[Aidan.]

hi all ,

been meaning to post this for a while. right then, we're considering upgrading our 28" jvc crt, to a panasonic th-37px80b plasma. before that, i've got a few questions regarding crt vs plasma (all i can mainly find is crt vs lcd ). right, here goes:

- in the morning and daytime, our living room, where the tv is located, is fairly bright, and, considering this, the crt isn't very reflective, doesn't disrupt viewing pleasure at all. now, i've read plasmas are better suited to dark rooms, but, as plasma screens are also made of glass, surely a plasma wouldn't prove a problem, in a bright room, if the crt isn't?

- how do plasma viewing angles compare to that of crt viewing angles (i.e viewing angle-free)?

- how do plasmas colour, contrast, and brightness reproduction, compare to that of a crt?

- we only watch sd sky, no gaming, so, i imagine ir, and, the possibility of screen burn would be low?

- the main thing that concerns me about plasmas is the brightness and contrast reproduction - our crt is set to picture mode bright, colour temp warm, and brightness and contrast around 60. would this be advisable on a plasma, after the two hundred hour run-in period?

that's about it, so, going by this, do you reckon it'd be worth it going from a crt to a px80 plasma? thanks for any help

[johnny-17]

I swopped to Panasonic 37" plasma a few years back and and don't regret it one bit. In fact I liked the change so much that I upgraded to a 42" model.
The glass panel seems no more of an issue to me than a crt, but it is of course much bigger and likely to 'catch' more light. I also own an lcd although it looks a bit like a pc monitor when switched off and not quite as posh somehow.
The viewing angles are very good with the picture remaining much brighter than my lcd which suffers greatly when viewed anything other than straight on.
Colours and contrast are very good, however you have to accept that the screen is no longer a crt and the picture will always look different somehow, although in a good way. Perhaps the image is a little softer but at normal viewing distances this will not spoil your viewing pleasure. Just watch a 10" portable for a while and then a 32" crt and the bigger image will not look quite as good as you thought, even on a crt. Personally I find the 'bigger plasma image far more impressive than any crt and this alone far and away compensates for any minor image differences
Just remember that some folk screen test their new sets from 2" away and then moan about it not being as clear as they would have liked (My father-in-law included)
Panasonic do also have very a very good reputation when it comes to screen-burn (my father-in-law doesn't even know what it is) so things should be fine for your style of viewing - just watch some other stuff for a while perhaps straight after watching something with static logo's

[Justafan]

I had a 32" CRT for around six years and about a month ago bought my first plasma - the 37px80b. Because I'm so paranoid about potential screenburn I've been running my set with the brightness and contrast down to around the 30% mark and avoiding games where I can't remove the HUD, and will continue to do this until the oft-mentioned run in period has finished (can actually be up to 300 hours rather than 200 so don't get too impatient!) With all that said, here are my answers to your questions based on what I've experienced so far:

- I've had no issues with reflection aside from the lip of the frame surrounding the screen. It's not much of an issue unless you are sitting off to the side where you might notice it. The lip is only about a centimeter or two however so it's not like it's much of an issue at all. The set definitely looks better in a dark environment - but this could also be because I haven't properly calibrated the set yet.

- Viewing angle seems very wide to me. I sit straight on however so don't pay much attention to viewing from the side - but whenever I'm looking at it from anywhere but my sitting position, the picture looks perfectly normal and distortion free.

- Yes, low, unless you have static images or banners or things which I suspect you will get on some Sky broadcasts e.g. like the 'red button' logo on BBC News for example. You will also get IR if you watch a 2:35.1 ratio film from the black borders at the top and bottom. However, the result is incredibly faint and you really have to look for it to see it, and you'd most likely only notice it on a plain background such as pure white or black, and even then you'll only really see a slight difference in colour tone to where the edge of the border was. This is with using reduced settings however, it might look worse if your contrast and brightness was set higher. I should also say though that after a few minutes of any continually moving fullscreen broadcast the IR will vanish completely.

- From reading various tests in the past and using a calibration DVD with my CRT set I had my contrast to around 65% and brightness to around 40%. Putting brightness up to the same level as the contrast seems pretty high to me - I'd suggest getting hold of the Digital Video Essentials DVD once you're gone past the 200-300 run in period. I'm also running my plasma with cinema mode and colour temp normal.

The set you're looking at is the first flatscreen of any nature I bought for TV watching and I couldn't be happier. I always thought my CRT looked great but it's only now since using a plasma do I realise how much more natural images now look. Freeview pictures look just as good if not better - which was a surprise because I was always led to believe that the sets have a harder time blowing an image up to fit a higher resolution of the plasma/LCD than the resolution of the original broadcast. And DVD's look fantastic. Never noticed any hint of smearing or blocking or pixilation or blurring or motion issues or ANYTHING that make me wish I hadn't gone for this particular set. The picture will also slowly improve as the days and weeks go by, I found that after the first week.

Buy with confidence! But be patient A few months of being careful are nothing compared to the amount of years you'll be happily using the set for.

[rewerb]

Here's some settings to use Panasonic TH42PX80 Best Settings After Calibration

They are actually OK to use straight away.

[punkymunky]

Originally Posted by Aidan.

hi all ,

been meaning to post this for a while. right then, we're considering upgrading our 28" jvc crt, to a panasonic th-37px80b plasma. before that, i've got a few questions regarding crt vs plasma (all i can mainly find is crt vs lcd ). right, here goes:

- in the morning and daytime, our living room, where the tv is located, is fairly bright, and, considering this, the crt isn't very reflective, doesn't disrupt viewing pleasure at all. now, i've read plasmas are better suited to dark rooms, but, as plasma screens are also made of glass, surely a plasma wouldn't prove a problem, in a bright room, if the crt isn't?

- how do plasma viewing angles compare to that of crt viewing angles (i.e viewing angle-free)?

- how do plasmas colour, contrast, and brightness reproduction, compare to that of a crt?

- we only watch sd sky, no gaming, so, i imagine ir, and, the possibility of screen burn would be low?

- the main thing that concerns me about plasmas is the brightness and contrast reproduction - our crt is set to picture mode bright, colour temp warm, and brightness and contrast around 60. would this be advisable on a plasma, after the two hundred hour run-in period?

that's about it, so, going by this, do you reckon it'd be worth it going from a crt to a px80 plasma? thanks for any help

I have a 37" Panasonic plasma. If your CRT doesn't suffer from relection problems, I doubt the plasma will be worse except for the fact that it is a much larger area and will therefore pick up a larger area of light.

The plasma is better suited to a dimly lit room and in my experience will not produce quite as bright an image as a good CRT, however it is perfectly watchable as long as you do not have sunlight pointing straight at it.

You will have no problems with viewing angle. At extreme angles i.e. almost sat next to the screen you will see a double image but only with white on black e.g. film titles.

I think that a good CRT will have greater contrast, brightness and more acurate colour than your average plasma and also produce a less noisy picture with poorer SD sources. However I don't want to put you off because we are only talking small margins and of course the plasma has the benefit of being a lot larger and taking up less space.

You will have no problems with screen burn and after 200 odd hours can set the contrast and brightness as you please although mine is set straight down the middle and is fine for me, it even dazzles my eyes at night sometimes.

[jackobite]

Originally Posted by Aidan.

hi all ,

been meaning to post this for a while. right then, we're considering upgrading our 28" jvc crt, to a panasonic th-37px80b plasma. before that, i've got a few questions regarding crt vs plasma (all i can mainly find is crt vs lcd ). right, here goes:

- in the morning and daytime, our living room, where the tv is located, is fairly bright, and, considering this, the crt isn't very reflective, doesn't disrupt viewing pleasure at all. now, i've read plasmas are better suited to dark rooms, but, as plasma screens are also made of glass, surely a plasma wouldn't prove a problem, in a bright room, if the crt isn't?

- how do plasma viewing angles compare to that of crt viewing angles (i.e viewing angle-free)?

- how do plasmas colour, contrast, and brightness reproduction, compare to that of a crt?

- we only watch sd sky, no gaming, so, i imagine ir, and, the possibility of screen burn would be low?

- the main thing that concerns me about plasmas is the brightness and contrast reproduction - our crt is set to picture mode bright, colour temp warm, and brightness and contrast around 60. would this be advisable on a plasma, after the two hundred hour run-in period?

that's about it, so, going by this, do you reckon it'd be worth it going from a crt to a px80 plasma? thanks for any help

i watch my 42ins pasma as a normal tv.....but it is better...my 33ins toshiba was fantastic...but i had to up-grade...and was like you scared by these horror storys...re plasms / lcd and i plumped for plasma...it looked good...and ive been very pleased with the pictue..my normal dvd,s take on a new life...they look fantastic SD..is superb "all the soaps" are excellent quality...eastenders alway,s seemed to have a poorer quality picture....not now...the are great....HD IS fantastic...but it depends on the original quality but even really poor quality seriies or older shows....are improved...and i can watch in ALL viewing conditions...light off light on...very sunny day it,s all the same...as if i was watching the 33ins toshiba....and brightness...contrast...spot on....under any of these conditions......so im well pleased...... jackobite

[bengunn]

I have a new Pioneer KRP-500A and, like you, was concerned about how it would look in a bright room. In fact, it is better than my Sony 32" CRT for brightness and the viewing angle is just as good.

[SteveAWOL]

I finally succumbed to the yearning for a bigger screen and traded in my old 32" Hitachi CRT for a 37PX80 in the summer so here's my tuppence worth:

- The PX80 has an anti-reflective coating on the glass so in my case it's a actually a slight improvement over the shiny CRT screen.

- My TV is set up in the corner of the room and the viewing angles for the PX80 are almost as good as the CRT, perfectly good for around 150 degrees at least.

- Imho the picture quality is comparable to the CRT in terms of colour, contrast, and brightness. It's only the occasionally slight judder on fast panning shots that is noticeably inferior to the CRT.

- On the day after i set up the PX80 i accidentally left my V+ paused for about 20mins and the screen suffered no ill effects. Occasionally I notice a hint of retention if I'm watching a channel with a static banner/ logo for hours on end but nothing a quick channel change doesn't solve. Though some people on owners thread do seem to have had some IR problems so seems to be a bit of a lottery with panels.

- Personally I haven't bothered to run-in my plasma as such but I'm quite happy with the relatively dark Cinema mode and have contrast set to about 55 and brightness around 45.

So all in all I'd say the switch is worth it when you consider the positives

[rewerb]

Originally Posted by SteveAWOL

I finally succumbed to the yearning for a bigger screen and traded in my old 32" Hitachi CRT for a 37PX80 in the summer so here's my tuppence worth:

You have a V+ so have you looked at the BBC HD material? Silent Witness, Heros, Little Britain ...

[Aidan.]

thanks all for your valuble input, very much appreciated, put my mind to rest :D

[Kalos Geros]

One observation, though, with my PV70...in a day-lit room, but no direct sunlight falling on the screen, the blacks suffer somewhat, because the screen itself is lit by the environmental light and tends to be greenish (actually sam as CRT except maybe Sony Trinitrons)...I can darken the room during daytime and actually the room gets dark, with the outside light coming from another room behind the TV that is sun-lit, and the blacks are really great (because the pupil closes to compensate for the bright light)...because of the same effect, in a completely dark room in the night your pupil widens to let more light into the eye, so during nighttime watching you can observe that the black screen is not really black but rather illuminated, especially compared to the completely black and unlit frame around it...to counter that, you need to have a LED array behind the TV or a strong controlled light that may illuminate the room but not fall at the plasma screen...unfortunately, plasma cells (ie. the gases inside) need to be charged (stimulated) constantly even in case of 0 volt signal in order to be able to react quickly to changes in the charge...

As per daytime reflections, they are much less than any of my previous CRTs...

cheers

[SteveAWOL]

Originally Posted by rewerb

You have a V+ so have you looked at the BBC HD material? Silent Witness, Heros, Little Britain ...

Indeed, I watched the Olympics and Euro 2008 on BBCHD and occasionally watch the odd natural history show like Wild China- does look rather nice i must admit I usually record Heroes from BBC2 tho as i find it to look almost as good as the HD version and takes up 1/4 of the HD space!