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Save your money and wait for OLED! Far more energy efficient designs are being engineered as I speak and OLED will overtake both Plasma and LED within 5 years both of them will be obsolete.

For 32 inch screen size or less LCD TVs are more enough for a good veiwing quality and experience.

For greater than 32, LED backlit TVS are more approriate because without LED backlighting, sharpness and brightness issues arise.

one important thing not mentioned is image burn with plasmas. You really shouldn't do any gaming or pause a picture on a plasma screen for a long time. The still areas of the picture over time will start to burn into the screen.

Buy the least expensive TV you can...

obiwan1968, on 21 April 2011 - 10:37 AM, said:

This is unfortunately just wrong. When plasmas first hit the market they were unreliable and infamous due to image retention. This would occur when displaying static images for long periods (2-3 hours at a time)of time that would appear after viewing another source. An example would be watching a marathon session of CNN, the news ticker at the bottom of the display would still be slightly visible even after changing the channel and would overlap any other source you could be watching. With the modernization of these technologies this issue is non-existent when purchasing a plasma. I personally own a 47'' plasma by Samsung and it contains a feature called burn in reduction. When activated it shifts the image by a predetermined amount of pixels ever so often so that no image ever really stays static on screen for too long. To make a long story short you are fine when gaming on plasmas. I have had mine for 2.5 years now and game heavily with my Wii,360,and PS3 and have had absolutely no issues at all. I also use it as a monitor for my PC and attend my classes as well (viewing web pages that are static for long periods of time) and haven't had as much as a hint of burn in. The days of image retention in my opinion don't apply to what you can purchase of the shelves these days. Hope this helps!!

This post has been edited by Endlezzdrift: 22 April 2011 - 05:54 AM

Well, despite the LCD bashing, I love my Samsung LN52A750. I compared it to Plasma & DLP and to me there was no comparison.

Carry on...

One very important point not mentioned is the quality of image for different programs. If you mostly watch sports, then LCD's will be fine, but if you are a movie buff, LCD's make films look like cheap soap shows, no matter how much you tweak the set settings.

Look, all specs and stuff aside, check out any TV you are looking to buy with your own eyes. Just be aware that nearly all models have "store" settings on in the store that turn up the brightness and contrast. You would NEVER use those settings in your own living room as while they draw attention to a screen, they in no way are producing the quality picture you want at home.

Plasmas were on the way out due to their higher energy use, and because they only looked good in darker rooms, but they made a comeback because when the industry was pushing 3-D TV's plasma's higher refresh rates were cheaper to cut in half (one screen refresh for each eye) while still maintaining a decent picture. But now that most of the public has given 3-D a big yawn in its current implementation (which looks more like looking into an aquarium than what you experience at your local cinema), Plasmas are on the way out again. But they did fix the worry about screen burn in, that isn't the reason.

Last Christmas was a good time to get a deal on TV's because the technology was changing. The first generation LED back-lit LCD TV's had arrived, so great deals could be had on regular fluorescent back-lit LCD TV's.

I picked up a Samsung LN46C650L1F for a very good price ($899) online, and could not be happier with it. This TV had gotten great reviews, including one in PC World, even beating out much more expensive TV's.

One reason I did not consider a 1st generation LED back-lit LCD TV was the fact that I like to watch a lot of science fiction, and at the time many of the less expensive LED back-lit TV's had a screen artifact where on dark scenes you could see light at the corners of the screens, sort of like someone shinning a flash light from each of the corners across the screen. I did not like that as I felt it would be distracting, so I went with the better established technology at the time.

Perhaps the 2nd gen models will correct that short-coming.

Another thing to consider is that while the TV's will give you a great picture out of the box, in most cases you will want to experiment at least with the "canned" settings to see if you can get more out of the picture quality.

For those of you wanting to squeeze as good a picture as possible out of your TV, regardless of brand or technology, consider ordering some special (but inexpensive) THX blue glasses from THX and use the free THX calibration tools included in many DVD and Blu-Ray DVD's. Using these tools is not hard, does not require a lot of time, (it just consists of a few test patterns you use as you adjust the TV settings) and is the next best thing to getting your TV professionally calibrated.

I've read where 40% of American households have not made the jump to HDTV and are still using the old CRT (tube) TV's.

Believe me, even viewing off the air broadcast TV in 720p or 1080i is a real pleasure. Seeing HDTV's in the store is one thing, but getting it home and having the time to relax enjoy it is another.

Be aware that the audio from these thin screen TV's is simply not that good - maybe good enough for watching the news, but if you really want to immerse yourself in a movie-like experience, you do need to get a decent surround sound system. It doesn't have to be complicated either. Even a single "soundbar" speaker placed under the TV will provide much better sound.

And if you decide to go whole-hog and get a new Audio/Video receiver, be sure to get one with as many HDMI inputs (and component inputs if you have older gaming machines that use them) as you need.

I was afraid I'd have to spend a lot to get a lot, but found a Pioneer A/V receiver for little more than $220 at Amazon that had everything I needed, including a iPOD input which I felt was an added bonus.

The bottom line is that now is the time to move to the new technology. You won't be sorry you did. I see one person says to hold out for OLED displays, but why wait 5 more years when you can have something of quality now? You could always move a TV to another room if you upgrade or sell it.

One finally word of caution: Do not use Windex or other glass cleaners with ammonia or alcohol on your TV. These can harm the screen and if they leak down inside, they can fry your expensive TV electronics. If you must do more than dust, use a 50-50 solution of water and white vinegar on a soft, lint-free cloth and very lightly go over the screen. They even make special cleaning cloths for this purpose similar to the ones for camera lenses.

And whatever you buy, enjoy it.

I agree with obiwan1968 and the "burn in", plasma's are prone to that and also premature "burnout". Your TV might be a "toast" in as little as 5 years. Why would anyone want a TV that "sucks" almost 3x the electricity than LCD/LED? I own 52" LCD and never had a problem with viewing angles, discoloration or quality break down on HDTV signals. But it might be the SAMSUNG thing (the best picture quality OAL) I can only see the benefit of LED if you watch your TV in brightly lit rooms or outdoors on a sunny day. I prefer my dimmed living room. Would I buy LED, yes but only when the price decision making people come to their senses. I'd never buy plasma.

randelcole, on 25 April 2011 - 06:14 AM, said:

I'm not seeing this issue at all on my 32" LCD Vizio. What format(s) are you referring to, DVD? Blu Ray? Streaming? Or is it related more to a particular brand you have experience with?
Streaming quality on my set varies depending on the source: some Netflix movies look great, others really bad, but that's due to the source, not the TV. Current DVD movies look terrific, really old titles not so much, and Blu Ray movies are stunning (and I have a 720p model). I have both a Sony HD DVD player connected via HDMI, and a media center PC connected via VGA (for Blu Ray playback and Netflix streaming).

With all the major manufacturers pushing 3D foolishness on the public, not a word of it in this article, which could have been written three or four years ago (except for the LED mentions). What are the BEST LED LCDs that are NOT 3D?

You left out Wattage. LCD costs less than half of comparable size Plasma to operate.

In part 4 I think you neglected to mention purchasing and installing an antenna! A TV with a bulit-in tuner is no good without one. There are many options and price ranges in attennae and there are several technical considerations in optimizing reception.