Plasma, to repair or not to repair?

[r8response]

GTA V on it looks awesome and I do play it with the 3D on sometimes.

Strip club

[kwijibo]

I might be wrong, but aren't plasmas heaters with a TV on the front? What is there power usage like? Given the spiraling cost of power, it might be worth thinking about Mando.

They do use more power, however for the price savings on a same sized set, it would take about 10+ years to make up the difference in power. You'd probably have a new tv by then anyway. I read somewhere it's about $20-$40 per year based on 8 hours a day or something.

[Vilante]

I just bought a 42" Sony LED 3D TV for $870 the other day. Love it, but still tweaking the settings. SD TV looks so bad now, HD needs to become the norm. For me the 3D is just a gimmick but I went that one because of being 100hz. I just can't watch a 50hz TV, as the frame rate is not smooth at all.

GTA V on it looks awesome and I do play it with the 3D on sometimes.

Do you know what model that was Rots?

[petey]

As far as I'm aware 100hz and all "smooth motion" type stuff is a con.

That is to say - it is nothing to do with the refresh rate. There is some software estimation type stuff running to emulate "smoothness" and generally it is down to personal taste.

See - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_interpolation

As most television programs and the like are not recorded/encoded/displayed in 100hz your tv makes up the rest. Which with movies can often make them actually seem less like you are watching a movie (soap opera effect).

[NeilPearson]

Sony tvs for me are the worst for the motion crap they have. Everything just looks fake. Couldn't even turn it off either

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[DexterPunk]

As far as I'm aware 100hz and all "smooth motion" type stuff is a con.

That is to say - it is nothing to do with the refresh rate. There is some software estimation type stuff running to emulate "smoothness" and generally it is down to personal taste.

See - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_interpolation

As most television programs and the like are not recorded/encoded/displayed in 100hz your tv makes up the rest. Which with movies can often make them actually seem less like you are watching a movie (soap opera effect).

Yep... To me it somehow makes block buster movies look like Aussie TV soapies.

But you turn these features off and some LCD panels don't seem to handle the refresh rate well either. Which is why I still like plasma. It's sounds like a bit of wank, a bit like comparing the 'quality' of the out of focus areas a lens makes in photography. But it's apparent enough to irritate me.


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[petey]

Indeed, personally I find the effect to be fantastic when watching sports - makes following the ball easier. For anything else however, it makes it look like a highschool jobby.

EDIT: While I'm at it, I believe one of the big griefs of plasma was that it doesn't handle well lit areas. So if your lounge room is not reasonably dark it can wash out the screen quickly. I can't really be bothered finding backup for this and I may well be thinking of LCD - however I'm pretty sure this was a common problem with plasmas.

[DexterPunk]

Yeah it's usually because a plasma screen is glass, so you get a lot more reflection off the screen. The current high end plasmas from Samsung have a coating over the screen that stops most of this and does a brilliant job at it too, but they are very expensive teles.


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[Rots]

I just bought a 42" Sony LED 3D TV for $870 the other day. Love it, but still tweaking the settings. SD TV looks so bad now, HD needs to become the norm. For me the 3D is just a gimmick but I went that one because of being 100hz. I just can't watch a 50hz TV, as the frame rate is not smooth at all.

GTA V on it looks awesome and I do play it with the 3D on sometimes.

Do you know what model that was Rots?

It is a Sony 42W800A.

When I looked at a 50Hz TV side by side to a 100Hz TV I could clearly see jerky movement in the panning of the camera and it had a tearing effect to the image. That is what pushed me to stick with 100Hz, I like smooth motion. Sometimes the 100Hz does look fake and can cause a ghosting like effect in some movies since it's adding in extra frames, but in general I prefer it.

[Exar Kun]

I can't stand that smooth motion. Everything looks horrible to me. Motorsport is the only sport I regularly watch so I don't really get anything out of it being smooth.

[wabbit]

So ahh yeah... Buy a fucking Plasma.

:P

[Vilante]

As far as I'm aware 100hz and all "smooth motion" type stuff is a con.

That is to say - it is nothing to do with the refresh rate. There is some software estimation type stuff running to emulate "smoothness" and generally it is down to personal taste.

See - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_interpolation

As most television programs and the like are not recorded/encoded/displayed in 100hz your tv makes up the rest. Which with movies can often make them actually seem less like you are watching a movie (soap opera effect).

It is a Sony 42W800A.

When I looked at a 50Hz TV side by side to a 100Hz TV I could clearly see jerky movement in the panning of the camera and it had a tearing effect to the image. That is what pushed me to stick with 100Hz, I like smooth motion. Sometimes the 100Hz does look fake and can cause a ghosting like effect in some movies since it's adding in extra frames, but in general I prefer it.

So ahh yeah... Buy a fucking Plasma.

:P

Thanks Rots!

So, I'm getting more confused the more I read and look, so I'm hoping I come around a bend and it all makes sense

This 100hz thing has me going at the moment.

Some people say you must have 100hz or it'll be the end of your life and some say it's all rubbish and you'll be fine. Then they say if you want 100hz you have to go for a high end panel or the numbers are all just made up in software so are just marketing. They say that about the Sony 800A and the LG 42LM6700, that they're not truly 100hz?

I was just in Bing Lee and they had a great range. The Sony has looked great to me in every store but the LG I mentioned above looked pretty good too. The LG has more smart features and had 1.6bg on board and could record to USB hard drive which is nice. I liked the LG's interface much more than the Sony but have always though that Sony is a better brand.

Might have to stop that thinking though.

More shops tomorrow!

[nutty]

Buy this
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/119095 ... n=topdaily" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I own the 2 years earlier, girlfriend owns last years.. fantastic TV's

[ysu]

I've an older pana plasma...unless they've cleaned up their mess in the functionality division, I'd avoid it. Clunky, messy handling, controls aren't thought through, inconsistent, not meant to change anything on it, slow to get anywhere, missing functionality...you name it. The picture is good but that's the end of it. (this was the top model 50" a few years back). And it's the same with the (also pana) HDD recorder, by the way.
I love the LGs though, they're fantastic to use. I had the luck to use one during holidays and it was very easy to live with. Sony, not so much; it's a bigger brand that's all.

[nutty]

I have a samsung in my room, and the panna craps on it.. tho the new samsungs look amazing in terms of menus/smart tv stuff..

[DexterPunk]

The high end samsungs are also a much better picture than the pana ST's etc. I spent a good hour playing with both in store. I just couldn't get the pana to look anywhere near as good. I wanted it to be better too, but it's not. Having said that it was about $1000 more expensive



Sent from Han Solo using TK-421's phone.

[Sarsippius]

What about image retention with plasmas? If I was going to do a lot of gaming on the TV I might have thought more about an LCD but maybe I'm overcautious. What do other plasma owners think?

[wabbit]

Non issue ('09 plasma here). Previous housemate would leave GT5 on all day (and night) if he could. To save coin I had the telly set to 3hr sleep (after the next issue explained). At one point the clock had the ever so slightest retention but god damn you had to look for it (I had to point it out to others) and it went away quickly.

One day I shat my dacks thinking he'd fucked my awesome plasma... Yeah narr. I was surprised.

[DexterPunk]

I get it on my samsung... and it disappears quick. not really sure its much of an issue.

[nutty]

Never had a problem, I game heaps on mine too

[wabbit]

I think the real issues are the misconceptions that were continually introduced as newer tech hit the market (from Plasma > LCD > LED LCD).

Some how the general public got the notion that with every new tech that came along, somehow for eg: Plasma tech/improvements just plain stopped and never improved (the classics of power usage and heat). Tech heads of course know this isn't true but the BS claims have never stopped.

Flat panel technologies only came about because customers wanted much bigger screens that made CRTs impracticable (the depth of the tellies is the limiting factor for large screened CRTs).

[Vilante]

Plasma is so cheap!

I can get a 51" FHD plasma for $850 compared to the 42" LED's at $1K.

I do love the gizmo's on the LG LED's and they seem to have a better picture to my eye though

[wobblysauce]

Plasma burn in was only on First and some 2nd gen screens, they moved away from that style of screen with the current line up.

[Exar Kun]

Are you a Costco member, Vil? Just asking because the TVs are a good price and come with life time warranty (as long as you're a member) as well as no questions asked return policy.

My wife doesn't like her 10 month old Windows 8 laptop that we bought from there and they said sure, just bring it in and we'll refund the cost.

Downsides are limited range and no experts on the floor to ask about (in addition to needing to be a member).

[Vilante]

No we're not Exar. Good idea but it's so far away from us we'd never use it. Pretty crazy that they took back the tablet, awesome!!