Talking about power - one annoying thing is when my PC goes into monitor powersave mode - the TV doesn't just blank the screen and save power. It shows a stupid box saying no signal that moves around the screen.. blah, a waste.

wow, what a shock to see tv's getting reviewed now!

i'm not about to sacrifice picture quality in order to save $30 a year in electricity, so it's plasma for me.

it's hard to quantify how bad lcd off-axis viewing is when you are looking at only one tv, but when you stack several of 'em up against plasma tv's...
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2 ... 236,00.asp

That's a very interesting article, thanks for the link! I read the entire article as well as the discussion -- the latter really should be considered part and parcel of the article. I don't think you'd be so convinced of plasma's picture quality if you read all the comments.

Regarding off-angle picture quality -- I don't want to be sitting more than a foot beyond the edge of the screen, simply because of the angular/perspective distortion, the same reason I won't go to a movie theater if I can't get a seat near the center. It makes for a much less convincing viewing experience, period.

On axis, I've found plasmas generally have a bit less detail relative to LCDs... tho I admit I have not examined a high end model for long periods as I did with this Samsung.

Hi,

What is the typical contrast ratio on a better plasma? I find that this matters a lot to the long term quality. Black is actually the hardest "color" to do on a color TV...

Has anybody heard anything recently on SED TV's? Or, are they DOA?

"danimal"

Thanks for the link. I learned a lot.

I already knew that:
--> for computer displays, CRT's can be better than LCD's
--> a good used professional quality 22" CRT display is only around CAN$25
--> for TV's, plasma can be better than LCD
--> Plasma TV's cost a lot of money and CRT TV's can be !FREE! if you have strong friends to help retrieve them for new digital flat panel owners

Now I know how much better picture quality plasma TV's can have.

I agree with Neil. It sure looks sweet, but right now I am not comfortable spending $2500 on a TV. I have a $1k 50" 720p that is great for movies and xbox.

i think that the article was using a crt as the reference? still the best, but limited by size.

what i got out of the article discussion was that the people who wrote the study were behind plasma picture quality over lcd, but they got hammered by the lcd groupies in the discussion... if you look on that website, there is another article on 120hz that's a pretty good read... look at the credentials of the author, the same guy wrote both articles.

imho, the type of backlighting used on lcds is highly overrated, if i wanted an lcd big screen for some reason, i'd be concerned about the panel type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD

for the relatively cheap price of these big screens, i don't see 'em using the best lcd panels, and none of the manufacturers seem to be telling what panels they are using.

plasma technology is the minority, but it's getting better, and it's finally getting cheaper just within the last few weeks... i just got a panasonic p54s1 shipped to my door for $1008, after bing and a 10% sears card discount... the picture quality is really good, regardless of the viewing angle.

Usually, "off" = standby. With the only way to get it really off is to pull the power cord out of the wall.

I was very specific about this -- off w/ the Samsung remote gives 0W. Most definitely with the power cord in the wall.

Standby as I defined it is when there the video input goes dead ( because of no input source or PC screen off or...) -- at which point the power at AC is 32W. Samsung's claim of 0.2W is valid.

I just really love the Samsung LCD TV. Samsung ultra-slim LED TVs combine breakthrough picture quality, eco-friendly design and advanced connectivity options that will keep you entertained 24/7. And now, I am waiting for their release of their new 3D TV.