Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Plasma TV choice

I have convinced my wife that a 42" plasma would look really nice in our bedroom. Does anyone have thoughts on what is the best out there?

Why a plasma?

Our bedroom is such that putting in a standard TV would take too much room. I like the look and space savings with the plasma. Why the question? Any thoughts in another direction?

I'm no expert on plasmas by any stretch but there seems to be a growing movement of thought that they are over-rated and overpriced. Maybe somebody with a better background in plasmas will jump in. I know a few people who have them and there is no doubt they kick ass in the picture department but I have also seen dead spots on them. They show up after only a few months use. Granted not all of them but I have seen it on more then one.

I think this site may be affiliated with some online dealers, so don't necessarily take its reviews as gospel, but it still has some useful information: http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/

I'm very pleased with my Panasonic TH42PWD6UY monitor, and I got a good price and great service buying it from visualapex.com.

I would whole-heartedly disagree and say that plasmas can be INCREDIBLE. Of course I may be slightly defensive since I'm an owner, but I think justifiably. I would be cautious Neverhappy, since we would all bash a non-Axiom owner for trashing Axioms. Let's give the plasma owners the same courtesy!

Not sure what you mean by deadspots. If you mean burn in, that is somewhat of a legend. It really depends on the content you watch and how you care for your plasma. The first thing EVERY plasma owner should do is calibrate it via an professional ISF or at the least, w/ Avia or DVE. One the biggest newbie no-no's is to leave your plasma at default settings because almost all sets (including CRTs) are set to TORCH mode, i.e. the brightest setting possible. This is not the best thing if you want your display to last, plasma/LCD/DLP and CRTs to some extent.

Last year my plasma was going for $3K. I got it on sale @ 20% off. Now, it's under $2K, that's a deal.

Check out this thread for further info:

Plasma thread

im no tech guru,but the best pictures ive seen on a plasma screen were a hitachi 50" at circut-city,and a nakamichi at a local bjs warehouse store,they were the only plasma pictures that really impressed me,my advise would to try a couple of different video sources and bring a few dvds of your own,finding nemo seems to be real popular for stores to display picture quality around here and its definitly a good demo,it looks good on almost any screen,so make sure you audition the picture with a lesser quality video or scan through regular tv channels to see what everyday tv will look like

I have the Panasonic 50" HD. (it's been a while since I bought it so I no longer know the exact model #... I think I’m getting close to the 2 year mark) A few things I hear about plasma I’m beginning to view as fallacies: the High definition picture isn’t as good as other technologies, and they have burn-in. Both are plain not true. If you got the green light from the boss to buy one, I’d stick with the Panasonic.

From a price/performance standpoint, there are other technologies that probably provide more bang for the buck. But, like you pointed out, the plasmas are great for smaller rooms and space problems. I’ve been really happy with mine thus far, and continue to look at it as one of the coolest thing I’ve every bought. Was it a lot of $$$, yup. Do I ever regret buying it – nope! As far as break-fix issues: the industry is at a “board level” fix mode, which means there are 4-6 major boards that make up the majority of the system. The repair techs will swap out the boards if you have a problem. The cost of the boards will continue to fall, and I would venture to say – some of the earlier problems reported by some brands are fast getting fixed as they collect more and more data about what issues these units have. At any rate, the break-fix cost are a bit high once off of warranty, but not as bad as one might imagine. For example, if out of warranty – replacing one of the boards in these units will run 300 – 500 dollars.

But, I never get tired of looking at my plasma – it’s just too cool to see a 4 ½ inch deep TV mounted on the wall. Very cool. I had a Belmont Stakes party to watch Smarty Jones… There were about 10 guys standing around within 5 feet of the TV, and I could see a little drool in the corner of their mouths. It’s like standing directly behind a Ferrari, and having someone gun the engine. Nothing like the sound that the pipes of a Ferrari produce. Does a plasma TV have the same reliability as a Ferrari? Probably not quite as bad. I say buy the 42. “Once in a while you have to say, what the f#ck”

Amen Bilbo!!! Ha!

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I would be cautious Neverhappy, since we would all bash a non-Axiom owner for trashing Axioms. Let's give the plasma owners the same courtesy!

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Relax and re-read my post. I didn't bash anything. Nor have I ever bashed Axioms.