LED vs Plasma

That is a very narrow minded statement. Plasma is awesome, regardless of its resolution.

When you're using it for PC work, you will notice the dithering and such very quickly..... Things will look blurry when they should be sharp and crisp.
 
When you're using it for PC work, you will notice the dithering and such very quickly..... Things will look blurry when they should be sharp and crisp.

Then if the OP or anyone else wants it for work, then by all means get the LCD, but just for watching stuff, I'd highly recommend plasma.
 
Then if the OP or anyone else wants it for work, then by all means get the LCD, but just for watching stuff, I'd highly recommend plasma.

Thats where I'm coming from.. the work aspect does somewhat lean more towards LCD than Plasma, unless the OP is planning on getting a big ass FULL HD plasma...

And yes, Plasma is good, but LCD/LED is just as good in a lot of cases nowadays so it comes down to personal preference.
 
Thats where I'm coming from.. the work aspect does somewhat lean more towards LCD than Plasma, unless the OP is planning on getting a big ass FULL HD plasma...

And yes, Plasma is good, but LCD/LED is just as good in a lot of cases nowadays so it comes down to personal preference.

Well, if we're talking the same price range, those LCDs and "LEDs" suck compared to a plasma. The only LCD that has gives you similar quality is the in the R15k price range. "LEDs" are just terrible.
 
If I'd known this thread would get so many replies in such a short period of time, I would have checked back sooner and interjected, hehe.

mercurial - Which Samsung do you have?

Speedster - Same question.

I don't have a very big budget - max is R7k. I'd like something from a well-known brand. Samsung preferably.

I don't mind something that isn't full HD, as I've learnt that if one sits far enough away from the screen, the difference between that and 720p can't actually be noticed.

I don't intend doing any work on it.

ToxicBunny - IIrc, I've never seen anything other than full HD being labelled as such.

I'm hearing more and more than IR isn't a problem and this is reassuring. I know there are many built-in features that help to reduce the chances of it happening, like pixel orbiting. I have heard that a small amount of ghosting does still occur, but so long as it disappears relatively quickly, I'll be fine with it.
 
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I've seen it once or twice.... but like I've stated, even the HD Ready ones are mislabeled in my opinion.

at R7k, you can chose from a fair variety of screens actually... so it will boil down to personal preference.

You said you would be doing general web browsing and such, then you want to try and get a screen with the highest res possible, and that the native res of the panel will match the res that you will be pushing through it from a PC.
 
You said you would be doing general web browsing and such, then you want to try and get a screen with the highest res possible, and that the native res of the panel will match the res that you will be pushing through it from a PC.
Yep, for PC application thats the important part, GPU output res must match native panel res, otherwise all fine detail especially text will look all fuzzy from the scaling.

This pretty much eliminates Plasma, for R7K you can only get an HD Ready model, and almost all are 1024x768 these days. So unless you want to go back to 1990s type resolution, LED is going to be the best option (don't get many LCD these days).
 
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If I'd known this thread would get so many replies in such a short period of time, I would have checked back sooner and interjected, hehe.

mercurial - Which Samsung do you have?

I don't mind something that isn't full HD, as I've learnt that if one sits far enough away from the screen, the difference between that and 720p can't actually be noticed.

I don't intend doing any work on it.

I'm hearing more and more than IR isn't a problem and this is reassuring. I know there are many built-in features that help to reduce the chances of it happening, like pixel orbiting. I have heard that a small amount of ghosting does still occur, but so long as it disappears relatively quickly, I'll be fine with it.

Not sure the exact model number but it's a 42". Will try to find the model number for you later.

You're not going to see the difference whether your TV is Full HD or not, if you're watching movies/series on a plasma. All I can tell you is that plasma offers excellent quality, despite it not being Full HD. Standard resolution content is pretty damn good and 720 is bloody amazing. So clear and smooth. If you are going to watch more things than do browsing or work, then plasma is the one you want. The same price LCD/LED are pretty much rubbish and I would never consider it an option. I will guarantee you that if you get a Samsung plasma, you will not regret it. I can't give you the same guarantee with the other two options.
 
I have a 43E450. Picked it up at HiFi Corp Menlyn's opening for something around R3500, plus another R500 for the extended (for a total 6 year) warrantee.
 
ToxicBunny and Roman4604 - Will that worsened text crispness be noticeable if I'm sitting 1.8m away from it?

mercurial - I actually confirmed that last year some time. I was quite concerned, but I found out that you'd need a TV of around 70" to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. Thanks for checking the model number.

Speedster - That's the exact plasma I'm considering getting. I'll definitely be getting the 51E450 for my theater room, due to the fact that that one will only be used for movies, but that's irrelevant as far as this thread is concerned. Have you had any problems with the 43"? Anything you wish you had that an LED would've provided you with?

I'm still rather concerned about reflections with plasmas. They're all glossy and, for about half the time, the room will have light streaming into it, despite there being curtains.
 
Yes it will be noticeable at 1.8m away.

On a PC, the difference in resolution and the blurriness introduced by dithering will be noticeable and will eventually drive you nuts.
 
Yes it will be noticeable at 1.8m away.

On a PC, the difference in resolution and the blurriness introduced by dithering will be noticeable and will eventually drive you nuts.

Which is why, if you can afford it, or you can delay gratification for some time (reasonably) get a proper 30 inch display for your PC needs. They're not cheap, and they haven't come down in price since I purchased the Dell one, but there is no better display for computing needs. Your 30 inch will outlast your PC probably by 2-3 generations, at least. It'll be a worthy investment.

OLED 30 inch displays, the only thing better will take forever to arrive at a reasonable price.

Cheap 30 inch displays are available on Ebay, from Korea, too.
 
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Ummmm he wants to use it as a TV as well, there is no reason to blow R8k+ on a 30inch monitor for that...
 
OP- some questions I have...

  • Will you be doing any sort of PC work on this display, or is it purely for entertainment?
  • What are the average lighting conditions within the room it will reside in?
  • How far away will you be sitting from the display?
  • Maybe I missed this, but what is your budget?

From what I have read thus far, I am also inclined to recommend an LED panel.
 
Flame - Thanks for the link. I will not be using the screen, be it LED or plasma, for 3D. I will definitely be using it for a mix of web browsing (from a distance), gaming, SD series and HD movies.

The motion blur section in that article as well as this http://puu.sh/2raBO make me even more confused. It would sound as though I can just get an LED TV and turn off the motion interpolation (hope to hell every TV allows this), and not have the soap opera effect.

The thing that really confuses me is that, currently, I'm gaming and watching HD movies on a 27" 60hz Samsung LCD PC monitor and not once have I ever noticed blur of any kind. So what's all the fuss about? Numerous articles say that the lower the hz are, the higher the blur for fast-moving objects. This has never been a problem for me.

Can anyone comment on exactly how bad the reflections are for plasmas? There's a pretty large window parallel to where the screen will be facing. I have, in my infinite wisdom, decided to draw (lol) the prospective situation. http://puu.sh/2rb0J
 
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Speedster - That's the exact plasma I'm considering getting. I'll definitely be getting the 51E450 for my theater room, due to the fact that that one will only be used for movies, but that's irrelevant as far as this thread is concerned. Have you had any problems with the 43"? Anything you wish you had that an LED would've provided you with?

The only problem I had was when I dropped it while moving it a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't pretty! Fortunately MiWay took care of that really nicely and had a replacement at my front door in a couple of days.

I'm still rather concerned about reflections with plasmas. They're all glossy and, for about half the time, the room will have light streaming into it, despite there being curtains.

As was I, but now that I have one it's really a non-issue. Yes there is some reflection (I have a large glass sliding door next to the plasma) but nothing that disturbs my viewing in any way.
 
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