[Mattammo]

I am considering a Plasma or LCD for my main television. I have ambient light in the room, and am wondering about glare and other issues that may associated with this.


Which is better for this situation: Plasma? or LCD?


Any advice or thoughts is appreciated,


Mattammo

 

[DBLASS]

LCD with have lower reflection which will dilute the colors far less. HOWEVER, from what I have read on this site, you will hear a million different answers.


DB

 

[MitsuDude]

LCDs generally have a matte finish screen, and plasmas have a reflective front glass, so you will generally get much more glare with a plasma. Our TV room has a big window behind the couch, so LCD was a no-brainer for us.

 

[westa6969]

I owned both in my sunny room and the Panasonic Plasma was history after a week of washed out panel, 24/7 reflections, yellow urinated on whites, a panel if you need a backup mirror to shave in. I took a $500 loss to get that POS out of my viewing room which tells you I'm not too happy as I had Panny Fan Club that simply refuses to be honest about it's shortcomings in a sun filled room where you have tall windows you may not want to turn into a dungeon to view one's HT.


It burned me that I sought advice on this forum before I made that purchase some 16 months ago and PDP dominated this forum then and I've fought to offer advice that simply warns and says evaluate your viewing conditions in your home as the store is not going to replicate it - consider this and the deficiencies to prevent another member from making the same mistake due to fanclub advice. If you understand these deficiencies and still prefer PDP then Bravo go for it! I'm not interested in a recruitment towards LCD Fans just a realization of how ones viewing environ can ruin the HT experience and it's not fun throwing away hard earned money because you followed the Pied Piper Panny Fan Club that dominated this forum then. Besides I find the Pioneer a better panel IMO and the new Samsung 73 series has added filterbright II to give PDP an LCD Look.


With quality LCD I get a viewing into (more 3D) the panel feel and with the Plasma it was like looking at a flat surface due to the reflective surface. I'm not saying LCD has no impact from sun but damn the Plasma was unwatchable and washed out on sunny days - especially a dark movie or sports. I saw so many deficiencies comparatively to the LCD and SXRD I also owned that I could not stand watching those yellow whites after owning several LCD's with perfected contrasting whites - the same content I'd been viewing suddenly became crappy looking on the PDP and it had to go. While plasma fan's shout to the heavens about Black they fail to ever mention the inferior whites and contrast level goes in both directions not just one especially with ambient light. JMO

 

[DBLASS]

You are singing my song. Think about the history of the "horse race" between LCD and plasma. Plasma had a big headstart in regards to size. LCD had to invest tons of money to develop "wafer steppers" large enough to make cost-effective 42" LCDs. Once they could catch up to plasma, plasma then had to "attack" LCDs on "implied" weaknesses. Since LCDs have a backlight on all the time, it needs the polarizers et al, to block the light to make black. Since the industry tests contrast (white level compared to black level) in a darkroom, the LCD has a reasonable low contrast ratio (500 nits divided by about .25/.5 nits). Since plasmas emit NO LIGHT for black, the nit rating for black is essentially ZERO. How many ZEROS go into 500 nits. You can see that if the marketplace likes to compare numbers, tested this way, Plasmas have a much better contrast ratio. Is it fair? Legitimate? Real world? Nope.... but numbers are numbers.


In reality, the internal structure of the plasma is what is reflective. Sure the front surface reflects but it is the internal reflections that really corrupt the colors in a lit room. If you want good plasma, turn off the lights.


DB

 

[SteveRR]

I have both the top rated Panny plasmas & the 4095 Sammy LCD & can tell you that you will be happier with the LCD for what you are doing. Plasmas are noticeably less bright at safe settings, but have much better black levels, making them ideal for low ambient light conditions; LCD can be left at bright picture settings without risk of IR, making them ideal for brightly lit rooms. Not to mention the screen reflectivity advantages the LCD has over plasma.