LCD rear projection vs. DLP vs. Plasma

Large size LCD televisions are still quite expensive, although the wholesale prices for lcd panels(which is the vast majority of the cost to make an lcd tv) just dropped very substantially. It will take a few months for the lcd tv makers to clear out their high cost inventory, and then prices for lcd TVs should drop very substantially. Imo the larger sized lcd tvs may drop around 40% from current prices by March or so, then an additional 30% or so off the early 2005 prices later in the year. Whoever buys a large lcd tv now may in a few months feel like they were ripped off.

JK654,
May I ask you why you think the prices will go down in March? Is that when new models come out or when inventory is cleared out?

Just curious...

I have owned my Sony XBR 60" Grand WEGA LCD Rear Projection for about a year and a half now and the bulb is good for at least 2500 hours of viewing, more if you have the brightness and contrast turned down some. The bulb will die much faster if you are in a warm room or if the back of the TV is being pounded all day with Sunlight. Do you ever shut off your TV. You must either be getting non Sony after market garbage or are watching way too much TV.

All the past messages discuss the bulb life. It can be extended if a UPS is purchased with the unit. It will make sure that the cool down is done properly in case of a power failure. A controller will not do this. A 450 watt UPS is about 200 dollars.

One drawback of a LCD is when action is viewed like a baseball bat etc. The sampling rate on the LCD is not high enough and you will see jerks.

DLP's should utilize the upgraded version. It is a larger unit (0.8 inches vs 0.55) for the earlier model. This should make the optics less expensive.

I have not seen the red blur on any of the Miti units I have viewed.

Most video is filmed at 24fps, most LCD's run at 55hz or 60hz refresh rate. One specification you'll notice on these products in something called 3:2 pull down rate this means from a 24fps video source half (12) that is refreshed at 3 times the normal and the remainder half the normal rate this means a total of 3*12 + 2*12 = 60 refreshing frames per second. Obviously the higher the refresh rate the better the image quality when watching sports. With that in mind there are a few LCD panels with a 3:3 pull down with a 75hz refresh rate, notice the 24fps video source with result in a 72fps after applying the pull down algorithm running such video on a 75hz LCD results in a silky video picture. All this come with a higher price though search for LCDs with high refresh rate and 3:3 pull down.

Dimension,

I have been suffering through a 3:2/low refresh rate LCD and watching sports leaves much to be desired. I looked for sets that provide the 3:3 pull down and have not found one. Which set or sets would you suggest.

Thanks!!

I looked at well over 30 sets before finally deciding to go with the Sony Grand Wega XBR RP LCD (KDF-60XBR950). This TV had the best picture short of a 15000 dollar plasma.

Some advice on the different technologies.
The DLP's are great for a low end HD RP TV but they aren't as sharp as the LCD's or plasmas.
Low end LCD's can have problems with fast motion (sports) so make sure they have a good processor in front of them. I haven't seen any motion issues with my XBR.
Plasma's are still the best picture around but they have problems; limited life span, burn-in, heat, and the biggest problem PRICE.
I would suggest whichever way you go get a warranty upgrade that includes the bulb (for DLP or LCD RP). They aren't that expensive and you'll want to protect you investment anyway just in case.

I know it is a matter of opinion and personal preference, but the SXRD was better then any DLP that I saw. Plus, most ratings and revies from this and other sites seems to support this conclusion. It was a tough choice for me but when I saw the SXRD that choice was made easy.

I see this was posted in Jan 05-- a year ago, almost--since then, with the Sharp 37" & 45" LCD Flat Panels, and the new line of Sony LCD RP, let's just say I probably would have agreed with him 6 months prior to his statement--but look now, it's all changed, and the last thing I would buy is a Samsung DLP with the "el cheapo" rear hook ups..it's like handling glass....compare that to the sony a10 model rear hook-ups--both of those 50" sets can be bought for under 2k if you look...I don't think many people who do homework here are going to buy the DLP.
just my thoughts
snowed in
watching satellite HD (DISH Rules--I have over 30 HD channels),
crystal clear on my Sharp Flat Panel--better picture than tubes, no motion problems on sports, don't have to worry where you sit, etc....

I've had my Mit. 52725 since mid-January and love it. Not sure what you mean by "rainbow effect" but my picture is incredible. I use Comcast and can't believe how beautiful the picture looks even when not watching an HDTV broadcast.

I did an exhustive search and picked the DLP hands down.

Joe

I still love my Sony Wega 50WE655. I'm extremely happy with my decision to buy Sony LCD over DLP. The picture is great and the sound is phenomenol.

I still think that there's more to go wrong with DLP sets and that LCDs have a better picture.

Good luck with your search.

The rainbow effect is a visual manifestation of the fact that a DLP system is at any one instant in time... drawing only 1 color to the screen. It goes through the colors so quickly (even with a 1 speed color wheel) that the human eye sees it as one combined picture. Most people can't notice it at all & its impossible with the current color wheels (6x or greater speeds). DLP's also traditionally have higher contrast ratios & longer lifespans & will never burn. They use DMD chips, not 3 liquid crystal slabs (LCD) that burn with an image (for example... the health bar from your favorite video game).

I'm not a gamer and rarely have news stations on for more than an hour or so at a time, so burn-in from the "crawl" at the bottom of the screen would not concern me.

What I worry about is burn-in of the image edges from watching standard-screen broadcasts on a widescreen TV for long periods of time. Do you have any information about that?

Plasma seems like the best choice for a high-quality image on a large screen, but the two issues that concern me most are the burn-in issue and the lifespan of the TV. We probably watch three to four hours of TV a day (combined family viewing) on a typical weekday, which may go up a little once baseball season starts, and maybe a little more on weekends. We're big baseball fans so LCD does not sound like it's going to work for us.

ya that sucks... I've seen that kind of burn in before... I don't think it was a plasma display, but it happens... so perhaps you can set it up for some tricky scaling or cropping that ensure you always use the full screen.

As far as screen life, my plasma is listed as 60,000 hours to half brightness. That is at least 10 times the life of a projector bulb or about 30 years. When watching standard def or digital broadcast that is not HD, I stretch the picture or put up the gray bars on the side. Depening on what you watch, the stretch can make things look distoreted, but you get used to it. Most TV or HD receivers have a function that allows you to "zoom" to get a more normal aspect. I almost always fill the screen. On wide screen DVDs, you usually get black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Once again, you can "zoom" on most DVD players to cover the entire screen-you do lose a little of the sides of the scene, but ir rarely matters. Once again, it depends on what you are watching.

As far as actual burn in, if you watch a static image for no more than 15% of your viewing, it will not happen. All CRTs and Plasmas can burn in because they all use phospors that "light up" to display the image. If you keep the same image on in the same spot, those phospors will wear out faster than ones in other areas of the screen-that is "burn in". If I leave my TV on a highly contrased screen like a menu in B&W for a long time and then switch to a black screen, the image will ghost for a few minutes and then fade away with no permanant image left on the screen.

If you never had a burn in problem with your CRT tube TV or a CRT rear projection TV, A plasma should not be a problem for you.

So much of the programmimg out there is still 4:3 aspect, so when watching on a 16:9 screen, if you stretch the picture to fit, the people look a little shorter and fatter. You can put up the gray bars on both sides and watch it in the original aspect, but you effectively have a smaller TV too. In the evenings, most newtork shows are in HD, so everyrhing looks great. As we get more HD programmimg, everything will be 16:9.

That effectively makes the set smaller too, but I'd never want to distort the image just to make it fill the screen. I guess to each their own.

My concern (and the reason for my initial post) was that the gray bars would burn in on a Plasma if enough of what I watch isn't widescreen.

You mentioned many network shows are shown in HD. You must get them in HD. May I ask how? I know Dish offers a package but I didn't think their network channels were broadcast in HD yet. Are you using an HD antenna or do you have dig cable?

I do have dish but am trying to figure out the best way to get the HD signals right now.

Thanks.

I have a home theater in my family room with a big old ugly non high def TV and a great surround system. I had a small about 12 x 12 room upstairs for casual TV watching. We used the big TV mostly for movies and DVDs etc. Decided to replace the TV upstairs with a new TV and after a lot of research, a plasma was the right choice for us. Of course, if you have a nice HDTV, you need a sound system so I bought a Sony HTIB and a Toshiba DVD player. Neither are top of the line, but the sound is very good in a small room and the Toshiba has one of the best quality pictures you could want. Now, if you have an HD TV, you need HD Programming. I already owned (yes I bought into Dish network before they had a lease program} two PVRs and could not give them up. I must be able to record, rewind and pause my shows-especially sports. So I called up Dish and leased an 811 HD receiver and added the HD programming package. You only get about 6 channels in HD-plus all the regular programming, but a couple of them are great. If you have HBO or Showtime (I have had both on it and there is not much difference) you get one HD Movie channel from them. The great part is, the 811 receiver allows you to scan in HD off the air local channels that you pick up off an antenna into the receiver and they show up right in your program guide along with your regular Dish programming-no switching back and forth with the antenna. I get all the major networks NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, PBS(3 in HD) plus a local station or 2 that I do not watch. The off the air digital quality even when not broadcasting in HD is better than Dish provides. The price including lease was only 9.99 for the first year then goes to 14.99. Since an HD receiver is 2-300 dollars and will soon be outdated, that is a great deal. I use my PVR on the s-video inputs of the TV and the HD receiver on the DVI inputs. This allowd me to record one show and watch another show at the same time and I can also use the picture in picture feature with them. Right now, they do not lease the HD PVR, but the price has dropped from $999 to either 499 or 599 and they said they plan to lease it soon. Since it has a dual tuner, I will return the 811 and get it and save 5 bucks a month

Hope this clarifies some of what I was saying. As far as an antenna, if you are within 20 or 30 miles of the towers, almost anything will do. For antenna info on types and aiming, follow this link
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.aspx?page=more_info

If I can be of further help, respond to this post.