Plasma monitors for TV, which one?

[Albany Tom]

I'm thinking you're thinking LCD. I used to play around with plasma computer monitors, as far as I know they're all a very cool looking red color. IBM used to use them for high end terminals, and Grid, and I believe Toshiba, had them for notebook computers.

 

[MarcV]

Wow, somebody else here is old enough to remember the Grid!

No, I'm talking plasma displays. There are rear projection lcd tvs available now, too. But they require at least a foot of depth behind the screen and I'm hoping to free up floor space by hanging this on the wall. That wouldn't work with the large screen lcds that I've seen.

Anybody here on the forum have one of these things on the wall? I did learn that the larger screens (60") don't work at high altitudes. An ex-Zenith guy told me about the returns they got from disappointed Aspen, CO customers. It seems the large glass cover bows forward at center screen at low atmospheric pressure and the plasma cells in the center of the screen stop working. When the screen is shipped back to the lab, there's nothing wrong.

 

[Albany Tom]

I didn't think they could do colors! Very cool...except now I want one.

 

[Bernhard]

I have 42" LG Plasma. Go to www.lge.com for more info. I choose this model because I use this PDP mainly for watching Cable TV, Digital TV, and DVD. It has video circuitry (DCDi) by Faroudja. This advantage is not mentioned in LG website (not very clever marketing move, eh?). But you can confirm that this very advanced circuitry exist by browsing Faroudja web, and look at their list of all the equipment that using their chip.
You can read more about this Emmy Award winning technology in www.faroudja.com
Their TV has no moving parts to cool their PDP(they call it Fan-less design). This is important for home theater setup. Body is not made from cheap plastic (all metal, or aluminium of some sort)

I also have seen Pioneer PDP, newest range. Resolution is amazing, highest contrast ratio in the world currently. Has built in TV tuner. But only suitable for computer monitor, since moving picture displayed exhibiting a lot of artifact, no matter what input (VGA, Component, Analog) you use. This PDP also fan-less. For your application, stay away from this PDP!

IMHO, the only PDP that have the balance of both world is Fujitsu. Their newest range use HDTV panel, great for computer monitor, not as good as LG in displaying moving picture, but a lot better than Pioneer. But they use 3 Fan for cooling.

All PDP mentioned above has option for hanging it on the wall (wall bracket).

Hope it helps...

 

[DavidH]

Originally posted by Bernhard:

IMHO, the only PDP that have the balance of both world is Fujitsu. Their newest range use HDTV panel, great for computer monitor, not as good as LG in displaying moving picture, but a lot better than Pioneer. But they use 3 Fan for cooling.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I don't own a plasma display yet, but I have been looking at them. I was at The Good Guys, a low to middle price range electronics store, and the Fujitsu 42" and 50" seemed to stand out among the rest as having a brighter, clearer picture.

 

[Graham]

I don't know details, but a trusted source told me that the colour plasma displays currently on the market only have a life of about 10 years. After that the display loses brightness (or something, as I said, don't know details..)

Anyway, something you may want to look into. Although, a 10 year life is probably enough for most..

Graham

 

[MarcV]

Our UltraVision 50" is starting to deconverge at odd moments. We fix it using the "No Time for Sergeants" method: womp on it.

Prices are coming down, slowly, on plasma displays and the idea of hanging the TV screen on a wall to free up floor space appeals to us.

What can CPF tell me about pros and cons of the various brands of Plasma displays available now? Our signal source will be Dish Network. We don't own a DVD player and probably wouldn't use one if we had it.

Circuit City had Hitachi, Zenith, Philips. Is one of them better than the others?

 

[MarcV]

Thanks, Bernhard, for suggesting the LG. I hadn't ever heard of it, but a company whose vision is "delivering affluence and happiness through versatile digitalware" deserves a look.

Graham, I'm sure these things have a limited lifetime. Image burn is such a severe problem that they were a failure as Airport Arrival/Departure displays. Static displays of any kind are, according to my sources, bad news for plasma displays.

That image persistence problem you mention, Bernhard, is annoying. From what I read, that's a function of the electronics, though, and not at all of the monitor itself. The on/off time graph slope of a plasma pixel is supposedly very steep.

 

[BuddTX]

Grid Computers - They were a division of Radio Shack. Nobody wanted to buy a "Trash 80" (TRS 80), so they came up with a cool logo, and a seperate division, and the word Radio Shack was never used!

 

[Bernhard]

Yup, it is in the electronics circuitry. At first, because Pioneer demo their PDP by displaying computer image, I was very amazed by their brightness and picture detail. But when I asked them to demo using their built-in tuner and DVD component input, I was very dissapointed. It is not the image persistence that annoyed me, but blocky artifact and jagged edge that exist throughout entire image. It kind of looking at poorly encoded VCD (not DVD)! Picture contrast also fall (blak not really look black, it look kind of greenish gray)

I personally look for Plasma built using Pioneer new panel (not necessarily Pioneer brand, as they also sell bare panel to OEM manufacturer)but driven by Faroudja circuitry, and cannot find any (too much daydreaming, I think)

I suggest that you compare it side by side, as it is kind of impossible to judge picture quality by looking only to the specification.
Kind of looking at Luxeon Star LED spec, hoping that you get white-bluish tint, but you get the Puke Green color when you buy it...

Good luck for your Plasma hunting...

 

[Albany Tom]

Originally posted by BuddTX:
Grid Computers - They were a division of Radio Shack. Nobody wanted to buy a "Trash 80" (TRS 80), so they came up with a cool logo, and a seperate division, and the word Radio Shack was never used!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">That I didn't know - and I used to have a trash 80! (4 portable, looked like a sewing machine. In fact when I would take it carry on, nobody believed that it was a computer until I popped the cover off.) Grid used to have a nice reputation. "Tandy" on the other hand...

Back on topic - I do remember the IBM plasma monitors having a quick timeout, always thought it was for power savings...

 

[TheMechanic]

Originally posted by BuddTX:
Grid Computers - They were a division of Radio Shack. Nobody wanted to buy a "Trash 80" (TRS 80), so they came up with a cool logo, and a seperate division, and the word Radio Shack was never used!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, not quite...GRiD was a separate company that had gone into business making "rugged" portable computers in the early 80's. They were well known for using things like magnesium cases and the shocking gas-plasma display. (While I could never afford one, I sure drooled over them!)

Tandy acquired GRiD in the late 80's in an effort to shore up their flagging reputation in the computer industry - at which point GRiD introduced a number of "me too" products that were not even close to their former glory. The rest is sad history...

 

[leddite]

getting back to plasma (and stop dissing the venerable trs-80 :>)...

Runco, famous makers of projection setups, makes a line of plasma screens, that i'm told are "the cat's meow" and kick major ***.

they have "real" blacks, and limited image artifacts, bleah bleah bleah.

they also make a decidedly HUGE one. yum.

now if i only had the space for one.

and the money.

time. that.

oiy :>