Plasma

[sandmaster]

I was planning on buying a plasma tv by the end of the year but now hear the EU may ban such sets. Is plasma superior to LCD and should I go for a plasma now? I have heard that CRT is the future (not just one CRT but thousands making up one screen) but that is years away.

[alan-r]

think your info about crt is a bit mixed up there,crt is dead,
lcd tvs are the best to buy as they have become as good as plasma now picture wise and are three times less expensive to run size for size
OLED are the next step.look this up in google but not on the market for a few years as vastly expensive to buy 14" in the region of �3000
they use a lot less power than lcd sets and give a brighter sharper picture

[MrBounty]

Sorry, alan-r, got to disagree with you there....

For smaller sized TVs, sure, go for LCD, but, even with the newer models out there, Plasma is still better for anything over 37".

OLED, as you say, should be the "next step", but they wont be worth purchasing until they become cheaper to produce.

Sandmaster, there is no way Plasma TVs will be getting "banned" by the EU - no idea where you might have heard such a thing....

Oh, and if you want a huge box sitting in your living room, then, yeah, go for a CRT - if you can find a shop still selling them! lol

As above, if you're looking for a TV over 37", i'd definitely suggest going Plasma - Panasonic or Pioneer, although a bit more expensive, are definitely the better manufacturers....

[alan-r]

mr bounty,
one of many news items on this subject

http://www.evertiq.com/news/read.do?cat=4&news =13183

[alan-r]

THE EU is mulling over a plan to kill off plasma televisions across Europe because they burn too much power.

According to reports in the Roman press, the EU might make a ruling on the technology in spring.

Commissioners are about to release new guidelines on the consumption of television screens. While LCD screens scrape through the new requirements, the power hungry plasma screens just eat far too much juice.

A 42-inch Plasma TV consumes 822 watts of electricity in comparison with 350 watts of a flat screen LCD and 322 watts of a cathode ray tube.

Among the plans is to put a system of labels on televisions so that punters will know how much they are going to consume. This has been done for some time with fridges and other appliances, but not for TVs.

Unless the television manufacturers work their way around the problem, it is fairly likely that plasma televisions could go the way of the VHS machine in the EU.

Most of the television companies have a half-hearted attitude to plasma sets which have lost a lot of ground over the last two years to LCD. �

[sandmaster]

Sorry folks. I did read a report last year that the Japanese are experimenting with crt. Thousands of miniature crts making up one large screen - a bit like lcds - but the theory is crt has a faster reaction time and better colour. The resulting set will still be thin like plasma and lcd.
Plasma does seem as though it is going to be banned and I think I will buy one before then as plasma does seem better than lcd.