Best For Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

Best For Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

It's become one of the great home theater rivalries...Plasma television versus LCD. Which one do you buy as the showpiece for your best home theater system? Plasma or LCD?

Maybe it's a guy thing... I'm not sure but when I went shopping for my television, my better half, my gorgeous wife or "she who must be obeyed"... call her what you like, just didn't seem to care what type of television I purchased, Plasma or LCD, just as long as it produced a good quality picture.

Let's make some comparisons about the respective merits of either version. When setting up a home theater center the television is the centerpiece so you want to make sure you get this right. I will list what I consider the advantages of either type.

Plasma Advantages

1. Definately screen size. Plasma tv's are available in size from 32 inches, all the way up to over 100 inches. Certainly an advantage if you prefer the bigger screens.

2. Viewing angle is an interesting debate. Some say plasma while others say LCD. Maybe plasma "by a nose" but there is nothing in it. LCD's have improved markedly though and are rapidly gaining the upper hand in this area.

LCD Advantages

1. LCD tv's are definately tougher and more durable, not that you'll be tossing the thing around the back yard! They certainly hold the upper hand in the "durability stakes."

2. Installation is usually a breeze with LCD's where plasmas require a little more installation know how.

3.LCD's are lighter although this could have something to do with the fact they are smaller however, they are also thinner than plasmas. Whether this is an advantage I'm not sure and in the end, it may be up to "the eye of the beholder!"

As you can see, there is not a lot of difference in my opinion.

Life Span

There is always an argument for and against concerning plasma and LCD life span but to be honest, there is not much difference between either version. You could reasonably expect to get 15-20,000 hours use from either television before backlights need to be replaced however, replacing an LCD part will cost you more than a plasma at this stage of the evolution in technology.

Picture Issues

LCD's are perhaps more consistent in the area of picture brightness during normal conditions of light but under home theater situations, plasma will have the edge.

Pixel issues are again line ball with both plasma and LCD having their for against arguments. Burn-in issues were once a drawback with plasmas but technology in recent years has "levelled the playing field" in this area.

Which Is Best?

I'd rate plasmas as the choice television for a home theater set up. Let's face it, you'll more than likely use your home theater to catch up on plenty of movies. However, with technology advancing so rapidly, LCD's are gaining more and more of a foothold.

What did I buy? Plasma. Why? Because in the end, I got a great deal on a set which was on sale and hard to resist at the price. I'm betting this may ultimately sway your decision as well. And yes, my better half was more than pleased!

Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

Best For Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

Best For Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

It's become one of the great home theater rivalries...Plasma television versus LCD. Which one do you buy as the showpiece for your best home theater system? Plasma or LCD?

Maybe it's a guy thing... I'm not sure but when I went shopping for my television, my better half, my gorgeous wife or "she who must be obeyed"... call her what you like, just didn't seem to care what type of television I purchased, Plasma or LCD, just as long as it produced a good quality picture.

Let's make some comparisons about the respective merits of either version. When setting up a home theater center the television is the centerpiece so you want to make sure you get this right. I will list what I consider the advantages of either type.

Plasma Advantages

1. Definately screen size. Plasma tv's are available in size from 32 inches, all the way up to over 100 inches. Certainly an advantage if you prefer the bigger screens.

2. Viewing angle is an interesting debate. Some say plasma while others say LCD. Maybe plasma "by a nose" but there is nothing in it. LCD's have improved markedly though and are rapidly gaining the upper hand in this area.

LCD Advantages

1. LCD tv's are definately tougher and more durable, not that you'll be tossing the thing around the back yard! They certainly hold the upper hand in the "durability stakes."

2. Installation is usually a breeze with LCD's where plasmas require a little more installation know how.

3.LCD's are lighter although this could have something to do with the fact they are smaller however, they are also thinner than plasmas. Whether this is an advantage I'm not sure and in the end, it may be up to "the eye of the beholder!"

As you can see, there is not a lot of difference in my opinion.

Life Span

There is always an argument for and against concerning plasma and LCD life span but to be honest, there is not much difference between either version. You could reasonably expect to get 15-20,000 hours use from either television before backlights need to be replaced however, replacing an LCD part will cost you more than a plasma at this stage of the evolution in technology.

Picture Issues

LCD's are perhaps more consistent in the area of picture brightness during normal conditions of light but under home theater situations, plasma will have the edge.

Pixel issues are again line ball with both plasma and LCD having their for against arguments. Burn-in issues were once a drawback with plasmas but technology in recent years has "levelled the playing field" in this area.

Which Is Best?

I'd rate plasmas as the choice television for a home theater set up. Let's face it, you'll more than likely use your home theater to catch up on plenty of movies. However, with technology advancing so rapidly, LCD's are gaining more and more of a foothold.

What did I buy? Plasma. Why? Because in the end, I got a great deal on a set which was on sale and hard to resist at the price. I'm betting this may ultimately sway your decision as well. And yes, my better half was more than pleased!

Home Theater - Plasma Or LCD

Panasonic TVs LCD Plasma

But today we're making an exception for Panasonic's. Why? For the very good reason that it's the first TV in the UK with a built-in tuner for receiving the new Freesat satellite broadcasting service. Which also means, of course, that it's the first TV in the UK with a built-in high definition tuner. Now can you appreciate why we find Panasonic Plasma TV  so interesting? Thought so.   From the outside, though, you wouldn't know anything particularly revolutionary was going on. The Panasonic Plasma TV  looks pretty much the same in its neat if uninspired gloss black livery as other current Panasonic TVs. Or at least it looks the same from the front…  . Turn the TV round and there's an immediate difference to normal TVs in the shape of a satellite tuner jack. This is, of course, where you screw in your feed from your Freesat satellite dish, and it sits alongside a more standard RF tuner port able to receive both Freeview digital and analogue terrestrial broadcasts. In other words, the find Panasonic Plasma TV  is also the UK's first TV with three different tuners.  If you're thinking there's not much point in having a Freeview tuner as well as a Freesat tuner in the Panasonic Plasma TV  , Freeview actually carries a number of channels that Freesat does not, including Sky Sports News, Nuts TV . So Panasonic is just making sure that if there's a free broadcast TV channel available in the UK TV.

Performance
It would be a great pity after all this up-front finery if the find Panasonic Plasma TV    performance let the side down. But in fact it makes Free sat broadcasts look just about as good as it's possible to get them. Colors are vibrant and natural with HD footage too, video noise is practically non-existent, and in typical Panasonic fashion, dark scenes enjoy black colors that actually look black, rather than the cloudy grey exhibited by many rival flat screens.  Turning to standard definition, things don't look quite so rosy. Images can look quite noisy, and sometimes a little soft. But to be fair to the find Panasonic Plasma TV  ..  . The only 'real' issue we had with the find Panasonic Plasma TV  performance concerns its Intelligent Frame Creation system. For this can cause one or two image artefacts, such as flickering edges and even ghostly 'second images' of fast-moving objects such as cricket balls. But at least you can turn the feature off if it's really badly affecting something you're watching.

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