LCD vs Plasma - Panasonic adds a new slant

[Anonymous]

Well, I finally spent my grand on the TH-37px70 after watching various demo DVDs, BBC HD content, and sd broadcasts via quite a few of my local dealers ( sorry for taking your time up guys ! ).

I was one of the people unsure of whether to buy the LCD or plasma, but for what it's worth, here's my reasoning.

I saw the LCD in a Panasonic dealer weeks ago, and the sales guy tried to sell me the LCD against the plasma ( there was £250 difference in the prices ), saying that the LCD would more suit my requirements even though I said that I would be watching sd rather than hd....future proofing he said etc, etc...

What finally sold me was not only the depth of the contrast and colours on the plasma, but lots of other things besides. I watch a lot of sport, and the motion handling really does make a considerable difference to the quality of viewing. Rugby is fantastic on the plasma, so good that my son, who has a Samsung LCD, is calling round to watch the rugby on Saturday on MY set.

Most of my viewing is via Sky sd. This is crystal clear, with no artifacts to notice even when extremely close to the screen. The built in freeview tuner similarly gives a top picture.

I bought the Panny 77 recorder at the same time, and this too gives superb playback of DVDs in scaled 1080p.

All told, if anyone is in two minds about LCD or plasma, make sure you demo the content you're going to watch on an everyday basis, as the showrooms are full of high quality demos which make ANYTHING on the shelves look decent. Try off air broadcasts in sd and see what I mean !

The only criticism I can level at the Panny is the sound quality. Having just said goodbye to an old Tosh 28" with subwoofer, Dolby surround etc all built in, the Panny is like an old tranny radio. But I suppose you can't have everything in a TV and still get change out of £700 - www.soundandvision.co.uk or Shop@Panasonic Bradford are both pretty competitive.

If you want to show off the HD handling prowess and the pin sharp definition to your mates, go for the LCD. If you want a superb picture, with beautiful contrast and colours on virtually any input signal, go for the plasma - either way both are great sets from this top supplier.

 

[Clare Newsome]

I couldn't agree more.

Re the sonics: We've always said in all our reviews of the plasma, that its sound isn't great - but then most flatscreens aren't, either....Add a sound system!

And by the way, i've just been speaking to Panasonic, who've confirmed that the Viera plasmas (37in+) are 24fps- they are going to add that to the official spec ASAP.

 

[Gaspin]

A question for Clare. After trawling endlessly through this topic, I'm about to bite the bullet and buy my first flat screen TV, the new Panasonic TH-37PX70, coupled with the Sony DAV - IS10 Home Cinema System. I have 3 questions; what cabling will I need/would you recommend to link these 2 together and should I also upgrade my aerial lead at this stage, and finally what would you consider to be the ideal settings for picture quality etc.

Enjoy both the mag and the forum, lots of interesting topics. Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
I couldn't agree more.

Re the sonics: We've always said in all our reviews of the plasma, that its sound isn't great - but then most flatscreens aren't, either....Add a sound system!

And by the way, i've just been speaking to Panasonic, who've confirmed that the Viera plasmas (37in+) are 24fps- they are going to add that to the official spec ASAP.

[/quote]

Hi Clare

I see you have confirmed that the plasma screens are 24fps but what of the new LCD TX37LZD70. I see nothing on the Panasonic specs to confirm this, and when I emailed customer services, I was told this model was not 24fps - although they could have just looked at the specs too.

So can you confirm one way or the other whether or not the TX37LZD70 is true 24fps with no pull-down going on.

Many thanks

Waffle

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry apologies for the above post - it seemed to disappear so I started a new thread, and I'm not sure how to delete this post now.

Sorry

 

[jetjohnson]

Ok ....I'm rather suprised and not a little confused by all this Plasma V LCD conflab ...the current situation (to me anyway) is simple .....at any screen size above approx 40" (ie where both technologies compete) plasma is obviously superior - no if's no but's ....I mean WHY would anyone even wish to deliberate (other than if one technology was noticeably cheaper - which isn't the case) about which to buy? ...

....This isn't comparable to the old argument that raged during the early days of CD v vinyl - which pitted two vastly different technologies against each other but where one was demonstrably more convenient ....in fact I can't understand why a company such as Sony (which cornered the CRT market with it's excellent Triniton sets) should even want to utilise LCD technology in any of it's 40"+ sets when they and their boffins must know (see?) that plasma sets display a much better picture ......have Sony not looked at Pioneer's Kuro sets and thought "we must match that"? why don't they "go plasma"...I really don't get it!

.....In fact why do e.g. Samsung make both 50" LCD and Plasma sets to compete against each other ...the 50" LCD is surely always going to appear inferior to most people (ok nearly always)

..who would buy the Samsung LCD in preference to the Samsung plasma and what is so important about the LCD's features that would lead to such a decision????

I really REALLY don't get it!

 

[Anonymous]

hi all,

Although i was once a Sky engineer (please no abuse!), i have been out of the picture for a while and as such am a complete newbie to all of this.

I am planning to upgrade my samsung crt in the Jan sales, and these panasonics seem to be the way to go. however, i am more than a little confused by the whole Full HD/HD ready thing. As i understand it, 1080p is the full monty. however, looking at panasonics specs on their website they quote that the 'HD Ready' 37' plasma has;

[*]1080p Digital Processing Chip-Set
1080p Digital Re-mastering Processor

Given this, does this mean that it is already full HD? please can someone clarify the diff between HD ready & full HD.

for the record, i will be using the set for mainly standard sky viewing, watch DVD's (not blu-ray) and using the X-Box 360 (very sad for a 30-something!).

cheers for helping a newbie.

 

[Clare Newsome]

OK, here goes.

"HD Ready" is a standard set by the European Information and Communications Technology industry Association (phew!). If a set complies to the standard, it'll carry this logo.



To comply to the standard, a TV must have either an HDMI or DVI socket able to accept 1280x720 pixel resolution content with 50/60Hz progressive scan (ie 720p), and 1920x1080 at 50/60Hz interlaced (ie 1080i) content.

HD Ready TVs will downscale/rescale content to fit their particular resolutions, with an increasing number (including the Panas in discussion) also able to receive native 1080p content, at 24fps.

To add to the confusion, there's no standard for Full HD TVs. If a TV sports a 'Full HD' or 'True HD' badge, it's generally accepted they'll handle native 1080p content (from Blu-ray and HD DVD, for example) without any scaling involved. However, it's no guarantee they'll do so at 24fps - the native speed of such HD content - which can lead to problems with motion-judder.

I'd stress - as we've done so many times - that screen resolution is only an indicator of the number of pixels a screen has, not a performance indicator. We've seen many an HD Ready TV outperform a Full HD rival, even with HD content.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for that clare.

with that in mind i might push the boat out and get the 42' panny plasma instead!