2. Plasma

Despite the recent surge of demand for LCD, Plasma remains a popular choice among buyers and still enjoys a slight price advantage over LCD. Plasmas have also come down in price substantially, with 42" 720p displays starting to dip below $1,000 and 50" displays are well under $2,000.

Like LCDs, plasmas are very thin and sleek displays that can be wall or table mounted. With early generations of plasma displays, a major issue was lack of brightness and washed out contrast, but many recent models now have excellent contrast performance, with deep inky black levels and good shadow detail. While brightness is still not at LCD levels, most plasma displays are certainly powerful enough for most well-lit rooms.

Colors are rich and deep with higher performance models, and despite the lower pixel count compared to many LCDs, resolution is still very good. One disadvantage of most plasma displays relative to LCDs is signal noise, which can actually be more of an issue than the usual culprit, "screen door effect" (when the pixel structure of the display becomes visible). From my experience, signal noise usually is more of an issue with second-tier or budget displays that are priced 10%-30% lower than the top-tier displays from companies like NEC and Panasonic.

Plasmas also have a greater potential for reflections or glare from light sources behind the viewer as many displays are made of glass, but recent releases have improved this at least slightly. Another potential issue with plasma is the dreaded "burn-in" effect, where lines or images are permanently displayed in one portion of the display. You may have seen this phenomenon at the airport or a bar, where they have a sports or news channels with that small ticker running horizontally on the bottom of the screen. If they leave the plasma on that channel all day every day and the plasma is either really old or really cheap, it will most likely have that line from the ticker permanently burned in.

That all being said, many new models have anti-burn-in countermeasures such as pixel shift, screensavers, etc. However, if you are a worry-wart about your technology and plan on keeping your new HDTV for a long time, keep this potential issue in mind. Both LCD and plasma displays claim similar "half-lives" (when a display becomes 50% as bright as when new) after an average of 60,000 hours.

Finally, one last issue with the state of plasmas is that, though their number is growing, there are very few 1080p offerings, most of which are over twice the price of their 720p brethren (>$4,000). With LCD displays on the other hand, there is only about a $400 to $500 difference and 1080p models are already well under $2,000.

Pros: Contrast/shadow detail, color accuracy and saturation
Cons: No current lower cost 1,080p options, signal noise, possible glare issues
Who's it for? Movie viewers who don't mind backing up slightly. Viewers who prefer contrast performance to overall pixel count.

Suggested Models

Suggested models are recommended based on a combination of personal viewing experience, other user experiences, comparative pricing, and company reputation.

Budget Plasma - Pioneer PDP-505CMX

Budget Plasma - Toshiba 50HP66

Premium Plasma - NEC PX-50XM5A

Premium Plasma - Panasonic TH-50PF9UK