LG Plasma Issue, better off with LCD??

First Post here. Just some quick history on me. I've been in the HT hobby for over 15 years. I have set up various home theater systems for friends and family. I have a Denon AVR-3803, A Pansonic Blu-Ray Player with 7.1 analog outputs, A Denon Universal DVD-A/SACD player, a Pioneer Universal DVD-A/SACD, HK CD-20 CD recorder, Pioneer HDD DVD recorder, Magnavox DVD recorder, JVC Dual Cassette Recorder, Sony Turntable with MM cartridge, Comcast HD DVR, Velodyne Subwoofer, Infinity Floor standing speakers, Infinity Center channel Speaker along with Infinity Rear and Surround back speakers. Along with my previous JVC 36" TV and new LG 50PV450 Plasma TV.

Waited before going to HD because I just wasn't satisfied with earlier LCD TVs and their terrible digital processing that left digital artifacts all over the screen. My son's Dynex 32" LCD is a very VERY good example of this.

We have 2 cheap LCD TVs, one Sanyo 19" in our camper and the son has a Dynex 32" in his bedroom.

I've kept my 36" JVC higer end Tube TV because I've found quite a bit of problems with our smaller, older, cheaper LCD TVs.

Now that Plasmas have gotten cheaper and are 1080P, I finally pulled the plug. I bought a LG 50PV450. I just love the picture and pretty much everything about it. It has issues to and I may be making more of them than necessary since I tend to nit pick. Now if I do take it back, I don't want to be sorry in getting an LED TV that has issues I find more bothersome. So I just want to make a generalized statement of my findings and maybe you guys can add some comments if I'm correct in my thinking.

My previous JVC 36" Tube TV.

Positives:
Awesome black levels
Great color
Great viewing angle
Great brightness
Nice White levels

Negatives:
Round tube
"Normal" analog noise associated to scanning
Standard Definition
Smaller
Poor Geometery
Reflective Glass Screen



Our LCDs

Positives:

Great White levels

Good Color

No reflections

Great Geometry

Great Brightness

Negatives:

Polarization above or below 19" TV (Looks like old Notebook computer screen where it resembles a picture negative where darks become whites and whites become darks), this is my most hated reason for LCDs.

Off Center viewing where screen dims greatly off to the sides

Terrible black levels where black areas glow with a sheen

Whites looks saturated on some scenes losing detail

Color not as good as a Tube TV


New LG 50" plasma

Positives:

Great looking colors, far exceeds the tube TV

Great looking white levels

Great looking black levels

Great off center view, no dimming

Best picture I've seen to date, just awesome picture clarity and detail


Negatives:

Screen is reflective, just as bad as tube TV

A varying of brightness levels in brighter scenes. You can see brightness levels going up and down, and then stabilizing. It happenes frequently on " some " scenes. So flickering also can be seen with the varying brightness on select scenes. Most scenes and shows, the varying brightness " can't " be seen. I've read of many complaints of this with Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. It seems to be a byproduct of the Plasma technology and the ABL circuit.




So here's my issues, I just love the Plasma TV. It's got the best picture I've seen but the varying brightness issue bothers me since I tend to find issues with things. However, I just love the picture and have not been impressed with LED LCD or LCD picture quality like I have with this Plasma. However the brightness issue is bothersome.

Now I can return it and get a newer LED LCD but reviews I've read state most have problems of their own with none uniform brightness and bright spots. This would drive me even more crazy. I even have a coworker with a Samsung LED and he complains of the black levels having no detail and having to jack up the picture controls. So I'd likely just get a plain LCD but the off angle viewing and poor black levels would bother me also. Hopefully the newer LCDs wouldn't have that polarization issues I have with my 19" LCD or the poor video processing that leaves digital artifacts everywhere. The Plasma has no digital noise just as my analog JVC Tube TV.

I guess I'm just trying to justify keeping the plasma with the varying brightness issue, thinking LCD would have more bothersome issues.

BTW, I know the varying brightness is an issue with plasma tvs in general, due to their ABL circuit as I said above, to keep them from overdriving on a complete white or complete bright picture. Most reviewers don't see it as an issue and only a few of us nit pickers do. I've seen that Panasonic has a fix for a brightness issue they have, but it's not the ABL circuit, but a predetermined age where they changed the voltage to give it a longer life, but diminish the black levels and overall contrast. The fix is to disable this voltage change and just let the TV age normally. I think some have mistakenly confused this fix, with the varying brightness as some have said that after the fix, the problem was still there.

So what's your thoughts. Keep the Plasma and deal with the Automatic Brightness Level issue or go with a LCD TV??

Here's a thread about the varying brightness. Maybe it's not that common. Maybe it's just time to take the Plasma back and get a LED???

Thanks!

I've held off updating my TV because I wasn't happy with earlier LCD or plasmas. But the new plasmas are 1080P and why I went with them. Now I'm not real happy with this outcome as my LG will surely go back. However I've read of the same complaints with Panasonic and Samsung. So if it's a crap shoot with Plasma, I may be forced to go with LCD, which I really don't want to do.

Thanks.

Thanks everyone, but if LG is that bad, I don't want to keep exchanging. My folks got a 60" LED LG and love it though. Another thing bugging the crap out of me is the display reflectiveness. It's so bad, it looks like a mirror and this is coming from a "GLASS" round tube CRT TV! To see the picture in the TV, I have to turn one of the corner lamps off.

Now here's the bad, I've only found 2 TVs in my price range, another LG but a 47" standard LCD with 120Hz and a Sony 46" LCD with 60Hz. Not fond of going with LG again but they do have the inputs I have to have and the Sony is only 60Hz. Or I can go with RCA, Philips, Insignia, Dynex or Toshiba and get a LED TV in the same size and price but I've read of bad things with LEDs from users in forums and coworkers. Not many complaints from standard LCD which I thought LED would have less brightness/lighting complaints. The cheaper brands, I fear, will have inferior, macro blocking, mosquito noise riddled picture quality like my son's 32" Dynex from a few years ago. The LG had a perfect, digital noise free picture which was just amazing to me.

Now I don't know if the TV is defective by reading numerous posts of others having the same problem. The problem I'm talking about is subtle. There is no real dimming but a cycling change in brightness that may not be concerning to many. My wife thinks I'm nuts but she does see it. She can't understand why it even bothers me because she feels it's very minor and not distracting at all. At times the varying brightness is started by a flicker and other times you just see the brightness of certain area of the screen cycling back and forth.

I'm thinking the problem is also due to the new 1080P resolution that has just been introduced as previous models were always just 720p. I think this is a result of addition power needed. I may just go with the standard LCD in 120Hz.

While I love the picture quality of the plasma, it has 3 glaring issues that are pretty large concerns as this is in a smaller living room, 15' X 15'. These being the super reflectiveness of this screen making it difficult to see without turning out our corner lamp, the varying brightness, and the enormous amount of heat pouring out of the TV. I was standing 2' in front of it and it felt like a space heater. I think it acts as such because it does have a fan that blows the heat out and the back is very very hot to the touch. In fact it feels as if it could burn you, but it didn't.

I may just defect to a LCD. My buddy bought a Panasonic 50ST30 which is to rich for my blood right now. I wanted the 50S30 but they are sold out and have at least a dozen on back order for other customers. They could only say it would take 1 to 2 month to get me one. Another poster commented that Samsung does the varying brightness issue as well, and I did see other posts complaining of the same issue with the Panasonic Plasmas. So it may be a side effect of the new 1080p technology.

Who knows for sure, but I thank you guys for all your help. If I don't like the LCDs or if they are just priced to high, I'll just go back to my 36" JVC CRT TV.

Thanks again.

Yes, I've been setting HT systems for at least 10 years and this issue still exists. Never setup a Plasma HT though, all DLP, CRT, and LCD. After researching Panasonic and Samsung, owners are fighting the same problem.

Thanks for the insight though.

No, it wasn't bad. You are just one of the lucky individuals that it doesn't bother. This is very common with your 60" and my 50". It's been discussed to death on this thread as you know already, you being part of it. As I said, all dynamic contrast and other artificially PQ adjustments were off. I've been setting up home theaters for ~15 years and these are the first adjustments to get turned off. Unfortunately I didn't see this thread on it until after seeing the issue and looking for information on how to fix it. I found there is no fix and after looking at Samsung and Panasonic threads, the complaints on this issue are even worse for those models. That is why I completely gave up on the Plasma technology.

The TV I was lucky enough to get for only $100 more was the LG 47LW5600 and it has received Television of the Year, over all TVs, from PCMag. The 47LW5300 is very similar with only lesser contrast ratio, No ISP panel, fewer inputs, and no smart or netcast functions. The performance shouldn't be much lesser.

I just went to Best Buy and they had the Panasonic 55ST30 on display and it had brightness fluctuations apparent even in the store. It has less bright lights glaring down directly on them. I didn't see much of the slower variances where you can see the brightness 'strobe', it changed more quickly this time producing a flickering affect. Of course none was apparent on any of the LCD models.

It's obvious that this issue doesn't bother a lot of people or is even that noticeable. Flickering bothers me a lot and why I can't have my CRT monitors on 60Hz refresh rate and don't care for the active 3D systems. It drives me nuts while others are just fine with it and not bothered.

I'm not generalizing, I just seen the same problem on a Panasonic 55" 50ST30 TV at Best Buy. I just ran into some early threads from 2010 that had people going from Plasma to LCD because of the flickering. Like I said, some don't see it. My wife didn't see it at all until I pointed it out to her, and even then she said "that's what's bothering you, it's barely noticeable." Yet, it's so distracting to me, that I couldn't enjoy a movie with the flickering. The strobing I could probably handle, it's the quicker changing fluctuations that flicker, that bother me the most.

I'm glad you guys love your TVs, what doesn't bother me, bothers others. The new TV I bought is an edge lit LED TV. Edge lit LED Tvs are known to have clouding and flashlighting. While this is true without local dimming, with local dimming it's almost alleviated. However in an area that can't be turned off, if there's a black bar, it can slightly be seen. This drives some nuts and they went to Plasma, while this is not that bothersome to me and still outperforms my CRT in black levels and contrast. So it's what you like the most.

On a side note, my TV area is in a bad location of my house, right underneath my thermostat. When ever we watch the JVC AV-36D302 CRT TV, I had to set the thermostat up by 2 degrees as the heat off the tube would mess with the thermostat. When I replaced the JVC CRT TV with the LG Plasma, the Plasma put out so much heat it raised the temp by 6 degrees!! Plus it felt like a heater. I have to assume it had a fan as I could hear something running in it. The heat was literally pouring out of the vents. With the LED LCD, it throws no heat at all, and does not mess with the thermostat at all. This is really nice for the first time in 10 years, I don't have to adjust the thermostat when watching TV.