Tips to buy LCD, Plasma TV
Recently I just moved into my new home and whenever I sit in my living room, I am dreaming of having a wide screen LCD / Plasma TV. So I went ahead to do some research on LCD TV, plasma TV, understand the difference, specs and price. I realize LCD / Plasma TV and LCD monitor carry the same specs and if you understand what I blogged before on LCD monitor, you should be able to understand LCD / Plasma TV specs pretty easily too.
First of all we have to analyze the price range. 32” LCD/Plasma TV price is RM 1900-3000, 37” price is RM 2500 – 4000, 40” price is RM3000-5000, 42” price is RM4500-6000. 42” above price is RM6500 and above. We will not look into those above 42” today as frankly speaking it is just insane to spend RM7000 on a TV when you can use it as a downpayment for a car. To understand difference between LCD and plasma technology, you will have to read it from web as it is hard to explain while I don’t really get it too. But generally LCD produces different color through manipulating liquid crystal tiny segment calls pixel using flourescent light bulb. Plasma produces different color through emitting xeon/neon gas to phosphorus reaction.
First we will look at the popular spec, contrast ratio. As we know in the industry there is no standard method in measuring contrast ratio, but generally LCD and plasma TV will specify their dynamic contrast ratio. Through side-by-side comparison experience on a 40” plasma to 40” LCD, plasma TV has sharper and more realistic picture compare to LCD TV. Usually plasma TV will come with contrast ratio of 20,000 – 30,000 :1 while LCD TV will come with contrast ratio of 7000 – 15,000:1. Personally I prefer plasma TV over LCD TV for this simple reason, contrast ratio. While contrast ratio is not as important as in LCD monitor, it does show the difference in LCD TV to plasma TV especially when the typical brightness is 1500 cd/m2 (candelas per meter square) versus LCD monitor of typical 250-300 cd/m2.
Second we have to understand the term HD-ready and full HD. HD-ready also means 720p or 720 pixels count vertically. Full-HD means 1080p or 1080 pixels count vertically. HD or high definition, means resolution of 1920 x 1080 and therefore TV with 1080p is true HD while TV with 720p is considered partial HD ready. All 42” TV and below selling in the market today are HD-ready, the maximum resolution it can support for PC display is 1024 x 768. It reaches the 768 pixels vertical count through upscaling, therefore LCD TV / Plasma TV with 42” or below will not show you great image when you use it to as a PC display. It is important to understand this because LCD TV or plasma TV is not suitable / ideal for PC monitor yet, if you intend to use it as a LCD monitor, you should just go and get a 22-24” LCD monitor which is designed to output higher resolution images rather than 32” LCD TV. I have seen a SAMSUNG 32” LCD TV used to display notebook image and it is indeed very bad and images are blurred, you will definitely feel very disappointed. There is another term called 1080i, 1080i is not 1080p, “i” stands for interlaced, and it is also not true HD and is one of those upscaling fuzzy mathematics. 1080i can be found on all upscaling DVD player – anyway the end result is also pathetic.
Third understand the different risk you need to bear when purchasing a LCD TV and plasma TV. LCD/plasma TV risk is dead pixels, but now manufacturers actually provide warranty for your TV if you have above 8 dead pixels. So if you only have 4 dead pixels, try to find / create another 4. Plasma TV looks good and sharper than LCD TV, but it stands the risk of having burn-in. Plasma TV will usually specifies their backlight panel lifespan. Typically you will see like 60,000 hours or equivalent to 6 years++ if you turn on your TV 24 hours a day. The lifespan actually means after 60,000 hours, the quality of the image on your TV will drop to half and you will see ghosting and blurred images. It doesn’t tell you exactly whether you will start to see/notice the gradual degradation of the image after 2-3 years of usage. I personally don’t have a plasma TV and I cannot tell you that for sure.
Fourth understand the inputs. LCD/plasma TV nowadays do come with at least 2 HDMI 1.3 inputs, at least 2 to 3 video inputs, at least 1 VGA input. Some even come with S-video input and optical cable output to high end speaker system. Input is not something you need to be concern too much because it is more than enough for a high end home theater system and your ASTRO decoder.
Generally 32” LCD TV is for viewing distance of 5-6 feet, 37-42” is for viewing distance of 8-12 feet away. I personally recommend 40” TV at least for living room, and recommend you to give 32” TV a pass. But in the end it is about your budget, and I do agree we shouldn’t spend too much on just a TV. RM 4500-5000 for a 40” LCD / plasma TV is still too high for the average people but I am pretty sure the price will continue to fall as manufacturers and retail come under severe sales pressure.
Another thing why you should be patient and wait is LCD TV will all be full-HD by next year, even 32”. One upcoming model will be SAMSUNG LA32A650. Therefore it is time to expect retails to flush out HD-ready TV with amazingly low price, I cannot guarantee that will happen but I predict that will be the trend. Even in
Singapore , 32” HD-ready TV is selling as low as RM 1500.
As my good friend and wife always said, when come to technology gadgets, it is always not too late to buy. Well, there are certainly right on that. To prove their theory is correct, 29” CRT flatscreen TV was 2000+ 3 years ago, it is now selling for 799 only, + a free DVD player. As for me, I will continue to use my 3-year old 29” LG CRT monitor which costs me RM 999 and wait until 40” plasma TV is full HD and 30% cheaper.
