LCD or Plasma?

[Pjam2003]

Im lookin to get a tv for my room, as my new room when built will be on a 3rd floor i doubt i'll be able to get a 36inch crt up the stairs due to the size and weight. So Im lookin down the much more expensive route of plasmas/lcds (no bigger than 37"). I work in John Lewis and the ones we sell dont seem to be very good quality but i hear lcds/plasmas with resolutions of 1024x768 are very good. Im only gonna be usin it for games and dvds not for watchin tv. So could someone reccomend any good quality lcds or plasmas if possible no more than ?3000. I've been told to go for an lcd rather than plasma due to better quality but i dont know if its true or not.

Phil.

[Super Stu]

Both plasmas and LCDs have superb picture quality. So much so that unless you supply it with a good picture, it'll look ****. High definition, quality ****, that is.

Consider the rest of your kit before you buy such a device.

[Pjam2003]

Well for sound its going through a marants surround sound amp with a B&W 5.1 system (cost me a bomb). As for whats gna be hooked up to it im havin my ps2, xbox, gc, dc and dvd player (which supports component) hooked up to it.

If you think its better to go for CRT I think i can only get a 28 incher in me room due to the width of the stairs and the weight of CRTs being a bitch.

Phil.

[Brats]

Generally, LCDs are better than Plasmas, but neither offer the quality of a really decent CRT TV imo, although the gap is getting closer.

The main advantage of Plasmas etc isn't realised in the UK, because we can't get high definition images, unless you buy an expensive upscan convertor. High end CRTs now offer prog scan which will beat any Plasma for clarity and depth of image.

If you're worried about getting a TV up the stairs, buy from a place like John Lewis who will deliver a TV to whichever room in the house you want it (provided it will fit through doors etc). Measure the gaps first.

If you are really against a CRT, then I'd consider a decent projector. Huge screen image, fantastic quality and easy to get up stairs . Decent models do require some maintenance and a proper installation, but the results are worth it.

[Tom Salter]

Moved to QA, it'll get the attention it needs here

[mid]

The main difference between LCDs and Plasmas, as I recently discovered when I went investigating myself (I'm currently dreaming of getting something bigger than my 28" CRT, but my wife thinks its pointless) is that LCDs get horribly, horribly expensive once you get up to about 30". You can get a much bigger plasma for the same price as a given LCD.

Given the size you're looking at, I'd recommend you take a look at the same Philips 37PF9965 as its got some really good reviews, Pixel Plus is the best de-interlace method I've seen outside stupidly expensive ones, its got no less than 3(!) RGB SCART inputs and is a good ?1000 less than the 42 inch version - the going rate seems to be around ?3000 online once you've included shipping.

[eASY aDDICT]

I have been looking at the new Toshiba Stasia range of LCD's

Take a look at some of them...

Cheers,

eA.

[gIzzE]

buy somthing like a panny pw5 or 6 without the tuner box and then get a scaler, search for info on the lumagen Vision.
this will give you stunning results, the tv tuners are crap that come with the plasmas.
A well set up plasma will give stunning images, unfortunaly though, it will show up how bad our digital tv system is. but run sky through a line doubler or a scaler at the native resolution and it will be pretty good.
you will at least be able to run your games progressive or in hi-def, but if you want films in hi-def then you will have to import a d-theater machine, more money

[mid]

If you're even considering running a PC through the thing, make sure you check out DScaler - some of the most impressive de-interlacing and scaling I've seen on anything, and its a free program for the PC. Makes my Star Wars laserdisc look absolutely amazing. While most PC-based HT options suffer because its a nightmare to find any cards with RGB Scart or component support, thats not an issue for laserdisc, which is natively composite anyway.

[quexex]

If you're even considering running a PC through the thing, make sure you check out DScaler - some of the most impressive de-interlacing and scaling I've seen on anything, and its a free program for the PC. Makes my Star Wars laserdisc look absolutely amazing. While most PC-based HT options suffer because its a nightmare to find any cards with RGB Scart or component support, thats not an issue for laserdisc, which is natively composite anyway.

Sorry to go off topic with this a bit but what does this DScaler do...I have just watched SW on laser disk for the first time and the picture was dissapointing, is there anything I could do with a normal RGB wide screen TV a PC and a laserdisk player?, got to say though the surround sound on SW is really good it's just a shame the laserdisk players I've borrowed only has Dolby PL not 5.1 (alhtough there is a cludge available to get 5.1). The rest of this thread has proved enlightening...although I swear by CRT myself, but I'm always so tempted by the plasma screens good to get some decent info on the best way to get the most out of them...also you guys mention TV decoders...do you need one if you have FreeView or SKY?

Cheers

Quexex

[mid]

DScaler is an open source de-interlacer and resolution scaler for the PC that does a better job than most of the hardware ones you can buy for less than a fortune. Its not going to make your watching of Star Wars on a CRT much more impressive, as the only help it could be would be in faking an anamorphic signal, but if you're watching it on a natively progressive display unit (like plasma, LCD or a projector) then its a godsend.

Out of interest, which version are you having image complaints about? The THX releases, while the best 'original' trilogy release by far (with the exception of the almost identical transfer in the Definitive Edition CAV box) still come a fair way short of the picture you get of the glorious NTSC Special Edition box. But then you get the whole Greedo shooting thing, so its a tradeoff either way.

Re: the TV decoders question, yes and no. Let me make a comparison with audio recievers. You may not need one with a built in radio (read arial connection), but you still use the preamp (i.e. what the rest of the box does). Unless you plan to use your PC for everything, you'll still want it to switch inputs, apply brightness/contrast/colour balance to signals, and convert the 576i output of Sky and your consoles to the native format of the screen.

[NeilMcRae]

LCD better than plasma, MY ARSE! CRT's remain the benchmark but try finding a 42 or 50 inch CRT, and then find a small sized third world country to get the space you need to install it. If you have the space get a CRT projector, you simply can't beat it.

However, for the time being:

AVOID LCD AT ALL COSTS!

LCDs at the moment are abysmally bad for anything media related. They have significant refresh rate issues, they are rediculously expensive and the colours on them are typically washed out. In the past year I've spent a massive amount of time finding an LCD that does as good a job on games and films that my Plasma does. They simply don't exist. The best LCD is still atleast 2 generations away from the quality of a plasma screen. Sony has come close with its new 32inch LCD screen but check the price of it and there are still refresh rate issues. Sharp, Samsung and Panasonic are also close but refresh rates are still very questionable.
Refresh rates don't impact every application but on games its a big big issue. Imagine playing Halo on a badly tuned in TV where you have a ghost image of moment on the screen and you will understand the issue that I'm referring too. On games that tend to move the whole screen its totally unplayable, on strategy games or puzzle games its not so bad but forget games like Halo, Doom and Metroid Prime on an LCD - it will not do them justice.

Plasma isn't perfect, colours tend to be a little bit solarized but in recent models from Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi and Fujitsu's latest generation have made real steps to deal with this issue, and if you properly calibrate your setup you won't notice it and its really only an issue when watching TV. Contract ratios are now equally as bright as CRTs and they work better in sunlight. Plasmas can suffer from screen burn if you do something stupid but as long as you don't leave the same image on the screen for hours on end you are ok. Where plamas shine is when you plug a console into them. Jeez! Do they look good. Everytime someone sees my Plasma with a console plugged in they are stunned by it. Particularly, for some strange reason, Gamecube games in progressive scan format seem to really make the plasma shine, Metroid Prime, Soul Caliber, Mario Golf, Zelda and F-Zero GX on my plasma is my idea of gaming heaven.

One thing to note with buying a screen is to ensure that you budget for decent cables and you carefully plan how you plan to connect everything up. I recommend using component video or VGA [DC] as much as possible. And make sure you spend some cash on a decent audio system and DVD player, new superbit DVD's are available and watching them on the plasma is nothing short couch potato nirvana.

For those interested I tested 9 plasma screens and 26 LCD screens, the best 42/3 inch plasma screen was the Pioneer screen but the difference between the Panasonic was minimal, the screen was bigger [43 inch so wouldn't fit in my space] and the Pio was 2 grand more. I went for the Panny and haven't looked back.

LCD, the best was the new Sony floating glass screen, followed by the Panasonic range [but stageringly NO component in on Panasonic LCDs!],
Sharp was next and then Samsung. Everyone elses screens were abysmal. My house was like aladdins cave when I was testing all of these

Regards,
Neil.

[ExpertKing]

Sorry mate , I have a SONY WEGA LCD and the picture is superb.In 525p or 525i its a blinding picture...

Sadly I have not pushed it to 750p or 1125I but in time ,


(incidently its a Japanese model I have )


Also its interesting to note LCD tv seem to be becoming the forerunner of major Japanese retailers, now that screen sizes arent an issue.

[tankplanker]

I've just got a panny TX-36PD30C and its only a little larger than a 28" panny (at most two inches in length, depth and height).

2 RGB Scarts
1 Component (supporting PAL & NTSC progressive)
2 S-Video Scarts

and its now only ?1500

Picture quality is amazing, as long as you use a decent quality source & interconnects. Same applies for any other type/make of screen that is 36" or over. Digital sources like Sky are the worst ones, they can appear blocky on the lower bit rate channels, like the BBC ones.

[Super Stu]

blocky on the lower bit rate channels, like the BBC ones.

Interesting. On my CRT at least, I've always found BBC1, News 24 etc to be some of the most vivid and sharp pictures on Sky.