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In Reply to: Re: What should I buy ?plasma vs. projector ? posted by Rod M on March 25, 2004 at 09:49:37:
Plasmas on the market are now rated to about 60,000 hours before the light output is half of what it was when new. Models released in the last two years were rated to about 30,000 hours -- the same rating for CRTs. Will it be of no use at 30,000 hours? Of course not! Along the way, you'll just nudge the brightness and contrast controls a bit. To put that into perspective, 30,000 hours = 4 hours a day for 20 years.Consider the fact that most people get a new TV every 7 - 10 years and I believe you will get my point. Even if the estimates are off by 25%, that still comes out to 15 years for a plasma to the half brightness point.
What precautions are in your best interest? You don't need an ISF calibration for a plasma (unless you want one), but you should get a copy of Digital Video Essentials or Avia to calibrate the display. Actually, this should be done for any display type -- not just plasma.
If you are a heavy gamer, watch mostly 4:3 aspect ratio material and don't want to stretch it to 16:9 or use your display for computer use, plasma is probably not for you. Although, if you read many of the comments in the Plasma and Flat Panel LCD Displays section of AVS Forum, this doesn't stop many people from doing just that.As for prices, you can get a 50" Panasonic TH-50PHD6UY, Sanus Systems VMPL2 wall mount and Panasonic DVI-HDCP card with a DVI cable delivered for $6175.
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Why don't you need an ISF calibration for plasmas ?Sure geometry and convergence problems don't exist with plasmas but they still have problems with colour temperature and gray scale tracking.
Unless you bought a new Loewe Spheros which has a great on-board colour calibration system.
BTW would you happen to know how the Loewe system auto-calibrates ?
I didn't mean that plasmas, or any displays for that matter, are perfect out of the box. It's just that the last 10% costs and very few people are willing to put out $300 - $400 when the picture they see looks great to them. The majority of the people that buy displays, including plasma buyers, won't really care about an ISF certification.I'm not anti-ISF calibration. I was just putting things into perspective for "most folks". The important part is that a calibration disc is necessary to get things at least close to what they should be and lower the risk of damaging the phosphors in a CRT or plasma.
I know very little about the Loewe products except that they are over-priced. Same as Runco's and Faroujda's plasma offerings.
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