Dimly lit room: Plasma, LCD, or DLP

Phase, The more common question is which technology works better in normal ambient light. Plasma is the loser here. LCD outputs much more light. Ditto DLP. I would not worry about burn-in. Even the lowest priced plasmas have an orbiter or a white-out feature. This old 'wives tale' just does not apply anymore. Life span, same thing. If you put enough hours on a plasma to reach it's half-life, contact me and I will GIVE you a new set free!

Plasma burn-in is not a factor? You can get image retention from just leaving it on a channel that has a fixed image, such as a logo.

Yes the software may help to reduce burn in, but it does not cure it. I've already found this out the hard way.

Try to use it for anything other than watching moving objects. You'll find out just how good that software really works.lol
Connect a PC or game console to it..you'll be crying the blues! It is clear to me those who say this isn't an issue..hasn't put one to a REAL test.

Vic it's great if that's what worked out for you..not in my case...no dice. My LCD clearly had an advantage in the area stated and MY plasma has its as well. There is no one shot one kill here.

Plasma brighter than LCD?..huh..keep dreaming.

Gmood, I apologize if the tenor of my remarks came across as any sort of absolute. My intention was to pass on to the original poster MY first hand experiences with specific regard to my Sony XBR6 LCD and Pioneer 151FD plasma. Both displays are current products and both are placed in the same locations in two different rooms with the exactly the same exposure to the sun.

Again, with both displays calibrated and set to standard the plasma is clearly a brighter presentation. Selecting the LCD's vivid picture setting will produce a very bright more animated presentation which is difficult for us to watch. This vivid setting closely resembles the 'out of the box' setup of the LCD.

We watch many stations that display a logo and have used Wii and X Box 360 in conjunction with the plasma with no adverse affects or burn in.

Dreaming? I am a little hung over, but that'll pass and my plasma will still be brighter, IMO.

If burn in is really still an issue at all it will only happen if use of monitor is of a extremely lazy or stupid manner (leaving on for many many hours with a steady image for example) even most stations ID tag turns off during commercials and such so I really dont think alogo burn in is an issue. Maybe stations have changed the way they display logo's because of previous issues....either way burn in would be the last thing I would worry about, picture quality and reflection issues plus motion artifacts trump burn in by a laughable margin.

Lol..apology accepted Vic. You're lucky if you haven't noticed the image retention as yet. You're a brave man to play video games on a plasma! I don't know how long you've used it that way. If I were you I would use the LCD for those tasks. It will eventual show itself if used this way often. Try running an all white screen on the plasma if possible. If there is any image retention,it will show up like a sore thumb.

This is easily done for me as I have a good portion of my screen white when I'm surfing the net or doing other tasks on this PC.

Chad..certain channels still use logos that do plasmas harm..I do not know why? ESPN and TNT can be bad about this. That red logo during a long sporting event like racing..can leave a little image retention. I've had to use my screen wiper in the past to remove or lighten these images.

Again...some of us use our displays as PC monitors. I also use it to scroll through my music albums..it doesn't take long for ghosting to show up if you use a plasma for this. This isn't what someone told me or what I read. This is something I've seen for myself Chad.

Frankly, it is laughable to me for someone to give advice on something he doesn't own or have experienced in any way.Looking at it in the store or at a family members house doesn't count. ;-)

I welcome you to stop by and find ghosting artifacts on my LCD with TV recorded shows, movies or Blu rays...it simply isn't there. All of these TVs show ghosting on live fast moving sports..even a plasma. And no thanks I do not want a 300 pound CRT..I'll happily take the good with the bad using my flat panels.