Plasma or LCD?

A big question that comes up regularly, or so I think. In the past few months I have done research and went and bought a 52" LCD, and if I were you I would definately get an LCD. First off, plasmas probably can't be found in anything under 42". Plasmas also can't go up to "full" HD, as in 1080p. I don't know if you know a lot about TV's, but 1080 is the number of lines of resolution the tv shows. The "p" after 1080 means the lines are showed progressive in flat lines. A difference from the "p" is an "i" after the number, which means interlaced. Not as good, because the lines are interlaced, or woven. The only 1080p signals that are out right now are HD DVD and Blu-ray, I'm almost positive there are no satellite or cable providers that broadcast in 1080p. Why am I saying this? Because LCD's can display 1080 lines of rez compared to the 720 lines in a plasma, save for a few sets from high end makers like Pioneer. But let's not go there, the price is way too high. Anyway another advantage of LCD is they are way lighter than plasmas so you could wall or even ceiling mount the TV. Games look excellent on LCD's also, because of the resolution. Also, plasmas can have a "burn in" effect which leaves sort of a ghost image on the tv if you have the game paused for a long time and the screen isn't changing. An excellent choice for a 42" LCD is the sharp aquos. I have the 52" and it kicks @ss.

MY friend works at bestbuy and someone asks him this question every day. Ill say what he says. LCD is cheaper then plasma at smaller sizes, while plasma gets cheaper as you size up. Plasmas have the best look, if the room you put them in will give no glare. IF you have glare in your room, LCD's give zero glare. Burn-ins on plasmas practically no longer exist.

Glare depends on the screen coating, it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Plasma's have a shorter life, and take up more power and are heavier. The lifetime remark is useless to mention because it's somewhere around the two decade mark with reasonable usage.

On the other hand, they have a better contrast ration than that of LCD's. This basically means that a white picture will be as closer to a real white, and a black picture will be black. This is noticeable, and sometimes an issue with darker movies.

I actually did this today with a plasma my dad just bought, I plugged my 24" LCD next to it and cloned the display, and the dark colours weren't quite up to speed with the black. This was only noticeable when watching them both at the same time, and not a world of difference.

Conclusion you should make from this thread: Go and compare for yourself at a store and make an unbiased decision :)