Looking for a 50" LCD/LED to maybe replace Panny P50UT50 plasma. Suggestions?

What's to be wishy-washy about? You're planning to use it in a basement with no windows. That's the ideal location for plasmas in my opinion.

I have the UT50 in my living room, and I can have my blinds opened halfway and still have a great picture without glaring or colors washing out.

Not only that, but the UT50 has great picture quality, period. Regardless of price, it's picture quality is considered very high quality. What it lacks is the better black filters like on the more expensive Panasonic models. But this isn't to say the blacks on the UT50 aren't good, because they are. In a dark room it is indistinguishable where the black bars begin when watching a 2.35:1 film. The blacks are great, just not so much in bright rooms.

As for gaming you shouldn't have any concern here either. I use mine as my PC's main monitor. I literally do everything on this TV and have no image retention issues. I've played games for hours on end, numerous times, and have never had an image burn in.

Have you even taken the TV out of the box to try it out in your room?

+1 You have the near-ideal setup for plasma and paid 700 for a tv that will outperform lcd/led sets costing twice as much.

That being said, if you must go led/lcd LG and Panny models have less gaming lag than Samsung.

Can't agree. The panels must vary. I had the 55UT50 for two weeks and was getting a good bit of image retention from game HUDs, ESPN and CNN logos etc. I had adjusted it with the WoW disc, had it on custom with contrast on 78 I think--so it wasn't on torch mode or anything. And I ran the break-in slides for 100 hours.

It was all temporary with the worst going away after 3-4 hours of watching other content. But I'd worry more if I was going to primarily use it for gaming and little else like the OP as he might not be mixing up content enough to wash out IR from games and could get stuck with some really stubborn IR.

I ended up returning mine, primarily for the buzz and my room being a little too bright for the UT50--but the IR annoyances did factor in. I'm not a videophile at all really--I just avoid junk brands and use a calibration disc. Other than that I'm not all picky about PQ and getting as close to reference as possible. As long as the picture is clear and the colors, skin tones etc. look ok to me I'm good to go. So I'm a lot happier with the Panny 55ET50 LED I got in exchange as the pic still looks great to me (dark scenes and motion aren't as good as the UT50 in a dark room, but I can live with that) as I get no buzz, can watch it with the blinds open and don't have to give any thought to IR. So I can go back to leaving it on ESPN for hours and not seeing the logo on bright scenes in other content for a few hours afterward like on the UT50.

Who knows. Maybe my set was just defective and got IR too easy. But I've tried plasma twice (a Vizio a few years back when on a tighter budget and the UT50) and ended up returning both due to buzzing (I think I'm just extra sensitive to hearing it and being annoyed buy it) and IR issues. So they're just not for me. Hopefully some day there will be new tech that brings the best of plasma without out the proclivity for buzzing and IR. Until then I'll stick with LED/LCD as being worry free in how I use my TV is more important to me than black levels, motion blur etc. Though I know that's heretical on a site dedicated to A/V enthusiasts.


In any case, I'd go LCD/LED for a primary gaming TV. If you don't need 3D (and not much use for gaming as so few games are in 3D), plenty of 47-50" options in the $700 range.

I've never had any issues with IR other than some slight ghosting after hours of gaming. Watching tv for a bit afterwards always clears it up easily, and I don't notice while watching.

As for buzzing, mine recently started doing this after 7 or so months now. It's caused by a small transformer that's been cracked from heat. (Haven't fully investigated yet, but I've read about this and it's the only logical explanation). But I only hear the buzzing on screens with mostly white content. And even then it's very faint. (Though enough to annoy me.)

All in all, I would rather have a plasma with very faint buzzing on white screens, than have washed out colors, grey blacks, and tiny spotlight LED's shining across the screen (with edge lit). Each has pros and cons of course, but only in bright rooms do the pros of LED TV's outweigh the pros of a plasma. IMHO.

Yeah, it's totally a too each their own thing as far as the pros and cons go. And again there just seems to be a ton of variance even on the same models when it comes to things like how prone they are to IR, buzzing etc. as people post about returning and getting one that's quieter or less prone to IR than their original one. To be expected I guess--with consumer level electronics made in sweatshops quality control and consistency is never going to be top notch.

Anyway, as far as the pros and cons of plamsa vs LED--that again just comes down to one's priorities and pet peeves etc. I'll never be an A/V enthusiast and just want my games, movies, tv and sports on a big screen looking clear and reasonably accurate colors. My hobby is those things, not the equipment I display them on. Not that there's anything wrong with having a hobby of seeking out as close to reference quality audio and video as possible. Just not my cup of tea.

So for me the peace of mind of not having to worry about IR at all, not having buzzing which drives me bat **** insane, and not having to sit in a dark room to enjoy the TV make LED/LCD the better fit for me. I'll freely admit that I liked the plasma picture quality better than the LED I have now (at least in the dark). But that other stuff was driving me nuts and I'd have hated the TV and never been happy with it if I'd kept it. So not being a videophile I'm happy to take the lesser picture--that still looks damn good to me and much better than the RPTV I upgraded from--to have a TV I can just use how I want with zero annoyances.