Plasma displays for computer graphics? (1 Viewer)

[Micah Lloyd]

As the HT-guy, I've been appointed at my company to recommend some hardware for a project we're doing that will need about 100 plasma TVs for the first installation. (I'm looking forward to making that order!)

I'm looking for ideas on 42" plasma monitors. They only need to display 852x480 (no hi-res). The important things to consider are that they'll be running 24x7 and I'll need to know how many hours we can expect to get out of them.

I haven't done any more than basic web R&D, but the range of units is amazing. From the $2900 Panasonic TH-42PWD6UY to the $5000 ViewSonic VPW450HD. Cost, of course, will be a factor.

Is there something glaring that I'm missing? These units will sit in public, well-lit, areas, above eye-level (about 7' high). Display angle should be as wide as possible (All the info I could find on the ones I've researched state they are 160 degrees wide). I'm not sure on the source distribution, yet.

Any input at all will be gratefully appreciated!

 

[DaveGTP]

I think that the Panny models have the highest official # of rated hours to half brightness @ 60,000.

I'm sure you're aware that plasmas used as computer monitors will definitely burn in? (of course, our old Digital CRT monitors here are burned in too....). Are you sure a bunch of LCDs wouldn't do the job?

 

[Micah Lloyd]

I wasn't aware of the burn in issue on the plasmas. More research and I see that this could be a problem. I whipped up a Plasma vs LCD chart for the brass. (I think they like plasma due to "latest technology" syndrome.) I'm concerned about the weight, durability, power requirements and the product life-span (LCDs are about twice as many hours).

Thanks for the help.

 

[David Parrish]

We have plasmas here at work. They're about 2 months old and already have burn-in.

I saw a very good exapmle of burn in on a Plasma at the San Antonio Airport. You could see ghost Arrival and Departure times from where they'd burned in.

If you are going to display steady data on these Plasmas you'll want to have a very aggressive screen saver, or a video card designed to work with plasmas.

 

[Kevin*Ha]

We use older Pannys in our displays, similar to the one you mentioned. They have been running 19 hours a day for about 2 years now and have a screen change every 14 seconds. We haven't had an issues with burn-in mostly due to the constant switching of the image, and I certainly can not see any noticable brightness difference after ~13,000 hours of use. I've heard of burn-ins happening fairly quickly if you run the same image 24/7, so as was mentioned above, I would look for a periodic screensaver or image change.

Oh, edit - as for image quality, the new Panasonic 42 inch 852x480 sets look incredible, even recieving an HDTV signal. I'm not quite ready to make the purchase for home but after a lot of comparision shopping I wouldn't hesitate to buy the WD6UY.