I've been going to appliance stores looking at washing machines and fride-freezers for my eventual move-in to my own place, and decided to have a look at "tellys" as well.

Funny how small £200-300 range can get you, so I decided to scout the £300-400 range. 37", not bad. Then I came across a couple of 42" plasma TVs... on the £400 price mark! This got me curious, why is there a 40+" plasma TV but LCD/LED TVs only get to 32-37" in that price range?

Which TV type is better? LCD? LED? Plasma? I remember a thread on here a while back and IIRC most folks preferred plasma for sports and high-speed shots since it has less "ghosting" compared to LCD/LED... is this still true?

There are advantages and disadvantages to each, so you really just want to decide what's best for you.

Here's a breakdown off the top of my head:

LCD Advantages:
Less power
Runs cooler
Lighter
No burn-in/image retention
Brighter (better for bright rooms)
Less reflective screen (better for bright rooms)

LCD Disadvantages
More expensive
Blacks are more like grays
More prone to ghosting of fast-moving objects
More limited viewing angles

Plasma Advantages:
Better blacks
Better contrast
Better color
Less ghosting
Cheaper for a given screen size
Good viewing angles

Plasma Disadvantages:
Susceptible to burn-in
Heavier
Hotter
Uses more power
More reflective screen
Fewer manufacturers to choose from

Edit: I'll just add that if you're putting it in a bright room or going to be gaming on it, LCD would probably be the better choice. If you want more of a movie-watching experience with a darkened room and high image quality, plasma is probably better because you'll have better image quality, no ghosting, and can get a larger screen for the same money.

One other thing to look at is the resolution. There are a fair amount of plasmas being sold that are 720p, not 1080p. Below 42" that might not make a difference, but at least you can consider that when comparing prices.

Also, LED TVs are LCD TVs with LED back-lighting. That's the only real difference, just a different kind of light behind it (although having a bunch of small LEDs offers advantages over the normal light tubes, like selective dimming in some models).

I have a 1080p Panasonic 50" Plasma TV and love it. Even during the day with the window blinds open, the reflection doesn't bother me much at all. Better than the old tube TVs of the past (Due to a flat screen as opposed to curved).

If you are a movie lover, and have a living room arrangement where not everyone will be directly infront of the TV do yourself a favor and get a plasma.

I should also mention that LCDs are still susceptible to a different kind of burn-in: Where the pixel loses the ability to change colors as quickly or at all.

Agree with all the above.

We have 2 Plasma, 3 LCD HDTV, many LCD monitors -- we watch TV (standard definition and high definition) on all of them (I put a tuner in/on my computers).

Plasma is overall the best picture for TV and movies -- for the reasons stated above.

LCD is OK if you are "squarely" in front of it. Thing is, when the room is full of guests, they are watching from all angles -- LCD is not up to that task.

We like Panasonic plasma the best.

Thanks for the input guys. I did notice that the plasmas were LG or Samsung, and were 720p. Now I like watching my moview on Blu-Ray if I can, how will a 1080p movie look on a 720p plasma?

And is the power consumption that much of a difference?

We have both a 720p and 1080p plasma. Some networks in our area broadcast at 720p, some 1080i. 720p is best for sports as it is broadcast at 60FPS -- while 1080i is 30FPS interlaced. We get old style standard definition too (off cable). We also watch DVD and BluRay (only BluRay make sensible use of 1080p).

The different media look about the same on both plasmas. Its a matter of how close one sits. Once one is far enough away that the pixels are invisible, it doesn't seem to matter.

Plasma physical-pixels cannot be made real small (like LCD pixels). So, plasma is limited to larger screen sizes. There may not be more than a couple 42" 1080p sets. That is, in 42", 720p might be what they can do. We have 50" 720 and 54" 1080.

Plasma was much more expensive than LCD. But, now its cheaper. I think that's mostly due to advertising convincing folks that LCD is the "one to get" (same thing as what happens with CPUs and GPUs). Anyhow, competition is good

Our energy is cheap. So, I don't concern myself with how much energy something uses (except our furnaces -- we have a fairly large house with three furnaces -- they "burn through" a lot of cash every winter).

Try to look for the cheap panasonic plasmas, the U and S series,. The smaller TX-P42U20 goes for as low as 500 euros here in Greece. 42", 1080p, but I'm not sure if it feature the Infinite Black technology which is an evolution of the Kuro tech they acquired from Pioneer, which was the absolute best display technology, probably even today.

i bought a panasonic plasma last year and i'm really impressed with it

The Pioneer sets always were manufactured by Panasonic anyway.

Consider this another vote for Panasonic Plasma. Don't worry one bit about burn in, the half life of pixels these days is way, way better than than it ever was on the old CRT's and nobody freaked out about burn in on those, though it was far more prevalent.

So a 100,000 hour lifespan for a plasma TV will means 54 years at 3 hours per day.

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-lifespan.html

Thanks guys. Money is really tight at the moment but at least I know what to look for. I'm guessing LCD at the 30-40 inch range at 1080p, for reasons of energy conservation, living room size, and watching animated movies (Cars, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me) on Blu Ray is just so many levels of awesome.