Video Asylum

Posted by petew (A) on May 23, 2005 at 15:55:13

In Reply to: Re: If you're our shopping for LCD, DLP, Plasma... posted by three_sox on May 9, 2005 at 05:06:44:

I've used a 42" Panasonic 480p plasma for ~ 4 years now, at least 8 hours/day every day...probably more than that.

I had the set professionally tuned: it was shipped way "hot" from the factory. Had I left my plasma with the factory settings I'm sure it would show some burn by now. What kind of idiot buys a high-end display and then doesn't bother to get it professionally set-up?

These sets currently sell for $1700 new in box.

I still haven't seen anything better, sure, the super-large-screen displays look better in 1080i because you need the up-scaling for such a large display, but the picture is not better, and in fact, it's mostly a lot worse. If you are sitting 10 to 16 feet away, a 42" 480p plasma is as good as it gets. Sure, the 50" plasmas in 720p are nice--if your source is perfect--which it rarely is if you soruce from cable or most "regular" TV feeds. If all I watched was DVDs or off-the-air digital 1080i live feeds (the Olympics were great!!!!) then I'd get a bigger plasma. But from where I sit, about 12-13 feet away, 42" is perfect!

There is no burn-in evident on my set, and the colors are as halicinatingly rich and intense as they were when new.

The Plasma Fatal Flaw: I admit, plasmas do not do the subtle definitions in deep grays/blacks...not like a CRT, but neither does anything else. CRT rules when it comes to Film Noir.

You gotta take care of your set: get it professionally tuned for a few hundred bucks, and you will enjoy it more, AND ...it will last a lifetime. You get what you pay for, so pay for the pro tuning.