what major features should i look for in purchasing a LCD or plasma tv?

Answer 1

Here are some key issues to consider:

Picture quality of plasma is brighter, better color, better blacks than LCD. (There is something about looking directly at glowing phosphors!)

Sharpness is the same for equivalent pixel counts. Some newer LCDs have 1080 x 1920 resolution, most plasmas still in the 720 x 1280 range.

Plasma is heavier and uses more power than flat panel LCD.

There are reports that plasmas are not as reliable or they don't last as long, but that is no longer true with the latest models. Plasma phosphors dim slowly over time (but nt as fast as CRT phosphors); but direct view LCDs use flourescent lamps which also dim and eventually burn out (some are replaceable). Projection LCD sets have bulbs of limited life, but are replaceable and the lifetime is a few thousand hours of viewing.

Plasmas are subject to burn-in. A stationary image left on the screen for a long time could produce a permanent ghost image. The most risk is when viewing a lot of 4:3 ratio pictures (non-HD), which are displayed with vertical dark areas on the left and right to fill in the wide screen. There are ways to minimize this, however. many sets have a "stretch" mode which widens the picture to fill the whole screen.

Plasmas come in largers sizes, although large flat panel LCDs are coming out, but they are expensive. LCD projectors can be 70".

LCD contrast and brightness can be reduced when viewing from off-center (both flat and projector, but sets will vary).

Answer 2

what you should look for in these 2 are pros&cons which weakness can you live with (do you play video games ? are you thinking about burn in issues? black levels ? picture size? price? ) bottom line they both can give you an outstanding picture for me i perfer lcd because i don't want to think about trying to fill the screen to avoid burn in or play my games & think about burn in a game image (although black levels in a plasma are better) lcd is a better choice for me & as far as picture size well lcd has caught fast & their black levels have improved greatly over the last 3yrs & price is on par with plasma also & burn in is not much an issue with plasma sets anymore there are alot of models out there that have burn in protecting so good luck