LED vs LCD vs PLASMA - Which is the better HDTV format?

Jcaugustine

Jcaugustine

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I currently own a DLP and after my 2nd light bulb change in 6 years, I am ready to move on to a different HDTV format.

Since we all use our TV's for gaming and movies, what is the better format in your preference?

Also, does anyone have 3D HDTV's? If so, what format do you have or think is best?
 
If you want bleeding edge, LED is the way to go. Otherwise LCD is your best bet for a reasonable price with no burn-in/short lifespan issues.
 
[quote name='Jodou']If you want bleeding edge, LED is the way to go. Otherwise LCD is your best bet for a reasonable price with no burn-in/short lifespan issues.[/QUOTE]
I agree LED is definitely the better of the 3. But it's still f***** expensive.

So for now, I'd go with LCD for longer lifespan (apparently still longer than LED) and no burn-in issues like Plasmas (although it has better contrasting of colors).
 
LED isn't a tv tech. LED is describing the backlighting tech in LCD tvs.

A quality Plasma is better than a quality LCD though to make a long story short.
 
LED TVs look more vibrant... but it's not huge jump over plasma or LCD (like there was between CRTs and flat panel TVs).
 
Speak for yourself my 46" Samsung LED looks amazing next to any non LED Samsung.

Taking into consideration that a nice TV is something you will probably keep for 10+ years, the extra 300-500 for LED was well worth it if it will be your primary set (no need to go big on every TV on the house)

Usually Samsung LEDs are also the extremely thin models too, which is a nice plus.
 
[quote name='dallow']LED isn't a tv tech. LED is describing the backlighting tech in LCD tvs.[/QUOTE]

QFT. I hate it when people make this mistake. There is no such thing as an "LED TV" since they are still just LCD TVs after all, just the backlight is different (LED instead of CCFL).
 
Plasma produces the best picture, but some people complain that if you sit too close you can see pixels. They also use more energy, they throw off heat, and they are the technology most likely to suffer image retention.

LED local dimming sets (the thicker LED sets) are the best you can buy right now, but they have some of their own issues, one being price....those are the ones that replace the CCFL bulbs with individual clusters of LED lights behind the screen so they aren't paper-thin, they are thicker like the LCD sets we've all become accustomed to.

Edge Lit LED sets are more gimmick for being super thin, they suffer from hot-spotting but they are thin and light and easily moved around. They have better color pop than CCFL LCD sets but they also suffer from edge-brightness issues, because they are edge lit on a pure black screen the edges are usually brighter...if you watch with some lights on this usually wont be noticeable however.

And I hate to tell you this but DLP still throws an incredible picture. YOu do realize that right now you can get a fully 3D ready 73" Mitsubishi for just over a grand, right? You can get a 60 inch DLP for a mere 600 bucks (!). Plus they are 3D ready...add the optional 3D box and glasses and you've got a screen big enough where 3D actually matters.

Oh yeah and if you buy ANY kind of LCD, please remember to check the input lag for those sets......some of them, even today, have bad input lag.
 
LED back lit tv's are better plasmas has nice dark contrast but they get hot and genetrally dont last that long
 
LED back-lits can look pretty good, but not as good as the best plasmas. Having said that, a high-end backlit LCD looks better than a low-end cheap Plasma.....but Plasma is generally considered the image king. I'd buy a plasma for gaming and just not worry very much about it, but if this were my primary display, and I gamed an awful lot, I'd probably opt for an LCD.

PS: Plasmas last as long, if not longer, than LCD Panels now. The biggest problem backlit LCD's have is that they have a tendency to make scenes look a little strange in terms of brightness, because a single "led" lamp is responsible for a group of pixels in the panel...what if half of those pixels are part of a bright scene and half are part of a lighter part of the screen...the LCD can't dim it down too far, so it has to go mid-way....meanwhile an inch or so over on the screen that light is turned off almost completely because, lets say its the darker part of the scene.

If we had 1:1 mapping between pixels and LED lamps (which will happen...never), then this wouldn't be an issue, but it is an issue for LED back-lit LCD's.

Its not an issue for plasma...when they want to show black, they just turn the pixel off.
 
[quote name='HeadRusch']Actually, screw that..>I'd buy a cheap DLP set. Bulbs are cheap.[/QUOTE]

I have a DLP and I love it. A few years ago my dad got a $3000 Sony LCD and IMO my DLP looked much nicer. On top of that his set crapped out after 4 years. So my mom went looking for a cheap, but big TV and I suggested a DLP. Since most places have phased out the technology the only place she could find them was Jetson's and they were dissuading her from purchasing it. I'm not sure why.
 
Can anybody with an LED-LCD comment of whether input lag during gaming is really that bad?

Looking on google has given a mixed bag of results.
 
I've never seen input lag on any of my LCD monitors/TVs. I think some DLP stuff has it, especially through some ports. Some MVA/PVA monitors had it a couple years back (where the old ones didn't) which is probably why Dell and the like switched to IPS for their high end monitors.
 
I'm in the midst of deciding what to get, and I think LCD is the way to go.

Consumer reports rated Panasonics and VIZIOs the best.

Is 120Hz a necessity, or is 60Hz good enough?
 
The "Hz" thing is a gimmick. LCDs don't even HAVE refresh rates, and what the older sets (like mine from 2009) actually mean when they claim 120 or 240hz is they have a HORRIBLE looking mode where they make up frames in between real frames. It looks like utter shit, but you can turn it off.

If you want pseudo "3D", all those sets are labeled as 120/240 too, since they actually do display double the frames when doing "3D".

Otherwise the "features" is a gimmick, but you may want a set with it anyway just because it's on almost all sets now except the very cheapest. Although still, I'm sure the cheapest Sonys are still very high quality.
 
If I was in the market right now, I would get a high-end Panasonic plasma. They just can't be beat. Sadly they are too expensive. For a cheap set, get a lcd. Cheap plasmas don't look quite as good. In the mid-price range, you'll have to see for yourself which is more appealing to you.

I have a 46" Sony lcd and a 57" crt rear projection Hitachi. Let me tell you, a correctly calibrated crt rear projection set looks better than anything that is less than a Panasonic high-end plasma. LCD's are brighter, but plasmas and crt's have a depth that still can't be matched by a lcd. Although the high-end LED lcds are pretty damn good. I bought that Hitachi off of craigslist. Total price of the set, new lamp and calibration was a little under $1000. Off course that damn set has a huge footprint.
 
I thought plasma was cheaper?

I'd definitely get a Panasonic if I were getting one. Only one I've spent significant time with is a Samsung, and it looked good, though there was nothing that made me think "wow, this is better than LCD!" I didn't know it was a plasma at first, until a Playstation 3 menu burned in for a minute or so :lol:
 
[quote name='2DMention']Do plasmas still have burn-in issues? Or is that only the old sets?[/QUOTE]

The good ones supposedly have tricks they use to help prevent it, but it's still a possibility. I don't know, I was unimpressed that a new Samsung showed image retention after literally seconds on a PS3 menu screen, though it went away after a minute on something else.

I'm also unclear why running non-16:9 content wouldn't cause uneven wear too, though the plasma jackasses in another forum think that's "ridiculous" (while also seeming incapable of understanding how much non 16:9 content there is). They seem unaware that "burn in" IS just uneven wear...
 
I can't view any LCD TV's because I see trailing shadows. Plasma is the way to go. Permanent Burn-in is a myth, and any time I have some image retention, it is easily rectified by running the built in test pattern for 5 mins.

Panasonic, Samsung, LG in that order...R.I.P. Pioneer Plasmas. Kuro's were the best!
 
I had a LCD and had problems with it and it got replaced with a plasma. the plasma has a way way nicer picture. deep blacks and rich rich colors. my specific LCD was dull.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']I thought plasma was cheaper?

I'd definitely get a Panasonic if I were getting one. Only one I've spent significant time with is a Samsung, and it looked good, though there was nothing that made me think "wow, this is better than LCD!" I didn't know it was a plasma at first, until a Playstation 3 menu burned in for a minute or so :lol:[/QUOTE]

Check out the prices for Panasonics that Best Buy has. The top of the line Panasonics are the highest priced models, followed by other brands high-end plasmas and led sets. The real dirt cheap plasmas are 720p sets that are actually have a 1024 x 768 resolution.

I keep hearing that modern plasmas don't have burn-in issues anymore, but I really don't know. But the crt rear projection Hitachi I have does have a warning about burn-in in the owners manual.
 
My brother and brother-in-law both just bought LED lit LCD tvs. I have to say those tv's are blindingly bright even more so than my DLP. The whites and blacks looked great. I'd recommend a LED LCD tv if you want something with excellent picture, amazing brightness, low energy usage, and smaller size.

My bro got his TV at cost co for 700 bucks. The prices and LED lit tvs are dropping year after year. I will say the full array models (i.e. LED lighting behind the entire screen on not on sides) are still super expensive (thats the TV my brother-in-law bought).

Plasmas are pretty good too. The technology has aged a bit and the prices reflect that (they're pretty cheap for a quality set). Whats nice about plasmas is that most higher end models (1500-2000) are 3D tvs. Basically you can get a pretty good 3D set on low. One of the best 3D TV's I've seen thus far was a plasma.

I will say overall I like DLP's best something about them just jells well with my eyes and generally look more natural to me (but not for gaming the picture is a bit too dark, it's not the TV's fault games are just made too dark these days). The issue with screen being a too dark has been fixed in most new models made in the last 2 yrs or so, but my older set (4 yrs old is pretty dark even with a new bulb in it). For watching movies and TV they're just amazing and once again almost all DLPs out now are 3D ready/compatible or 3D functioning. I like Mitsubishi DLPs, they make a laser based model and I have to say the picture is unreal, better than any set I've ever seen (LED and Plasmas included). Also DLPs have lowest energy usage to screen size ratio then any tv on the market (same goes for price per inch). Another bonus is that most DLP sets (from the last 4 years on up) have multiple colors on their color wheels (the highest end LCDs have red, green, blue and sometimes yellow). Most DLP sets have 6 or more colors (3 primaries and a few secondary colors). That gives you a better color gambit and greater color accuracy.

P.S. if you care about having a 3D tv, just know bigger is better especially if you are going to sit far away from the set (further than 4-5 feet). The larger the screen the more impressive the 3D effects are.

Also if you do buy a new set at it has a 120 hz or 240 hz mode, make sure you have an option to turn that shit off. It just looks really annoying after a while and unnatural. My brother-in-laws set has this feature and it looks like total shit to me (he has a high-end tv too). I will say I do enjoy using that mode for video games and watching cartoons, however watching live action movies and tv with this setting on just seems freakishly unnatural (the physics are all thrown off).
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']
I'm also unclear why running non-16:9 content wouldn't cause uneven wear too, though the plasma jackasses in another forum think that's "ridiculous" (while also seeming incapable of understanding how much non 16:9 content there is). They seem unaware that "burn in" IS just uneven wear...[/QUOTE]
That's why I went LCD. I prefer plasma, but with the amount of 4:3 content still out there (and I hate stretching).

In my experience, even the biggest plasma proponents, those that insist that burn-in is non-existent, when asked about extended 4:3 watching will give you a snooty, "why would you watch any 4:3 stuff on your widescreen set?"
 
[quote name='Allnatural']That's why I went LCD. I prefer plasma, but with the amount of 4:3 content still out there (and I hate stretching).

In my experience, even the biggest plasma proponents, those that insist that burn-in is non-existent, when asked about extended 4:3 watching will give you a snooty, "why would you watch any 4:3 stuff on your widescreen set?"[/QUOTE]

Yeah! Exactly! I have that exact same experience! And it's like:
-I DO still watch a lot of 4:3 content-some of my current shows are, Enchanted was partially that last week on NBC, I'm watching shows from earlier this decade that are, etc.
-I play older games from time to time-and even some newer ones like on the Wii or whatever are
-4:3's not even the only issue...lots of movies are wider than 16:9!

[quote name='Sk']My brother and brother-in-law both just bought LED lit LCD tvs. I have to say those tv's are blindingly bright even more so than my DLP. The whites and blacks looked great. I'd recommend a LED LCD tv if you want something with excellent picture, amazing brightness, low energy usage, and smaller size.[/quote]

I love it too...I've got everything switched over to LED backlit except my living room TV. They don't fade with time, I can use a really dim setting, I like that they don't use as much power, etc. My one Dell monitor...well Dell claims it uses at most 30 watts (24") but Anandtech actually couldn't get it to use over 20 watts at full blast, which is pretty cool. I think my 40" one with LED lighting uses about the same as my 32" florescent set.

My bro got his TV at cost co for 700 bucks. The prices and LED lit tvs are dropping year after year.
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Yeah, it's AMAZING. I bought mine for over $2000 a year and a half ago...and now I'm seeing bigger ones for $1000 or the like. You know, HDTVs are one are where I'm just so happy with that kind of thing...they're reliable as a product category, they prices just fall absurdly, they look SO great, so much fun to have, etc.

Only bad thing is they keep shrinking! My 32" one started out HUUUUUUGE and now is tiny. My 40" one started out huge...and now I'd kind of like bigger :D

I do notice unlike with previous generations that games a lot of times assume you have a REALLY big TV-like even at 40" and sitting fairly close, I notice some text that's kind of too small. remember REALLY having that with Civ Rev on the 32" one!
 
Unno .. I'm still not a believer. Can our eyes really tell the difference between a refresh rates and stuff?
Sounds like its one of those Monster cables gimmicks.
 
Your eyes can tell the difference between, say, a 30hz refresh rate and a 60hz refresh rate...above that not so much.

The problem today is in lag-time, and that varies from model to model. One Samsung may suffer from bad input lag, some Samsungs may not. Supposedly Sharp is one of the few companies who products are consistently almost lag-free......

Oh, and if you guys want 3D, you'd be stupid not to go with a giant DLP. DLP's are much, much better at the 3D effect than either LCD or Plasma because there is never any ghosting of the image....remember even a fast LCD pixel has to brighten and then darken, and depending on the color that can take no time, or a slightly longer time...its why even fast ms response LCD's can still ghost, depending on the color. Example...my ancient 60hz LCD ghosts when the color black is over the color grey.....i get bad grey-to-grey times, but you never see ghosting on most other colors.

Of course mine is a monitor, none of this 120hz/240hz crap fucking up my picture.....so i get zero input lag. thats not the case with many TV's today.....
 
I've got a Dell 22" and 24" monitor with LED backlighting. Just got the 24" one in last week. It's probably one of the best for the price range (on sale it was under $200!) It's got VGA, DVI, and HDMI.

BUT I'd gladly have payed $500 or whatever for an IPS model. That's the problem with these models, from Dell and Samsung-they're just using TN panels. I'd gladly pay the extra money, but Dell and HP's high end monitors both use florescent lighting :whistle2:/

For TN, they're actually really good...much better than almost all notebooks, but still, IPS or MVA/PVA destroys them. I guess I'll hang on to this 24" guy until someone actually gets me exactly what I want (I imagine at some point Dell will update their Ultrasharp one with LED lighting...surprised they haven't yet. Sounds awesome except for that, and to me I'll gladly pay what it costs for something I spend hours a day for years staring at!)
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']The "Hz" thing is a gimmick.[/QUOTE]

Except for 24 frames per second encoded DVDs and Blu-Rays that display the actual frames per second that film does. Movies look better because of the 120Hz because 120 is divisible by just about every standard framerate.

I don't know what to say about 240Hz, though. It's certainly a gimmick if you're not going for 3D. I don't know enough about 3D to pass judgment on it as a 3D enhancement, though. I mean, maybe if the TV can actually accept 240 frames per second from a PC that you have connected to it, and you absolutely need all of those 240 frames per second while you're gaming, then it would be worth it for you. But I don't know. 60 is good enough for me for gaming.
 
You don't need anything above 60 hz. Most 120 or 240 sets just multiply the image. It makes everything look really freakin unnatural. Thats why I said I wouldn't recommend buying a set with these features unless you could turn them off for normal TV viewing. Like I said earlier CGI and cartoons look great on these screens and same goes for video games.
 
Only DLP offers 70+ size and playing video games (such as UC2) on a 73 or 82 inch screen is purely awesome, assuming you have enough room space though.
 
Two words on DLP sets.....something I just found out by researching lately.....the DLP's have questionable geometry, I guess Mitsubishi isn't making their screens strong enough, supposedly on 4:3 and scope movies you can actually see the bowing of lines, the geometry problems caused by the screen not being flat and sagging in the corners. That sucks.

The other thing is that there seems to be a growing problem with DLP's that the lightblocks fail....not the bulbs mind you, the entire light blocks, so people are complaining that after a couple years and a bulb change the pictures are going to crap. I'm guessing this is a byproduct of having a technology on its way out and trying to keep the cost down while keeping the screen sizes large.

Still, I almost bought a 73"......ultimately I decided I already have two DLP front projectors, and settled on a slightly smaller but absurdly lighter and thinner 55" LED. Its not my main display so I really dont care about it being the greatest TV ever....its more my "I dont want to fire up the projectors" display.

My mitsibushi 65" CRT set is about to take the long walk to the curb for its final ride to the dump :(
And I mean it will be a long walk...even broken in half, that sumbitch is absurdly heavy :p
 
Unno .. I'm still not a believer. Can our eyes really tell the difference between a refresh rates and stuff?
Sounds like its one of those Monster cables gimmicks.
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If something is 120Hz refresh, does that mean you don't have to calibrate in Rock Band?

I played an old system on someone's HD at a gathering 3 years ago and it had lag problems playing Saturn.
 
Input lag (what affects Rockband) is different than refresh rate. A 120Hz set can have bad input lag and still affect gameplay.

As I understand it, plasmas have the best image quality of the bunch (excepting perhaps OLEDs, but that is a different topic entirely). I honestly think the burn-in issues are a little exaggerated. I would say that plasmas don't really have more burn in issues than CRTs do, and did you ever take special precaution or usage patterns to prevent burn-in when playing on your old CRTs?

I picked a LED backlit LCD. I went with LG because they use IPS panels vs. the VA ones that Samsung uses, and supposedly IPS has a better input lag than VA. Either that or you could turn off more of the processing on the LG sets as the Samsungs supposedly have trouble with input lag. Anyways my LG set has no input lag that I can tell, and I've been very happy.
 
I've worked in home theater at best buy for four years. I know that doesnt qualify me as an expert, but i have seen lots of tv's through the years, and until recently have had three different plasmas (Pioneer and two Panasonics). I normally keep it for a year and then sell to upgrade.

i think in general each technology has its uses. And if you get a well regarded HDTV, you're going to enjoy it. I've been a total plasma fanboy for most of my short career, mainly liking their fast response and great color reproduction. I game on xbox and ps3, have directv, and watch the occasional blu ray.

Recently i pulled the trigger on the Sony bundle with the 55HX800 and ps3 and starter kit. I have to say, this TV rocks. I definitely am sold on LED technology if they are properly set up. So many people just love their colors all out of whack and white balance through the roof, but this tv looks so lifelike, it makes my 50s1 panny look dated.

I got an awesome deal on it, and couldnt have gotten it otherwise as a college student, but for those with the cash (or the credit balance) the 2D picture is amazing and once more 3D material is available, i'll be a happy camper.
 
[quote name='Ruahrc']As I understand it, plasmas have the best image quality of the bunch (excepting perhaps OLEDs, but that is a different topic entirely). I honestly think the burn-in issues are a little exaggerated.[/quote]I just think most people mistake burn in for imagine retention.

On my Panasonic VIERA (46' Plasma) I can watch a normal channel, change over to a unused input (and therefore a perfectly black screen), and see a ghostly imagine of the brighter colors that was once there but its completely temporary as any signal will rewrite over it.

The 'worst' game I've played on the TV was Crackdown 2 as the game's onscreen HUD is incredibly bright, the HUD doesn't move, and the TV was brand new (and therefore more prone to imagine burn in*) and even that didn't burn in. (MY TVs menu system can have a white bar sweep across the TV and remove ghosted imagines, like the white HUD in Crackdown 2 with no real issue.)

* Now, I'm not saying you cannot burn in a Plasma, you still can and the TV's manual says so) but O think you would almost have to go out of your way to do so...

Really, the big issue with Plasmas (and the one that I haven't seen mentioned in the thread) is that they have a glass screen and in a lighted environment it WILL show glare so if you have natural light in the room, and/or a need to watch TV with lights on, then Plasma isn't going to be for you.
 
[quote name='2DMention']Do plasmas still have burn-in issues? Or is that only the old sets?[/QUOTE]

I'm convinced that back in 2003 or whenever one person experienced burn-in with their plasma and made a huge stink about it and plasmas have been stuck with this stigma ever since. I bought my Panasonic plasma in the beginning of 2004 so it is going on 7(!) years old. It still looks amazing - no burn-in at all and it is my primary TV and I use it to play video games, watch TV, movies and sports. I love it.

I have noticed in the last 6 months that there is some very minor image retention when I turn off the TV but it fades after a few minutes and is never visible when I turn it back on. I only notice this after watching PTI but they have a large static image on the right side of the screen for the entire show. The picture is still as vibrant and sharp as ever - I'm a HUGE fan of TV in general and for me to go 7 years without buying a new set it must be pretty good.
 
The only technology that does not burn in is DLP. Plasmas are next for Image Retention and Burn-In (the permanent version of Image Retention), then CRT Projectors and Tubes (which nobody uses anymore) and finally LCD's.

My LCD 37" set has burn in.....yep, it does, its there and its permanent. It's also about six years old and there is the ghostly image of my Mozilla web browser stuck there, but i only shows up on light greys...the darker the grey the less you see the image so, mostly, its invisible..only during some games will the screen take on a medium-gray color and the ghostly images of my little tab icons appear :)

I'm still trying to figure out when I stupidly left a web browser up for a length of time sufficient enough to permanently align the LCD crystals :p Dunno....but I did it, and its LCD so.....be smart :)

I've never had a problem with burn-in on my plasma but I have seen Image Retention and it goes away within minutes. The big problem with Plasmas is that the current models, particularly those from Panasonic who are always on sale, seem to be having an issue with brightening of black levels over time, and nobody seems to know why its happening. In other words, they are losing their ability to produce a deeper black over time. No doubt its why we are seeing 58" plasmas for like $1100 bucks......not sure if that is only the Panasonics but also the Samsung/Insignias too....either way, I have gamed almost 10 years now on my 65" CRT based RPTV....a technology that always was prone to burn in...and I still dont have any.

That set is about to get trashed...its been good to me, but nobody wants a 65" 350lb monolith that requires convergence every few weeks anymore :) But that technology was burn-in prone, and with a little common sense I managed to avoid troubles.

Keep your contrast and brightness numbers lower in the range and you'll be good to go....
 
I don't think one is better than the other per say. They do have strengths though. I have all three. Here are some observations:

-If picture quality is what you are after, it's hard to beat a plasma. A high end LCD with LED back lighting can get pretty close close, but at typically more cost. I'd also go with plasma If you watch your TV in dark settings and you wanted a 50-58 inch TV. I don't think Burn-In is a factor anymore for normal TV viewing. I've seen some image retention on my TV, but it's gone within a minute or so.

-If you want to have a smaller TV set, I'd recommend an LED/LCD.

-If you want to use your TV as a computer monitor, I'd also probably go with LED/LCD.

-If you watch TV in brightly lit rooms a lot, I'd also go with LED/LCD.

-If this is going to be your main TV, and you are set on an LED or LCD, I'd get an LED. It potentially has the best picture between the two.

-If this is a second TV, and you are set on an LED or LCD, I'd go for an LCD. I don't have quite as high of picture quality standards for the TVs in my bedrooms vs. my living room.

just my 2 cents.
 
High end plasma > everything else when placed in the right setting and calibrated correctly.

It's pretty much the unanimous answer on both HiDefDigest and AVSforum, so....

Every non-TV and non-Audio/Visual forums tend to go with LED sets.

I'll go with the HiDefDigest and AVSForum experts on this one, I could be crazy though ;)
 
[quote name='MICHGoBlue']High end plasma > everything else when placed in the right setting and calibrated correctly.

It's pretty much the unanimous answer on both HiDefDigest and AVSforum, so....

Every non-TV and non-Audio/Visual forums tend to go with LED sets.

I'll go with the HiDefDigest and AVSForum experts on this one, I could be crazy though ;)[/QUOTE]

I generally agree with you, but I think that there may be some instances in which and LED set might make more sense, particularly if you are going to use the tv in brightly lit areas.
 
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