50Hz LCD's are HORRIBLE!

[ZenfoldorVGI]

Words Of Wisdom said:

This is why I say not to listen to you.  You sound like someone who wants to be an AV nerd but doesn't take proper care of your toys and ends up unhappy with them.  In the first 200 hours (some mfg'ers recommend 50 or 100, but I'd say 200), you should have the contrast/bright turned  down and avoid fixed images.  The reason is that this is the time frame where you are most susceptible to permanent IR as the phosphors are at their peak in display.  After that timeframe and they've aged a bit, you'd likely need upwards of 48 hours on a fixed picture to see permanent IR.  Of course, this is a moving target.  The older the set, the harder it is to end up with permanent IR.

As for the rest of your points...

• Glare - Can be annoying but some $15 curtains solve the problem nicely.
• Screen brightness - There are adjustments for this, you should consult your manual.
• Energy usage - If you have issues with an extra dollar on your monthly energy bill, you shouldn't be buying a $1,000+ TV.
• Phosphor trailing - I haven't seen this up close so no comment.
• White washing reduces PQ - No shit.  White noise is what you do after you've screwed up so if you don't screw up it's not an issue.  Pixel/Picture shifting and using grey bars instead of black ones are what you do to avoid issues (before you screw up)

You like LCD.  Cool.  It doesn't change that you're getting a better PQ with a plasma TV that makes for much nicer everything from movie-watching to gaming.  The only hitch is that it requires some actual care.  If you want a giant computer monitor or are too lazy to properly care for your TV then LCD is the way to go.  For everyone else, there's plasma.

A few things.

A. When I say I "burned-in" my TV, I mean, I used static changing jpegs in torch mode to increase the rate of initial phosphor aging. It's an advanced but common technique, but it is efficient, and believe me, my Veria is fine.

B. Your bullet points don't actually refute, but confirm everything I've said. You did catch me using a generalization, which is that on average, plasmas aren't as bright as LCDs.. Truth is, for a bright room, you don't want a plasma as often as a LCD for this reason, along with the glare issue.

C. You have also made a generalization. You say that PQ is better with a plasma. That's incorrect. That VASTLY varies depending on the model. The LNXXB750 model from Samsung, for isntance, is superior in PQ to nearly any plasma on the market, except the afformentioned Veria and a few other exceptions. The assumption that Plasmas always have deeper blacks and thus better contrast ratio, is a VAST generalization that doesn't hold true in a multitide of cases, even if your LCD isn't locally dimmed. All things equally, you would usually be right, and thus the description "generalization." Did I mention I'm typing this on my new 52" Sammy right now with no thought(worry) to proper care?

If you do want to use your 52" TV as a computer monitor for gaming, PC and otherwise, get a damn LCD, end of story, imho.

The PS2 is a great console. It was built with overscan in mind, and thus, black bars are inherant to the console on the left and right hand side of the screen, depending on screen size about 1-3 inches thicker than regular black bars. Without cropping these black bars will still appear even when stretched to 16x9 mode on most televisions. If you bought a plasma to mainly play PS2, then you bought the wrong type of television.

The PC is a fantastic invention. It has stating images that appear on screen during use. If you want to use your TV to mainly use for PC, then you bought the wrong type of television.

Sunlight is a fantastic invention. If you want to use your TV in a room filled with sunlight, then you bought the wrong type of television.

I'm not saying that LCD is better than plasma, really....I'm just saying that Plasma TVs are not made for long term static images or long term gaming, due to the nature of phosphor trailing, my arch-nemesis. You should know that just because the display CAN do something, doesn't mean it was made with that in mind. With proper care, it will be fine, but by your own inference, without proper care.....it won't be fine. So yeah.