Home Theatre Advice and Planning

[Nostromo]

Because of the supposed burn-in problem. Not sure if its a problem anymore.

OTOH, Plasmas are supposed to have a better response time...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Asher please elaberate as to why plasma isn't as good as LCD for video games. I was looking at the avsforum and it seemed like lots of people were buying plasmas instead of LCDs including people who had X-boxes.

Few reasons:
1) Burn in is a potential problem with plasmas by the very nature of the technology -- this is problematic for HUDs
2) Plasmas very seldom offer correct resolutions, eg 1024x768, 1024x1024, etc. These make fonts in games look hideous and/or hard to read

Regarding the response rates -- that hasn't been an issue in LCDs for about two years now, whose response times are more than adequate for the fastest moving materials.

I'm sure many people with Xboxes will buy plasmas, but it's not the best pairing of technologies. As far as I'm concerned, if you're doing PC or video game stuff with a monitor it should be a LCD monitor with proper resolutions and lack of burn-in. If all you wanna do is watch DVDs or TV, then plasmas are probably fine.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Flubber
I have looked a bit and am somewhat concerned with some of the recurring problems and lack of customer service cited

I've seen a lot of recurring problems (namely the lockup issues) that everyone seems to agree was corrected in the latest firmware. The support, as I've read it, has been prompt and excellent.

[Nostromo]

I wonder how SD content looks on a 1080p, especially DVD's. 99% of all DVDs on the market right now are SD and I don't expect the numbers going up anytime soon. More to point, I don't expect that movies or TV series filmed in SD will look better in 1080p. Unless the scalers in DVDs or TVs can work miracles, they'll most likely look worse.

[Asher]

I've watched SD on a HD CRT for years -- SD looks pretty terrible on high-res displays.

That's why you watch HD.

[Nostromo]

I've watched SD on a HD CRT for years -- SD looks pretty terrible on high-res displays.

I was about to say that the principal advantage of CRT's is that your not stuck with one resolution. Couldn't you drop the screen resolution to 480i or 480p with your CRT?

That's why you watch HD.

Alas, HD content is not worth all the money you put in the TV, IMO. Basically, all I care about is playing DVD's. If "2001: a space odyssey" or "Apocalypse now" both look like crap on HD TVs, I don't see the point in getting one.

[Asher]

I own all of about 4 DVDs, all music concert DVDs, so I'm not concerned.

And you can change the resolution of the CRT, the problem is the resolution is driven by the set top box. It's possible to go into setup and change the resolution every time you switch to/from an HD channel, but it's a pain.

If you're concerned about DVD quality, buy an upconverting DVD player -- that'll look even better than DVD on a nice SDTV.

[Dinner]

I own a bunch of DVDs which is annoying because if I want to migrate to HD-DVD (not a cheap option) then I will have to repurchase movies I already own and that assumes HD-DVD versions are even for sale.

[Asher]

You don't have to repurchase the movies you already own, just watch 'em in 480p.

[Nostromo]

I only own a couple of DVDs. But the selection of HD titles will remain slim for years to come. And the format war will not help. Zip has currently a selection of about 51 000 DVDs and they're now starting to offer Bluray and HD-DVD titles. It will take a long time before they can offer a selection of 50000 HD titles. I guess the solution would be a good upconverting DVD.

[LordShiva]

Burn-in hasn't been a problem on plasmas for a while now.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Asher

I've seen a lot of recurring problems (namely the lockup issues) that everyone seems to agree was corrected in the latest firmware. The support, as I've read it, has been prompt and excellent.

It was the lockup problem and I agree it seemed to be solved but I was struck by the thread with the poll where out of something like 80 voters, about 1/3 had problems and none of them were had received a response from customer service-- many after a couple of weeks. Perhaps they were all ignored until a solution was brought forth .

[Asher]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Burn-in hasn't been a problem on plasmas for a while now.

AFAIK, that's nonsense.

New plasmas have "game modes" that drastically lower the brightness of the display and try to subtly move around pixel locations to prevent burn-in, but the manuals still say 25 minutes per gaming session at most to prevent damage...

[Nostromo]

According to Wikipedia,

Older panels were subject to screen burn-in, though for modern panels this effect is caused simply by polarization of the gas particles and can be removed by leaving the screen on a 'snow' or static channel for an hour, depolarising the gas particles.

And according to the plasma tv guide website,

LCD technology is not prone to screen "burn-in" or "ghosting" (premature aging of pixel cells) due to the nature of the technologies “twisting crystals.”

With plasma displays, static images will begin to "burn-in," or permanently etch the color being displayed into the glass display element. The time it takes for this to occur depends greatly on the anti burn-in technology of the manufacturer. Recent improvements by plasma manufacturers have certainly extended the time it takes to burn in a plasma pixel cell. In the past I was concerned to place a DVD on pause 15 minutes. Now, many of the enhancements such as better green phosphor material, and motion adaptive anti burn-in technology are greatly reducing the risk of burn in. It’s gotten so much better that I don’t even worry about it anymore. In a new model plasma from any top tier manufacturer I would put “ghosting” estimates at an hour or more now (Ghosting can be “washed” out by displaying static gray material). Permanent burn-in I would put at more than 10 hours.

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/plasma-vs-lcd.html

Click on the link for a comparison of both technologies.

[Asher]

That seems like a lot of maintenance and precautions you need to take and it's still not guaranteed, especially on "entry level" plasmas.