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Incredible amount of disinformation on this board regarding plasmas.

Posted by Tom §. (A) on September 27, 2002 at 06:08:35

In Reply to: Re: I guess I'd better clarify a few things... posted by larryI on September 27, 2002 at 05:24:16:

1) I hate stretch mode for 4:3 pictures and I've seen burn-in on a set that was only occasionally used in 4:3 mode

If a plasma set is run hard with the white level turned all the way up (as it most likely is on a showroom floor) then there is a higher chance of creating image retention. *However*, turning the white level down to a reasonable level goes a long way in reducing the chance of image retention. Also keep in mind there is also the temporary burn-in effect as well. This can be alleviated with an image reversal pattern or a scrolling white bar (I think running the same 4:3 material with reversal would be more effective). BTW, thanks for mentioning which model it was that you saw this on. [/sarcasm]

2) I have seen sets with a bad pixel (dead - not too bad, always on - really annoying),so I am not confident about their reliability ($5,000 for an extended warranty also suggested that dealer expected problems)

Stuck pixels were a problem with earlier plasma models. I'm not talking about last years models but the models long before that. The manufacturing process has tremendously improved since that time and this (and last) years models have virtually no reports of stuck pixels. As for the dealer, the amount that he's asking for doesn't indicate his confidence level. Even then, $5000 can get you another plasma display right now with over a thousand dollars to spare.

3)I am concerned about the amount of heat these sets generate.

And CRT's don't generate buttloads of heat as well? GMAFB!

(a bit orange where color should be red) and excellent resolution. But, they suffer from fairly severe motion artifact, and problems with detail in shaddows and odd colors in darker scenes, obvious pixel structure at viewing distances of up to 10 feet, and annoying noise in solid areas (looks like millions of agitated ants).

Let's take this one step at a time:

Color "problems": This is not an inherent problem of plasma technology. The color gamut of ntsc material isn't real difficult to achieve and nearly every plasma display currently produced can achieve this color gamut w/o problem. The real issue here is color adjustment. Even then plasmas aren't the only display that can have misadjusted color. There are a *shitload* of consumer CRT televisions with severe red push problems in their color decoders as well as incorrect white color temperature.

Motion artifacts, blockiness in dark areas: In nearly every case that I've seen of this nature, it has been verified to be on the source material itself (using a dvd-rom and a CRT color monitor). Believe it or not, plasmas are making the SHIT transfer quality of quite a few DVD movies more visible (especially those with EE). Even the HD feeds you see on showroom floors have motion artifacts due to the compression used. I'm willing to concede that plasma models from 3-4 years ago may have suffered from motion artifacts due to unrefined drive methods and poor scalar circuitry. However, this is not a problem with current plasma sets.

Pixel structure: hell, I could see the shadow mask seperation on my 27" CRT from 6 feet away. I can also see the pixel structure on my 18" 1280x1028 LCD monitor. If you *look* for pixel structure you will find it on every display. I even saw it while looking at dark scenes on a RP DLP (a 1st gen single chip panasonic unit).

In a nutshell, plasma displays have improved tremendously in the last few years and this years models from the big consumer names (panasonic, NEC, fuji, pioneer) have shown that plasmas are now competitive with CRTs in the image quality department and may even be better due to no geometry problems.

Tom §.

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