Why are LCDs more popular than plasma?


I have a rough time seeing differences in picture quality between brands and models, but the difference between plasma and LCD are overt even to me. When I go to bestbuy, fry's, etc. and gaze at their displays of flatpannels, plasma televisions just look beautiful, despite the reflections, while LCDs just remind me of working on my laptop. Is there more merit to the quality of LCD than I observe or is there some other reason LCDs outnumber plasmas?
ohlala
This is an audio site. What did you expect? I feel sorry for you too Chad but I didn't say anyone was pathetic. Hell I feel sorry for everyone here.
Only a single poster mentioned the lower power consumption of LCDs v plasma. I find that distrubing. It suggests weening folks away from SUVs will not be easy either. We may not like dependance on middle east energy, but we ain't going to do a damn thing about it.

Local shops in Santa Barbara have the latest top of the line Sony XBR LCDs as well as the Pioneer Elite and Fujitsu plasmas, all properly set up with 1080p DVD or HDTV feeds. Each looks spectacular; nor do I see much difference among the top flat screens. It seems the artifacts have been pretty much addressed.

Next move for me is front projection. There's nothing like a large screen for movies, and price for flat screen units at this time is an overwhelming factor as size gets big.

db
Guys....it's IMAGE RETENTION, not Burn-in!

...and, if a Plasma TV is properly broken-in for the first 200-300 hrs, you will NOT experience image retention issues.

The people that bitch about this....either don't own one, and read it somewhere, or watch Headline News on their plasma in torch mode, 24/7. Break 'em in, use actual watchable settings....enjoy.

I break mine in with a disc, then I can watch any channel I want, as long as I want to...no issues.

If you're a movie fan, LCD doesn't cut it...period.
Like most absolute universal statements, Stevecham and Soundqcar, overstate the case. Some plasmas do movies better than some LCD. I doubt either is qualified to make such absolute universal judgements.

In my experinece, the advantages of plasma are size and price; the advantages of LCD are lower weight and power consumption. The top of the line units of either technology have splendid picture quality if viewed from a position reasonably in front of the set.

db