Plasma vs LCD - Plasma best?

I have to admit, I've always had a preference for plasma over LCD. Every time I've gone into any large retailer and looked at all the sets, plasma has always seemed to produce more realistic colours, deeper blacks and much less blur in fast moving scenes, in my opinion.

In recent years, however, LCD has considerably closed the gap and the top manufacturers are consistently producing sets with better contrast ratios and lower response times.

So it was with much interest that I found and read a piece of research on the subject that looks at the views of 603 people in London, Paris and Cologne directly comparing the two technologies in a controlled environment.

The research was commissioned by Panasonic, Pioneer and Hitachi, some of the largest and most respected plasma manufacturers, so clearly their objective was to highlight plasma's superiority. Having said that, Panasonic and Hitachi both also manufacture LCD.

The research was conducted by a completely independent and well respected research company, Synovate. Having checked them out, they do seem to be completely legit.

Onto the results of the research then, this is taken directly from the executive summary:

The results reveal a strong preference for the contrast, black tone, resolution, image depth, sharpness, colour and response speed of plasma.

More importantly, opinions among those who had some prior knowledge of the two technologies swung dramatically toward plasma once they viewed the content side by side in an environment similar to their homes.

Some specifics from the report:

• 65% favour Plasma over LCD for best Colour Quality
• 61% say Plasma delivers the best Sharpness Quality
• 62% indicate that Plasma has the best Response Time
• 72% deem Plasma to have the best Black Quality performance

So, the results of this survey seem very clear then, plasma is superior in almost every way. I have to say, I'm not particularly surprised, as I said, it's been my feeling for a long time.

It's a very interesting read though and even if you don't agree with the results, there are some excellent explanations of the differences between the two technologies and various myths are also dispelled.

I definitely learnt a lot reading the report and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the subject.

If you're in the market for a new big screen HDTV, you should definitely read the report thoroughly and then go and make your own judgement on all the sets in your nearest big retailer. The best judge will always be your own eyes.

You can read the report here.

CES roundup

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is under way in Las Vegas this week and there has been a deluge of new products announced from all the major manufacturers.

A lot of them are not that interesting or significant (to me anyway), so I'm going to try and cut through the crap and highlight here some of the things that interest me and hopefully you.

Xbox 360 IPTV

Microsoft kicked of proceedings with their keynote, of which the most interesting thing to come out was the announcement that in late 2007 they will be offering TV over your internet connection direct to your Xbox 360. They gave a demo at the keynote and there are some screen shots and a video about as well.

It does look quite cool and allows you to do Sky+ type things as well as some intriguing ideas such as recording a TV program in the background while playing a game in Xbox Live! Could be interesting competition to Apple's forthcoming "iTV" as well.

Microsoft really do appear to be trying to cram everything they can into the 360. They also announced that they have shipped just over 10 million 360s to date.

Samsung Blu-Ray player and 1080p TVs

Samsung announced the BD-P1200, their second generation Blu-Ray player. It's slimmer, cheaper and better specified than the previous BD-P100 and should be hitting the US in June.



Samsung also announced 3 new 1080p LCD TVs in 40, 46 and 52 inch varieties featuring 3 HDMI 1.3 ports, 12,000:1 contrast ratio and 1920x1080 resolution among other things.




Pioneer A/V receivers

You're gonna need some sounds to go with your new TV and Blu-Ray player, so how about one the of the four new monster Pioneer receivers: VSX-517, VSX-817, VSX-917V, and VSX-1017TXV (pictured).


Featuring satellite radio (big in the states), iPod integration, 120Watts over each of the 7 channel outputs and THX Select 2 certification for the top of the range beast.

Toshiba REGZA LCD TVs

Four new 720p LCDs in 26, 32, 37 and 42-inch screen sizes and updates to the 42, 46, 52 and 57-inch 1080p Cinema Series, which include 120Hz anti-motion blur technology, ethernet port and HDMI 1.3 connectors with Deep Color and xvYCC support. They also found the time to introduce two new 26 and 32-inch models that include a built in DVD player!

Philips wireless HDMI

Hate that clutter of wires behind your TV? Everything seems to be going wireless these days and HDMI is no exception with Philips announcing a new solution with enough bandwidth to send an uncompressed HD stream of up to 1080p resolution. It's based on an ultra wide band frequency so shouldn't interfere with other wireless stuff like your WiFi network or DECT home phone.

Sharp's new Aquos TVs

Sharp announced 4 new lines of TVs, from the top of the range, 8th Generation 1080p capable D92-Series to the more affordable 720p capable D43-Series with others in between. The D92s feature 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 4ms response time, 120hz refresh rate and 3 HDMI ports.



New Panasonic plasmas

Last but not least, Panasonic announced a new 42" prototype 1080p plasma, possibly the holy grail as far as I'm concerned, as well as new 50, 58, 65 and 103-inch plasmas. Also new HD camcorders, Blu-Ray and home theatre stuff.


Phew, that's about it. Now, get ready for the Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld tonight, it looks like it's gonna be a big one.