hi everyone,

finally my wife agreed so i bought myself a ps3...primarily for viewing bluray discs. anyway,  i am also thinking of playing first shooter games... is it true that plasma tv's are not good for playing video games and that LCD's are better? i have an LG-PX1D which i bought around april of 2006

Your only risk is burn-in.  Here's a good article that gives some good advice:

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-burnin.html

Good link Joe.

Plasmas have gotten a lot better with burn in just as LCD's have started closing the gap on off angle viewing and black levels...

For quick reference: 

Lots of gaming and rooms with a lot of light and direct seating go with LCD.

For the best blacks and picture quality in rooms with good lighting control go with Plasma.

Couple important things to remember from the article:

Keep your contrast and brightness levels less than 50% for the first 100 hours.  Also avoid the black bars and static images.  This will tame down the phosphorous a bit and give you a more uniform breakin.  After 100 hours you can boost your levels, I recommend using a calibration disk like Avia or Digital Essentials to set up your black and white levels 

...Don't forget the "temporary ghosting" effect mentioned in the article.  Often times if you watch or play something with a static image for a short period of time you will see that image burned in on your screen when you change channels.  In most cases this is temporary and switching to a full screen program will clear it.  Just don't want to get the Burn in confused with temporary ghosting. 

Delvalle,

I would NOT buy a Plasma if you are going to play video games.  My father-in-law bought a newer plasma that supposedly could not get "burn-in"  WRONG.  It did, and I have reset the thing 10 times and gone through all the filters to fix it. NO DICE.  Do yourself a favor and buy an LCD.  You will be happier in the long run, in my opinion.  Good luck!

I totally disagree with that. I have a Pioneer Plasma, I have a PS3 and a Wii, and I have had no problem. Now granted, I never go more than an hour without changing the picture just to be safe. I can't imagine what it would take to burn in something with today's technology. The Pioneer employs a technology that shifts the picture so subtly, that the human eye cannot detect it. I am not sure what the others use.

I hate the bad rap plasma gets.

Scottiemon,

My father-in-laws samsung (so he was told) employs the same picture shift that you talk about.  Unfourtuanetly they watched a lot of tv ith blck bars on the side.......  and they are still there.  Is your pioneer a kuro?  Those probably dont get burn in but they are a pretty penny.  I dont dislike plasmas, I think the upper end ones have an unbeatable picture.  But I would still take an lcd over a possibility of burn in......and changing the picture every hour.  my opinion.

Bummer about the black bars. I always stretch the picture. I can't imagine the picture shift would make any difference with black bars...

The opinions of plasma vs. lcd can be opinionated. Honestly, I like both. I just hate that this whole "burn in" is still talked about. As a plasma owner, you should take care not to let this happen. It is not hard, and it is not rocket science. Take a break from that game if it is like a first person shooter with the same image. Stretch the picture so there are no black bars. 

Mine is two years old. I went plasma becuase the off axis viewing on LCD were not good. Rumor has it that they have improved here though. Even though plasma was, and still is for the most part, less expensive......that was not a part of my decision.

If the image retention is really bad from the black bars, then you will have to run either the white screen or the scrolling screen for a few hours and see where it stands then..

I have a Samsung Plasma also (FP-T5084) and I have had Image Retention but nothing that doesn't go away after a few min.. 

Just wanted to add that Samsung just got into the Plasma game two years or so ago. Their first lineup had some problems. Go over to AVS forum and read the threads on the first Plasmas released by Samsung.  Jitters, burn in, motion stuff,etc..i don't know the model #'s but I'm sure you could research them. 

 In any event I've always considered Panasonic to be the god father of Plasmas.  if you are going to do it right get a Panasonic. While Pioneer's Kuro's may have slightly better black levels consumer reports states that Panny's produce the least amount of mechanical defects. 

 However, the same can be said about Samsung and LCD. Throw sony XBR's in the mix for top rate LCD's to.  If I were to buy an LCD it would either be a Samsung or Sony

  In any event watching black bars on Plasmas all the time is not good.  Plasmas for your HT 70% Games 30% or LCD for Games 70% HT 30%

I have the 2nd or 3rd gen Plasma by Samsung and it is very nice.. My friend has a Panny and his image quality I would say is about equal to mine.. His blacks are a bit better but compared to LCD blacks they are both excellent.. 

 If I do get any Image Retention it is very very hard to see unless you look for it.. This has gotten better as the TV has "aged" which is true for all Plasma's I might add..

 Dan,

 My co-worker just ordered a complete system minus the sub, and got 4T's with the 5C.. I am going to go over his house a day this week and help him set them up.  I will let you know how they compare to the 5B's as fronts.

 rockarruda

Sweet!  Let me know.  i was ready to upgrade to 4T's but funds got set back on an unbeleivable deal on a Refurbished Aperion Black S-10 that I couldn't pass up.  I have till March to upgrade my 5B's so I'm going to try for 5T's if not it will be 4T's

 This review makes me want 5T's

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-10066631-47.html

Hey Dan,

     Got back from my co-workers house to help him setup his speakers.

 Sound wise:

4T vs 5B (broken in).. Very close base wise and soundstage wise and ofcourse mind you that the 4T are literally out of the box.  So I could defeniately see them being much more robust with bass and soundstage once broken in.  I think the 5T would be a bigger leap forward than the 4T eventhough the 4T's sound great right out of the box.  They have great soundstage and not to mention they look fantastic, defeniately a cleaner look then our 5B's on stands.  I was impressed with them, but I think the 5T's would be a better transition from the 5B's.

rockarruda