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Hi Folks,In April 2001 I wrote a post titled "Plasma TVs and Diary Of A Two Channel Man," about my "conversion" to plasmas, upon seeing the latest Panasonic plasma. I thought I'd write a very late follow up on that post, seeing as I now own one (and I've included link to screen shots of movies playing on the plasma).
When I first enquired about plasmas it was on this forum, where I encountered a lot of skepticism about plasma image quality. "Plasmas are junk," "Plasmas are a life-style choice, not for the serious video enthusiast...." "(Plasma) doesn't even come close to the quality offered by any number of direct view TV's."
People on AV forums and writers often repeated the "fact" that "Plasmas lag behind the images offered by any good CRT display."Yet this was diametrically opposed to what my eyes were telling me about plasmas: that the best of the breed had a life-like trait to the image that I'd never quite seen before from other display technologies (despite my being exposed to many of the best consumer/pro display types during my work in film post production).
So after a lot of research and auditioning (not only of all the plasmas, but of all possible contenders within the 30" to 50" range...Loewe CRTs etc.) I bit the bullet and bought a Panasonic 42" ED ("Extended Definition") plasma last year.
Result: I, along with everyone who sees it, find the picture out of this world. It's image quality chomps, stomps and jumps up an down all over my Panasonic Tau CRT it replaced. Once you get one of these things into your home, and out of the clumsy set-ups you see in stores, it's amazing the image that can be achieved. The richness, depth of image, smoothness of detail, clarity and sheer realism it can conjure never ceases to amaze.
For the heck of it, I used my Canon S45 digital camera to snap shots of various films playing on my Plasma. I varied the source material, from oldie films to many of the reference DVDs most are familiar with.
Surprisingly, the shots acutally captured *some* of the realism and depth of the display. So, for those curious about plasma picture quality I created a "VIRTUAL PLASMA TOUR." Skeptics are welcome too!Take a look 'n tell me what you think. I'd appreciate any feedback...even from the skeptics :-)
There are 14 films in all. I'd advise looking at the "QUICK TOUR" gallery first, and if you want to see extensive shots from any particular film, proceed to the "FULL FILM GALLERIES."
Enjoy (I hope)!
- Rich H
Follow Ups:
There is no question about it, plasma is good. Plasma has being arround for decades. It is not new technology at all. It was made before LCDs.
It was not developed before, cause of technical problems of getting high resolutions. So LCD was pushed for its cheaper price and very low power comsuption. If plasma could be made as low power device, you would never see LCD technology even in your watch.
So far plasma and LCD are the only TRUE flat screens. No other flat screen is flat.
Also plasma appears to be promising that resolutions that are just imagination for CRT, would be achieved. This will not really help anything, but plasma (or something like it) will replace ALL other screens. Bet on it.
My wife, young daughter (2-3/4) and I visited the Torrey Pines State Park interpretative center in San Diego. In one of the rooms, they'd installed a 42" Sony plasma with a Sony DVD player, Onkyo receiver and Polk 5.1 surround sound system. The surround sound was mediocre, but the stunning scenery in the short 10-minute film on the park (digitally photographed and edited) looked absolutely marvelous. I have an ISF-calibrated Panasonic 47WX49 widescreen RPTV at home and I walked away a little jealous. I too, had heard mediocre things about plasma screens but came away extremely impressed with the current SOTA.
That's cool Dalancroft. Just a note: the Sony actually isn't one of the better plasmas out there...Sony has been generally behind the ball in plasma development (they guessed wrong about plasma and have been putting money into other competitive technologies). Anyway, the Sony doesn't have the black levels of other better plasmas, such as the Panasonic brand. If you ever have the chance, check out the Panasonic 42" and 50" models, and especially the Fujitsu 50" model. Verrry nice displays.Rich H.
Wifey was PO'd enough that I'd spent 1900 bucks on the RPTV. Not gonna get tempted into another purchase.Actually, I've worked hard on speaker placement, lighting (professional quality 6500K backlight), seating, etc. and am very pleased with my ISF-calibrated (yes, Gregg Loewen) Panny.
But those flat screens are just so damn cool!
Cool. Hey, I wondered about those 6500K back lights. What do you think, does it enhance the picture quality of your display? I've tried some meager experiments, but have found each time I'm distracted by any lighting other than the screen itself (i.e. I like the movie theater look).Thanks,
Rich H.
BTW, Gregg ISF'd my plasma too!
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