Plasma or LCD?

[Grant]

Aniken,

If you decide to go with Sony, let me know. I can sort out a good deal for you

Grant

[Mario Mendoza]

You can get some very decent 120cm 16:9 rear proj units now for round the $3K mark, capable of displaying HDTV

Whilst they do show their limits when compared to lcd plasma, they certainly hold their own when connected to a HD box.

I tossed up the idea of LCD, plasma, rear proj or standard proj for months.

Thought it would be better to get top of the range rear projection unit, than a low spec plasma (samsung, LG etc) for double the price!

They aren't as bulky as CRT and alot of the problems that effected rear projection units in the past have have been "mostly" sorted. viewing angles etc.

Just my point of view.......

[KrasH]

Neither in my opinion.

Plasma's die after a while. Manufacturers give them a half life span, which means when the brightness is half what it is from new. Then you throw them away. LCD unfortunatly isn't up to the task quite yet. Mostly suffering from not so colourful pictures etc.

I'd go rear projection personally. I did, and it's bloody brillient. CRT are the best, but because of the weight of the glass, the screens aren't big enough.

In terms of rear projection, there are 2 basic types. CRT and LCD driven ones. I actually had a look at 2 samsung models, one crt and the other lcd and I must say that the LCD seemed like a sharper picture, but on close inspection you could see the outline of the lcd pixel. I almost forgot. I think there are DLP driven Rear projection TV's (LG I think have some) and these seem to be the best deal. They are as sharp as the LCD rear projections but minus the "pixel outlines".

So avoid Plasma (uunless you have money to burn and intend on throwing it away in 5 or so years), be careful with LCD (do some research into it) and I'd choose a rear projection. Nowadays when you go in shops they have them lined up one next to the other. Take a look at them and go towards the one with the best picture according to you. make sure you check the view from different angles etc.

[bkofoed]

If you're looking for a permanent installation, and have the space - consider a secondhand CRT projector.

No problems with rise/fall times (phosphor based, high brightness CRT tubes) though the CRT guns themselves do wear and cost a fair bit to replace. I personally have a Sony 1272, which is physically LARGE, though hidden by a purpose built coffe table/sound enclosure

Excellent colour definition, no pixel boundaries (unlike LCD, DLP) and if you get a decent Data version, can do any res up to 1600x1200 etc. Remember that LCD's have a fixed pixel size, and will blur/interpolate intermediate pixles if source res is not equal to screen res (I.e. playing xbox on a 1024x768 panel, etc).

Have you considered HTPC? (home theatre-pc) My machine has a built in SPDIF (sony/philips dig interfcae) and I use Power DVD with an optical link to my amp, which does DTS-ES and Dolby Digital decoding. Picture is on the CRT proj and it's a great setup.

Get to Megamart / Harvey Norman / etc - anywhere that has home theatre setups, and tell them you want to see the difference between DLP and CRT projectors. Yes CRT requires convergence (alignment to the screen of all three guns) and is inconvenient to move, but you can pick them up cheap and the result is excellent!

Brett

[BA_Turbs]

What is to go with consoles (PS2 Xbox) on Rear projection TVs. I read in the back of one of the PS2 game manuals it should not be played on a rear projection TV, however it did not say why.

[mattpwc]

the refresh rate is not good enough on rear projection tvs... make it feel like your playing drunk... but its the tv not you...

[Geeseman]

Plasmas have a half life of 30,000 hours. This is more TV than most people can watch in 10 years. The picture quality is far better than TV, no geometry problems, colour problems and it's heaps bigger than any TV today. Plasma is the future

Oh and if you want rear projection go for LCOS, Toshiba will have some 50 and 60 inch units in the market by year end. All others are not bright enough

[Mondie]

Interesting thread and something l have been looking into for a while now as we intend buying a monster idiot box early next year.

Plasma & LCD both appeal but l hear so many arguments for and against that l am no closer to deciding Gas discharge on the plasma's is a concern, l wonder how many hours you would get out of one until the brightness of the screen became useless?

l like RPTV's for their screen size but not really their picture quality but l have seen some excellent RPTV's when calibarted properly. Unfortunatley that's a black art and almost never done correctly in a shop so you never get to see them at their best. LG have released a LCD RPTV that is also HD, 48" screen and only 40cm deep. l have heard some good reports on it but havent seen it myself. Does anyone have experience with this set, link below;

LG LCD RPTV Link

[KrasH]

What is to go with consoles (PS2 Xbox) on Rear projection TVs. I read in the back of one of the PS2 game manuals it should not be played on a rear projection TV, however it did not say why.

There is a chance that an image may be inprinted on the screen perminantly. Example, the score bar of a game, any still image on the game. But this is less of a problem with current models. As an example my rear Projection TV moves the picture slightly every 15 minutes (I haven't noticed it happening), thus minimising the possibility of getting an imprint. Plasma's suffer from this aswell.. If you want to see what the inprinting looks like, go into an arcade, find scud race (if it's still in the arcades, been years since I've been in one) and no doubt, if it's the rear porojection unit, you'll see "GAME OVER" inprinted on the screen when the background goes white.

But personally, I am not too worried about it. It'd only be a worry if you play the same game everyday and watch nothing else.

[hello]

What is to go with consoles (PS2 Xbox) on Rear projection TVs.  I read in the back of one of the PS2 game manuals it should not be played on a rear projection TV, however it did not say why.

There is a chance that an image may be inprinted on the screen perminantly. Example, the score bar of a game, any still image on the game. But this is less of a problem with current models. As an example my rear Projection TV moves the picture slightly every 15 minutes (I haven't noticed it happening), thus minimising the possibility of getting an imprint. Plasma's suffer from this aswell.. If you want to see what the inprinting looks like, go into an arcade, find scud race (if it's still in the arcades, been years since I've been in one) and no doubt, if it's the rear porojection unit, you'll see "GAME OVER" inprinted on the screen when the background goes white.

But personally, I am not too worried about it. It'd only be a worry if you play the same game everyday and watch nothing else.

it only gets inprinted if it stays on the screen for AGES... like 48 hours

but in games..... u dont have the same bar for more than mb 10 minutes at a time