Plasma HDTV Help

[Thordic]

Ok, so I'm in the market for a plasma HDTV. Right now I'm looking to spend under $2k, and hoping to get a 42" or close to it.

My initial research led me to this Panosonic model:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Panasonic_TH_42PX60U/4505-6482_7-31788615.html

I don't have any fancy equipment I need to hook up to it, but this model seems to have a lot of hookups to allow for anything I may buy.

Two component video inputs aren't a requirement but would be nice.

Anyone have any other reccomendations or whatnot?

[Steelrat]

What do you plan on using it for?

Here is a threat about that one on AVforums http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312486&highlight=Panasonic+TH42PX60U

Here is one of many threads on AVSforums http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=657575&highlight=TH42PX60U

[Thordic]

Mostly DVDs and XBox360, I don't watch much TV, but I do watch a lot of movies.

Also, hockey in HD. Thats big.

S-Video would be nice to I could hook it up for my computer just for convenience. It'd be cool to see some of my photographs in huge format when I'm looking them over in photoshop, but thats more of a novelty than a real need.

EDIT: 101 pages on that thread over there, jeez. I'll take a look through it, thanks.

[Crighton]

I just picked up an Epson Cinema Pro 800 for about 1600. It's Polysi LCD though.

Went projector over flat panel because I want a HUGE screen. Nothing like a 120" inches worth of Xbox 360 gaming goodness.

[teufelhunden]

My family -just- got the same TV, albeit the one with a PC hookup, SD card slot, and a cable card thingy.

It's nice. We run it with a HD digital cable box which does a lot on its own [iO, from Cablevision if that's an option for you, being in Jersey and all] including PiP [which the CNet thing specifically cracks on the TV for]. In all honesty, I've probably only watched 3-4 hours on it in the weekish we've had it, so I can't give you a great review, but what I can say: HD looks great, sound is so-so [my sound standards are higher than my image standards], but an audio system has always been planned, haven't gotten to it yet. Its menus are sort of silly, but not unusable. It's an attractive unit, comes with a really sturdy stand, and it's done everything my family has asked of it. As with anything else, it's only going to look as good as the signal coming in, so I had to beat the parents into getting HD iO [they wanted to run regular cable straight into the TV...], so consider that. X360 obviously already has HD capability, presumably your DVD setup does as well [though it isn't HD].

I think we paid just around 2K from it, we got the Panasonic employee price, as my dad has a client who works for them who probably owes him money.

[PumpPlayer]

I've got my eye on the Visio 37" LCDs for under $1k.

500:1 contrast, 8ms refresh rate and it goes up to 720p (1080i) resolution, and is compatible with everything below that with the built-in tuner. 12-month (almost) unlimited warranty is nice to have too.


Previously I had been peeking at the 32" Panasonic LCD but I think the Visio is a better deal for less money and is a more reliable brand and warranty.

Haven't quite saved up enough clams to pick up the Visio, though.

[Steelrat]

I just got a 360 myself, and have been running it on my backup tv, which is a 42" projection that can do 1080i. The picture is AMAZING.

Now, I know that the whole issue of plasma burn-in has supposedly been addressed by manufacturers, but I still consider them less-than-optimal for video games due to possible burn-in issues. I think that model can do 1080i, but the 360 is now capable of 1080P, which only the LCD tvs are doing right now.

I'll make some recommendations a bit later. Not that it's a bad set, I'm just not a huge fan of the plasmas.

[Steelrat]

I've got my eye on the Visio 37" LCDs for under $1k.

500:1 contrast, 8ms refresh rate and it goes up to 720p (1080i) resolution, and is compatible with everything below that with the built-in tuner. 12-month (almost) unlimited warranty is nice to have too.


Previously I had been peeking at the 32" Panasonic LCD but I think the Visio is a better deal for less money and is a more reliable brand and warranty.

Haven't quite saved up enough clams to pick up the Visio, though.


That contrast rating isn't that great, and 8ms response MIGHT lead to ghosting, though response time isn't a perfect indicator of that.

[PumpPlayer]

True, but it's under $1k for a 37" HD screen.

I'm not really a videophile and I'm not looking for the best of the best - I just want a good value that isn't going to wipe out my bank account.

Besides, the Wii isn't going to have HD capability so my gaming needs are met with this. The built-in backwards compatability to 480i is important to me.
And I think movies and sports will look plenty fine on it even if it's not the best.


Anyone have any experience with Visios?

[Armory]

Aviod PLASMA FOR GAMING!!! Plasma burns the screens faster then any other TV, your better off getting an LCD DPL. Sony has a 50" for about 1.5k at Best Buy and Target (Can you tell what I'm looking at buying?)

[Thordic]

Call me retarded, but I don't understand how gaming would damage a screen any faster than a movie. Care to explain how that works?

[Thordic]

Also, I've seen a lot of text around like this:


Burn-in: You may have heard that plasma has a couple of drawbacks. One such downside is called burn-in, which occurs when an image--such as a stock ticker, a network logo, or letterbox bars--gets etched permanently onto the screen because it sits in one place too long. In our experience, the danger of burn-in has been greatly exaggerated, and people with normal viewing habits have nothing to worry about. The potential for burn-in is greatest during the first 100 or so hours of use, during which time you should keep contrast rather low (less than 50 percent) and avoid showing static images or letterbox bars on the screen for hours at a time. After this initial phase, plasma should be as durable as any television technology. Many panels also have burn-in-reduction features, such as screensavers and pixel orbiting, or settings to treat burn-in once it occurs, such as causing the screen to go all-white.

[smilestyler]

Call me retarded, but I don't understand how gaming would damage a screen any faster than a movie. Care to explain how that works?

Some games have images that don't change. (ei "player 1" or maps, health levels, etc) and if they remain on the screen for extended lengths of time, they leave ghost images in older plasma screens when you play a diff game or watch TV.

[Steelrat]

The plasmas have issues that the manufacturers have tried to overcome, like burn-in and loss of brightness. Their ads claim that they have fixed all the issues, but I don't think they can be completely resolved. I feel LCDs are a superior technology, though more expensive, and with worse blacks, at least at this point.

But, unless space is a concern, have you considered a nice DLP or LCD rear projection TV? My Sony XBR 60" projection has as nice a picture as anything else out there, and was considerably cheaper than a plasma of that size. Sure, it a bit thicker, but the new projections are a lot thinner than the boxes of years past. Mine is just a bit over a foot or so deep, and fits easily on a thin shelving unit.

I have a 42" Toshiba rear projection (tube even!) that I use my new 360 with, and on the 1080i setting, it looks phenomenal. Easily as good as any plasma I have seen. And this one was well under $2K 5 years ago. I think hype is what drives a lot of big-screen plasma and LCD sales, as the only thing they have on nice rear-projections is the ability to be stuck on a wall. Well, that and a higher price tag.

[kosmo]

Vizio 37" LCD $675 (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=L37HDTV-R&AID=10440852&CJPID=1798476&cm_ven=CJ&cm_pla=1798476&cm_ite=REDIRECT-ProductSpecific_Text_9-11-2006&cm_cat=1635414) OOS for now.

50" Vizio plasma $1500 (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=P50HDM-R&cat=CON)

Thats supposed to be a pretty good plasma. Dont know how good the LCD one is, but it has built in OTA tuners, which is nice.

[digitard]

I agree. If you plan to game a lot on it, dont go plasma. Stay away from Phospher based sets in general if thats the primary use (Plasma/CRT).

Stick with LCD, or DLP since neither have burn in. LCD has something called Image Retention sometimes (looks like burn in) but you just pull the power for a few hours and it goes back. Not permanant. DLP has no burn in what so ever.

I have a 50" Optoma RD50A DLP HDTV ... its phenominal, but they dont make it anymore which sucks cause its an amazing set. Won best of show at CES.

If you really just plan on XB360, HD Cable and DVD's (which can be run through your 360 anyhow) then really you dont need the extra inputs.

My set has:
1x DVI-D
2x Component High Definition inputs
1x Component SD inputs
2x Composite Inputs
2x S-Video inputs (FYI S-Video is NOT HD compatable)
2x standard cable inputs

You were mentioning the XB360 and pictures from the PC. You can sync your PC up with your XB360 and view your pictures from the XB360 dashboard so no need for extra stuff.

I have my rig setup like so:
- Cable goes into my HD-DVR (gotta record in high def)
- HD-DVR goes into Component 1 (was HDMI-DVID but I change dit back to component)
- XB360 goes into Component2
- Wifes gamecube in composite1.

Thats it. My XB360 not only plays my DVD's, but I loaded a WinXP Media Center 2005 as my OS on my PC so I can stream music, photos and full XVID/DIVX movies to my XB360 so my 160gigs of movies can be viewed on demand as your XB360 sync's with the media center interface on your computer.

[hellrasiermike]

Alright guys, since I sell these sets at HHGreGG I thought I might add my two cents.

When you are looking to buy a tv for gaming your going to only look at six different aspects of the set. That being Size, Color Capacity, Response time, Contrast, Burn-in, and resloution.

On size the simplest thing to do is stand infront of your tv and pace your steps back to where your normally sit. Then do the same thing at the store. If your eyes "walk" from either side of the tv your looking at something to big. And if you have to squint at it, your looking at something to small. The old rule that you need 10 inches of screen size for every one foot of distance is wrong for the simple fact that we all don't have the same eyes. And what may seem to close or far to you might look just right to another.

On color, most sets these days can produce more color the the human eye can differentiate. You picked a good model in the PX60U series from Panasonic. They hold the original patent to plasma sets and this is their ninth generation. But take a look at a Xbox 360 display anywhere. They are all (and I mean every single one) Samsung screens. Back before the launch of the 360 Microsoft dropped about 10 million dollars in research to figure out which Manufacturers screens produced the best color when interfacing with a 360. It says something that they chose Samsung to the tune of 56,000 screens bought. The new series out from Samsung has the only 13bit color porcessor in the world certified for the 360. And you can get it in Projection, LCD and Plasma.

Response time is and issue that only we fanatical gamers take to heart. When it come to the three types of HDTV sets available, only two stand out. That being Projection (DLP to be specific) and Plasma. I know everyone says to get a LCD for gaming but they don't what talking about. Believe me, I've had plenty of time to tinker and the lag on a LCD drove me nuts. You see it even if you have it on a game mode. You have to understand when it comes to LCD they are TV's first and a Computer/Gaming screen last. Thats just how their designed. Projection and Plasma sets have no noticable lag when placed in a game mode.

Contrast is something not a lot of people think about or understand, but it is crucial. Contracts is what makes your whites and blacks whites and blacks, not a form of grey. Their what stands behind every pixel on your screen (all 2 million of them). The next time you go into a store just look at an LCD vrs a Plasma. Look at the skin tones and the greens and you will see the grey in the LCD. Remeber the HDTV formats will show you a heck of a lot more in color then we've ever had before. Of the three types of sets you can by Plasma ranks highest with a true 10,000 to 1 contrast ratio. Projection comes second with 6,000 to 1, and LCD with 3,000 to 1. Now I know some people might bring up the fact that some companies are advertising LCD with 6,000 to 1 and Projections with 10,000 to 1, but its all bogus. The screens built in may be capable of those contract ratios, but the computers running the set are not. The only set capable of a true 10,000 to 1 ratio is a Plasma.

Burn-in is the great bogey man of Plasma HDTV's. Most people have the miconception the Plasmas are the most vulnerable. "Consumer reports" did a test last month (Sep 06) in which a Samsung Plasma and a Panasonic Plasma were pitted against a Samsung LCD and a Panasonic LCD. Both Plasma and LCD sets where left on a PS2 screen for two days. And both sets had severe burn-in afterwords. But after leaving the screen wipe program on for only eight hours, on both the Samsung and Panasonic Plasmas, the burn-in was completely erased. The LCD's screen clean function could not remove the burn-in. And keep in mind that the projection screen clean function isn't any better than the LCD's.

Resolution is another factor I don't think a lot of people understand. Originally there were only three standards; 480, 720 and 1080. Your DVD would be good example of 480. However, with the 720 resolution some people complained of seeing a "screen" in front of the TV. What the were seeing was the seperation between the pixels. It was from this that the term "screen door effect" was coined and it can be very annoying. So the industry responded with a fourth resloution, 768. It allowed for a 720 feed to be smoothed out so there would be no "screen door effect". 1080 is the diffinitve HDTV format, and it is already the standard for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. If you plan on getting a PS3 its a must, but for the 360 its not really needed. A 768 set will do.

In closing I've been looking for the exact same thing as you man. The set you really need to go for is the Samsung Plasma HPS4253. Its only $1799.99 and has the right color processor (Xbox 360 certified, its the same one in their LCD's), Frame rates (absolutley no lag playing Halo 2), contrast (10,000 to 1) and its 42 inches. I know its more expensive than the panasonic, but this set was designed for this kind of gaming. It is so worth the extra $200. Email me if you want/need anymore details.

Regards,

Mike D

On a side note, all those that have bought or are looking to buy the models carried at Sams Club, Costco and Walmart. The sets carried at these stores are all 720 sets (unless their 1080). If you think your saving something by buying a visio at Sams vrs buying a Samsung at Circuit City, your not. Trust me your not. It is worth spending that extra $200 to $400. You'll understand when you pop in "War of the Worlds" on your HD-DVD player two years down the road and wonder why it doesn't look any better than the DVD version on your old tube. Remember, this is an upgrade. We(sales staff) are not as dumb as we look and you (customer) are not as smart as you think. Your not being clever by being cheap, your just setting yourself up for a big and expensive disapointment.

[trevorjk]

ive heard panasonic and samsung are suppose to do extreme advertising campaigns on the plasma and lcd big screens (30-50 inches) late this year. wich should drop price substantially. just an fyi