LCD vs Plasma vs LED

[Young un]

I know about the LCD vs Plasma debate. Both have pro's and con's but their differences are becoming marginal.
Any thoughts about LED tv's though? I've read that they produce superior clarity, contrast, colour etc etc... and also lower power consumption (therefore energy efficient and eco friendly)
Im considering buying a new tv but I might hold back if LED technology is the way forward in the near future

 

[gwildor]

i have only just started looking into this myself and have decided im going to wait untill gen 2 of LED comes out and more choice is available.

 

[Ess_Three]

The only thing to do is go and look at them all and buy which looks best to your eyes.
I have been a fan of Samsung LCDs for a while, but convinced byself that a 200Hz Sony Bravia was next...went in to buy one and it was sat next to a Panasonic Plasma...and the difference night and day.
Same sources, same light conditions...the Panasonic had a vastly better picture to my eyes...so I bought that.

At the momoent the LCDs are only used for backlighting on the LCDs aren't they?
That seems to be the way the Samsung works...
So you still get the LCD drawbacks.

I doubt there will ever me a perfect solution...just look at them all, narrow them down and buy the one you prefer.

 

[gwildor]

you have made a cracking choice with a panasonic they are superb.

 

[Turbo Lag FTW]

To help decide read as many unbiased reviews as you can, good place is the AV forum and also the best indicator on what to buy I reckon is your own eyes. Whatever looks best to your needs will always be the best bet. I bought my Sharp LCD after reading reviews and comparing HD sources on the Bravia sets and Samsungs LCD range along with the Sharp one I bought, to my eyes the Sharp was the much better tv and is now hanging nicely on my wall and I`m happy with my purchase. Although I will add I really really wanted the Pioneer Kuros but unfortunately it was outta my price bracket

 

[NHN]

Tbh I've had all of the types of screens, plasma has great images but can suffer from screen burn after a while no matter what features you turn on for panel lifetime extension & also the horrible tinging noises you get from the psu's & if you have sensitive hearing this can be a killer after a while as did for me, lcd 's have come on alot with tech but never really got to the image clarity that some plasma's have had for ages, eg. my hitachi plasma now 5-6 years old I sold to my friend still has a better image than some of the top lcd's today & I've used some of the latest releases.

Also as someone has stated the led screens arent exactly led panels at all unlike the OLED panels that are tiny & expensive currently eg. Sony XEL-1, its just led backlighting as opposed to the ccfl lcd's that 99% of screens use these days, but the led backlighting on the 2 screens that were any good IMHO are very good, I've had the 9 series from samsung & it has a superb image, the best I've seen of any screen so far & also the new Series 7 supposedly led screen also is very good with a width of something stupidly thin like 29mm I think, which is to be my new screen in the next week unless something else comes out.

The led backlighting is much better cause it focuses areas of light better interms of brightness is specific to a set area where as other parts the led's maybe darker etc, but ccfl tube lighting isnt focused on areas so blacks arent as good & edges of clothing etc arent that crisp, say lapels on suits are not clearly visible, also the power use is much less so good on the lecky bills, but the 9 series was only in 46 & 55 so to big for average joe's house, so the new led 7 series is a welcome site given has a 40 inch screen, personally the led backlit screens are very good indeed except one as below, the contrast ratios are far higher than standard sets, the 9 series is 2 million to 1 & it shows this aswell.

Sony's days of trinitron picture clarity have long gone, there lcd's are quite literally awful & the 200hz motionflow is crap, seen it many times in many different places & the lesser version model next to it with same feed had a better image & dont think that was 100hz either, so for me sony is a no no, but I always check there new items anyway incase something good arises as always surprising what new things come out & are actually very good when you least expect, but as mentioned above the led screen from sony the ZX1 is absolutely awful, very very similar to the new samsung 7 series but far less quality & was somewhat surprised how bad it really was against a mush lesser & by far cheaper model from sony.

But only real way to check the screen is to go look, test, say dvd's of your own so you can compare against your current screen & even I've plugged in a pc/laptop to see if it is any good given I use mine for work aswell, most places are accomodating.

 

[10blazin]

not hd ready forget that get a full definition plasma panasonic vierra with ps3 blueray its like your there ive still in the shops not seen a better pic absolutely awesome

 

[NHN]

Ok well I got my new Samsung 7 Series led tv, UE40B7020, its actually not bad at all, yes its ****** thin to say the least, but its also got some weight to it & very sturdy so I suspect a very well made chassis indeed to support the screen tech etc given its not flexible as such, solid as rock unlike some lcd tv's have been in past & no I dont try to bend, just when you lift them you can tell if they're well made.

Anyway cut long story short as I'm not a review site, it has a fantastic HD image given only tested on bbc hd & ch4 hd so far but already see major improvements on this, the dark areas are not grainy anymore unlike the top of range tosh, samsungs, sony, hitachi etc were given tested most, I cant see any grainy bits on hd at all, god knows how good bluray would be, but I'm not a bluray guy tbh given I think its to little to late with the web changing daily anyway.

SD is actually very good & if I'm honest out of the box without any major settings changed its ****** good, the led's certainly make a dramatic difference, impressed so far, but I'm known to be anal about perfection in things so give me time & I'll fault it, but so far so good, can recommend it to anyone.

The 100hz system is actually the best I've seen so far tbh for most moving images, now we all know SD football is terrible anyway on lcd's, I did catch a recording of football & it wasnt that good tbh but was in store at richer sounds so cant really count that, but give me time & I'll report back from a live feed on SD/HD sooner or later.

Rigged upto the pc is very good & didnt think wouldnt be tbh, cause its got similar tech to the 9 series lcd I had before that was truly a stunning screen, but to big as only 46/55 sizes, where as this is 40 so very happy.

As always though I did notice some panel imperfections from the all so well known clouding alot of new lcd's have from manufacture, its very poor show from the brands tbh that QC doesnt pick this up, but on this set its not noticeable unless you actually change the inputs & then its only seen for few seconds when it goes dark between input swap, with images you cant see anything wrong at all, so farrrrrrrrr

Menus are quicker & the input swap is also quicker, maybe samsung are actually using some loaf & listening to us actual users/buyers now.

One thing that really is welcoming is I noticed you can set per input specifics for brightness etc, so much missed this, Tosh didnt have, useless given I use for pc aswell for work, but now have it so alls good.

I did update the firmware to 1006 & didnt notice differences but guess it wasnt there for nothing so must have made some changes.

Damn it now its so thin I have to buy new much thinner wall bracket to really give it the look it deserves, lol.

I'll update if anything bugs me, but this is best on market now I reckon, but awaits the 8/9 series replacements to follow cause 8 series in US has 240hz where as 7 series I have is 100hz

Last word, I'm not sure if it is hugely better than the 9 series that for me was the best screen I'd seen with led backlighting, but its definitely very good, then again its only been 2 days tbh so I reckon when settings have been done fully & played with a bit it will be a resounding yes its top dog.

PS. Damn seems I am a review site cause this post has elongated slightly, lol.

 

[Young un]

NHN - Thanks for your input/review. It's better than most of the information I've sourced online.

 

[NHN]

lol, hey I'm fedup with reading crap reviews tbh & then you go look at the screens & see its complete load of ****** in reviews & waste your time, so hey glad I could be of help, its still a very nice screen, my analness has showed through as it still bugs me the cloudness on input change, but as said not noticeable on viewing of images, did I say I was anal, lol.

 

[Turbo Lag FTW]

Yeah good info NHN, most reviews are biased to the brand. I had to do research before I could part with my hard earned cash. I sat for ages looking through AVForum years back before selecting my screen, there is some great info there and some bad ie the Sony lovers.
Like I said earlier I opted for a Sharp LCD 42", I love its ability in HD and at the time I thought it was the best tele for my dough. Only thing I hate is that the VGA connection wont allow its highest resolution.

 

[NHN]

ref VGA res, check the supported res over vga for your panel cause vga dsub connection on some panels wont support the full screen res eg. 1080p & also check your graphics gpu supportd res via vga dsub mate, cause this could also be the restricting factor, had the same myself & only got highest res using the dvi/hdmi port on my screens, hence bought a proper hdmi port gpu card, Gainward Bliss SilentFX 8600GT, brilliant card, absolutely silent as heatsink tech & also hdmi port onboard, damn cheap to about £45ish.

 

[abdus]

B8000 are now available in some places.

MHN, why didn't you for a 7000 series (instead of the 7020)?

Is there any and clouding?

I might be getting the 8 series this month

 

[NHN]

Funny you should say that as I've been checking whats different between the 7 & 8 series.

7000 & 7020 are same TV mate, no difference, just the surround has the rose/red tint in the plastics for the 7000.

Clouding is almost unrecogniseable tbh, you only see it for split second when you swap inputs & no visible parts when watching TV or other inputs, so for me its good enough for now & trust me I'm ****** anal when comes to TV's which is why I've had & tested so ****** many.

Samsungs site is useless aswell cause no word of the 8 series at all on the site even if available in places, then again they're fecking useless company anyway with customer services & website, I tend to check the US site for any updates to whats coming.

 

[abdus]

thanks.

I had a look at some of them today in a Comet.

but I'm still not sold...lol

esp reading the auto dimming function (which is one of the technology behind the LED). Now if you decide to turn it off, then it's pretty much an LCD then except that the latter is not as slim.

and the sound quality is far from the best...lol. i do agree that the slim deisgn would make it difficult to get a richer sound. I'm not too bother about the sound though sicne I already have a proper sound setup.

 

[The Slug]

like with anything new to the market, few years after most manufacturers release their own LED TV they will become much better, as with Plasmas and LCD's...my 2p's worth

 

[abdus]

by that time, real LED (OLED) will be here

 

[The Slug]

thats it, it takes em a good couple of years to produce something good with the current technology, like i said before, take for example LCD's absolute rubbish in the first 2/3 years, now most have 1080p and are good with colour repro and refresh rates etc...i rest my case lol

 

[NHN]

thanks.

I had a look at some of them today in a Comet.

but I'm still not sold...lol

esp reading the auto dimming function (which is one of the technology behind the LED). Now if you decide to turn it off, then it's pretty much an LCD then except that the latter is not as slim.

and the sound quality is far from the best...lol. i do agree that the slim deisgn would make it difficult to get a richer sound. I'm not too bother about the sound though sicne I already have a proper sound setup.

Sound is irrelevant to me tbh as use externals for this & they're all crap speakers built in & always have been.

They're all lcd, the difference is the backlightings done by led's not ccfl tubes as per most laptops which is far more efficient & better at lighting the whole screen areas properly, also very eco friendly, turning of the auto dim function doesnt really make it like tube lit lcd's, its still miles better & the colours are superb I have to say, some if not the best I've seen so far.

like with anything new to the market, few years after most manufacturers release their own LED TV they will become much better, as with Plasmas and LCD's...my 2p's worth

by that time, real LED (OLED) will be here

Pity SED didnt happen, OLED is in its infantcy atm & vastly expensive, we'll see as those screens will be super duper thin, talk of flexible screens aswell, cool huh.

Watched program yesterday on how mitsubishi built the largest flat screen for a racing course, thing was something stupid like 62ft long, lol, was ****** good though & the tech involved was great.

thats it, it takes em a good couple of years to produce something good with the current technology, like i said before, take for example LCD's absolute rubbish in the first 2/3 years, now most have 1080p and are good with colour repro and refresh rates etc...i rest my case lol

Not neccessarily as I bought my 1st plasma/flat screen what some 5 years or so ago when it 1st was availabel for mainstream, I replaced the power baord given poor design & sold to my mate & even today the ****** thing still has better images than some of the newer screens I've seen, so not always the case I'm afraid.

Anyone seen my chocolate calipers anywhere

 

[abdus]

I finally got a Bravia 52W5500.....LOL

 

[NHN]

You're obviously winding us up right, lol

 

[abdus]

true, I swear

 

[NHN]

Y? lol

 

[abdus]

got it at a very good price

 

[NHN]

You mean you got paid to take it away from them, lmao

 

[abdus]

You mean you got paid to take it away from them, lmao

unfortunately, no.

However, they did offer me a a 40" Samsung LED free if I took away a 46" one.

If a little more funds was available, I would have gone for a 50" Kuro