A lot of people buy Sony LCD televisions because they like the Sony brand. Sony gave up on Plasma because they couldn't get the quality control that they desired. I own one of the first Sony Wega tube televisions circa 2000, and Sony got a lot of fans from this line, which it has successfully extended to its LCD lines.
But the biggest problem plasma has is the burn-in experienced with the early sets. Burn-in still plagues plasma -- not because it is a current problem -- but because it used to be a serious problem. And 80-90% of customers associate plasma with burn-in and will not even look at a plasma. I should know -- when I first started looking at HDTV's I didn't even want to look at Plasmas because I was dead-set on LCD because of burn-in. However, after doing a considerable amount of research, I am a proud owner of a 42" non-1080P Panasonic plasma HDTV. I took great care to change the vivid setting to cinema shortly after (within a few days) buying the television, and I watched almost all (90-95%) of programming in 16:9 format for the first 100-200 viewing hours (I stretched 4:3 programs for the first 3-4 weeks) And I will probably buy another plasma HDTV in the next 1-2 years (probably 50" in size, and it will be a Panasonic or Pioneer).
Thank you thank you thank you......... finally some people with smarts and not ignorance.
Yes the biggest PROBLEM with plasma today is BURN-IN!!! I could not have said it better myself but it's not that plasma still has burn in issues, because it absolutely DOES NOT!! but rather people still associate plasma with burn-in. The average consumer has no idea as to what they are buying and why, neither do most best buy employees, but this is how the companies market to them.
A stunning problem with plasma displays is low bit depth. While they have deep blacks if you look at gradated images, such as a street light at night , you see very distinct stair steps.
Many sets get by with the fact most people don't pay attention and most images are to busy for it to be readily spotted. There is also the habit for plasmas ,and cheaper lcds, to add noise to the image to break up such smooth gradients.
If you drive your TV with a computer it really stands out. It's not a limitation of plasma, the sets can produce smooth gradients they would just have to be more expensive.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Leonardo DiCrapio @ Jun 21st 2008 12:43PM
A lot of people buy Sony LCD televisions because they like the Sony brand. Sony gave up on Plasma because they couldn't get the quality control that they desired. I own one of the first Sony Wega tube televisions circa 2000, and Sony got a lot of fans from this line, which it has successfully extended to its LCD lines.
But the biggest problem plasma has is the burn-in experienced with the early sets. Burn-in still plagues plasma -- not because it is a current problem -- but because it used to be a serious problem. And 80-90% of customers associate plasma with burn-in and will not even look at a plasma. I should know -- when I first started looking at HDTV's I didn't even want to look at Plasmas because I was dead-set on LCD because of burn-in. However, after doing a considerable amount of research, I am a proud owner of a 42" non-1080P Panasonic plasma HDTV. I took great care to change the vivid setting to cinema shortly after (within a few days) buying the television, and I watched almost all (90-95%) of programming in 16:9 format for the first 100-200 viewing hours (I stretched 4:3 programs for the first 3-4 weeks) And I will probably buy another plasma HDTV in the next 1-2 years (probably 50" in size, and it will be a Panasonic or Pioneer).
gr689 @ Jun 21st 2008 1:25PM
Thank you thank you thank you......... finally some people with smarts and not ignorance.
Yes the biggest PROBLEM with plasma today is BURN-IN!!! I could not have said it better myself but it's not that plasma still has burn in issues, because it absolutely DOES NOT!! but rather people still associate plasma with burn-in. The average consumer has no idea as to what they are buying and why, neither do most best buy employees, but this is how the companies market to them.
joe @ Jun 21st 2008 2:32PM
gr689
A stunning problem with plasma displays is low bit depth. While they have deep blacks if you look at gradated images, such as a street light at night , you see very distinct stair steps.
Many sets get by with the fact most people don't pay attention and most images are to busy for it to be readily spotted. There is also the habit for plasmas ,and cheaper lcds, to add noise to the image to break up such smooth gradients.
If you drive your TV with a computer it really stands out. It's not a limitation of plasma, the sets can produce smooth gradients they would just have to be more expensive.