Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners RPTV vs Plasma

Don't forget that in comparison to LCD a plasma sucks enough energy to fry a tire.

In Alberta, we consider the overuse of energy to be our patriotic duty. If Plasma TV's consume that much power, the provincial government may mandate there use in all homes.

I have never seen an RPTV I was impressed with. The picture of a good plasma vs a RPTV is really another league IMO. RPTV I always seen the screen and they dont seem as clear. Probably doesnt help you much but thats just my opinion.

There is a piece of yellow paper that came attached to the back of mine. I just looked at it and it says 4" behind as well. The space it says it wants for cooling is one of the reasons I opted for a stand that it sits on instead of an enclosure.

The A2000 does have the fans as well.

I really like the TV, but wanted to give you a heads up on that aspect of it. I would normally recommend it (actually had my dad get the 55" A2020 a couple of months back), but if you are concerned about that aspect it may not be a good fit. You could try to call Sony and see what they have to say about it before you order anything.

I'd have to dig out the manual for the A2000 to see if it was mentioned there as well.

If you see an A3000 on display somewhere, especially a Sony Style store, it may still have the piece of paper attached to the back, assuming the A3000 has one.

Some of the new ones are quite a bit better. E.g., my new Pioneer 50" plasma is rated at around 440W which compares favorably to the 50" LCD I considered which was rated at about 330W, or at least far more favorably than previous generations of plasma televisions would have been. In actual practice the Pioneer draws only around 2A under my normal viewing conditions so its actual power consumption is a lot closer to 250W than the rated 440W. I presume LCDs would similarly operate below their rated power consumption levels under normal viewing conditions. The upshot is that power consumption may not be a hug drawback for buyers of recent generation plasmas. YMMV of course.

Don't plasmas generate heat as well?

Mark we have a 42" Panny plasma in the master bedroom and although it does generate some heat, I can't tell where it gets abnormally warm to the touch.

Brandon, a plasma certainly does have an awesome picture but have you priced one a 65-73" version? Boy howdy, that's some serious coin....we have a Mitsubishi 73" RPDLP and the picture is amazingly good for a projection screen of that size and for a whole less in terms of money. We're very happy with it.

I guess it depends upon your eyeballs. I honestly didn't consider my RPTV to be ANY KIND of compromise in picture quality over plasma or LCD. As a matter of fact, the only 720p plasma that I thought was in its league was the Panasonic. I didn't really look at 1080p plasmas because they were so far out of my price range.

I would assume the plasmas generate even more heat than the SXRD, but I don't know. If you are looking at a plasma check the restrictions on it for cooling space as well. Maybe most people don't look at that if they are just hanging it on the wall. I can only speak for the Sony, as that is the one I have, but I would expect all of these big TV's have some type of suggested space for air flow.

The only real knock on RPTVs that I think is very valid is that some models do exhibit a bit of lightening of the picture near the center of the screen. Apparently most folks don't even notice it but I'm unfortunate in that I do, otherwise I'd have picked up a 70+" RPTV and would have saved some coin over the 50" plasma. Picture quality of the latest generation(s) however is pretty damn good in general.