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Plasma versus LCD – a fascinating, complex battle indeed! LCD and plasma TVs each have their own characteristics. And the decision about which one you prefer has a lot to do with your personal taste, much like preferring a peanut butter sandwich to a jelly sandwich, or vice versa.
Let us proceed point by point.
Each pixel in plasma TV is made up of three phosphors – one red, one blue, and one green. They emit light when struck by beams of electrons. The quantity of light emitted depends on the intensity of the electron beam. It is the phosphors themselves that create the light one can see on a plasma screen.
On the other hand, LCD TVs use millions of crystal, which are suspended in a liquid that is sandwiched between transparent panels. A bright florescent light is in place behind this liquid crystal sandwich. The crystals are instructed to either let the light pass or block its passage. Color filters are used to determine color.
As far as size is concerned, both TVs were always thin, and so that question is something of a stalemate. For example, the difference between 3″ and 5″ seems to matter in case of certain models, but becomes almost immaterial when it comes to a big screen TV.
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In terms of the viewing area, however, plasma TVs have always been known for their larger sizes. And that holds true in general. Put in a different way, one will have a greater variety of plasma TVs to choose from when he/she is looking at the big models. But it should be kept in mind that LCD TVs, too, are steadily gaining ground.
Now comes the question of price. For big screen plasma TV and a big screen LCD TV of the same size, the plasma TV would normally cost less. LCD TVs are, however, dropping in price, and it is highly likely that the two will be on equal footing in the price department quite soon. All else being equal, in the plasma vs. LCD TV battle, plasma tends to win on this one for the time being. But the battle goes on.
Tags: big screen TV, LCD TV, plasma TV
After a great deal of research I bit the bullet and ordered this TV. I’m very happy with it — in fact, delighted — so far. I’ll list each concern that I had along with how things turned out for me:
- Buzzing.
My number one fear was the buzzing that people have noted as an issue. There is absolutely none, even when I turn the volume down to extremely low levels, and I’m hypersensitive to this kind of thing.
- Glare.
I was also a little worried about the glare factor that some reviewers have mentioned. I haven’t had any issues at all. The TV is in a room with medium-sized windows facing northeast, so there isn’t a problem with direct sunlight but it’s still fairly bright during the day. I haven’t needed to adjust any picture settings to compensate and there hasn’t been any annoying reflection. And I should add that the picture is amazingly crisp and vivid.
- Sound.
Some people have reported the sound as being less than stellar. My previous main TV, a Sony Wega, has very rich sound so based on the reviews I expected to hear something pretty tinny with this model. It actually turned out to be much better than I had anticipated. I don’t feel the need to use my external audio system except when watching a movie, and that’s just to get the full surround-sound experience.
- Touch of color.
The red is slightly more vivid than I expected, but not overly so. I tend to be a neutral color person when it comes to electronics, but the color on this is still subtle and not overdone. And the overall styling of this model is gorgeous. It’s beautiful to look at and people drool when they come over to visit.
- Connections.
I wasn’t quite sure what exactly would be available despite looking at the photos and documentation online. I didn’t have HDMI on my old TV and I used S-video for a couple of things so I thought I might run out of open ports. I bought some HDMI cables for the cable box and DVD player, and I had no problem also hooking up my DVD recorder and stereo using conventional component cables. I did retire my old VCR but I could easily have kept it as there are several remaining open connections, even for composite cables. And I can still add a Blu-Ray DVD player if I decide to get one.
- Burn in.
I’ve experienced none. I was kind of worried when I ran the auto-channel programming feature because it has a very static screen and took quite awhile to process. It added every scrambled channel on the cable network and then spent a long time removing them. Happily, there were no unwanted effects.
- Network connectivity.
I got the wireless USB device and it works great. I can access music and photos on my computer as well as use the Yahoo widgets that are programmed into the TV. I don’t use it a lot but it’s a fun feature.I know it can be a little difficult deciding on a major purchase like this.
I can say that after several weeks there is nothing that has disappointed me with this model so far and I’d highly recommend the Samsung PN50B650 if you’re looking for a new TV.
Pros: The picture is stunning and quite smooth. You don’t get that cookie cutter effect that the top end LCDs often have. The Internet features are nice, if a bit sluggish, I especially like the NFL scoreboard.
Great menus and loads of picture options. Connection to computer server for additional content worked well. Even played a burn of a Video_TS file from a DVD I own.
OTA HDTV looks great. I could hardly see a difference between 1080i broadcast and 720P, like I could with other TVs. Which means the TV is doing some excellent processing. I saw the same effect when playing a iPhone formatted movie.
Quality from a regular standard DVD player was excellent through composite inputs, although there was a little noise in the picture when the screen was black, easily attributed to the cheat DVD player.
Cons: PiP doesn’t work with OTA and Analog AV, I couldn’t watch a SD DVD and OTA at the same time. I suspect this is a hardware limitation.
Remote is a bit slow to react, but deal breaker slow. Server content manager is a bit unorganized, best to share a folder you organize yourself.
There are menu items that are a bit too buried for my liking, such as the OTA signal strength indicator and a few others, but you can’t have everything where you want it (Unless Samsung created a custom menu option…HINT!).
Unknowns: I haven’t tried the 24p film mode, but this is a well known problem with this model.
I am told the remote will control HDMI-CEC devices (such as the PS3 Slim). I will update when I get a chance to test this feature.
For around $1000, you probably can’t do any better on a 50″ TV, or even a 46″ for that matter.
I picked out a LG 47LH90 LED LCD for my father-in-law for $1200, which was a steal. If I could get that deal again, I wouldn’t have purchased this TV. I am happy I didn’t, because although that TV is excellent, the combination of features and picture on this set are fantastic.