Newegg.com - Plasma Televisions, Plasma HDTVs

On the first page I see multiple brand new name brand 50" plasma TVs for the same money or less, with free shipping to your door. 6 years old is obsolete technology, regardless how good it was in 2006.

Here's two regular LCD 60Hz 50" 1080p for $499 with free shipping

Element 50" Class 1080p 60hz LCD HDTV Featuring ... : Target

Insignia™ - 50" Class - LCD - 1080p - 60Hz - HDTV - NS-50L240A13

Gotta love the options available today. I still have the old rear projection 50" that keeps chugging along. I cant see getting rid of it since it works and upscales HD ok, but any of the above options would be huge step forward.

Your money but I'd stay away from the bottom of the line "U" series, myself.

If you watch mostly evenings, and maybe a little off angle, plasma is still the best picture.

Some people report eye strain from the brightness of the LCD (LED & CFL). However, if in a bright and sunny room (daytime watching), this is what you want.

Can't you wait until after the election, when you'll have all O that O-won money?

Plasmas do NOT have the best picture. They are strong in one metric -contrast. (good blacks) Otherwise, they are heavy, flickery, poor for motion, have big black gaps between the pixels...

I just bought the 42' Panasonic plasma.... love it !
I have two lcd tv's that are about two years old... Best buy brand, Insigna maybe ?
good picture,nice tv's. That Panasonic Plasma is,without question a better tv.
I have the 42' Panasonic in the bedroom so it is dark and glare is not an issue.
I bought it at Wal-Mart for like 400, I think the 50' is 500. You do have limited hook ups
with these low end Plasmas, only two HDMI ports, one optical and a couple of component
connections,don't know why they are even there.

I just got a 50" pioneer Plasma yesterday for 600 bucks brand new. They have come down quite a bit.

I own a 54" Pana Plasma for over 2 years now. It was there best one out there at the time and was THX certified. I also own 2 other lcd's, one VIZIO and the other Sony. The Plasma is the best and its not close. The others have issues with motion and the Sony is 240hz. Not on all programing. The Plasma is smooth as silk.

I noticed the same thing. My room mate had an LED one and it was not capable of showing good detail in any dark scenes / blacks. watching things like the walking dead was pointless on that TV.

I've had a the same Hitachi plasma (HDT51a) for over 8 years now and have not had any of the "common" issues associated with plasma TVs. My kids constatnly watch 4:3 ratio shows on Netflix and you can see where the image stopped for under 2 mintues when switching back to a 16:9 show and that's only if there are a lot of low light scenes. I was initially concerned about screen burn-in, but after 8 years I can't imagine how long you need to have the same image on the screen for that to happen.

I also have less glare and lower heat output with the plasma (42") than my 26" LCD TV. While everyone seems to be hot on the LCD TVs, I think that results in some great values on the plasma TVs. As Mike mentioned, the general perception is that plasma is an outdated technology and plasma prices are coming down. I do like the thin and light weight builds of the LCD TVs, but I think a comperably speced plasma will still outperform an LCD.

Did he ever calibrate it? Many come set to the stupid "ultra pretty, vibrant, oversaturated" setting.

Thanks for the replies, I really do appreciate it. When it comes to TVs, I am "a sucker", I just don't know much and can't keep up with the technology. Half the time, I don't even fully understand it. I do appreciate the differences in picture quality when I'm in a store looking at them, though.

I would only buy used if it was a smoking deal on something with a lot of life left in it, and something of very high quality for a fraction of its new price. That would appeal to my budget right now, especially since I need to sink $$ into sprucing up my place in other ways.

I watch mostly films and TV series on Blue Ray or regular DVD but would like a good picture for sports and the evening news as well. Film quality is top priority, though, and plasma has been the best I've seen in the past. :cool:

I use mine as a room heater - but that's in Orygun where we need heat 9-10 months/year.

In LA...

ok, here is the technology in a nutshell

plasma - trailing edge

LCD - (the LCDs acting like little shutters) 2 types: LED used to 'backlight' = THE CURRENT STD.; these are the ones in the ads saying they are LED TVs
- fl. tubes used as backlights = trailing now;

real LEDs used to provide the pixels themselves - the future; you can buy one now from Sony - last I saw an 11" screen was $6,000 (aka, OLED - O = organic, which is the dye type)

Plasma is the superior technology, and most people are ignorant of this.

The information is out there, all you have to do is look.

OLED is the future, near future too.
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?5408-55-inch-OLED-TV-from-LG/page7

Look on slickdeals.net