Plasma or LCD, help me decide.

[NeilPearson]

I heard LCD pixelation was caused by signal clarity or speed...
(most commonly improper cabling)

For instance if you have a 1080p and the blue ray player...
Even at that high a quality, a fast action movie will not pixelate

Signal clarity on a digital signal should not matter. That is the point of digital, you either get the signal or you don't. You can have noise on the line and it won't make any difference to the picture... that means a $10 generic HDMI cable will give you the exact same picture as a $200 shielded cable. This is just a marketing gimic to sell you expensive cables. Cables are important in the analog world - not so much in digital.

Pixelation is because of low refresh times of the display. LCD's are a lot better at this than they were a few years ago.

Before getting a plasma, look at your room. If there are lots of windows or a lot of light in the room, you might be better off with an LCD. It doesn't matter how great your picture is, how good your contrast ratio is or how awesome your colors are if you can't see them because of the glare from reflections coming off the screen.

Personnally, I have a 47" Vizio 1080p LCD. It's not the best screen out there but for $1600 (Costco), it is the best bang for the buck I could find.

 

[YSK]

Plasmas are tops when it comes to quality,the only downside to it, is that you have to sit relatively square to the TV, angles are definitely a no no when it comes to plasma. So if you have a theatre like room set up, where you can view the plasma with very little angle, then you'll definitely enjoy the plasma more. However LCD's, which have a lower quality that plasmas can be seen from almost any angle. I recently bought a samsung 26" for my room, and even from the side, you can still view the TV relatively well.

 

[maniclion]

Plasmas are tops when it comes to quality,the only downside to it, is that you have to sit relatively square to the TV, angles are definitely a no no when it comes to plasma. So if you have a theatre like room set up, where you can view the plasma with very little angle, then you'll definitely enjoy the plasma more. However LCD's, which have a lower quality that plasmas can be seen from almost any angle. I recently bought a samsung 26" for my room, and even from the side, you can still view the TV relatively well.

My plasma can be seen from either side, while my LCD starts to fade as I move to the side????

 

[maniclion]

Mino and Lee, once you find the tv you're looking for find an online forum that discusses your model and find the optimum settings, there are people out there who actually sit around and fiddle with the different settings until the picture is at it's best, they will tell you +16 Brightness, +7 Contrast, etc, etc....

 

[min0 lee]

Mino, that Panasonic was a nice set but you're comparing apples to oranges with that and the Sharp. The Panasonic was 1080i vs the Sharp which was 1080p. Obviously the 1080i is much less expensive and you can get a very nice 1080i set for $1500.

A lot of people say you can't tell the difference between the two but when I play a blue ray movie I can easily tell the difference and it's well worth the few extra bucks!

You see, forums are good for something.
I didn't even realize there were different, I quickly scanned and didn't see the I-P. Slicksters...

 

[min0 lee]

Plasmas are tops when it comes to quality,the only downside to it, is that you have to sit relatively square to the TV, angles are definitely a no no when it comes to plasma. So if you have a theatre like room set up, where you can view the plasma with very little angle, then you'll definitely enjoy the plasma more. However LCD's, which have a lower quality that plasmas can be seen from almost any angle. I recently bought a samsung 26" for my room, and even from the side, you can still view the TV relatively well.

That's important to me, the way the living room is set up the sofa are in an L shape.

 

[min0 lee]

Mino and Lee, once you find the tv you're looking for find an online forum that discusses your model and find the optimum settings, there are people out there who actually sit around and fiddle with the different settings until the picture is at it's best, they will tell you +16 Brightness, +7 Contrast, etc, etc....

Wow, they get that technical?

 

[Gordo]

You have no idea

 

[min0 lee]

What did I get myself into, I'm still trying to figure out how to eat right and now this.

 

[maniclion]

That's important to me, the way the living room is set up the sofa are in an L shape.

We've had our living room set like that and everyone could see the Plasma tv just fine. What you should do is walk to the side of the tv's you are checking out and see if side fading is an issue.....