Flat-Screen Face Off
LCD or plasma? Trying to decide what to get? Check out the following article from popularmechanics.com
THE ETERNAL QUESTIONS: Pepsi or Coke? Ford or Chevy? Plasma or LCD? It has been only recently that most of us have been able to ponder that last dilemma. Flat-panel TVs may be the ultimate media status symbol, but can you afford one without having to sell your house? Fortunately, flat-panel prices have dropped from the staggering ($12,000 or more for a midsize model) to the merely sobering ($3000 to $4000 for the same size), and last year roughly 2 million of these sets made their way into consumers' homes. With manufacturers pouring cash into factories, prices are set to drop another 25 percent in 2005. Once you've gotten past the issue of whether to buy a flat-panel set, you confront the greater dilemma of which type to buy. Plasma partisans will tell you that their sets are bigger and more vibrant. LCD devotees will counter that their sets are brighter and last longer. To find out which approach offers the best combination of practicality and performance, we turned to Jeff Sauer, head of the DTV Group Lab, a Pepperell, Mass., video products testing facility. Sauer put each TV through 14 grueling tests to measure brightness, contrast, color, image details and sound. The last two categories were evaluated by using a variety of test footage and video test patterns. When he was done, we assigned a numerical value to each test and added them up for each TV. The result was an overall performance score between 1 and 100. So before you send out those early SuperBowl invites, we suggest a look at our reviews, and our LCD versus plasma comparison chart. more...
