Look For Yourself

I've written before about the process of buying an HDTV, and it still rings true. I wanted to point out that this is a shifting landscape of technology, and what folks say is often not up to date.

I've heard too many times about the weakness of LCD's- contrast. The party line goes something like this. Sure, LCD's can go bright, but they are limited by their technology. The backlight can't be turned off, and they can't go too dark with the current crop of LCD's out there because there is always some light leaking through. Plasmas, using a different technology aren't limited in that regard, and have far more contrast. Right?

Well, I was wandering through the local price club, and after buying pounds of iced tea, I wandered past the televisions. Wow, what a nice setup; they have a Blu-Ray disc player hooked up, and the latest Spider Man movie being displayed in hi def across a whole line of TV's. I will say that they had a much better setup for picture display than most of the stores that I have seen (maybe that's what they use the membership fee for).

What catches my eye is that they have a Sony plasma and LCD side by side. They are similarly sized, I believe the plasma was a 50 incher, and the LCD 46. I take a quick look at the two TV's and I notice right away that the blacks are far darker on the LCD than on the plasma. Yup, on scene after scene, the LCD image was far darker on the blacks than the plasma was.

Is there a lesson here? I think there are two. The first is that just because "everyone" spouts that plasmas are better at something, it doesn't make it true in every instance as these are generalizations of two very different technolgies. There has been plenty of development, and there will continue to be, as LCD's are clearly catching up in the contrast department, at least in today's informal test. The other is that there is no substitute for seeing the TV set in person before purchase.

For my money, I'm glad I voted for LCD, and I can see why plasma sales have lost market share.

--Jonas