CRT vs LCD VS Plasma

[arashid]

having owned all 3, keen to get various thoughts on all 3 technologies.

I had been outputting the wrong signal (HDMI full) from my PS3 to my Sonia Bravia 40 inch (and had to turn up the brightness all the way up to compensate) so never got good picture quality from my LCD and unfairly blamed the technology

Anyway now this is sorted and I must say I can understand why sales of LCD/LED are doing well.

If the purpose of watching TV is enjoyment/entertainment, I find that LCD is quite bright and colorful and I quite enjoy watching movies on my Sony. It has a matte screen which is very useful in terms of reflection.

The Panasonic Plasma I have is good, but seriously no match for a Pioneer 436 XDE I used to own (got stolen unfortunately) and it's glass screen is so reflective, it's like a mirror.

As a former Plasma loyalist (because of the Pioneer), I must the say although LCD picture still isn't as good as CRT, it is entertaining to watch and for me, I think I am seriously converted to the LCD TV technology. You don't need to worry about the image retention/screen burn problem which really is a pain with plasma. As much as panasonic say that this is no longer an issue, I really don't want to find out since their warranty won't cover it. Good one though, no longer an issue, but hey if your screen does get damaged we won't cover it !

However with OLED hopefully becoming mainstream in the future this will become a redundant argument and we can all go forget about this.

I apologise in advance if this is boring topic which has been endlessly debated in the past.

As for CRT, well that is really the best picture quality, but can we have one that does HD and with HDMI inputs? I would bet that in terms of picture quality it is a much more viable option than OLED, and today, not in 5 to 10 years time.

 

[Anonymous]

5 years ago the decision was easy - today I think the "picture" is much more mixed. Apart from taking a stand on the technologies, one has to navigate in todays jungle of problems.

Floating blacks - Rising blacks - Colorbanding - Refelections on front screen - buzzing power supples.

In terms of LCD, the result depends 99% on correct settings - you can get a natual "plasma-like" picture - or a plastic colorfull look - just one knob out of place and the picture is ruined. If set correctly, the picture on today´s LCD easely match any plasma ( or so close that you cant see the difference ).First step to optain a natual picture on a LCD, is to turn all picture improving features OFF, temperature on "normal", color in the middle - and you are reworded with a natual picture on most LCD´s.

Especially on Blu-ray are all cats gray - other issues such as reflektions, floating blacks, buzzing, design, quick channel shift etc becomes the decision points,

 

[kinda]

I can't comment on plasma having never had one, but I think it's a pretty even match between LCD and CRT.

I had a 36" Hitachi Natura with progressive scan, and now have a 26" Samsung C450 LCD.

In picture terms though I know the CRT had better contrast, and could provide deeper blacks, when watching I don't feel pictures are any worse on the LCD, and then obviously LCD has the benefit it can carry extra detail. Very occasionally there is a smearing artefact on the LCD which I never really saw on CRT, but it's so rare it doesn't mreally matter. I don't feel colours are any different.

This is after calibraitng the LCD in film mode, which I use all the time. The default settings of film mode made it look awful to me. The other modes tended toward being over enthusiastic with brightness and colours meaning detail was lost.

 

[Anonymous]

Well I loved CRT at the time, but that 36" picture frame toshiba I had, wouldn't look good sat on my wall, and certainly would be 50mm of the wall Inc. the bracket. BTW they did produce a HD CRT, I think it was 720p and was made by Samsung but got some dreadful reviews and died a quick death. LCD does not do it for me I tried a couple, a high rated Sony and one of the first Samsung LED models, but no matter how much I calibrated it I could not tame the colours and contrast to my liking. So Plasma is the tech for me, no motion problems, of course if don't turn on the silly processing. No uneven backlighting issues, usually good black levels and a very natural colour, just my opinion though.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a Sony Wega HX32. It's awesome. It accepts 720p and 1080i. I'm not sure it actually has the resolution of those formats though.

Im in no rush to replace it. The CRT TV worth tracking down is the Wega HR32 or 36. It has a high resolution screen. I'm sure it's a spin off from their professional Broadcast TV range.

Annoyingly they don't have HDMI inputs, but they do have an RCA input labelled "HD". I still don't know what this is for?

 

[Anonymous]

For me, projector for films, plasma for TV.

I still find plasma more realistic and natural. The perfect viewing angle is a big plus too.

I like LCD/LED for PC use but not for day to day TV.