best Plasma TV?

[borat]

anyone know of the best plasma out there at the moment, also what sort of prices can you get say a decent 43" or 50" pioneer for out in the states?its about £3500 for a 43" or £5000 for a 50" here in England, multiply by 1.65 to convert to dollars. are pioneeer te best?ive got a panasonic conventional TV at the moment and thats the best pic ive seen from a CRT, are their plasmas any good. any feedback welcome.
cheers

[Kurt]

panasonic, toshiba and sony (the latest ones more or less caught up with toshiba). at £3500 you're SOL though... maybe starting at £4500...

you have various 42" rebranded Hyundai panels for about £2500-3500. they're not as good... if you're willing to spend that much money you might want to consider a beamer instead...

[trk2]

Do the plasma's allow you to get around the PAL/NTSC thing? Otherwise our plasma's aren't gonna help you much.

[Kruzin]

Moved to General Hardware/Software

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by trk2
Do the plasma's allow you to get around the PAL/NTSC thing? Otherwise our plasma's aren't gonna help you much.

Only if the source is HDTV.

The best looking plasma's are the ones that come with video processors, or "media recievers" as many companies are calling them. The best are Runco and Pioneed Elite, but they are 2x-3x the price of a normal plasma. Runco doesn't make their own plasma screens, they just get high quality screens and add custom designed video processors.

Of the rest, the regular Sony Wega, Pioneer and believe it or not Fujistu. Sony being the most expensive, and probably the best (have never done a side-by-side) with Pioneer close behind. Fujitsu is the best bang for the buck, IMO.

Of the rest, I like the Panasonic best. They are not too badly priced. Then Samsung, Toshiba, etc.

The cheapest 42"-43" plasma's I have seen are around $3000, and go up to $6000 for the upper end consumer. The ultra high end is aroun $8000-$10000. 47" are about $4500-$8000-$13000. 50" is $6000-$10000-$16000. 61" and around that size are $10000-$20000. But I may be a bit off, as I really haven't paid attention in a while.

Jammrock

[agallag]

I've read about major problems with plasmas and "burn in". Most noticeable when you watch channels with the little logo in the corner. Has there been any progress on that? If not, some of the new rear projection units from sony are looking mighty fine, and aren't really that big front to back. I saw a nice ~50" widescreen at the sony store, and it was only around a foot deep. Amazing picture too, at least as good as the plasmas they had on display.

I think I'll hold off another year or two before I take that plunge...

[borat]

as far as the pa/ntsc thing is concerned, if i bought a US plasma and a UK tuner plugged in through the SCART wouldnt that be ok for UK veiwing?its an area i know next to nothing about and dont want to buy 5K worth of stuff to find its useless in the UK.cheers.

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by agallag
I've read about major problems with plasmas and "burn in". Most noticeable when you watch channels with the little logo in the corner. Has there been any progress on that? If not, some of the new rear projection units from sony are looking mighty fine, and aren't really that big front to back. I saw a nice ~50" widescreen at the sony store, and it was only around a foot deep. Amazing picture too, at least as good as the plasmas they had on display.

I think I'll hold off another year or two before I take that plunge...

I have seen a few plasma's with that problem. How the newest gen of plasma's fare I do not know.

borat,

If you want a nice, big, high definition screen, might I suggest going with a DLP project? I don't know of any with a SCART connector, but I'm sure they have them in the UK. Even the cheapest DLP I've seen could project a 2.2 m picture on a white wall that looked crystal clear off a HD source. For the same price as a 47"-50" plasma screen you can get a nice DLP projector, video processor and a high quality screen. For the price of the lowest end plasma you can get a good DLP projector.

There are drawbacks from going DLP however, and that is mainly light. You need to have a light controled room for DLP to look good, just like with any other projection system.

Here are some links for you:

Runco CL-510 - http://www.runco.com/Products/DLP/cl510.htm
- Runs about $5k USD, a processor is another $1k-$2k.
- One of the good things about going with Runco is that professional setup is included in the price.
- Even without the processor this DLP looks absolutely fabulous. With one, it will blow your mind.

Piano HE-3200 - http://www.plushometheater.com/en/index.htm
- This is one of the leaset expensive DLP projectors on the market @ $3200 new, $2200 refurbished or $1300 if you buy the previous generation, the HE-3100.
- I have seen an HE-3200 in action. In a low lit room, off of an HDTV source, projected on to a white wall while sitting on a coffee table, this DLP projector produced a crystal clear, 2,5 m picture.
- The only big downfall of this projector is that reds look a little orange (unless you are really good at tweaking and adjusting the settings) and you need a darker room than normal because of the low brightness.

Stewart Filmscreens Firehawk (designed especially for DLP projection) - http://www.stewartfilm.com/home_cine...theater_3.html
- All the Runco's I've ever seen are projected off of Stewart Filmscreens. Though they run up into the thousands of dollars, if you want the best picture from a projector, look no farther.

Jammrock

[borat]

thanks for the suggestion but as you say light is a major problem, its going in the lounge with a great big window beaming straight into it, i also dont like having to close curtains to watch the TV in the daytime. im going to have a look around in the sales in january for a pioneer i think, maybe panasonic. Cant stand toshiba electronics and sony are nice but overpriced, ive heard JVC are also worth a look. can any one clear up this pal/ntsc issue?

[Jammrock]

Make sure to look for Fujitsu as well. You might have to go to a specialty AV store to find one, but they are worth the look.

http://www.plasmavision.com/

As for PAL/NTSC compatibility ... from what I have been able to find it isn't an issue. Unless you get an incredibly low-end, small plasma display (like a cheap 38"-42") the resolution can handle both NTSC and PAL signals. Pretty much all of the plasma screens I have seen support a plethora of standards, including NTSC, PAL, PAL-60, and SECAM.

Here's an example from a high-end 42" Fujitsu display:

http://www.plasmavision.com/P42HHA10WSspecs.htm

However, I would not look to US/Canadian shores to buy one and ship it in to the UK if the plasma you like has a media reciever (video processor). THat way you can get a media reciever with SCART and PAL line doubling. But what the media reciever can and can't do depends on the company (pioneer makes a lot of universal stuff) and the $$$.

Jammrock

[GNEP]

Originally posted by Kruzin
Moved to General Hardware/Software

Actually I think the Lounge is quite an appropriate place for talking about TV


(j/k)

[KvHagedorn]

Well, you won't listen to me and will probably go ahead and drop all those bucks on a plasma anyhow, but here's the scoop.. they have a very limited lifespan, and as agallag said, burn in is a problem, as well as having pixels just die on you. You will pay 3 times as much just for "cool" and "flat" and then probably have the thing die in 3 years or so. Mitsubishi has the best picture in a big screen. Sony doesn't even come close. The Sony 34" CRT WEGA has an awesome picture, but direct view tvs have always been their strong point. If you have 3500 to spend, go down and look at a Mitsubishi Platinum series 65" rear projector (WS65713). It has a much bigger screen, looks better, has an HD tuner built in, has card readers for your digital camera, has a rich looking glossy burl veneer cabinet, and will last three times as long as any bargain basement plasma you can dig up.

[borat]

projection is not an option, seen them in action and the lighting issue is too bug for me to ignore, as far as plasma goes like you say i dont want to spend a load of dosh on something thats got severe drawbacks, are their lifetimes really that limited? If there are that many problems i think ill just stick to a 32" panasonic CRT untill the technology sorts itself out. the lifetime really concerns me now.

[Fluff]

the bloke in the shop doesent tell you that it has a much shorter life span than a crt when you buy it does he!

So guys what is the difference between an Infocus LP530 which i think is DLP which we have in our office and this Piano HE-3200 thing? Would have thought the fact that it had DvI inputs would make it good for home cinema.

Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Contrast Ratio: 400:1
Data Compatibility: VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA, Macintosh®, and 1080i/720p HDTV compatible
Display: DLP™ technology from Texas Instruments
Image Size (diagonal): 3’ to 21.6’ (.91 m to 6.6 m)
Light Source: 270 Watt SHP, 2000 hour lamp life
Native Resolution: XGA (1024x768)
Projection Lens: Manual zoom lens
Projection Methods: Front/rear, ceiling/desktop
Throw Ratio: 1.2:1
Video Compatibility: NTSC, PAL, SECAM, PAL-M, and PAL-N

Ah guess it's the contrast ratio..

for home i would get this if i had the money

http://www.infocushome.com/projectors/product.asp?lang=eng&region=emea&proj=7200

Pete.

[Jammrock]

KvH,

I agree with pretty much all you say, but they do have plasma's with 30,000 hour lifespans now. Which would allow you to run the plasma 6 hours a day for 13 years. Assuming no pixels have died and the image didn't burn in.

Though I do agree that plasma technology is still too young to pay that much for them. That's why I like DLP

fluff,

Nice projector. But if money was not an option I would get this:

http://www.runco.com/Products/DLP/VX1000ci.htm

• Native 1280 x 720, Single HD-2 16:9 DMD Chip
• RVR™ or Reflectance Volume Regulation
• 16:9 Widescreen Native Resolution - Designed exclusively for 16:9 aspect screens
• Multiple aspect ratio (on 16:9 screens) - Anamorphic, Letterbox, 4:3, VirtualWide
• 2500:1 Contrast Ratio
• Vertical lens shift
• 3:2 pulldown detection
• HDTV capable (via an outboard DTV decoder); 720 (native), 1080i, 480p, 540p
• PAL compatible
• DVI-I Input / PC Input
• Electronic Keystone Correction

Jammrock