TV & Home Theater

[goofeewalden]

I'll be getting a 42" Panasonic Plasma TV. It'll only be used for a 360. I'm wondering if I should just get 720p and save about 200-250 or shell out the cash and go for 1080p. I'm thinking at that size you can't tell much difference anyway. I won't be getting blu-ray or anything else to use with the TV.

[Nokia · Accepted solution]

You can't tell the difference at that size.

[goofeewalden]

Thanks. That's what I figured. I'll just go for 720p then. Also since I have this thread open, is it worth it at all to use HDMI over component?

[Nokia]

Yes.

[paulmohr]

if its only for gaming I would go with an lcd model not a plasma. Both look good but the lcds do not have any issues with burn in on the screen. They also tend to look better in a room with high ambient lighting.

I agree I wouldn't spend the money on 1080P unless you were getting a really big tv and planned on watching blu ray movies as well.

Also the smaller tv's will have less input lag, something to consider when gaming.

Paul

[Jaxjags2100]

Plasmas aren't subjected to issues of burn in anymore. That was a problem around 5 years ago when they first came out.

Plasma's have higher refresh rates and provide deeper blacks than LCD or LED tv's. The only problem with plasma's are that they are heavier.

LCD and LED tv's have issues with image ghosting on faster images like gaming and sports programs, but they are also thinner and lighter.

The lone reason why you're seeing tv's with 120hz and 240hz processing is because they're trying to increase the amount of times the television refreshes the screen per second.

Plasmas don't have this issue.

[paulmohr]

actually plasma tv do have issues with burn in, however in the past few years they have gotten better and have come out with some features to combat it. The is issue is not gone however. If you leave a high contrast bright picture on a plasma screen for hours at a time it could mess up the image.

LCD tvs have absolutely no issue with this at all, wich is why most computer monitors are lcd based.

Both will probably work fine, and in my opinion a plasma looks a bit better than the average lcd, but if I was going for a gaming only monitor I would choose a conservatively sized lcd screen.

[Jaxjags2100]

I quote HDGURU.Com. Here's a link to the article

"Creating Plasma “Burn-in”

Attempts by the HD Guru to create “”burn-in”" (uneven phosphor wear) on 2008 and 2009 model year plasma panels by freeze-framing an image for 10 hours and then switching to a white screen have been unsuccessful. No “burn-in” occurred. We also checked out demo plasma HDTVs at retail stores and found no “”burn-in”" on any of the models tested. This is particularly significant since floor models are traditionally set to “showroom” mode (usually listed in the user menu as Dynamic or Vivid) in order to produce maximum brightness.

A number of advances by plasma panel makers, including how phosphors are driven, have significantly improved resistance to “burn-in.”  Broadcasters and cable providers have also helped by changing their logos (known as “bugs”) usually located in the lower right hand screen corner, from opaque to translucent, which significantly cuts down on the brightness and color differences between the “bugs” and the content, thus minimizing the possibility that the “bug” will burn into the screen."

Like I said...burn-in isn't a problem any more. Nuff said!

[goofeewalden]

The thing is, I hate how LCD looks. I'm actually not considering one at all.

[paulmohr]

Interesting article, and the first time I have seen someone actually try to ruin a tv that way. Glad to see under normal use it doesn't seem to be an issue. However you failed to list the the text after that that explains that it can indeed be done and does happen. Or the many other poeple that commented on the article talking about how their tv actually has faint burn in problems.

I didn't say it was easy, I said it was possible, where as with an lcd it isn't, they work different.

Playing a game for hours certainly won't do it. However playing a game with the tv not adjusted properly over a long period of time could possibly leave faint visable spots on the screen. Would all depend on how hard core of a gamer you are. Or leaving the tv on all the time on one channel. Like say a sports a bar or something.

As far as one looking better than the other I recently purchased a new flat screen and did a ton of looking at them. Its almost impossible to tel the difference with a properly adjusted tv at the correct viewing distance. I bet if I set up 10 tvs of each kind, lcd, plasma and the new led lcd most would never be able pick the plasma tvs from the lcd ones if they did not know what they were. And from what I have seen the led models look better than the plasma tvs. Unfortunately they are pretty pricey though.

Out of curiousity how big of a tv were you looking at getting? I personally think too big of a tv for gaming only makes it a bit harder to play and causes more strain than needed. On too big of a tv it gets hard to follow all the information and your eyes have to move much more to take it all in. And I have read a few articles that talk about larger tv's having more input lag for gaming. Things to consider anyway.

Like I said before I am sure any current tv on the market will work fine though. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all the tv's on the display floor are set up the same so they look different. Also they feed multiple tvs the same signal wich depending on how they distribute the signal can effect how the tvs will look.

Good luck and let us know what you get.

Paul