Plasma or LCD display for use as a restaurant menu: need recs!! (1 Viewer)

[KyleT]

As you might imagine there's not going to be too much in the way of moving images on the screen, which means too thing: the ability to refresh quickly enough to avoid ghosting is a very low priority. Definitely need to avoid any TV that might burn in over time because these sets will be displaying the exact same image for 12 hours a day 7 days a week for months upon months on end.

It also means that legibility of text and graphics from a distance, as well as viewing angle, and brightness (they will be in a well lit area) and avoiding glare are very high priorities.

Lastly price is a big point, too. We're on a budget here, so the cheapest thing that will reliably accomplish our goals is all we need.

I'm thinking probably three 42 to 50" displays depending on price. They will be wall-mounted.

I was considering wall mountable DLPs but just haven't been very impressed with their brightness in well-lit areas.

Help! I need to order these within the next 30 days.

 

[Jim Mcc]

This sure sounds like an expensive option just for a menu.
What is your budget?

 

[KyleT]

It's somewhat flexible but we'd like to keep it under 10k, which surprisingly enough is only a bit over twice what standard/boring static backlit menus would cost to get custom made. Either that or a chalk board I guess.

We're putting a strong focus on atmosphere in this restaurant, and we want to give people something to talk about: dynamic flat panel menus will definitely give people something to talk about - especially when we get to animating them (just simple animations in the graphics/picture areas). Automatic menu updates (our menu is going to be changing quite a bit on a daily basis), and even adjustable based on inventory levels which our registers/server track in real time.

 

[Jim Mcc]

It'll definitely give them something to talk about. They'll be asking the employees to turn "the game" on.

 

[David Norman]

I would think that would basically make plasma a poor (or at least a much less good choice) choice. I don't know how much light you would expect, but I would think the potential glare from the front glass would make it difficult to read smaller print.

True LCD much above 40 inches look to get real expensive fast -- only a few 45-46 units even available right now looking like 3.5-4K per unit. 40 inch LCD's could be had for about 2-2.5K each.