plasma screen - wow!

[azkiwi]

I just saw an Akai 42" plasma screen in Costco. I have to say that it struck me as mind-blowing. It was there next to some big screen direct views and a host of smaller LCDs and frankly it made them all look like mud. Cheap mud!

Of course by comparison they were cheap - at $3300 its a little out of my price range - but holy crap it was good looking. What is the downside to these things? Do they break?

 

[Swanny]

Will Plasma even come to the desktop in 19 or 21" sizes?

 

[Zim Hosein]

Do they break?

Everything breaks eventually

 

[T2T III]

What is the downside to these things? Do they break?

I believe the only downside would be if you were watching a show with a 4:3 aspect ratio (so there were black vertical bars on the sides) your screen could suffer from some burning in those areas. If I was fortunate enough to own one, I wouldn't mess with any 4:3 programming. If I had to watch some non-HDTV programming, I'd head for the bedroom and watch it on that TV instead.

 

[irl33thax0r]

My new 50" 16:9 does a really weird thing to fix the 4:3 aspect ratio. It keeps the normal ratio in the center screen, then stretches it more on the sides. All action in the center is normal aspect ratio, while the sides are stretched to fit for 16:9. Strange but it works, you can't tell unless you really look close.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

They burn in, they're hot, and they're kinda fuzzy. Not good for a computer monitor.

 

[Chadder007]

They burn in ...VERY EASILY.

 

[JCobra14]

They are a still a pretty new technology, you'll see significant loss of contrast/clarity within a year or two of normal use.

They are definitely great to look at tho

 

[Dacalo]

Originally posted by: azkiwi
Do they break?

of course not!

 

[0roo0roo]

too bad the contrast looks like.. mud. resolution of many is pretty sad too.

 

[charliebrown]

I doubt they would look that good with regular broadcast TV - for the demos they use DVD and HDTV signals.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
I doubt they would look that good with regular broadcast TV - for the demos they use DVD and HDTV signals.

Its no problem when you have digital tv though

I think people are over reacting on the burn in issue. When are you going ot leave the thing on a static image all the time?

As for the bars the plasma screen will stretch the image so you get no bars and most of my viewing in England is already in widescreen.

You won't get a plasma screen for 19 or 21" as they are for big displays and tv. And the pitch size of the elements that make the viewing are too big to start with for small viewing.

The difference between a cheaper plasma screen and a better one is AMAZING. I saw two side by side and you could EASILY tell which one was the more expensive and 2nd gen screen. The SW:AOC on dvd was STUNNING. The picture was dam sharp and I was about 2 metres away from the tv, not my normal viewind distance. Far too close. The other picture looked good but a bit less detailed but also about £2k cheaper.

Man who would use one as a monitor? That would be crazy. The resolution isn't no where near the res you'd use for a monitor.

cheaper ones: 800 ish by 480
mid: 1024x768 and 1024x1024
high: 1280x768

And you won't see a significant loss in contrast and brigntess in 2 years.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Anyone play with a 60" unit?

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Anyone play with a 60" unit?

Sounds like you're jealous of John Holmes.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Anyone play with a 60" unit?

Sounds like you're jealous of John Holmes.

lol who ever that guy is.

The 60" is too big and pricey for what it is. I'd much rather take the top end 50" by Pioneer or Panasonic.

 

[JCobra14]

After looking around some i officially withdraw the 2 yrs remark, this is the consensus view of the plasma sets in the repair community i work in but this is apparently is incorrect

Good info here

 

[Desslok]

Originally posted by: Swanny
Will Plasma even come to the desktop in 19 or 21" sizes?

A friend of mine has a 21" Plasma monitor. Damn thing is like a space heater. It was one of the early ones. He got it from a dead dot com auction.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: JCobra14
After looking around some i officially withdraw the 2 yrs remark, this is the consensus view of the plasma sets in the repair community i work in but this is apparently is incorrect

Good info here

No problems, no ones perfect I've made a few errors and such.

"How do the manufacturers know how to calculate the figures since plasma monitors have not been out long? The manufacturer facilities in Japan test plasma panels at 100% white image light and measure down from that point with meter readings. It takes hours to find that 50% mark - between 30,000 and 50,000 hours. What a job that would be? - to watch the white light"

Funny I read that on another site. They set the white image and measure on that.

 

[Amused]

The "burn in" most often talked about on plasmas is NOT permanent. They would more accurately be called "after images" and go away with time, or quickly by playing a static, uniform white screen for a few minutes to clear the after image. Plasmas can actually have permanent burn in, but not any easier than CRTs.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Anyone play with a 60" unit?

Sounds like you're jealous of John Holmes.

Nah!! - He is jealous of me

I have a project where the USAF customer wants a plasma unit to display information generated by computer for visitors while an actual mission of happening.

The visitors will be 20-30 feet away and can not see the 20" LCDs without affecting operations.

I have ruled out the Zenith system.