i'm Thinking of Buying the Panasonic TH-46PZ800U for about 1,500.00 from BB am i getting a Good Deal and TV here or would i be better off with a LCD and not a Plasma ?
Advantages of plasma compared with same sized LCD: 1. Deeper blacks 2. No motion blurring or smearing.
Advantages of LCD compared with same sized plasma: 1. Less expensive. 2. Lower operating temperature 3. Weighs less 4. Lower power consumption 5. Not subject to wearing out of screen surface or pixels due to high image contrast. 6. More models with not quite so glossy screen surface and thus less glare from room lighting.
Also note that smaller sizes of either kind may or may not offer the full 1080 resolution.
Don't forget that plasma units have better viewing angles than LCDs.
Cost wise is actually about the same if not less on the plasma end. Saw some 50" 768 plasma sets for $800 this week. Have not seen 52" LCDs at that price point yet.
Generally speaking though ... there is no one better choice for all people. There is no holy grail of technologies. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and different people respond differently to these differences.
If you want to do it yourself ... time to spend the $25 or so to get a test disc like AVIA II or DVE HD Basics (on HD) and follow the instructions.
The Cinema mode is fairly decent OOTB ... but best take the color temp from Warm to Normal. Usually a bit too red in Warm (eventhough it is supposed to be closest to correct).
i do have the Blu Ray Test Disc. i've never calibrated before but i'll try it. i was also thinking of setting the tv on the THX Mode. Thanks Michael for your Help you dont Happen to be in Wisconsin ?
Panasonic's THX mode appears to be meant mainly for watching movies in a room that is either completely dark or only very dimly lit. It will look a bit soft and dim compared to the other picture modes and really wouldn't be too suitable for an afternoon football game in a well lit room.
IMHO, at a given screen size a good Plasma will be considerably less expensive than an LCD capable of comparable picture quality for home theater use. Power consumption on average isn't significantly higher than a comparably sized LCD. Since the power consumption of a plasma is dependent on the overall brightness of the picture you can expect higher consumption than an LCD if you're watching a hockey game or the winter olympics, lower consumptiom when watching very dark movies.
Burn-in is not really a concern in normal use, especially if you tone down the contrast setting a bit from the usual as-delivered torch mode.
THX knows, as does anyone who has a solid foundation in imaging science and human factors, that no TV made can offer its best picture performance while competing with high ambient room lighting. It's a fundamental limitation in the technology. Ambient lighting interferes with, contaminates, and compromises a television picture unless tightly controlled. It's always been that way and likely will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Serious viewing of critical program material, such as movies, is best conducted in low light conditions. Here is an article that explains this reality in more detail: CinemaQuestv2.0 .
Best regards and beautiful pictures, G. Alan Brown, President CinemaQuest, Inc. A Lion AV Consultants Affiliate
"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"