Am about to relegate my 32" LCD to the bedroom and buy a new 42"ish panel for the lounge. When I bought the 32" LCD a year back, I was happy to take an LCD over Plasma at that 32" size - as the general opinion at that time was LCD up to 32" and plasma for anything over.

Over the last 12 months there is now undoubtably far more LCD's at the plus 40" size than there ever was before (and far less plasmas). Does this mean that LCD's are now as good or even better than plasma at 42", or are plasmas still the choice panel to have at this size?

Any advise / opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Billy

I wouldn't say so. I have 50" plasma and its great.

Both are good but for me I would always recommend Plasma.

Has LCD surpassed Plasma at 40" plus


Don't these two statements contradict one another?

I've no idea what you mean, you have obiously edited by reply !

(Woops!!!!!)

LOL

people will say very different things, there have been some very similar threads lately.

working with them weekly, i would say only a very top of the range LCD (eg sony X series) would beat most plasmas, however the average plasma, 40'' or any, would still beat the 'average' LCD screen in terms of contrast/blacks, colour and refresh

Why do so many people get suckered into buying an LCD when a plasma is sometimes better?

A friend of mine went to Curries, his heart set on a plasma so he could watch the footie, the salesman persuaded him to buy an LCD.

Anyway, he ordered the LCD, got it home, he was unhappy with the picture quality and he forced them to swap it for a plasma.

Do salesman get a bigger commission or is the profit higher on LCD's?

They would certainly have more LCD's on the premises so always better to shift them first I would have thought everything else being equal which it may not have been

As for the OP's question it's always a case of comparing like for like, does the state of the art LCD from a premium manufacturer beat the same for Plasma but at price points high end LCD is matched against lower spec and rebadged plasmas.

i am not disagreeing with you. i agree. what i am saying is that it takes a very expensive top LCD to even match most Plasma screens, in terms of spec. although LCD screens are coming on very well.

we do not have any difference in commission between plasma or LCD, however, certain manufacturers offer us 'rewards' for each set sold, and i must say Sony in particular look after you very well of course all their screens are LCD

also currys salesmen (if you can stretch as far to call then that) do not work on commission now.

So no incentive for staff to sell any sets if they now get paid the same if they sell one or fifty?

correct. my old collegue now works at a currys store. first they went to group commission, so the slackers were given the money other people earned, and now apparently they have gone to just a basic wage packet. i do not know if individuals have sales target bonus or not. but if they are not even on commission i would not have thought so.

Plasma won't compete with LCD at that size, Pioneer PDP-428XD at that size, forget the rest.

It really does depend what you look at, but Plasma would always be my first port of call. Then sony LCD.

LCD will NEVER reach the contrast ratio's and response time of a plasma. The fastest lcd screen I have seen is around 2ms which is a long time in electronic terms. Plasma have no such limitation and can operate in microseconds, far faster and much better for fast moving images. The plasma can respond nearly instanaeously and it's only the speed of the electronic circuit energising the plasma that limits the respose time.

Contrast ratio is inherently limited in an lcd too due to the backlighting. I would look for a decent plasma over lcd.

From the evidence I have seen so far i.e. looking at several TVs including my Pioneer PDP-427XD plasma, a friends 37" Panasonic PX70 plasma and my colleague's Sony 46" X series LCD, plasma is far better at displaying SD TV images than LCD.

Given a really good HD input, then the gap between plasma and a quality LCD narrows.

But you have to ask yourself what are you going to be watching most of the time. If that is normal TV broadcasts, then we are talking SD TV and plasmas are much better at this.

I will soon have a HD-DVD player capable of outputing 1080/24p. I can't wait to see how good this looks on my plasma as everything else I have looks wonderful on it.

You should add "In my opinion" opinion is not fact.

What I can't understand with this Plasma v LCD argument is that why have Sony who are still widely regarded as one of the best, dropped Plasma's?

Together with this, Panasonic have now launched a 37" LCD, a first for them.

Can't help feeling Plasma's are on their way out like Betamax.

To cast further confusion on the question, Sony are rumoured to be releasing a Plasma set again?.

Not the first time Sony made a F**k up betamax was around around for how long ? and Plasma for about 20yrs so far at a guess not really the same.

You're probably right, and since it would appear that plasma's are still generally better than LCD's (so the AV mags/sites claim), then it really is betamax all over again.

Wasn't Betamax made by Sony First ? and then they made the mini disc and now they throw all there eggs into one basket. lol

I hope Laser TV takes off & blows both LCD & Plasma away

makes you wonder...

a) how are they still here.
b) why do they have such a good reputation!

Sony own thousands of pattents on electronic components/devices. over 90% of cameras have use sony CCD components. It wouldn't suprise me if sony parts are in a large majority of TV sets as well.

This might have something to do with it:

I've been a householder for 30 or so years. In that time I've only had 3 TVs. The first was a giveaway Ferguson from my Dad when he got a new TV. The picture went green on that one.

The second was a 25" 4:3 Sony bought as an ex-display model. It lasted 19 years till the picture went.

The 3rd is a Sony 28" CRT Widescreen bought in 2000. Always thought it was a bit small but it won't b*****y well break down so the wife will let me go and buy a bigger flatscreen.

Too reliable, that's why I wanted a Sony again.

However I do have a lot of respect for forum member views and when most say Plasma are better (particulary for SD, which is probably all of which I will watch) I am in a dilema as to what 37" or 40" (42" is probably too big) to buy (when I get permission from the guv).

What do you reckon?