so your question is

do movie lovers like lcd or plasma?

assuming this is a serious question i'll give it a shot (although based on the way you stated the question i think you have already decided)

most people i know love the movies. i've worked in the film industry for many years and have access to watching films in our private theaters that i can safely say among the best if not the best in the world.

when we talk about buying flat panels, we don't talk plasma, we talk lcd.

why? because they provide overall the best picture in various lighting situations. this give you the most flexibility.

they are sharper and brighter making images pop. no burn in worries or break in periods or waiting for the picture to get better over time.

if you have any specific questions let me know

so your question is

do movie lovers like lcd or plasma?

assuming this is a serious question i'll give it a shot (although based on the way you stated the question i think you have already decided)

most people i know love the movies. i've worked in the film industry for many years and have access to watching films in our private theaters that i can safely say among the best if not the best in the world.

when we talk about buying flat panels, we don't talk plasma, we talk lcd.

why? because they provide overall the best picture in various lighting situations. this give you the most flexibility.

they are sharper and brighter making images pop. no burn in worries or break in periods or waiting for the picture to get better over time.

if you have any specific questions let me know

Are you nuts? Pioneer plasma for movies over ANY LCD. They handle motion better, they have better black levels, the Pioneer has LESS glare than the Samsung model he is looking at (which has a glossy screen protector). Pioneer Plasmas are near the best CRTs in picture quality.

I will give you the break-in/burn in thing. Sure they are brighter.... too bright for movies. Plasma offers good uniform brightness. Also, put direct sunlight on an LCD and watch how the picture washes out. Sure, plasma has glare but the picture doesn't change. Plasma gets my vote.

so your question is

do movie lovers like lcd or plasma?

assuming this is a serious question i'll give it a shot (although based on the way you stated the question i think you have already decided)

most people i know love the movies. i've worked in the film industry for many years and have access to watching films in our private theaters that i can safely say among the best if not the best in the world.

when we talk about buying flat panels, we don't talk plasma, we talk lcd.

why? because they provide overall the best picture in various lighting situations. this give you the most flexibil
they are sharper and brighter making images pop. no burn in worries or break in periods or waiting for the picture to get better over time.

if you have any specific questions let me know

LCD's looking like you are watching a cartoon

This is a most interesting discussion; compelled, I am, to relate my own experience thus far.

I have been researching HDTVs for some time (at a low level for about 2 years, and quite seriously in the last month), targeting a purchase this spring. Biased towards LCD, I started looking at actual TVs in stores. sure enough the LCDs grabbed my attention. Didn't even notice the plasmas. I started out looking at Samsung 61F series, then noticed the motion blur issue for sports and realized that set would probably disapoint me next superbowl. I started digging into the various efforts to improve motion on the LCDs, settling in my mind that I would have to pay more for good motion. I began to look at 71F and 81F especially for moving backgrounds. Also the XBR4s.

I just wasn't thrilled when I looked at actual content in the stores. the colors and vibrancy popped, to be sure, but the motion just left me feeling like I was watching a controlled animation (120 Hz modes on). people moved like cartoon characters, a conclusion I reached quite independantly without being drawn in by the debate. and the 60 Hz mode didn't feel smooth to me. I felt like it was either a choppy but natural movement, or a smooth cartoon-like movement.

I'm evaluating my viewing experinces in the stores against my current 34" Toshiba 1080i CRT. This set has it problems, but motion is not one of them :-). I also began to realize that 1/2 of the content I wanted to watch was likely SD material, and I began to look for how well the various sets did.

Movies, live TV via satellite (HD upgrade next week), DVDs, etc are the primary content materials. I'm not a gamer.

It took me some time, but my LCD bias has begun to fade. I looked at a 50" 720p panny plasma the other day and was astonished at the difference in how natural the picture looked, in spite of the lack of "full HD" resolution. This particular set rendered SD content much better than any of the high-end LCDs I looked at.

I started to wonder: if one is nearly 100% exposed to LCD technology via computers and TV cartoons, without having a real CRT experience viewing natural human motion, one might easily become used to the LCD way of rendering things. Its certainly not bad; just different from my expectations. Maybe the proliferation of animation (which I do enjoy, e.g. "finding nemo" and "incredibles" for example) may contribute here as well -- if one watches animated games, cartoons, and the like, all the time I can see how the LCD experience would be quite pleasing.

But I guess I'm approaching the personal realization that I want human movement to look like real life and like they do on my CRT. I'm not finished with my investigations by any means, but it appears that in spite of great strides and wonderful, expensive efforts to render natural human motion on an LCD, it just isn't there. perhaps I just haven't looked long enough. You LCD guys can help balance my investigations out here perhaps.

So presently, plasmas are looking very attractive to me, especially the 08 stuff coming out. call me old or call me a CRT junkie; its all about the motion and I just dont see it in the LCDs.

This is a most interesting discussion; compelled, I am, to relate my own experience thus far.

I have been researching HDTVs for some time (at a low level for about 2 years, and quite seriously in the last month), targeting a purchase this spring. Biased towards LCD, I started looking at actual TVs in stores. sure enough the LCDs grabbed my attention. Didn't even notice the plasmas. I started out looking at Samsung 61F series, then noticed the motion blur issue for sports and realized that set would probably disapoint me next superbowl. I started digging into the various efforts to improve motion on the LCDs, settling in my mind that I would have to pay more for good motion. I began to look at 71F and 81F especially for moving backgrounds. Also the XBR4s.

I just wasn't thrilled when I looked at actual content in the stores. the colors and vibrancy popped, to be sure, but the motion just left me feeling like I was watching a controlled animation (120 Hz modes on). people moved like cartoon characters, a conclusion I reached quite independantly without being drawn in by the debate. and the 60 Hz mode didn't feel smooth to me. I felt like it was either a choppy but natural movement, or a smooth cartoon-like movement.

I'm evaluating my viewing experinces in the stores against my current 34" Toshiba 1080i CRT. This set has it problems, but motion is not one of them :-). I also began to realize that 1/2 of the content I wanted to watch was likely SD material, and I began to look for how well the various sets did.

Movies, live TV via satellite (HD upgrade next week), DVDs, etc are the primary content materials. I'm not a gamer.

It took me some time, but my LCD bias has begun to fade. I looked at a 50" 720p panny plasma the other day and was astonished at the difference in how natural the picture looked, in spite of the lack of "full HD" resolution. This particular set rendered SD content much better than any of the high-end LCDs I looked at.

I started to wonder: if one is nearly 100% exposed to LCD technology via computers and TV cartoons, without having a real CRT experience viewing natural human motion, one might easily become used to the LCD way of rendering things. Its certainly not bad; just different from my expectations. Maybe the proliferation of animation (which I do enjoy, e.g. "finding nemo" and "incredibles" for example) may contribute here as well -- if one watches animated games, cartoons, and the like, all the time I can see how the LCD experience would be quite pleasing.

But I guess I'm approaching the personal realization that I want human movement to look like real life and like they do on my CRT. I'm not finished with my investigations by any means, but it appears that in spite of great strides and wonderful, expensive efforts to render natural human motion on an LCD, it just isn't there. perhaps I just haven't looked long enough. You LCD guys can help balance my investigations out here perhaps.

So presently, plasmas are looking very attractive to me, especially the 08 stuff coming out. call me old or call me a CRT junkie; its all about the motion and I just dont see it in the LCDs.

You said the same in hundreds of words as i said in a few words. "LCD's look like you are viewing a cartoon. They don't look real and natural. For games they are fine. For real TV.......NOT!!!