DLP or Plasma (1 Viewer)

[Chad_R]

Hi all,

I've been trying to really narrow down what would be best for my family. I'm trying to stay in the 3500 price range and I'm seeing that I can get ~50" DLP from Samsung for that price or I can get a 42" Plasma for close to that.

My room doesn't have very much light control during the day, so I need something really bright. My folks just bought a Sony plasma but it was quite expensive (~5k) but looks very nice.

I've done lots of reading on avsforums.com and I think I have determined that Samsung is the way to go for DLP, but I've not actually seen one in person.

Anyone else recently come up against the same dilemma and what did you do? I think I need to stay in the 42-52" range based off of room size and viewing distance.

The TV will mainly be for OTA HD plus SD Sat and DVD use. I don't plan on hooking the xbox up to it except maybe once or twice but nothing regular. I probably can't afford a new receiver and progressive scan dvd at the same time, so many different inputs would be great. D*Tivo only does SVideo out, so I need at least 1 SVideo input.

Ideas, arguments, things I should consider?

TIA!!

 

[John S]

Well, for well lit viewing, nothing really beats a Plasma.
I actually, prefer plasma ovr DLP technology myself.


I vote Plamsa.

 

[Dave>h]

HI Chad,

I had the same dilemma a few month ago - 6 now I guess - and I ended up going with the Samsung DLP (61).

For the price - around $4K - it was much bigger than the comparable plasma, so that was a plus. Bigger is better in displays!

That was one reason, but my main reason was fix-ability. With a plasma, if it breaks, it is done. With the DLP, if something breaks, there is at least the potential to fix it. I loved the idea of the plasma TV but the inability to service it was the deal killer for me.

On a secondary note, I thought the picture on the DLP was at least comparable to the Plasma, especially on the HD sources I saw in the store. DVD's also looked amazing through the component ins. Another bonus was that the video processing (and some techie can correct me if I am wrong) is done through a built in Faroudia chip, so you do not need a progressive scan DVD to get excellent picture quality. In fact, lots of posts I read said that the PQ was better with the progressive scan turned off.

No screen burn, although pretty much a non issue now, is not a problem with the DLP.

However, the set is not without its quirks:

1) Skin tones and hair can look somewhat unnatural and "clayish" in certain low light situations. The problem is rare, and I think I have adjusted the set pretty well to compensate for this. I only see it occasionally now.

2) Green is REALLY green. I overloaded the red on my set to tame down the green, this has worked well for me, although occasionally people look as though they have a sun burn... but I am used to it now.

3) Poorly mastered dvd's don't look great. Recent examples include Cold Mountain and Kill Bill V1 (although I have re calibrated the TV since seeing KB so it might be better now). For whatever reason - be it mastering or playback or my dvd player or a host of other things that can go wrong - these movies did not blow me away on my TV. Having said that, I watched Alladin last night and was blown away.

4) The dread rainbow effect. This effects people to a more or lesser degree. I occasionally notice rainbow but only if I look away from the screen quickly, which I rarely do when I am into a film. Although I have read about people sending the set back because it bothered them so much.

5) No IR code for switching between component and other sources. This isn't really a problem, it would be nice to have though since I have a few different sources (composite, component) and it would be much easier to push a button than to have to go to a menu and choose a source. More of an irritant, I guess.

If you can live with some of the quirks - and I can - then I personally think the DLP is the way to go.

My room is quite bright, with lots of windows, on days when it overwhelms the custom settings (from calibration with Avia), I use the Dynamic mode on the TV and that is plenty bright enough for day use. Not very good at night though!

Personally, I love my TV. It was the right purchase for me and I am glad I did it.

Happy shopping!

Dave

 

[Mort Corey]

You'll really have to go out a view the two technologies to make a decision. I didn't care for the off angle viewing clarity of DLP nor some of the quirks that Dave mentioned. Repairability wasn't/isn't a concern and at my time of purchase (late 2003) Samsung DLP's were having quite a few QC issues. I voted plasma with my wallet and eyes and couldn't be happier....YMMV

Mort

 

[SimiA]

I vote plasma also. To me, there really was no comparison in the PQ between the 2. The plasma simply looked more 3D, and had the better overall PQ.
Mort is right. You really should go out a compare them with your own eyes, but go to a good A/V store.
CC & BB tend to set up their sets with not the best signals.
Vb

 

[Chad_R]

Thanks for all the responses. Due to space constraints, it also might be better for me to get a plasma as I can hang that on the wall.

I'm going to start reviewing some of the plasmas to see if I can't get a consensus on which are the top brands and best prices.


I'm certainly open to opinions on that as well.

 

[Mort Corey]

The better prices you'll find will be on the "commercial" plasma displays most often sold online. Their drawbacks are largely lack of tuners, speakers, inputs and mounting hardware/stands vs the consumer units usually found in B&M retail outlets. Warranty on consumer displays in generally "in home" vs "you pack and ship" on the commercial units. Just some things to consider.

Hanging a plasma on the wall isn't difficult, it's just a little more costly and time consuming than hanging a picture. It's an eighty +/- pound piece of stuff that has a lot of wires/cables running to it.

Mort

 

[Craig Rup]

Chad, you may beable to grab the JVC-42WX84 plasma for a steal $3100 which includes free shipping. This device was brand new being sold on EBAY with a starting bid of $3100 with a buy now for $3400 and I believe it did not sell. This device has gotten some really nice reviews and is a true HD Plasma. Thought I would pass this on. Phone # 1-877-676-7100 ask for Ryan or Jason.

 

[Shane Martin]

Chad,
You might also consider the new JVC DILA sets(much like the DLPs). They are the best looking "digital" set I've seen.

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Chad, if you take Shane's advice and consider the DILA, I would suggest trying to view it on different source material. I have found that DVD's and most non-HD material looks poor on this set.

As far as DLP vs Plasma, I would probably go with Plasma. I am a fan of the Panasonic sets if you are looking for something with built in speakers/tuner and if that isn't an issue and you have a few more dollars to spend, the Pioneer 4340 is beautiful.

 

[Chad_R]

Thanks for the input. I visited Fry's today at lunch and viewed them all and I have to say that for the $$ (I decided space wasn't an issue, I'll just buy one thing at a time) I really liked the DLP and the DILA with my vote going towards DILA at this time.

I'm going to be researching that one a lot more. I saw the HD feed from Fry's which was mediocre at best and I had them switch over to SD content and from as far back as I'm sitting, it didn't look all that bad. Plus, JVC uses the grey bars down the side in 4:3 content vs the all black. It looked a bit nicer IMO.

So, my buddy at work was telling me that he's also interested so we're looking around to see who can give the best deal on 2 sets sold at once.

I'll go read up on the DILA now. I know I liked what I saw but I also want to know the technology behind it and to know my options. Mits also had one sitting right next to the JVC that didn't quite look as bright, but they may not have had the same settings on the TV. I do know the difference even with the same TV settings between the 61 and 52 JVC was definitly noticible. The brightness level on the 61 was much lower than the 52. Granted, we could crank the brightness up on the bigger one, but apples to apples the bigger one was not as bright.

 

[Kin]

Just a little FYI. Don't limit yourself to D-ILA. LCOS is the same technology, except it is not copywritten by JVC .
I personally like D-ILA myself, but ED signals are not the best quality. You might want to think of a video processor with that. Faroudja makes a few that are real nice.

Kin
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