Are consumer plasma tv's good enough?

J

jdv

Well-known member
Hey you guys -

Went up to a Circuit City today to price out some comsumer plasma screen tv's.

For an Hitachi 42' inch HD Plasma (w/ something like 1250/720p resolution) they wanted $2500.

For a 50 inch Zenith HD Plasma (w/similar stats as above), they wanted three grand.

My question is: Are these consumer tv up to the task of watching/monitoring the HVX in either 720p or 1080?

They sure did look nice....Thanks!

John
 
In my opinion, nope. If it isn't natively 1920x1080, I don't want anything to do with it. 1080 displays have been around for years now; manufacturers need to realize that content is vastly approaching that demands a high resolution panel, and the stuff they're selling now just doesn't cut it.

My guess is you'll start to see a lot more 1080 displays in the coming year, but they'll probably carry pretty hefty price tags. That neat little 1080p Blu-Ray player is going to make a lot of people dissapointed when they find out their screen isn't even capable of half the resolution it can put out.
 
Haakon said:
In my opinion, nope. If it isn't natively 1920x1080, I don't want anything to do with it.
My guess is you'll start to see a lot more 1080 displays in the coming year
Click to expand...

same opinion here - and two innovations will be introduced in the market:
1) SED-screens (contrast from 10'000 :1 up to 100'000 :1 and less power consumption)
2) cell-chips will be integrated in the screens to support HDTV

Both innovations will a) pull the prices for actual plasma and lcd-models down and b) be a pretty nice alternative for people who are just not satisfied by the actual technology.

And Hakoon is right: 1920x1080 can be a MUST too for many of us, and it's still too rare and therefor expensive.
 
I think we all have to wait for OLED or even polyLED displays to obtain the best possible image quality. Behind the horizon there will be flexible polyLED displays !!!!!

cici said:
same opinion here - and two innovations will be introduced in the market:
1) SED-screens (contrast from 10'000 :1 up to 100'000 :1 and less power consumption)
2) cell-chips will be integrated in the screens to support HDTV

Both innovations will a) pull the prices for actual plasma and lcd-models down and b) be a pretty nice alternative for people who are just not satisfied by the actual technology.

And Hakoon is right: 1920x1080 can be a MUST too for many of us, and it's still too rare and therefor expensive.
Click to expand...
 
Cees Mutsaers said:
I think we all have to wait for OLED or even polyLED displays to obtain the best possible image quality. Behind the horizon there will be flexible polyLED displays !!!!!
Click to expand...

I thought that OLED = SED ..... but I guess there is a slight difference that I couldn't understand yet...

I just read that OLED will mostly replace small LCD screens and SED will replace large Plasmas
 
OLED and SED are actually completely different technologies. OLED is already in the market in some cases (indeed replacing small LCDs) whereas SED is just starting to appear on the horizon. They are both expected to offer similar contrast ratios (well above current LCD technology).

Right now, plasmas tend to have better contrast than LCDs, but I believe it is more difficult to make plasmas with extremely high resolutions, hence EDTV resolutions and such. However, if viewed from a certain distance (I believe greater than 1.5 times the screen width) it becomes difficult to tell the difference between an EDTV plasma and one with much higher resolution.

Personally, I would prefer some sort of front projection system, as they are capable of very good specs (contrast) as well as huge diagonals (120").
 
I'm not necessarily saying this is good for monitoring, but I'm amazed by how many people don't explore the rear-projection LCD or DLP sets. These aren't you're old-fashioned rear-projection sets, these are really nice TV's at significantly lower price points than pure plasma or LCD's are. They are still flat screen, widescreen, and my 50" is only 18" deep and under 90 lbs (weighs less than my 27" TV, LOL). Sony makes some really good LCD versions (again, NOT the "typical" LCD, the rear-projection LCDs) and Samsung makes some decent DLP ones. What's nice about going this route is you don't spend as much money, so upgrading later when better and better technology becomes available won't bother you as much. I've owned a Panny for 2+ years now, and it is true 720p resolution, and it looks AMAZING. Now yeah, it effectively downrezes 1080i but pretty much everything that isn't native 1080p does too, so whatever. What you have to ask yourself is whether this needs to be a production monitor for editing, or is this for home entertainment, or both. Tought call...
 
cici said:
And Hakoon is right: 1920x1080 can be a MUST too for many of us, and it's still too rare and therefor expensive.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I'd totally agree with that. I got an inexpensive 1080p 37" Westinghouse LCD for about $1,600. I realize that LCD's don't have the contrast you really need to critically look at HD, but it sure makes an amazing computer monitor!
 
Samsung 1080P DLP rear projection is the way to go right now if you need anything over 36" in size.

The 1080p Plasma's are WAY TOO expensive now, not to mention the shelf life to cost ratio SUCKS.

I just spent 10 days working at CES, the OLED and SED technology is still a couple years off in large size, affordable options.
 
Everyone - thanks for the info.

Not sure we can wait though - we're supposed to be up and running by March -April at the latest.

Just spoke w/ sales guy at circuit city who said that hey'll honor the internet price in store (the 'net prices are often quite a bit lower for some reason).

$2600 for a 50" 720 HD plasma screen seems like a pretty good price to me.... Or am I missing the boat on this one?

Thanks 4 all the feedback,
John
 
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