Most of you may have come across my earlier post where I stated my apprehensions about transporting a newly bought plasma by air. I did some net surfing on the same and came across some not very encouraging stories about people who had ended up with expensive fragments of glass i.e. plasmas with broken screens. At the same time there were an equal number of people who felt that at such high altitudes the plasma gases could become unstable. But all were unanimous in one thing: that a plasma TV ought to be transported in the upright position and never laid flat.
I must admit I almost ditched the idea but went ahead with it anyway. At least there would be on record an instance of a plasma TV having been successfully transported by air, if successful. Also I did some serious thinking and reasoned thus: the plasma TVs are made in Thailand/Korea, etc (mine is made in Thailand). It is unreasonable to suppose that they came to our hallowed shores by road or by sea. They most probably came by air and so the packing also must be optimized for air transport. Since mine was still in the original packing I felt that one more hop by air couldnt hurt. Then there was one more factor to consider: the ground crew. Imagine this scenario- a member of the ground crew with socialistic ideology, who feels that an expensive 42 TV is a luxury which has been bought in lieu of food which could feed a thousand mouths. This same ground crew member would also know that the airlines is not responsible in case of damage. Consider all this and you will understand why I spent a few sleepless nights.
I chose to disregard the argument about the altitude affecting the plasma. I was just going to transport it, not switch the damned thing on during the flight. So the only real tension now was regarding whether the ground crew would follow instructions to handle with care and in upright position. Apparently they did because the TV arrived in pristine condition. Even the thermocol was undamaged. So for those who are in the same dilemma, I would suggest that it is fine to transport a plasma by air though it would be great if you could retain the original packing.
Setting up the TV was not difficult though you need at least 2 people to do it.
Now on to performance. As far as performance is concerned, I will be comparing it with a 32 LCD TV which I currently own. (The TV is an LG Jazz Theatre).
First off, let me start by mentioning one of the main drawbacks of this TV which would apply to most plasmas. The screen is very reflective, so unless you can control the lighting in your room or are only going to view TV at night, you are better off with an LCD. The LCD is very good for daytime viewing. If there is more ambient lighting and the LCD picture appears washed out, simply increase the backlight. With the plasma there is precious little you can do to combat ambient lighting, apart from shutting out the light. Pictures on the plasma appear washed out in bright viewing conditions. However the situation is reversed if watching TV in the dark. Despite its great PQ in bright viewing conditions, I have always felt the LCD to be unnaturally bright when the lights are switched off completely. No matter what I tried- from setting the backlight to 0, to reducing the contrast, I sometimes felt that I was staring straight into the shining sun (with all due regard to Pink Floyd). Switch off the lights and watch a plasma TV in the dark and you will know why so many movie buffs prefer plasma. It is not unnaturally bright like an LCD but very easy on the eyes.
Black levels: this is one area which is very debatable with plasma owners turning up their noses at the LCD owners, who in turn argue that the black levels of LCDs have improved, some local dimming LEDs actually produce deeper blacks than some plasmas, etc. The LCD TV I own uses an IPS panel which does not produce as deep blacks as its rival VA panels. On the flip side, IPS panel has better colour accuracy and wider viewing angles, and I found this to be mostly true though Samsung/ Sony fanboys will say otherwise. Under ambient lighting the black on an LCD will appear jet black, especially if the screen has a reflective coating. But this is just an optical illusion, and no real indicator of its black level. For even though the black appears pitch black, there will be a loss of detail in dark areas. In complete darkness, black looks bluish (some people may be able to live with this. I, for one, cannot), though details will become better. So here is the trade off- better looking black with loss of detail or bluish black with greater detail. And there is still the traditional LCD weakness to consider- while watching in complete darkness, black starts glowing if viewed from off-centre. Yes, even the famed wide-angle viewing IPS panel is prey to this.
While a plasma is best viewed in a darkened room. The black does not glow and there is no problem with off-axis viewing. And as I mentioned before, it is much more easy on the eyes. This in no way implies that LCD has inferior colour reproduction or anything. I feel that the days of blanket statements like plasma has more natural and life-like colours are a thing of the past. LCD is equally capable of delivering natural and life like colours. It is just that plasma does it better in dark to near darkness conditions without straining your eyes. So bottom line is this: if you want a cinematic experience then you are still better off with a plasma.
But not everyone buys a TV just to watch movies on. There are the majority who want a TV for general viewing, i.e cable, for any odd time of the day. And for this, one does not exactly need a TV with measured black levels of 0.08 cd/m2 . In such a scenario I would say an LCD TV is better. For one, there is no need to worry about controlling the lighting. Secondly, one need not worry about the electricity meter turning at blazing speeds. And then there is no need to worry about burn-in or TIR. I dont know about permanent burn-in and I dont wish to find out either, but I do know that temporary image retention (TIR) is a very real thing. For example, I had displayed the home menu of the Seagate Theatre+ for less than 2 minutes on my plasma. Immediately after this I displayed a fully black image on the TV, and I could see the image of the Seagates home menu in all its glory. It was only temporary though. Maybe the TIR happened only because the TV is still in its running-in phase but Im still keeping my fingers crossed. For the same reason, I feel its safer to game on LCD. All modern games have some kind of fixed image or the other, be it HUD or health meter.
Another battleground between these two technologies is response time. The LCD I own has a rated response time of 2.4ms while plasma response time is supposed to be 0.0001ms or some crazy figure like that. I thought I used to detect slight motion blur in fast paced action scenes on the LCD. However when I watched the same scenes on the plasma I saw the same blur I noticed on the LCD. Which has led me to conclude that what I perceived as motion blur was not really blur but a quality inherent in the film i.e it is the way the movie was shot. A note on these motion enhancing features on modern LCDs. When turned on they are supposed to render motion more fluid but in actual practice they give a documentary feel to any movie. So I usually turn it off. It does make a small difference in sports like football.
Another thing that is usually mentioned in connection with plasmas is that they supposedly give off a lot of heat. In my experience this is not true. I touched the back of the TV after 5 hours continuous use and it was not really hot. It wasn't stone cold either but you get the general idea. But consider that it is winter time, and so the cold may have had something to do with this. Whatever the case may be, suffice it to say that you are not going to call a plasma into doing secondary duty as an oven, even in the hottest of temperatures. However compared to LCD it still runs hotter. Let me just mention that my Seagate Theatre+ runs much hotter than the plasma.
About electricity consumption I can't comment as yet since I have not had a look at the electricity bill as yet. I doubt it will make much difference since I don't use the plasma for general viewing anyway.
No review is complete without pictures, so here are a few. The movie was viewed in complete darkness (did I mention somewhere that plasma is ideal for viewing in the dark???). The movie is a 720p rip of The Shining played via a Seagate Freeagent Theatre+. (On a side note, do not watch this movie before reading the novel {by Stephen King}).
Note the details in dark areas especially the machine details in the lower left hand corner.
It ain't exactly a V20, but its black levels are pretty decent. The X20 displaying a completely black image.....
The ending of the film shows some close ups of black and white photos.
The play of light and shadow in the picture shows us what the TV can display, as far as mixed (bright and dark) scenes are concerned.
....and finally the curtain comes down on a great performance form Jack Nicholson....
So which is better: LCD or Plasma?
There is no clear-cut winner, as both perform differently under different conditions. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Keep in mind your viewing conditions, your viewing patterns and decide accordingly. In the end it is for you, the viewer, to decide what is best for your eyes.
I must admit I almost ditched the idea but went ahead with it anyway. At least there would be on record an instance of a plasma TV having been successfully transported by air, if successful. Also I did some serious thinking and reasoned thus: the plasma TVs are made in Thailand/Korea, etc (mine is made in Thailand). It is unreasonable to suppose that they came to our hallowed shores by road or by sea. They most probably came by air and so the packing also must be optimized for air transport. Since mine was still in the original packing I felt that one more hop by air couldnt hurt. Then there was one more factor to consider: the ground crew. Imagine this scenario- a member of the ground crew with socialistic ideology, who feels that an expensive 42 TV is a luxury which has been bought in lieu of food which could feed a thousand mouths. This same ground crew member would also know that the airlines is not responsible in case of damage. Consider all this and you will understand why I spent a few sleepless nights.
I chose to disregard the argument about the altitude affecting the plasma. I was just going to transport it, not switch the damned thing on during the flight. So the only real tension now was regarding whether the ground crew would follow instructions to handle with care and in upright position. Apparently they did because the TV arrived in pristine condition. Even the thermocol was undamaged. So for those who are in the same dilemma, I would suggest that it is fine to transport a plasma by air though it would be great if you could retain the original packing.
Setting up the TV was not difficult though you need at least 2 people to do it.
Now on to performance. As far as performance is concerned, I will be comparing it with a 32 LCD TV which I currently own. (The TV is an LG Jazz Theatre).
First off, let me start by mentioning one of the main drawbacks of this TV which would apply to most plasmas. The screen is very reflective, so unless you can control the lighting in your room or are only going to view TV at night, you are better off with an LCD. The LCD is very good for daytime viewing. If there is more ambient lighting and the LCD picture appears washed out, simply increase the backlight. With the plasma there is precious little you can do to combat ambient lighting, apart from shutting out the light. Pictures on the plasma appear washed out in bright viewing conditions. However the situation is reversed if watching TV in the dark. Despite its great PQ in bright viewing conditions, I have always felt the LCD to be unnaturally bright when the lights are switched off completely. No matter what I tried- from setting the backlight to 0, to reducing the contrast, I sometimes felt that I was staring straight into the shining sun (with all due regard to Pink Floyd). Switch off the lights and watch a plasma TV in the dark and you will know why so many movie buffs prefer plasma. It is not unnaturally bright like an LCD but very easy on the eyes.
Black levels: this is one area which is very debatable with plasma owners turning up their noses at the LCD owners, who in turn argue that the black levels of LCDs have improved, some local dimming LEDs actually produce deeper blacks than some plasmas, etc. The LCD TV I own uses an IPS panel which does not produce as deep blacks as its rival VA panels. On the flip side, IPS panel has better colour accuracy and wider viewing angles, and I found this to be mostly true though Samsung/ Sony fanboys will say otherwise. Under ambient lighting the black on an LCD will appear jet black, especially if the screen has a reflective coating. But this is just an optical illusion, and no real indicator of its black level. For even though the black appears pitch black, there will be a loss of detail in dark areas. In complete darkness, black looks bluish (some people may be able to live with this. I, for one, cannot), though details will become better. So here is the trade off- better looking black with loss of detail or bluish black with greater detail. And there is still the traditional LCD weakness to consider- while watching in complete darkness, black starts glowing if viewed from off-centre. Yes, even the famed wide-angle viewing IPS panel is prey to this.
While a plasma is best viewed in a darkened room. The black does not glow and there is no problem with off-axis viewing. And as I mentioned before, it is much more easy on the eyes. This in no way implies that LCD has inferior colour reproduction or anything. I feel that the days of blanket statements like plasma has more natural and life-like colours are a thing of the past. LCD is equally capable of delivering natural and life like colours. It is just that plasma does it better in dark to near darkness conditions without straining your eyes. So bottom line is this: if you want a cinematic experience then you are still better off with a plasma.
But not everyone buys a TV just to watch movies on. There are the majority who want a TV for general viewing, i.e cable, for any odd time of the day. And for this, one does not exactly need a TV with measured black levels of 0.08 cd/m2 . In such a scenario I would say an LCD TV is better. For one, there is no need to worry about controlling the lighting. Secondly, one need not worry about the electricity meter turning at blazing speeds. And then there is no need to worry about burn-in or TIR. I dont know about permanent burn-in and I dont wish to find out either, but I do know that temporary image retention (TIR) is a very real thing. For example, I had displayed the home menu of the Seagate Theatre+ for less than 2 minutes on my plasma. Immediately after this I displayed a fully black image on the TV, and I could see the image of the Seagates home menu in all its glory. It was only temporary though. Maybe the TIR happened only because the TV is still in its running-in phase but Im still keeping my fingers crossed. For the same reason, I feel its safer to game on LCD. All modern games have some kind of fixed image or the other, be it HUD or health meter.
Another battleground between these two technologies is response time. The LCD I own has a rated response time of 2.4ms while plasma response time is supposed to be 0.0001ms or some crazy figure like that. I thought I used to detect slight motion blur in fast paced action scenes on the LCD. However when I watched the same scenes on the plasma I saw the same blur I noticed on the LCD. Which has led me to conclude that what I perceived as motion blur was not really blur but a quality inherent in the film i.e it is the way the movie was shot. A note on these motion enhancing features on modern LCDs. When turned on they are supposed to render motion more fluid but in actual practice they give a documentary feel to any movie. So I usually turn it off. It does make a small difference in sports like football.
Another thing that is usually mentioned in connection with plasmas is that they supposedly give off a lot of heat. In my experience this is not true. I touched the back of the TV after 5 hours continuous use and it was not really hot. It wasn't stone cold either but you get the general idea. But consider that it is winter time, and so the cold may have had something to do with this. Whatever the case may be, suffice it to say that you are not going to call a plasma into doing secondary duty as an oven, even in the hottest of temperatures. However compared to LCD it still runs hotter. Let me just mention that my Seagate Theatre+ runs much hotter than the plasma.
About electricity consumption I can't comment as yet since I have not had a look at the electricity bill as yet. I doubt it will make much difference since I don't use the plasma for general viewing anyway.
No review is complete without pictures, so here are a few. The movie was viewed in complete darkness (did I mention somewhere that plasma is ideal for viewing in the dark???). The movie is a 720p rip of The Shining played via a Seagate Freeagent Theatre+. (On a side note, do not watch this movie before reading the novel {by Stephen King}).
Note the details in dark areas especially the machine details in the lower left hand corner.
It ain't exactly a V20, but its black levels are pretty decent. The X20 displaying a completely black image.....
The ending of the film shows some close ups of black and white photos.
The play of light and shadow in the picture shows us what the TV can display, as far as mixed (bright and dark) scenes are concerned.
....and finally the curtain comes down on a great performance form Jack Nicholson....
So which is better: LCD or Plasma?
There is no clear-cut winner, as both perform differently under different conditions. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Keep in mind your viewing conditions, your viewing patterns and decide accordingly. In the end it is for you, the viewer, to decide what is best for your eyes.
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Didn't observe any back-light issue. Waiting for TATA sky HD ( again a long wait ) 
