How to Buy A High-End Plasma TV

The Pioneer Elite 50 inch

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If you are in the market for a high-end television, you have to consider getting a plasma HDTV. Some of the best televisions out are Pioneer and Panasonic. If you watch sports, an HDTV is a must. Do your research. Finding the TV that best fits your need can be tough. I have found that you get what you pay for. A more affordable plasma may mean sacrificing quality or even life of the screen.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Money
Patience
Good eye for quality
Need for TV
Good taste

Step1

Decide how big of a screen you can fit into your viewing area. The size of the set can generally be measured by the diagonal measure of the screen.

Step2

Go to a site that has good information of Plasma TVs, like http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com. Read some reviews and decide for yourself which one best suits your needs.

Step3

Once you've found the Plasma that best fits your needs, find a retailer that is reputed in your city as being the best. In the Puget Sound area, I got mine at http://www.magnoliaav.com. The service was great and the associates were knowledgable.

Step4

Look at three different televisions. You will notice a difference in each one. Try to get one that has a good screen, such as the Pioneer models. I suggest the Elite line. They have a honeycomb architecture and the picture quality is excellent.

Make sure that the set has all of the connection types that you need. A good set will have HDMI, Component and S-Video.

Step5

Pay for setup and installation. For a small fee, they will deliver the set and install it for you. There is no need to haul something that you've paid so much for.

Tips & Warnings

Do your homework
Get the most television that you can afford, you get what you pay for
Pioneer and Panasonic has the least risk of image burn in, because of the phospher quality
Wait for a good sale
Don't buy off brands
Go to a good retailer that stands by their products.

Comments

northernhammer said

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on 5/24/2007 From what I understand about plasma TV's I'm curious as to why anyone would wish to buy a plasma TV in the first place. They are fine for the first couple of thousand hours but they seem to suffer from the same problem as do the small neon indicator lights in some products. Eventually the light dims right out because of metal migration onto the surface of the envelope. The same physics are in play with plasma screens. Eventually the inner surface of the envelope, etc will become contaminated. I've heard 5000 hours is about the life span. I'd like to know if anything has changed that would offset that. The LCD screens don't have that problem but in the digital projectors the heat is pretty intense from the projection bulb and so the LCD device in that system eventually cooks. Not a problem, as far as I've been able to tell, with the LCD TV's.

abigail said

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on 5/30/2007 Good article. If your budget is tight, installation isn't too difficult, for what it's worth. Costco actually sells some reasonable wall mount kits now. We got ours there, and installed it with no problems - looks great!

triplej said

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on 5/24/2007 Good insight - especially about buying off brands. I would also add it is better to buy a smaller size with a better quality picture, than the reverse.

gacbuddy said

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on 11/28/2006 Good comments. You definitely need to do your homework before buying or you'll end up with a piece of junk or one that simply doesn't meet your needs. Another good place to check is http://www.thedigitalbeat.com/tvtest.html which asks a few questions then recommends an HDTV plasma or LCD television that best meets your needs.

knarf said

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on 9/17/2007 While the half-life of plasma TV was a concern few years back, it is no longer a decision point. The technology has improved to the point that most plasma TVs have half-life of 10,000 hours or more (Panasonic and LG/Philips both say they have improved the overall life span of their newest plasmas to 60,000 hours - more than 20 years if you watch for 8 hours per day.)

Burn-in is still an issue but not as much again due to technology improvements.

LCD TVs eliminate the burn-in issue with loger life.

The next technoloy coming down the pipe is LED TV has no such issues (along with LCD) and will allow the TV images to be more definitive with claimed better color reproduction along with even thinner profile casing (1-2" depth instead of 3~4" depth for 42" plasma and LCD TVs.)

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