Plasma TV's

[rfctigerarmy]

In my opinion, a projector would have to be the biggest waste of money. You basically have to watch it without any lights or light at all... The screen isnt even clear..!

 

[mantis]

In my opinion, a projector would have to be the biggest waste of money. You basically have to watch it without any lights or light at all... The screen isnt even clear..!

I always have the lights turned off when I am watching TV, during the day I shut the curtains to make it dark, hate watching TV in light.

 

[Chemical]

Keep beliving that if you will sunshine, but then again if the salesman told you so it must be true?

I will keep believing it, cause its true! It seems to me that you have ran out of logical responses and are resorting to nonsense....

 

[Sexiano Ronaldo]

I will keep believing it, cause its true! It seems to me that you have ran out of logical responses and are resorting to nonsense....

You call your answers logical? I doubt it.

Let us know when you've found an LCD TV/Monitor of reasonable size that's lasted 20 years.

 

[Bomaz_Magic]

If a plasma goes you need to replace the gas thing in the back at $700 although as this will be different to the other two lamps/gas things it will cost $2100 to fix up the plasma. It is common knowledge that LCD are superior to Plasma

 

[Free Willy]

** Projectors are the only choice for economical DVD watching. If you only have one set, and watch stuff during daylight hours, then Plasma is the way to go for the moment. Personally, I'd wait for O-LED technology to ripen and stick to your old CRT. **



CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) A standard TV.

This is what we are all used to. Uses an electron gun to excite a phosphor coating on the screen.
The life expectancy of CRT is a 30% reduction of phosphor brightness every 20,000 hours.
This can be compensated for by adjusting the brightness/contrast settings to a point, giving an expected useful lifetime of approx. 50,000 hours. Basically, if your television is on for 8 hours a day, its half-life would be about 15 years - or, if on 4 hours a day, the half-life would be about 25 years.

One of the problems is that the phosphors are designed to be linear, whereas the sensitivity of the human eye is not. As the phosphors fade, the eye sees more of the green phosphor due to the eye's sensitivity to green. Hence, old TVs have a green tinge to the image which most people do not notice until they compare it side by side to a new TV. (The brain does a good job of auto-white balancing.)

CRTs have very high brightness and contrast, and are capable of high resolution images.
The need for a vacuum inside the tube requires thicker glass at larger sizes making very large displays prohibitive. The largest CRT is around 100cm.

Contrast is around 5000:1 or more.

Plasma TV Overview

Plasma television technology is based loosely on the fluorescent light bulb. The display itself consists of cells. Within each cell two glass panels are separated by a narrow gap in which neon-xenon gas is injected and sealed in plasma form during the manufacturing process. The gas is electrically charged at specific intervals when the Plasma set is in use. The charged gas then strikes red, green, and blue phosphors, thus creating a television image. Each group of red, green, and blue phosphors is called a pixel (picture element).

Plasma panels have a 50% reduction (Half life) of around 30,000 hours, Basically, if your Plasma television is on for 8 hours a day, its half-life would be about 9 years - or, if on 4 hours a day, the half-life would be about 18 years.

Plasma panels have a contrast ratio of around 2000:1
Recent technology updates such as the newer Panasonic panels have a contrast ratio of 4000:1

Although Plasma television technology eliminate the need for the bulky picture tube and electron beam scanning of traditional televisions, because it still employs the burning of phosphors to generate an image, Plasma televisions still suffer from some of the drawbacks of traditional televisions, such as heat generation and screen-burn of static images.

LCD TV Overview

LCD televisions, on the other hand, use a different technology.

Basically, LCD panels are made of two layers of transparent material, which are polarized, and are "glued" together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through individual crystals, which allow the crystals to pass or block light to create images. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source, such as florescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become visible to the viewer.

LCD panels will last indefinitely, apart from "dead pixels" due to transistor failures. The backlight however, is the limiting factor and most are rated for around 60,000 hours, Basically, if your Plasma television is on for 8 hours a day, it would last about 18 years - or, if on 4 hours a day, it would be about 36 years.

The main drawback of LCD displays is the low contrast. This makes it difficult to discern detail in areas of shadow, and even the blackest image still has a grey appearance.

LCD has a contrast ratio of 400:1 with the best available at around 700:1

Unlike standard CRT and Plasma televisions, since there are no phosphors that light up, less power is need for operation and the light source in an LCD television generates less heat than a Plasma or traditional television. Also, because of the nature of LCD technology, there is no radiation emitted from the screen itself.



Plasma vs LCD

The ADVANTAGES of Plasma over LCD are:

1. Larger screen size availability.
2. Better contrast ratio and ability to render deeper blacks.
3. Better colour accuracy and saturation.
4. Better motion tracking (little or no motion lag in fast moving images).

The DISADVANTAGES of Plasma vs LCD include:

1. Plasma TVs are more susceptible to burn-in of static images.
2. Plasma TVs generate more heat than LCDs, due to the need to light of phosphors to create the images.
3. Does not perform as well at higher altitudes.
4. Shorter display life span (about 30,000 hours or 8 hrs of viewing a day for 9 years) than LCD. This can vary according to other environmental and use factors.

LCD television ADVANTAGES over Plasma include:

1. No burn-in of static images.
2. Cooler running temperature.
3. No high altitude use issues.
4. Increased image brightness over Plasma.
5. Longer display life (about 60,000 hours - at which time all you may need to do is replace the light source, not the entire set). This can vary according other environmental and use factors.

DISADVANTAGES of LCD vs Plasma televisions include:

1. Lower contrast ratio, not as good rendering deep blacks.
2. Not as good at tracking motion (fast moving objects may exhibit lag artefacts).
3. Not as available in large screen sizes above 37-inches
4. Although LCD televisions do not suffer from burn-in susceptibility, it is possible that individual pixels on an LCD televisions can burn out, causing small, visible, black or white dots to appear on the screen. Individual pixels cannot be repaired, the whole screen would need to be replaced at that point, if the individual pixel burnout becomes annoying to you.
5. LCD televisions are much more expensive than equivalent-sized Plasma televisions.



Projectors:
Here is an even more diverse subject!

Apart from CRT projectors, the main drawbacks are lamp life, and brightness.
Lamp life is usually in the order of 800 - 3000 hours. Lamps cost between $300 - $800 dollars.
Brightness is not comparable to any of the display types above. This is due to losses inevitable in reflecting off a surface, and the larger image sizes that are inherent with projector technology. (Newer screen technologies are being developed to assist with increasing light reflectivity).
However, the image will brighten if a smaller image is projected. This follows the inverse square law, in that an image that is twice as wide is four times as dim.

Brightness output of projectors is a function of the bulb and size of the unit. Projectors are available that are adequate for stadium use and other very large venues, with a price-tag to match. Brightness ranges from 700 lumens to 8,000 lumens.

There are three main types of projectors:

LCD
Here, the LCD panels suffer the same contrast and motion issues as LCD displays. The use of three separate panels (RGB) allows greater brightness at added expense.
High resolution panels are available, and colour output quality of the latest generation projectors is superb.
The need to run circuitry between the pixels requires a small gap between the individual pixels that results in a fine "screen door" effect.
LCD has a contrast ratio of 400:1 with the best currently available at around 700:1

CRT
These are generally considered to be the best available for colour, contrast and life expectancy. Using high intensity CRT tubes, they have a 20,000 hour operational life.
Collimating the three tubes into a single image is time consuming and thus these projectors are not portable. Which is a good thing as they are also very heavy and large.
Contrast is around 5000:1 or more.

DLP
Digital Light Processor technology uses a small, square chip that has thousands of tiny mirrors that can be angled in two directions. The tiny squares have pivots on opposite angles. Intensity is controlled by oscillating the mirrors on/off axis to create the desired light level. Because the mirrors are so close together on the chip, the "screen door" effect is negligible.
The current method of applying colour to the image is to send the output through a rotating colour wheel of RGB. This can cause some people to see "rainbow" patterns in fast moving images. This is largely addressed by increasing the speed of the colour wheels to combat visual latency.
3 panel DLP projectors will eliminate this problem.
Because the DLP reflects light rather than filtering it (as in an LCD) the contrast ratios and brightness are generally higher for a given bulb type and price bracket.
Contrast is around 2000:1 or more.



The Future:
Organic LED technology is exciting due to the fact that O-LEDS are bright, efficient, self-luminescent, and can display all colours of the spectrum from each pixel, eliminating the need to have RGB components. Current half-life expectancy is 10,000 hours. This will rapidly increase if adopted by display manufacturers as advances in manufacturing take place.

However, the price of Plasma displays is dropping rapidly as mass production and consumer acceptance grows. The race will be on to achieve an attractive price-point. (My estimate is that consumers will fork out when 150cm panels hit $2000) This may limit the development of OLED displays, but they are gaining ground in the portable device arena due to their many advantages over existing technologies (mainly resolution due to needing only 1/3 of the elements), where advances will inevitably flow into larger display technologies.

OLED References:
http://www.usc.edu/org/techalliance/Anthology2003/Final_Crawford.pdf
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/specsformats/organicOLEDsdisplays.php

 

[Chemical]

You call your answers logical? I doubt it.

Let us know when you've found an LCD TV/Monitor of reasonable size that's lasted 20 years.

Let me know when you accept defeat...LCDs do last that long. Im sure you will comeback with a logical answer like 'go back to school' or 'you're wrong sunshine'..Poor effort Ronaldo

 

[Sexiano Ronaldo]

Let me know when you accept defeat...LCDs do last that long. Im sure you will comeback with a logical answer like 'go back to school' or 'you're wrong sunshine'..Poor effort Ronaldo

Hahaha. I'm still waiting for you to direct me to an LCD display that's lasted 20 years.

You're so far behind it isnt funny.

 

[Free Willy]

Hahaha. I'm still waiting for you to direct me to an LCD display that's lasted 20 years.

You're so far behind it isnt funny.

*YAWN*

At the moment.......... CRT

In the hopefully not too distant future (2-3 years) Affordable & progressed O-LED.

 

[raboyle]

4) Most interestingly, if he had to pick any TV for himself, he would pick the 68CM Flatscreen WEGA Sony TV with Digital Set Top Box. Costing around $5,000, as opposed to the LCDs and Plasmas which are around double. Although these weighed roughly 110kgs and were big mommas, as opposed to the LCDs and Plasmas which are just hung on a wall

And that is what i discovered at my recent TV shopping expedition

A 68cm Sony and a STB for five grand? Is he sure?

I would hope not!!

 

[gadj1976]

I've got a plasma and a 5 year warranty.

It's awesome.

I did some research on it before buying it and found that the average lifespan is 30000 hours.

So by my calculations, it should last us about 12 years. By then, the new technology would either make Plasma's a thing of the past or really cheap to replace.

Win win scenario.

 

[Disgustipated]

Ive just installed an LG 44 incher.

Cost me $3500.

Cant wait for the footy season

 

[Mr Q]

A 68cm Sony and a STB for five grand? Is he sure?

I would hope not!!

I'd assume he meant 86cm HD widescreen not 68cm. With a STB they could be up to $5000, although I'd expect you could get them cheaper than that.

I have an 86cm widescreen Sony Wega and it is beautiful to watch even though its only the SD version.

 

[Syd Swan]

I have a 30 inch LCD, and would never go back to a standard tv. It cost just on $4000.00.

 

[raboyle]

I'd assume he meant 86cm HD widescreen not 68cm. With a STB they could be up to $5000, although I'd expect you could get them cheaper than that.

I have an 86cm widescreen Sony Wega and it is beautiful to watch even though its only the SD version.

That sounds a bit more accurate.

I used to sell this gear myself... that's why alarm bells were ringing when I read that post.

Which model 86cm have you got?