A question about Flat Panel TV's

An LCD direct view TV has a panel with tiny spots with red, green and blue cellophane (actually a better more modern color substance) in front of them and the spots, corresponding to pixels, turn dark or light while a light source behind shines through. The tiny spots (liquid crystals) don't turn extremely dark so the TV overall doesn't have as dark a black (black level) as other kinds of TV's.

A plasma direct view TV has a panel with tiny thin tubes going up and down which glow red, green, or blue in segments corresponding to pixels, using the same kinds of phosphors used on TV CRT tubes

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

You will get a better picture with plasma, but you will pay a lot more for a given size screen. Also plasmas come in larger sizes than LCD direct views.

If you're curious about LCD screens, they are essentially the same as what laptop computers and flat panel computer monitors use. They use a backlight and the pixels either let light through or block it (though not completely--this is why you don't get true black with a LCD).

Plasma is a different technology entirely, where the pixels themselves emit light. Black level isn't perfect with plasma (yet) but the technology is improving all the time so I bet in a few years we'll see plasmas have blacks comparable to CRT.

KJP

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe the LCD screens are less suceptable to "burn in" and have a wider viewing angle.

LCD screens never have burn in. They may have "ghosting" in which a static image may remain visible for short periods of time after the intial viewing.

In terms of angle of viewing, I believe plasma is actually better than LCD, though some newere LCDs are getting close.

SMK

If we're talking about the "flat panel" LCDs (i.e. Sharp's Aquos line) instead of Rear Projector LCDs (i.e. Sony's Grand Wega), the prices I've seen favor Plasma over LCD. I haven't even noticed LCD flat panels over about 30-32", while Plasmas are up to over 60".

For comparison, here are some prices at tvauthority.com, excluding the cheaper ED (lower res) Plasma units.

LCD - 30" Sharp Aquos: $5995 (msrp $7995)
LCD - 30" Zenith L30W26: $4399 (msrp $6699)

Plasma - 42" Hitachi CMP4121HDU-512: $4245 (msrp $7995)
Plasma - 42" Sony PFM-42B2-H: $4895 (msrp $7999)
Plasma - 50" Samsung PPM50H2: $5995 (msrp $9999)

For a given street price the Plasma has a much bigger screen. There are no LCDs listed over 30" (a 60" Zenith model is listed on TVA's LCD page but it's a RP about 18" deep).

You should also be aware of this.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...71#post1620871

Uh... can you please explain what you mean by this comment? "Fixed price"? The Samsung 61" DLP rptv has a msrp of $6k.