I have bought:
a) 2 yr old Panasonic VEIRA 32" LCD,
b) 1 year old LG 32" plasma,
c) 1 month old Panasonic VEIRA 32" LCD.
For a given size plasma is CHEAPER than LCD.
Burn in / ghost images is a real issue with plasma and not LCD.
Motion blur happens on older LCDs specially when watching night scenes on DVD [on cable TV its not as aggravating]
using component video reduces it by almost half but you can still clearly see the blurring
HDMI reduces it further so its subtle [only sudden movements against dark background produce streaking].
TVs are getting thinner and lighter each year [not just cheaper]
my plasma is 5 kg lighter and 1 inch thinner than our oldest LCD.
the new LCD is 1 kg lighter than the plasma and as thin.
The plasma has a reflective screen and produces glare during daytime viewing unless all curtains are drawn.
LCD has ’matte’ screen and are best for daytime viewing.
Plasma will consume more power than LCD at the same screen size
Plasma is ’HD ready’ but LCD is ’full HD’
this issue is irrelevent for me since we don’t have any HD players [blu-ray] or discs
Plasma is not available below 32" [due to technical/manufacturing constraints] but LCD is
in fact you would be hard pressed to find a 32" plasma these days.
CRT has fastest response times followed by Plasma, LCD is the slowest
My benchmark is Rs. 1000/inch and branded 32" dropped below this level over a quarter ago.
Chinese 37" [benQ] have touched this level [without exchange] at Vijay Sales.
My next buy will be a branded 42" for 42 k at 0% emi with 0 fees on a card...
I can wait till the prices/offers drop to this level.
Don’t go by any claimed response times since there are no standards or verification of the times.
https://practical-home-theater-guide.com/lcd-response-time.html
EU has just released standards for measuring these times which include:
- full cycle [black to white to black or BWB] instead of ’half cycle’
also called TrTf or ’Time rising Time falling’
the cycle times are not ’symmetric’ so the full cycle can be 2.5 - 3 times the half cycle!
so a claimed response time of 4ms could have a full cycle time of 9-10ms.
- G2G [grey to grey] measurements since full black to full white takes much less time with hardware assists [cheats] and is not considered ’real world’
in the above example if the ’BWB’ cycle is 10ms, the G2G time would be around 15-25ms for LCD.
Updated Nov ’09:
Viewing life
Many makers claim around 50-60, 000 hours which is misleading for most customers since its a best case in clean, dust-free lab conditions and NOT real world conditions.
Just like the claimed mileage by auto makers is obtained by driving at a steady speed of 50-60 km/h without AC running AND windows up!
Its much better if you look at the cost of purchase to see which amount is lower [between lifespan in hours or cost in Rs].
Now divide this lower amount by 24 hours/day x 31 days/month = 744 hours/month.
The final figure is the realistic life span for us [estimated].
For each month beyond that number the TV lasts, we should consider it a bonus.
Another milestone you can set could be Rs. 1 k/month.
So you have 2 time frames which we can call [for the sake of argument] =
UL [upper limit or average case] - the higher number
LL [lower limit or worst case] - the lower number
Now if the TV gets spoiled is less time than LL months, it was a bad deal.
LL to UL months = average life span.
Above UL months = good life.
At least this is far more realistic than the 15-25 years people estimate based on 6-8 hrs/day of daily viewing time = 10, 000 days or longer.
Here is a specific example for the 3 TVs mentioned above.
Since all were 32" and 60, 000 hours of life it comes down to their costs [all below 60 k]:
a) We get 40 k / 744 hours = 54 months for the old LCD
b) 33 k / 744 hrs = 45 months for the Plasma
c) 27 k / 744 = 37 months for the new LCD
Now we incorporate the lower limits and we get:
a) min of 40 months to avg of 54 mths predicted life
b) min 33 mths - avg 45 mths life
c) min 27 - avg 37 mths
If we assume ’breakeven’ to be the avg life of the TV, then we can estimate the portion of initial cost recovered by simply dividing their ages by avg life:
a) 22 months / 54 = 40% recovered
b) 13 mths / 45 = 28%
c) 1 mth / 37 = 3%