Thoughts on Plasma, LCD, DLP and which way to go

With modern plasma sets, I don't think you would have problems with high altitude/noise. Just one proviso, be sure to provide plenty of ventilation space around the set. The people that seem to have problems with premature death of their sets, that I've seen, have compromised cooling of their sets -- placed set in an a cabinet, built into a wall without forced air ventilation, installed a curtain to hide the set that covered the sides even when open.

Holly. Thanks for the link. originally there were far greater concerns about plasma and altitude. And in fact some folks report buzzing plasmas even today, although I havent seen it connected to altitude in those posts on avsforum.com ( just plug in buzzing plasmas into a search).

What I would say is that when these type of threads come up ( meaning this one) all kinds of stuff like the altitude thing, burn in, high power consumption, and other pseudo-myths are mentioned regarding plasmas, but in reality none of them actually occur for like 99.9% of in home residential users

Rysa4 is right about these plasma myths...

I have a neighbor that refused to buy a Plasma because "they only last a year and you have to recharge them with gas every few months". When I told him that was absolutely untrue, he said he believed otherwise becuase 2 home theater salemen had told him the "truth".

So these bozos sell him this giant ass CRT rear projection set, which he brings home and raves about. I go over to check it out and the upconversion is for shit and the guy has no plans for Hi-Def Satellite because he's "a cable guy- cables better". I inform him he can get hi-def through his cheesy cable provider and he responds "why do that? Look at that picture man".

I gave up. Drank a beer, went home.

I don't think that the high altitude/noise thing was a myth, but I am glad that manufacturers have been able to correct the problem. Now if only they would lower the price of plasma TVs a bit, I might be able to afford one, and get rid of my *@#$* CRT rear projection set. :-)

Holly

Hi. On altitude, thats why I said " Pseudo-myth". The issue does exist, like burn in for instance. These are factually correct possibilities, but with little practical impact in reality, as almost no one has problems with plasma and altitude, burn in, plasma lifespan etc.

You just get these huge emphasis in periodicals as these being some type of major negatives about Plasma, followed by the ole " Plasma is obsolete" and Plasma is dying" type comments.

On pricing, with decent 42 inch plasmas at 1500 and 50 inchers at 3000, they are becoming more in reach for more and more folks than a few years back.

My guess is the next step up will be to 55 inch true 1080P displays. I see 55 inch as the next standard.