While there is no single answer to this important question, there IS a lot of misinformation out there about the pros and cons. To get the worst of them out of the way first, plasma never needs “recharged."It has an incredible life span, the most common plasma rating is 60,000 hours, which is 20 years at 8 hours per day! Reliability is not a reason to choose one technology over another; both plasma and LCD will last a long time.
LCD’s strengths include razor-sharp still images, and often a more reasonable price for the latest 1080p technology. Plus, plasma is just too expensive below 42”; so if you’re looking for a medium to smaller set, LCD is the only way to go. On the down side, the nature of how LCD reproduces the image can sometimes lead to a slight “blur” on very fast motion. This is more noticeable with larger screen sizes.
Plasma’s strength is rich colors, deep blacks, and excellent motion detail for fast-moving images like sporting events. For the bigger sizes like 60”, plasma is often the best value. If there is a down side to plasma it would be its slightly less crisp reproduction of still images like computer graphics, and the potential that a static image could “burn in” to the screen. While the “burn in” issue is a concern to some, it really isn’t a practical problem; TV images are constantly moving. You’d have to be using the plasma as a computer monitor, leaving still highly contrasted images on the screen for days on end for this to be an issue.
In my home, we have one large plasma, and several smaller LCD HDTV’s. They all look great; there really is no “one size fits all” answer to the plasma vs. LCD question. As you shop, you’ll find good and bad LCD’s, and good and bad Plasmas. Pay attention to the differences; you may have a strong preference one way or another. When you have questions, you can be confident the HDTV experts at Sherman’s can provide you with the right answers!
