Comments on: How to Buy A High-End Plasma TV

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.)