Is it still true Plasma's are not as good as LCD's in a bright room?

I have the Panasonic 50" 77U. It has been great in my bright room. I have has both LCD and plasma, so it just depends on your preference! I like my TV picture bright, but now I am enjoying the better blacks of my plasma and for sports, it has been much better than my LCD.

I have a bright room with large windows. No problems at all with the kuro pdp-5080. Like you, I was first set on LCD because of this issue. After trying no less than 4 LCDs I found that while the brightness and matte screen is good, the blur, black level, and colour reproduction are lacking (the blur being the deal-breaker).

The issue with plasmas in a bright room is the glass screen that reflects ambient light. Many sets now have anti-reflective coatings to reduce this. I decided to try the panny 77u and the pio 5080. Both were great in the bright room, but the pio has a better implementation of the AR screen IMO.

I tested the sets side by side...aside from a little lacking on whites, the plasma won hands down for me.

I have a question regarding the reflectivity of plasma screens.

Are they any worse than a glass CRT screen?

I currently have a 32" sony CRT that I will be upgrading to either plasma or LCD, but I keep reading about the reflectivity of plasmas. My CRT screen reflects tons of light, but mostly doesnt bother me for casual watching.

Will a plasma be any worse than this?

On the showroom floor the brightness stands out but in room it would hurt your eyes to watch tv at legth.

Calibrate the tv and whites don't matter (will be the same). Get a plasma if you want better motion reolution, blacks, and color reproduction/saturation.

best advice is to get 2 tv's and see how they do. A friend just did this with a panasonic 5077u and a samsung 5084. He stuck with the samsung. The room has 2 big windows on opposite walls and he's moving from a 32" crt.

so the answer is no and it depends on the person.

Right now, they're arguably worse than CRTs. The large screen collects more light, and they don't have a black matrix/tinted glass. 10lm/W is at least a couple of years off.

LCD is far better for a bright room as far as visibility goes. The images on Plamas start to wash out without much light in the room at all. (I would only want to use one in a darkened room personally)

I have a Th-42PZ77U and for the first time since I went plasma (this is my 3rd) I can watch tv in the early afternoon. Plasma technology is inherently not as bright as lcd...so I would say that lcd still beats plasma in this area. Having said that...I would never compromise and buy an lcd.

Most do. I just saw two Pio Elites(both the 768p and the 1080p) and it was remarkeable how much image they retained as he cranked up the lights. Two spotlights were angled directly at the screen from ~5' and it kept so much of the image it was shocking.

i have just got a Pioneer 508XG and have it set up in living room along side a Philips 42" LCD that I have.
Coming from having 3 LCDs in the past 3 years I was worried that the plasma reflection would be a pain. Although coming from laptop screens with teh glossy look I preffered the gloosy to dull, sort of how plasmas r glossy (and samsung lcds) where most lcds are not.
i haven't had any issues with glare on the pioneer. one thing that amazes me is that the black bezel around the outside wil have reflections on it from say a window but then the picture on the screen has none, almost like it just absorbs the light into the plasma.
2 thumbs up from me as a good screen.

this would be my experience as well. mine is in a pretty bright second story room, and washed out picture isn't an issue...

To answer my own question: I purchased the Samsung FP-T5084 Plasma which has an anti reflective filter and I can say that even though the screen is huge compared to my 32" CRT, the light reflections are not as bad! I still get some from the lamp and some from the around the blinds but its in no way worse than the old CRT, and is probably better as far as ambient room light goes than my old CRT.

I'm glad you're saying this because I just got a 5080, great pic, but I too prefer the brighter pic of the LCD......I haven't watched sports yet......so I'm hoping I enjoy the darker deeper plasma.