Question on TV Selection

[miggs78]

Folks need a hand in selecting a new TV.
Looking at 50".
Now so far I'm looking at Plasma or LED, I think Plasma is a good way to go, but seeing a lot of Smart TV based on LED LCD TV.

So I've seen the Panasonic VIERA UT50 getting recommended a lot with a lot of good reviews. Any others?

[LoTech]

To chime in I have a 50 inch Panasonic plasma, about 3 years old. Still going strong, actually bought it from London Drugs. Its just before the 3D ones came out. Its been great so far and colour etc is still fine. No dead pixels that I can see. It is in our family room which is kinda bright in the summer months. We do get glare from lights and windows. During these winter months not a problem. I also have a friend with one of the latest LED samsung tvs. I find the TV is set to high (maybe vivid) or something, the picture I don't think is as good as my plasma. No matter how he adjusts it, it seems to lack the warmth of our Panasonic. I also find in action movies his still shows blurring at times and not so on the plasma. My preference would still be plasma if you watch a lot of movies, and in a dimly lit room. If its a bright room then go LED and shop around. I think Samsung is pretty good in the LED/LCD market. Hope that helps.

[Squeetard]

I prefer plasma for watching TV and movies. Seems like more natural colors to me. I've got a 65" sammy, and love it.

[miggs78]

I was in a hurry so I forgot to mention that I definitely prefer Plasma, yea it takes a little more power consumption than LEDs but they last hek of a lot more.
As for the TV selection any other choice u recommend?

[Skippman]

As a part time home theater installer I love Panasonic Plasmas. I own two personally, a 50" 720P in my bedroom and a 65" 1080P G10 THX Certified in my home theater room. Plasma screens will give you the best black level performance there is as they control luminosity on a per pixel level as opposed to a LED LCD screen. The only exception to that was some Samsung and Sony LED LCD's that used a grid aray of LED's to back light and could dim them independently. Most all modern LED LCD TV's use edge lighting to maintain thinness.

There is no one catch all answer to your question and anyone who tells you there is probably hasn't done their homework. It's very application dependent, as is 720P vs 1080P. Some things to consider.

LCD and LCD LED TV's are great for enviroments where light control might be a problem such as kitchens and living rooms. Most have a non-reflective antiglare coating that plasma cannot duplicate. LCD's are also great for displaying static images for long periods of time such as when using a HTPC. Lastly, LCD TV's are excellent in terms of power consumption, generally being far more energy efficent and running vastly cooler than their plasma counterparts.

Plasma's are the king of reference quality imaging in a direct view screen (projectors still trump them). Plasmas excel at black level performance when properlly calibrated. Many technologies LCD has implemented were designed to fix problems that were not inherrent to plasma screens such as black levels, motion blurring (plasmas tend to run between 500-600hz vs 240 on a high end LCD), and gama uniformity. Plasma's have a tendency to be glossy and reflective making them a poor choice for a brightly lit enviroment.

I'm really simplifying here but like I said, it's application dependent. If you could give me some more information about your application I could give you better advice. Things like viewing distance, ambient lighting, and application would help as would what you're planning to feed it. BluRay? Video Games? HDTV? Etc.

[BeaverBender]

Another vote for Panny Plasmas. I too have a 50" and a 65"... the 65" is one of the Pioneer Kuro technology top-of-the-line ones. I've had the 50" for over 5 years and it still looks very good. Now of course these days the build quality isn't what it was back then, but you get what you pay for... the prices are much lower now.

[SKYMTL]

I actually just bought a 55GT50 las weekend....after getting completely fed up with the LED shit flooding the market.

Go with the UT50 but I would HIGHLY recommend biting the bullet and going with the slightly more expensive 50ST50 or Samsung PN51E6500. Both offer better picture quality (IMO) and more advanced calibration settings.

[Skippman]

Originally Posted by BeaverBender

Another vote for Panny Plasmas. I too have a 50" and a 65"... the 65" is one of the Pioneer Kuro technology top-of-the-line ones. I've had the 50" for over 5 years and it still looks very good. Now of course these days the build quality isn't what it was back then, but you get what you pay for... the prices are much lower now.

My TV came our RIGHT after Panasonic bought out Pioneers Kuro line and there's a lot of rumors about just how much of the once great Pioneer went into it. Personally I think things in the home theater world got a little darker when Pioneer finally called it quits. They had THE BEST plasma's on the planet. But then again, Pioneer isn't the company it was in the 90's anymore.