Ok so I couldnt find anything so I thought I'd run a little poll.

 

I'm thinking of buying either a 50" Panasonic Viera or a 42" LCD as their about the same price

 

Your preference and brand?

dont buy either. if you can afford it, if not wait and get a OLED tv. The wave of the future.

 

http://www.oled-display.net/oled-television

LCD.

I have a 42" Samsung best thing I've invested in

Be sure though that you buy a named brand. Sony etc..

Pictures are crisper on LCD aswell

Dont get Plasma mate, they just don't have the same life expectancy as LCD's/LED's. Also alot of the bigger brands have stopped making them so at the moment you will get a cheap plasma but not a good one compared to LCD's.

If you're keen to buy right now, grab a good sized LCD, as the new LED's are still quite dear for what ya getting. The price of them will definitely drop significantly in the next 6-12 months.

Get the plasma . Yes it wont last 15 year but who cares. Did your last TV last 10 years ? Youll be getting something else in 5-8 anyway.

For general viewing like tv dvd etc the plasma will be better as long as you have a shaded room for daytime watching.

LCD are very good but more likely to break after the warranty period. Plasma just get dimer over time like crts used to.

 

 

:hi:

If I remember from an article way back:

 

Plasma for things that move around fast, eg: sports

LCD for clarity

^^^^+1

 

love my plasma

second above.

 

plasma for sports and fast movement, as well as mostly tv, to avoid motion blur

 

lcd for computer use, animations, hd stuff

I sell these things for a living.

 

Get the 50" Panasonic.

 

All the comparisons between LCD and plasma are total BS and will just confuse you.

 

The only real-life difference it will make is that with LCD you'll get less sun glare and reflection if you're finding that to be a problem with your TV now.

 

Otherwise that Panasonic is going to have a better picture, last longer and be more reliable than any 42" LCD around the same price.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are great LCD's out there but you're going to pay more for them.

 

Also, if you can afford it get the S (THP50S10A) series and not the X (THP50X10A). It's the Full HD model and you should be able to pick it up around the $3k mark if you bargain for it (It retails around $3200). There's a bonus Wii with it at the moment and if you plan on putting a Blu-Ray player on it it's the way to go.

 

Forget any form of LED unless you've got money to burn. They're first generation, cost big bucks, you'll get a better TV for cheaper and their only benefit compared to a top end LCD is that they are thinner and use less power.

 

EDIT: Also when you're bargaining for it see what they can do for an extended warranty. Panasonics are the most reliable TV's we sell - I bought one myself because we sell dozens of them and almost never get any problems with them and mine was the first one I ever saw break down - 5 months after the warranty ended. I was able to pull some strings and got it sorted but you might not have the same luck. Expect an extra 4 yrs warranty to cost a couple of hundred bucks.

Edited July 18, 200915 yr by Rikidozan

Ok so I couldnt find anything so I thought I'd run a little poll.

 

 

Dude, you didnt google plasm v LCD????

 

(dont worry i fail at a lot of things too. For instance how do you do smilies on this forum?)

I have a Panasonic 50" plasma that is almost five years old and it has never missed a beat. Picture quality still seems as good as the day I bought it.

 

I would buy a Plasma again if it broke tomorrow (touches wood)

 

how do you do smilies on this forum?)

 

Edited July 18, 200915 yr by TargetPractice

and i wouldnt buy another lcd.

JB Hifi are often nice with bundling extended warranty and delivery with TV's around that size (and hence, price mark).

I recently purchased an LG 42" LCD and I'm happy with it though it's not as stupidly bright as a plasma. The new LED TVs are the sex.

 

Useful advice: Reviews and the opinions of others aren't all that useful sometimes. Go to a store and eyeball them. Decide based on image quality you can see with your own eyes. (reset image settings to default, and try a few different media types - bluray vs. DVD vs. SD TV vs. HD TV as they'll all be rendered differently)

If I remember from an article way back:

 

Plasma for things that move around fast, eg: sports

LCD for clarity

 

Plasma - fast motion picture, limited life span, higher energy usage

 

LCD - clarity, longer life span, lower energy, if you get one that runs at 100-200Hz then they play fast motion pictures just fine.

 

Have a Sony W Series Bravia 40', cost more than any other 40' screen, heck i could've bought a 52' Sharp Plasma, but my dad has a Panasonic Vierra plasma and the image on it is crap. Thats put me off plasma for life.

 

Get yourself a good quality LCD tv, if you dont want a name brand then make sure you buy one that has a quality panel in it. Some of the cheapos use the panels from higher end brands. There was a brand i found a while back which used the Sony panels but were about a 1/3 the price.

 

If you want a cheap one, have a look at these guys. Reviews i've read of their stuff are quite good.

http://www.kogan.com.au/

 

Decide based on image quality you can see with your own eyes. (reset image settings to default, and try a few different media types - bluray vs. DVD vs. SD TV vs. HD TV as they'll all be rendered differently)

+10 to this, we got our whole system from JB Hi-Fi in Osy Park, the speakers weren't the ones i was going to get but he showed me the speakers he recommended. They were hooked up to the Sharp 52' plasma, the Yami amp i was getting playing Transformers (with the A10 / Spooky scene), the bloke cranked the sound up and they were just lurvly (o:

Edited July 18, 200915 yr by Heat-seeker

Get yourself a good quality LCD tv, if you dont want a name brand then make sure you buy one that has a quality panel in it. Some of the cheapos use the panels from higher end brands. There was a brand i found a while back which used the Sony panels but were about a 1/3 the price.

 

Be very wary of anyone trying to sell you a cheap TV and have them say it's the same panel as what Sony use. There is a massive difference in picture quality between a cheap and a good TV. The panel they refer to is simply the crystal panel and not the inner workings of the TV. The quality of an LCD's picture comes from the brightness and purity of it's backlight and the technology in its picture engine.

 

It's like some one trying to sell you an entry level PC with a high end monitor and telling you it's going to run Crysis the same as a high-end PC because it has the same monitor.

Edited July 18, 200915 yr by Rikidozan

I did lots of research and ended up buying an LCD - Panasonic TX-37LZ800a

 

Increment the 37 to get a bigger one to make you feel more manly. ( it would like far too big in our apartment).

 

Anyway, that particular model overcomes some of the downsides of a LCD (vs plasma). ie. the blacks are better than any other LCD I've seen, and it handles fast motion better than any of the other LCD's I was looking at.

 

 

Good luck champ.

Sharp 100 Hrz or better

I bought a pioneer 50" plasma a few yrs ago for $10k..they now sell for $2500

 

Brilliant TV..get the soud quality that comes with pioneer and the picture is excellent.

 

Had a dodgy cable that caused the sound to come out of 1 speaker only...the Pioneer technician was at my house within 2 hrs and fixed it....you cant beat that for service.

 

There's some good tvs out there...get one with a good resolution and I reckon the best way is to stand in front of em and compare picture quality vs price

LCD's have a better picture in my oppinion

LCD's have a better picture in my oppinion

 

A valid opinion but blantantly untrue.

 

Between LCD and Plasma, one DOES NOT inherently have a better picture quality than the other.

 

You're better off not even thinking of TV's as LCD or Plasma or LED.

 

I've been asked the question "Which is better LCD or Plasma?" every single day of my life for the last 4 years. The answer is neither. Pure and simple.

 

Here's a guide I almost always go by when people come to me wanting to buy a new TV.

 

BISHOS ULTIMATE TV BUYING GUIDE:

 

Step 1: Pick a size. People will often find that they can never get a TV that's too big. Pick something that isn't going to be overpowering in your loungeroom. As a general rule of thumb if you've had a 68cm (29") TV in your lounge before you can comfortably sit at the same distance for a newer 40" or 42". Alot of people find that a 50" will still go in their loungeroom but you may have to rearrange your seating (realistically you want to be sitting around 2-3 times the screen size of the TV away from the picture).

 

Step 2: Pick a budget. Be realistic about it. You can probably find a 60" TV around somewhere for under 2k but let's face it, it's going to suck big balls.

 

Step 3: Find a TV that suits your limit set in Steps 1 and 2. Where-ever possible, try to stick to one of the 4 main players in television - Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG. If you stuck to any of those in either LCD or Plasma you can be pretty certain you'll walk away with a great TV. There are definitely other brands worth looking at (Pioneer outperforms any other Plasma panel and Sharp make a pretty mean LCD) but those four are the most common and generally best priced for picture quality.

 

Step 4: Buy TV. Try and get delivery/setup thrown in. Buy extended warranty where possible.

 

Step 5: Rock out.

 

Contributing factors on TV decision.

 

a) Is the room you are putting it in very brightly lit? If you can't stand the sun glare you get on your TV now get an LCD. LCD is brighter than Plasma and consequently will handle a brighter room. Furthermore, Plasmas have a solid glass or plastic sheet on the front of their panels thus will reflect every bright light source in the room. If you watch TV mostly at night that may not be an issue and some higher end Plasmas have an anti glare coating.

 

b) Do you have small children and are they likely to get their hands on the TV? If yes to both, consider getting a plasma. As stated before, the plasma has a solid panel on the front and will handle pressure on it better than an LCD. In fact, if too much pressure - and it doesn't take much mind you - is applied to an LCD screen you'll have one very expensive, irrepairable TV on your hands.

 

c) Are you going to watch alot of sports/games on it? If yes you'd be better off to get at least a 100HZ or better TV. All plamas will be this - don't get caught up on some plasmas being 600Hz, it's completely different from an LCD being 200Hz and is just there to confuse you. 600Hz in a plasma has more to do with it's brightness and contrast than refresh rate. All major LCD manufacturers now produce models with 100 Hz and better.

 

d) Are you planning on getting a Blu-Ray player or other HD device now or in the future? If not you could save a good amount of money by NOT going to a Full HD TV. A HD ready model (1366 x 768 ish) will look as good on normal TV signals and standard DVD than a Full HD (1920 x 1080 ish). Images shown at 720p still look fantastic compared to what most people are used to.

 

e) Forget everything your friends have told you about their TV's. No-one is going to tell you to get anything other than what they have because no one wants to have spent all that money and be told that they could have got better. People want to believe in their purchases and rightly so. And people who have had bad experiences with TV's and brands are very rarely going to be objective in their arguments.

 

Hope it helps.

Edited July 19, 200915 yr by Rikidozan

Nice guide Bish.

 

I like the point about kids - my 1yr old can't leave the bloody TV alone.

A valid opinion but blantantly untrue.

 

thats why its my opinion haha

 

nice guide btw

Ok so I couldnt find anything so I thought I'd run a little poll.

 

I'm thinking of buying either a 50" Panasonic Viera or a 42" LCD as their about the same price

 

Your preference and brand?

 

Get the internet first...you poor bastard....but do like me...i is gunna get a HD projector,,,,and have it in my den

 

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1893/12/10/606135626/n606135626_5328124_1585.jpg

Edited July 19, 200915 yr by Holzy

Good man Bish thanks for going to the trouble of writing up that guide mate.