Tír Na HiFi

Hi Chaps,

I was in town the other day, browsing around eventually arrived at the Sony Center window. They had on display a 46" LCD unit for 899E. It was a discontinued model, but still very recent. It was not a one off, they had several more still in boxes upstairs. If you traded in your old TV or any old TV, even if it is broken, you got a further 100E off the price. I thought it was fantastic value. Unfortunately the TV did not satisfy the SAF (Spouse Approval Factor....I learn't that one the other day) and my bank account was looking a bit lean.

I got talking to one of the sales people, I asked about Plasma and has LCD finally caught up. From our conversation it appears LCD is starting to surpass Plasma. I have a friend of mine who is adamant about the superiority of Plasma, however have we now reached the point where LCD is king?

well as far as I'm aware, Sony only do LCD's so I'm not really surprised that the salesman was recommending LCD. As of yet I havent come across an LCD that gives a nicer pic than a plasma especially in the home. LCD though, can and often does look better under the bright lights of a shop but I always found the colour on many LCD's to be far too vivid and bright, almost jumping off the screen. That said, maybe the latest and greatest LCD's have closed that gap. I havent seen them yet though.

I take your point about Sony only making LCD's etc.

In relation to shop bright lights, I believe this is down to a flat panel of glass which a Plasma screen has fitted. Hence it is prone to reflections.

The plasma is the vinyl of the tv world and the Lcd is the cd of the tv world.Close but not close enough

Very neatly and interestingly put Gussy!

Gussy Finknottle wrote:The plasma is the vinyl of the tv world and the Lcd is the cd of the tv world.Close but not close enough

Yeah I'd go along with that... LED seems like a good option these days. Nice depth to the picture.

I have a Plasma and a LCD and while the LCD's are certainly getting better they still don't have that richness of colour that Plasmas have. Mainly due to their better blacks. The 37" Panasonic plasma still remains the ultimate TV bargain in my eyes. I saw one listed for €400 new somewhere recently - absolute bargain.

No one wants plasmas these days so they're often offloaded by shops for greatly reduced prices.

Good point Frankie, I believe Plasma does Black very well.

I was in DID today, they had a Panasonic 50" Plasma for 899 with a DVD player as well. It was big, 50" is a bit too big even if it is great value. At least I thought it was good value (open to correction if somebody else knows better).

A friend of mine has a 37" Plasma and it appears to be a very nice size for the average room. 37" seems to hit the spot quite well.

Then there was a Panasonic LED 42" for 1399E, at least I think it was 42", not certain. Not too sure what are the differences between LED and Plasma and if one is better than the other. Any ideas anybody?

Haahahahahhaa..

There must be something about today, I just checked the Cloney site after writing the post above and lo and behold there is a 50" for 599!!!

These plasmas must be falling out of the sky or something!!

Plasmas don't seem to be so popular with the punters for some reason (possibly the old ridiculous comments about gas leaking and that kind of thing) but for my money there's no comparison, it's plasma all the way.

I'll tell you something else, it's amazing how quickly you get used to a 50"...