Question:
We have a 32" widescreen TV but the wife wants to upgrade to a 42" plasma, im not so keen as i was under the impression the were just a gimmick as they were flat, but she says theyr better picture quality than our CRT widescreen. are they worth it?? is it better picture quality as i dont want to spend a lot of cash on a plasma just because theyr flat.
Your wife wants to upgrade? LOL, normally its the other way around :)
Anyway, I dont know too much about Plasma's but I thought i'd reply as every little helps!. They are slowly improving and getting cheaper by the day. The main drawbacks (though some are now cured) of plasmas are as follows:
- Can't display Pure Black
- Lifetime is less than a CRT (3 to 5 years i heard)
- The fan's can be noisy
Hope this helps
I wouldn't swap back to a CRT if you paid me!
Blacks ain't perfect but I can live with that
Geometry however IS perfect
My Living Room is now "bigger" - well worth £3K in itself
The fans on my Fujitsu are almost unnoticable - many makes don't even have fans now.
The estimated lifetime of a Plasma screen with 6hrs usage a day is well in excess of 12 years.
Told you my facts were out of date!
I've bin looking for plasma for ages - in the vain hope they'll get cheap - well they are look @ empiredirect. Hours as per the old geek from recent conversations. Geometry - bloody perfect no colour distiortions at the edges. I've beenlooking at Pannies as their contrast ratio is very good. Sony have brought a 32" version which comes in a single unit, unlike the others where the tuner speaks ect are separate - £5000. 37" Panny with judicious shopping was coming inat £4200
Originally posted by wonderpants
We have a 32" widescreen TV but the wife wants to upgrade to a 42" plasma, im not so keen as i was under the impression the were just a gimmick as they were flat, but she says theyr better picture quality than our CRT widescreen. are they worth it?? is it better picture quality as i dont want to spend a lot of cash on a plasma just because theyr flat.
That all depends on the model you go for! The current rolls royce of plasmas are the Pioneers for the brightness, colour and reliabilities, if going for a panasonic save yourself a few hundred squid and get one of the B models (business model, same as consumer but different video board and no media box, and you`ll get a 42" for under £4k with onsite warranty).
Having owned both the Panasonics and the pioneers, I would NOT go back to the panasonic, although the higher cost of the pioneers is a downer. Having said that, Pioneer have just released the 43" & 50" in buisness versions aka panasonic, so will be a fair bit cheaper.
We`ve just taken some JVC plasmas in, which are cheaper then even the NEC MP3 models, so will have a play at the weekend, and let people know, possible bargain forum me thinks:)
I looked at plasma initially but decided that £3-4,000 for an extra 10" wasn't worth it. For the same money, I bought a projector and now have a 92 " screen - it's surprising how much bigger the room seems now that my 32" TV has been moved out!
If you do decide on plasma, buy a good brand, don't go for the cheaper ones available. I was considering the Panasonic but the Pioneer and Fujitsu models were also pretty good.
I've not seen a plasma to rival a decent CRT yet though.
Originally posted by nigel_williams
I've not seen a plasma to rival a decent CRT yet though.
I agree, although I settled on keeping a Pioneer as that was the closest for matching my old pana 36PF10 in terms of quality - NEC and Fujitsu are fine for games, computer use etc, but washed out for domestic use. The pansonics lack the brightness and colour rendition of the newer Pioneers, but the panasonics are now changing to new models next month so expect the new models to be better quality and £500 cheaper. :)
So if the quality isnt as good as a CRT its not worth the money, and they are just a gimmick, ill try and talk her into a projector upgrade or something.
Saying the quality isn't as good as a CRT is very simplistic. OK - blacks aren't as deep and you can get some banding on difficult scenes (if you look very hard), but the clarity and sharpness are up there with the best CRTs, and as I said before, the perfect geometry is worth a lot. (By the way - far from being washed out, I had to reduce the color, sharpness and contrast settings on my Fujitsu below the defaults - just like most CRTs)
Where they beat RPTVs and Projectors hands down is for sheer convenience. I can walk downstairs now and gawp mindlessly at 42" of Big Brother Live without darkening the room or pulling down a screen or in any other way making it a "cinema experience" - I can turn it round if we've got visitors who want to watch MTV2 or whatever from the "other" sofa, and now I can spend even more money on a Prog Scan DVD...
Now prices are falling below the £3000 mark they're rapidly converging with high-end CRTs, so they're far from being "just a gimmick"
I would recommend a projector over a plasma, For 2-3 grand, you have a much bigger and film like image.
Did anyone got to Live 2000? They had a Sharp LCD RP 60" TV there using new technology to imrpove the pictue vastly over old RPTV's. It was showing a High Definition 720P and 1080i demo's. I've never seen such clarity in my life...I want one :D
Originally posted by Justin
hat all depends on the model you go for! The current rolls royce of plasmas are the Pioneers for the brightness, colour and reliabilities
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got to agree with Justin
The Pioneers are just awesome, I had a Demo on sunday and the picture was great.
having said that the Panasonics Looked very tasty as well.
How good is Plasma TV for Gaming and PC (Web Design, Games, Surfing the internet)
Originally posted by Legendary
How good is Plasma TV for Gaming and PC (Web Design, Games, Surfing the internet)
They are really designed for that - theres only Pioneer and Panasonic that have really taken the business displays and changed the to be more user friendly with the appropiate inputs for home users. Oh, and Thompson....
Any plasma used for the above will beat a CRT, the problems are mainly with greys for blacks, although the last gen of Pana and Pioneers have almost resolved that, and as long as you are 6-8ft away you wouldn`t notice:)
Originally posted by Panavision
I would recommend a projector over a plasma, For 2-3 grand, you have a much bigger and film like image.
Which you have to close the curtains for:) Every format has its pros and cons..... Its down to the individual to decide what fits their budget, lifestyle, practicallity and room layour at the end of the day.
I've went to The Good Guys (a very bad rip off retail store chain, where when someone starts nagging me I laugh in their face and say I'll get it online for a few thousand cheaper, they immediately walk off with an angry face) around New Years and plasmas, 42 inch ones, were $15000, so the price has fallen by at least 250% in half a year, it's a good time to buy one. The sure look cool, but I'd like a 60" so will wait, I think only Zenith made one right now, or one that has an acceptable price anyway, so I recommend you wait half a year more and then get it.
I just got back from my local Hi-Fi dealer and they had the Panasonic hooked upto an Arcam DV88 and it looked stunning. Best picture I've ever seen on a plasma, they were showing Hollow Man.
It wasn't even using progressive output, just straight interlaced via component outputs.
All right Justin ( senior member ) it seems you have a line to the inside track on the plasmas - prediction for prices through to Xmas then please. Also you say Pannie is bringing out new models - are they going to be the all in models like Sony?? And in the event some poor dealer ( HAHAHA) wants to unload some of his old style Panni would it still be worth getting or do you reckon go for the new ? ? :brickwall
Originally posted by Justin
We`ve just taken some JVC plasmas in, which are cheaper then even the NEC MP3 models, so will have a play at the weekend, and let people know, possible bargain forum me thinks:)
Justin did you get any play time in over the weekend? would like to know what you think of JVC,
cheers Steve
I took the plunge and bought a Panasonic Panasonic 42PWD4B last October with my end of year bonus. It cost me around £4000. That is with the 17.5% VAT knocked off as I bought it through my business.
I spent a long time auditioning equipment and the display was the last element of my home cinema to be put in place. The main uses for the screen were DVDs and Playstation 2.
When I first went through all the various options at the end of 2000, Plasma screens were not all that much cop, but by the end of 2001 the 3rd/4th generation machines had come to market.
At the time the Panasonic was the best of the displays I looked at by a long chalk. Others auditioned Sony, Philips, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu & Loewe. I didn't look at the 50" Pioneer as it was too big for my garage and out of my price range.
The other large format options could not compete with the Plasma display for quality of image, ease of use etc. I discounted Rear projection TVs very quickly because of there soft image, view angle difficulties and the fact that they still take up a lot of room. They also do not fit in well with the placement of all the equipment as you cannot store things beheath the screen. Also didn't like compromises to centre speaker placement.
I considered CRT projectors, but again they were just too expensive.
LCD and DSP projectors were out of the question. They cannot do black. If you want to play videogames you need very good blacks. I found the picture quality of all of the LCD, DSP projectors I tried very disappointing when placed head to head with the plasma. At the time I was doing the auditions, there were very view 16:9 panel projectors. I'm talking about equipment in the £3000 range.
Although there are some areas in which the 32" CRT TV excels above the plasma panel, these were not great enough to prevent me from taking the plunge. The 60 cms of depth most TVs take out of a room was too much of a compromise next to the differences in the display.
I have been incredibily happy with my purchase. Nothing in the world would make me go back. I put in a lot of effort and research before I made my purchase, spending well over 12 months trying out different equipment.
There is nothing more elegant than having a plasma screen hanging from your wall. Now that the prices have began to really plummet, you should all consider this as an option.
Originally posted by Nick Laslett
LCD and DSP projectors were out of the question. They cannot do black. If you want to play videogames you need very good blacks.
The only way 'around' this problem (and its more of a cheat) is to project onto a grey screen. This really gives the image a much more 3-D look, as black look 100% black, and whites much brighter.
I looked at buying a plasma before my current CRT set and the qulaity just wasn't there. I also demo'd RPTV's and other CRT sets but nothing came close to the Aconda.
It will take alot for me to change from it now and even in five years.
Answers:
Your wife wants to upgrade? LOL, normally its the other way around :)
Anyway, I dont know too much about Plasma's but I thought i'd reply as every little helps!. They are slowly improving and getting cheaper by the day. The main drawbacks (though some are now cured) of plasmas are as follows:
- Can't display Pure Black
- Lifetime is less than a CRT (3 to 5 years i heard)
- The fan's can be noisy
Hope this helps
Answers:
I wouldn't swap back to a CRT if you paid me!
Blacks ain't perfect but I can live with that
Geometry however IS perfect
My Living Room is now "bigger" - well worth £3K in itself
The fans on my Fujitsu are almost unnoticable - many makes don't even have fans now.
The estimated lifetime of a Plasma screen with 6hrs usage a day is well in excess of 12 years.
Answers:
Told you my facts were out of date!
Answers:
I've bin looking for plasma for ages - in the vain hope they'll get cheap - well they are look @ empiredirect. Hours as per the old geek from recent conversations. Geometry - bloody perfect no colour distiortions at the edges. I've beenlooking at Pannies as their contrast ratio is very good. Sony have brought a 32" version which comes in a single unit, unlike the others where the tuner speaks ect are separate - £5000. 37" Panny with judicious shopping was coming inat £4200
Answers:
Originally posted by wonderpants
We have a 32" widescreen TV but the wife wants to upgrade to a 42" plasma, im not so keen as i was under the impression the were just a gimmick as they were flat, but she says theyr better picture quality than our CRT widescreen. are they worth it?? is it better picture quality as i dont want to spend a lot of cash on a plasma just because theyr flat.
That all depends on the model you go for! The current rolls royce of plasmas are the Pioneers for the brightness, colour and reliabilities, if going for a panasonic save yourself a few hundred squid and get one of the B models (business model, same as consumer but different video board and no media box, and you`ll get a 42" for under £4k with onsite warranty).
Having owned both the Panasonics and the pioneers, I would NOT go back to the panasonic, although the higher cost of the pioneers is a downer. Having said that, Pioneer have just released the 43" & 50" in buisness versions aka panasonic, so will be a fair bit cheaper.
We`ve just taken some JVC plasmas in, which are cheaper then even the NEC MP3 models, so will have a play at the weekend, and let people know, possible bargain forum me thinks:)
Answers:
I looked at plasma initially but decided that £3-4,000 for an extra 10" wasn't worth it. For the same money, I bought a projector and now have a 92 " screen - it's surprising how much bigger the room seems now that my 32" TV has been moved out!
If you do decide on plasma, buy a good brand, don't go for the cheaper ones available. I was considering the Panasonic but the Pioneer and Fujitsu models were also pretty good.
I've not seen a plasma to rival a decent CRT yet though.
Answers:
Originally posted by nigel_williams
I've not seen a plasma to rival a decent CRT yet though.
I agree, although I settled on keeping a Pioneer as that was the closest for matching my old pana 36PF10 in terms of quality - NEC and Fujitsu are fine for games, computer use etc, but washed out for domestic use. The pansonics lack the brightness and colour rendition of the newer Pioneers, but the panasonics are now changing to new models next month so expect the new models to be better quality and £500 cheaper. :)
Answers:
So if the quality isnt as good as a CRT its not worth the money, and they are just a gimmick, ill try and talk her into a projector upgrade or something.
Answers:
Saying the quality isn't as good as a CRT is very simplistic. OK - blacks aren't as deep and you can get some banding on difficult scenes (if you look very hard), but the clarity and sharpness are up there with the best CRTs, and as I said before, the perfect geometry is worth a lot. (By the way - far from being washed out, I had to reduce the color, sharpness and contrast settings on my Fujitsu below the defaults - just like most CRTs)
Where they beat RPTVs and Projectors hands down is for sheer convenience. I can walk downstairs now and gawp mindlessly at 42" of Big Brother Live without darkening the room or pulling down a screen or in any other way making it a "cinema experience" - I can turn it round if we've got visitors who want to watch MTV2 or whatever from the "other" sofa, and now I can spend even more money on a Prog Scan DVD...
Now prices are falling below the £3000 mark they're rapidly converging with high-end CRTs, so they're far from being "just a gimmick"
Answers:
I would recommend a projector over a plasma, For 2-3 grand, you have a much bigger and film like image.
Answers:
Did anyone got to Live 2000? They had a Sharp LCD RP 60" TV there using new technology to imrpove the pictue vastly over old RPTV's. It was showing a High Definition 720P and 1080i demo's. I've never seen such clarity in my life...I want one :D
Answers:
Originally posted by Justin
hat all depends on the model you go for! The current rolls royce of plasmas are the Pioneers for the brightness, colour and reliabilities
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got to agree with Justin
The Pioneers are just awesome, I had a Demo on sunday and the picture was great.
having said that the Panasonics Looked very tasty as well.
Answers:
How good is Plasma TV for Gaming and PC (Web Design, Games, Surfing the internet)
Answers:
Originally posted by Legendary
How good is Plasma TV for Gaming and PC (Web Design, Games, Surfing the internet)
They are really designed for that - theres only Pioneer and Panasonic that have really taken the business displays and changed the to be more user friendly with the appropiate inputs for home users. Oh, and Thompson....
Any plasma used for the above will beat a CRT, the problems are mainly with greys for blacks, although the last gen of Pana and Pioneers have almost resolved that, and as long as you are 6-8ft away you wouldn`t notice:)
Answers:
Originally posted by Panavision
I would recommend a projector over a plasma, For 2-3 grand, you have a much bigger and film like image.
Which you have to close the curtains for:) Every format has its pros and cons..... Its down to the individual to decide what fits their budget, lifestyle, practicallity and room layour at the end of the day.
Answers:
I've went to The Good Guys (a very bad rip off retail store chain, where when someone starts nagging me I laugh in their face and say I'll get it online for a few thousand cheaper, they immediately walk off with an angry face) around New Years and plasmas, 42 inch ones, were $15000, so the price has fallen by at least 250% in half a year, it's a good time to buy one. The sure look cool, but I'd like a 60" so will wait, I think only Zenith made one right now, or one that has an acceptable price anyway, so I recommend you wait half a year more and then get it.
Answers:
I just got back from my local Hi-Fi dealer and they had the Panasonic hooked upto an Arcam DV88 and it looked stunning. Best picture I've ever seen on a plasma, they were showing Hollow Man.
It wasn't even using progressive output, just straight interlaced via component outputs.
Answers:
All right Justin ( senior member ) it seems you have a line to the inside track on the plasmas - prediction for prices through to Xmas then please. Also you say Pannie is bringing out new models - are they going to be the all in models like Sony?? And in the event some poor dealer ( HAHAHA) wants to unload some of his old style Panni would it still be worth getting or do you reckon go for the new ? ? :brickwall
Answers:
Originally posted by Justin
We`ve just taken some JVC plasmas in, which are cheaper then even the NEC MP3 models, so will have a play at the weekend, and let people know, possible bargain forum me thinks:)
Justin did you get any play time in over the weekend? would like to know what you think of JVC,
cheers Steve
Answers:
I took the plunge and bought a Panasonic Panasonic 42PWD4B last October with my end of year bonus. It cost me around £4000. That is with the 17.5% VAT knocked off as I bought it through my business.
I spent a long time auditioning equipment and the display was the last element of my home cinema to be put in place. The main uses for the screen were DVDs and Playstation 2.
When I first went through all the various options at the end of 2000, Plasma screens were not all that much cop, but by the end of 2001 the 3rd/4th generation machines had come to market.
At the time the Panasonic was the best of the displays I looked at by a long chalk. Others auditioned Sony, Philips, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu & Loewe. I didn't look at the 50" Pioneer as it was too big for my garage and out of my price range.
The other large format options could not compete with the Plasma display for quality of image, ease of use etc. I discounted Rear projection TVs very quickly because of there soft image, view angle difficulties and the fact that they still take up a lot of room. They also do not fit in well with the placement of all the equipment as you cannot store things beheath the screen. Also didn't like compromises to centre speaker placement.
I considered CRT projectors, but again they were just too expensive.
LCD and DSP projectors were out of the question. They cannot do black. If you want to play videogames you need very good blacks. I found the picture quality of all of the LCD, DSP projectors I tried very disappointing when placed head to head with the plasma. At the time I was doing the auditions, there were very view 16:9 panel projectors. I'm talking about equipment in the £3000 range.
Although there are some areas in which the 32" CRT TV excels above the plasma panel, these were not great enough to prevent me from taking the plunge. The 60 cms of depth most TVs take out of a room was too much of a compromise next to the differences in the display.
I have been incredibily happy with my purchase. Nothing in the world would make me go back. I put in a lot of effort and research before I made my purchase, spending well over 12 months trying out different equipment.
There is nothing more elegant than having a plasma screen hanging from your wall. Now that the prices have began to really plummet, you should all consider this as an option.
Answers:
Originally posted by Nick Laslett
LCD and DSP projectors were out of the question. They cannot do black. If you want to play videogames you need very good blacks.
The only way 'around' this problem (and its more of a cheat) is to project onto a grey screen. This really gives the image a much more 3-D look, as black look 100% black, and whites much brighter.
Answers:
I looked at buying a plasma before my current CRT set and the qulaity just wasn't there. I also demo'd RPTV's and other CRT sets but nothing came close to the Aconda.
It will take alot for me to change from it now and even in five years.
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