I'm about to start looking at getting either an LCD or Plasma TV. What is the difference between them, and what do you recommend?  Also, are there any brands / models to stay away from or which stand out from the rest?

Hi Sirade1:

Well, this was an easy question about 1.5 years ago... nowadays, not as straightforward.  I'll give you the pluses and minuses of each:

Plasma:

Good
----
Great black levels (that means that black is actually "no light," not a dark gray)
... which leads to a more 3-dimensional looking picture
Less expensive for the same size set than LCD
Excellent viewing angle... you can get almost right next to a good plasma and still see the picture
Outstanding half-life (the time it takes the bulb to become half as bright as the day it was new)... on the order of 60,000 hours (20 years, 8 hrs./day) of viewing

Bad
---
Can get screen "burn-in" if you leave a non-moving image on the screen for a long time.  This is why you should never leave a DVD menu on the screen.  Most of the newer, decent plasmas have means to combat this problem, but I'd still be careful.  What is a long time?  Depends on the plasma... from maybe a half a day to start to burn with a cheaper model, to days for a better one, to almost never with a good one with anti-burn features.


Best plasmas...
Runco, Fujitsu (but pretty big bucks for these) ... NEC, Panasonic, Toshiba, Mitsubishi (medium bucks)... Electrograph (lowest bucks).
I recommend any of the above.  For example, we've sold lots of NEC TV's, and I've never had even one bad pixel show up in any of them.  Pretty amazing when you consider that even in a 42" HD plasma there are well over a million pixels.


LCD

Good
----

Less susceptable to burn-in than plasma



Bad
---
There are no true blacks on LCD, only dark grays.  To me, it seems like the picture is less lifelike.

Also, on many sets, you get an effect like a mouse tail behind fast-moving objects, because the refresh rate is too long.  This doesn't bother some people, others it drives bananas.  I'm one of the ones it drives bananas. 

More limited viewing angle than plasma.  Worse than that, the brightness of the picture seems to change as you move your head from side-to-side.  This effect alone gives me a headache.

Best LCD's
I like a relatively new brand called Olevia.  Some of the best LCD displays out there and would you believe that it's made in USA?  Prices are a bit higher than the Asian brands, but not stupidly so, and support is top-notch.



So I guess, in general as you can probably tell, I'm (still) a plasma fan.  That said, LCD's have made great strides in the last year or two... prices are coming down, pictures and refresh rates are getting better, viewing angles are getting wider.  But if you want to lose yourself in the movie... true colors, true black & white levels, no edge artifacts... just pure enjoyment... the scales tip in favor of plasma, I think.

Word of warning... if you go to a store who is in the business of pushing TV's out the door, watch out for the brightness of the display.  They'll probably all be set to "roast."  Brighter displays sell more TV's under the glare of flourescent bulbs when you've got 20 TV's to compare, but are unrealistic.  In a home environment, we never calibrate a set to the same roast setting as the "big box" store.


Brands
------
As far as your question about staying away from brands... there really aren't many TV brands are that are total junk out there anymore (audio's a different story... there is some real trash out there in audio, but that's a story for another day), it boils down to the support you receive. 

From where I sit, it's all about reliability.  I don't want any angry calls from my customers, therefore I stay with brands that are trouble-free to begin with, and if we do have a problem, the manufacturer is there with help.

I would recommend that wherever you buy a set, make sure it's in a real store with real people who have been there for a while and who will be there in the future.  One of the dirty little secrets of internet sales is that a lot of sites (not all mind you, but a scary percentage) sell seconds from the manufacturers... maybe refurbs, or seconds... things that get through QA, but not at the same "perfect" level as A-stock units.  Then if you get a clunker, they'll take it back but at a RESTOCK FEE. Ouch.  So they sell the same set again & again, get it returned again & again, and make 15% or 20% each time.  Of course every website says things to the effect of "We Sell Only A-Stock Units, No Refurbs" but that simply is not the case.  And if you need support, good luck getting any from someone at the end of an 800 number somewhere.

So there's my soapbox story on Plasmas & LCD's... any other questions, let me know...

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