Who me? Plasma? Little help. (1 Viewer)

[Robert Silge]

In about 6 months we'll be replacing our DLP projector when we move. Projectors aren't an option, so we've started looking at new TVs. I am a fan of DLP, as neither my wife nor I see the rainbows, the price for size is the best, and the picture has always looked great to me. However, my wife wasn't enthralled with the viewing angles on the RPTV DLPs we saw.

We went to eyeball some sets at Costco, expecting to compare DLP to LCD. Granted Costco isn't the best environment to compare HD monitors, but we were both very underwhelmed with LCD. Nothing looked as sharp, and the screen door effect was very noticeable for me. Some sets looked better than others, but none of them looked as good as plasma.

So now we're considering that, which I hadn't expected. I'm trying to decide if we need 1080p or if 720p is good enough (I lean towards going for 1080p), and I'm a bit concerned about burn in.

As I understand it, burn-in is better now than it was. I anticipate that the set will be used for TV about 40% of the time (lots of that being sports), gaming about 40% of the time, and movies about 20%. With a decently calibrated set is burn-in something I need to worry about with, say, 3-4 hours of gaming a week?

Thanks.

 

[Carl Gaff]

Robert,
I have two Vizio plasma sets ( 50" & 42") that I purchased at Costco approximately 15 months ago. I use the 42" one in the bedroom and the 50" one was my main TV while I was living in a second house for my job. The 50' et was used for both Direct TV use and some gaming. I have had no problem with burn-in. On the 50' one I do notice some short-time image retention, say when watch a program that is shown in widescreen or standard definition. But it only lasted for a short time. I do use the Vizio's "Image Cleaner" function once a month and also have reset the brightness and contrast levels to much more normal levels than what the the sets were shipped with. I'm so satisfied with the plasmas performance that I will be purchasing a 65" Panasonic plasma set soon to repalce my 65" Misubishi rear projection set. I looked at and tried LCD sets before purchasing my plasma's but was not happiny with their off-angle viewing, lack of blacks, and in some cases motion blur. Hope this helps.

 

[marcIs]

I own a lg 42pc5d i use it as my computer monitor and for my 360. i hardly ever play games no time to, but i do use it for pc use. playing games or on line for 5 or 6 hours at a time does not worry me. I just make shure that i watch at least 3 to 4 hrs of tv or movies before I log bck on. A good rule of thumb is give the tv a good 50 hours of brake in time before you play any games over 3 hours and keep play time under 8 hours. If the tv has pixel shift or something like that turn it on this will help.

 

[Steve Berger]

Personally, I'd stick with DLP (RPTV). Nothing is going to match the viewing angles of your front projector. (I wouldn't even try)

While the new flat panels boast impressive panel life, the electronic circuit boards have about a 5 year lifespan. (fish-caps, BGA chips, tin wiskers, no-lead solder, printed eyelets) The DLP has the fewest failure modes of all of the fixed-pixel technologies. (panel life is not MTBF for the set, but time till reduced performance, usually 50% brightness)

 

[marcIs]

I find dlp to have a not so good viewing angle plus the blub needs to be replaced every few years, unless you go wit samsungs new led. How ever the led lamp lacks the light output of the coventual lamps.As for gaming I don't see the DLP as the best display for response time.