Plasma V's LCD/LED - I've no idea what all this stuff actually means!

Pinched it from another forum and thought it might be useful!

If you can wait go for an LCD/LED tv and don't pay over a tenner for an HDMI cable also avoid the plasma like the plague its old tech and that's why places are trying to get shot of them.

Also make sure sales assistants tell you:

Remember LED tvs are LCD tvs its just that they are backlit with LEDS.

Its not a TRUE LED screen as they DON'T EXIST yet for the home user

LED is not OLED which is supposedly the next step forward, but have read somewhere they were having difficulty manufacturing anything over a 32" screen and that they cost a fortune.

LCD/LED advantages;

Lower power consumption. More balanced color saturation.

In LED/LCD TVs using the Full Array blacklight method, there is little or no light leakage in dark scenes. This contributes to even better black levels than traditional or LED Edge-lit LCD televisions.

LED/LCD TVs that use the Edge backlight method can be made much thinner than both standard LCD and Full Array LED/LCD televisions.

LED backlight does represent an advance in technology, mostly in bringing LCD TVs up to the performance levels of Plasma Televisions in terms of black level performance, and, at the same time, making even thinner LCD TV

So, shop around and read reviews on the current LCD/LED tv's as I have heard bad/good things on the current crop of Samsung LED tvs around.

If you have a Satellite try to get one with FREESAT tuner as this will get you FREE HD channels when they become more readily available (or so they keep telling us). Freesat are getting bundled with items now as i think that's what they will be pushing next year. You might even get an installation package for a song if you buy the whole kit.

I doubt you'd see the full benefit of 1080p (full HD) on a 32" screen. Full HD capability is really only of any significance if you have Blu-Ray as this is the only practical way of viewing a 1080p picture, Sky and other broadcasted HD is 720p.

Consider going for a 1080p screen if 1) it is over 32" and 2) you have a blu-ray player or a ps3. As far as LED technology is concerned it is new and whilst certainly visually impressive I have concerns at its long term reliability - for now I'd be sticking with LCD.

if you decide to get a package deal that includes a blu-ray player or an upscaling DVD player, don't get conned into buying an expensive HDMI cable. The guys in the shop will often try to convince you that a more expensive HDMI cable means better picture quality; this is a lie. Unlike SCART, HDMI is a digital connection, not analogue and the picture quality is not affected by the cable quality.

Another consideration is number of HDMI slots, most decent Tv's come three these days, I would venture that is minimum - the best way to future proof is to get one with as many slots as one can afford, part of the pricing policy is based on number of HDMI slots. Also its worth remember that most Tv's on display are often put on a display setting that is way brighter than you would have it home. Its always worth asking the staff to reset it to get a feel of its real capabilities.

Whatever the brand its also worth remembering that irrespective of the name there are a finite number of manufacturing sources.

If considering a Blu-ray player the best on the market is still the PS3 and then there is its additional functionality: it can stream from 'tinternet, surf the 'tinternet store music, play all manner of SD DVD's and not forgetting one can play and download games all for under price of a so called standard BD player.

Don't worry it will be out of date in a week.

Most of it seems ok but it was clearly written by someone anti plasma TVs. Some manufacturers are gradually phasing out plasma TVs but only because LCD are cheaper to make, not because plasma TV are somehow inferior.  Many people say they produce a better picture than LCD. However LCD TVs are thinner and lighter.

I would avoid buying a TV with a built in FreeSat tuner (at this means a thicker TV at the moment) and go for a seperate FreeSat box that does recording.

I think almost all new TVs over 40" do 1080p now.

People might knock plasma screens but they beat the hell out of LED/LCD screens when it actually comes to quality of image because you don't get all those digital artifacts visible as the camera pans and follows the ball.

Quote:

though modern LCDs seem to have much better veiwing angles than older ones.

Another thing to consider if you were thinking you can combine the functinons of monitor and TV is that while some HDTVs make decent monitors others make terrible ones by applying inappropriate processing that can't be turned off or bypassed. If you plan to use your HDTV as a monitor try to get a reccomendation from someone who does the same (personally I now use a LG M2762D for this and am very happy with it but the previous one I tried was pretty poor as a monitor and has now been demoted to a location where it is used as a plain TV).

CWatters wrote on Jan 15^th, 2010, 11:53pm:

You'll also get a shock when you come to replace it I'm afraid, they don't do Black & White TVs anymore so you will havve to get a colour TV license!

Acually, joking aside, I had a B&W license for years (but colour TV) as I object to having to pay for something without the choice.