Do you really have to bring a Plasma TV to the nearby Gas Station for refills BB? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Wishton]

Well, this will sound like an extrememly silly question, but here it goes anyways.

This sounds like some kind of myth or fairy tale of some sort, but I have to know.

I was in Best Buy yesterday looking at TV's.
I havent decided what tv to get yet, but have been looking. Will probably crack by the Holidays. One salesman came up to me. He seemed slow (he was still babbling on about S-VHS as if it was some new technology), but what can you do?

Anyways, he advised me against Plasmas. He told me that I would have to take up the TV up to the local gas station to have it refilled every 500 hours??? He also advised me that plasmas are also known to cause gas leaks and house fires???

He advised against hooking up to tv to a house gas line.

I actually did laugh because this all sounded like some kind of joke.

Is there any substance to what this salesman was telling me?

 

[Will_B]

You were probably being filmed for a Candid Camera type of show.

 

[allan espinoza]

you should of asked what octane rating would you have to use.

 

[SimiA]

Maybe the guy was auditioning his comedy routine.
That's one funny story he told you.
Vb

 

[Tim Jin]

Maybe he was the manager of the store .

They can only learn so much for an hour worth of training

 

[Cameron_Johnson]

Boy, that really takes the cake. There are a couple of reasons why i would advise you against plasma screens though. One: the average life on a plasma is only about 5 years. Two: they burn in very quickly. And three: the cost of repairing a plasma is nearly one third the price of the cost that you originally paid!
I am personally a fan of LCD televisions. One: they are thinner. Two: The pixels are significantly smaller (giving a much smoother image). And three: they last much longer then plasmas.
In the past the main issue with LCD's was that the frame rate on was very low so if you were doing any kind of gaming, the image looked very jumpy. Many newer LCD monitors have a 16 ms response time (as apposed to the original 25 and 40ms response times) which means it can handle much higher frame rates. Right now i believe the largest LCD screen available is 36" or 42" and they are usually pretty pricy. They are coming down in price though and many believe they are the future of flat panel TV's, rather then plasmas.
Hope this helps.

-Cameron Johnson

 

[Tim Jin]

Cameron is right. Plasmas are still not there yet to be mainstream in everyday use. If the panel needs to be replace, you will be looking at 80% of the cost of the plasma. I have a friend that repairs all type of plasmas all the time. According to him, many people end up tossing their display away because of the repair cost.

Plasmas has their "cool" factor, but they still don't last.

 

[KirkP]

Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident with Best Buy. Several industry trade journals have documented similar experiences with Best Buy and other retail chains providing bogus information on plasma displays. There are pros & cons with all of these display technologies but plasma is a reliable, proven display technology. It is a good for a laugh but no truth in what this gentleman told you. You cannot recharge the gas in plasma.

 

[Leo Kerr]

besides.. it isn't the gas that's a problem. It's generally the phosphores that get to be the trouble.

Leo Kerr

 

[Will_B]

I have another theory. Perhaps he was a time traveling Best Buy employee from circa 1990, attempting to blend in to modern society!

 

[Stephane]

OK I will bite at this one.

One: I work in a high end retail establishment in Canada. I have to agree with Kirk on this, there are pros and cons to every technology out there. Let face it being in the retail end of things I meet people that already have opinions on what they think is the best thing since sliced bread. They prefer to take there friends advice over someone that has learned the new technologies.

I have to say that plasma's have a life of approx. 60000 hours. This is the same as LCD's. But in truth, you can expect about 30000 hours of outstanding picture. Then you can possibly see some loss of picture quality depending on just how visual you are.

I remember way back when the first plasma's were being pitched to the retail industry. I remember that the sales person from a very prominent company said that they had to be re-filled with gas at some point. No not the kind that we put into our car but some form of gas. Since then I have never heard this again. This was about 6 - 7 years ago if not more.


Another thing that I find terrible is the people that buy plasma's that are cheep. Sorry but some people expect the same kind of quality out of a $4000.00 CDN plasma instead of an $8000.00 CDN plasma. Even if the exterior cosmetics of the plasma are the same and the person is price shopping, a lot of consumers will by the lower priced one not knowing exactly that they have bought an inferior product from the same brand name.

Then on the boards such as these, we get to read that company so and so has a bad product and so on.

I have to say that this story was extremely funny to read and It was a joy to laugh so hard that I could have awaken the dead. I would have a question then to you HTF readers out there.

What is more important in a purchase?

1)The amount of knowledge that a professional sales associate will give you...

2)Or is the price the most important part for your up coming purchase.

 

[Leo Kerr]

Has any one really demonstrated the life of a plasma being 60k hours?

In my own experience, with a variety of screens from Pioneer, JVC, Hitachi, and Panasonic, depending on what you're running on the screens, you're good for anywhere between...

8000 hours (static, PC screen, to major damage, even at low contrast settings.)

to

13,000 hours (dynamic running video. dimmer picture, bad pixels, and similar issues.)

Either one is a far cry from your 30-60k hours.

If money were no object, those screens that were junked at 8000 hours would have been junked at 4500 hours.

Leo Kerr

 

[David Norman]

I guess another possibility (certainly wouldn't put it past some folks) is that the salesman was somewhat limited and some of his buddies decided it would be funny to load the guy up with a bunch of crap so that they could laugh at him when somebody toasted him.

 

[LewB]

Ask him to show you where the filler cap is

Panasonic 42PX25 owner, and loving it