cinema vs plasma

macflymacfly
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
just wondering what people think about the prospect of shelling out ~$3500 for a screen. does it make more sense to buy a nice 32-42 inch plasma for around that price (some of which have dvi input -fujitsu and zenith, maybe sony) or to get the apple 23 inch. i would likely go with the plasma

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I was actually thinking about this. Plasma is 6000 or so, I'm pretty sure. You could hang it up on the wall a little further away and free up lots of desk space.



    However, I'm near-sighted and I think I would rather have the LCD panel. Plus, it would be a bit strange getting used to using the Plasma Panel at that greater distance and, presumably, height.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    actually the prices have been dropping amazingly quickly. there are some that are in the mid 3000 to 4000. range. check it out on google. for the money yes the apples are beautiful but wouldnt it be better to have a screen which also has the other imputs? compoment, vga, etc. i think at this point i would buy the plasma, hang it on the wall and use it as my tv and computer screen.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    The cheaper panels have piss poor resolutions 848x480 or something like that. Not too good. Mid priced panels jump up to 1280x720 and I think I saw one at 1344x768. If you can find it, you'll pay a lot for anything that can do 1920x1080.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Well, it really depends on what you want out of a display. Plasma heads were not and are not built to be workstation displays. Their large size and lower dpi is going to make it a lot easier to see the individual pixels, and this isn't what you want. Furthermore, some plasma displays have rectangular pixels instead of square pixels. Obviously, you would want to stay away from those.



    On the other hand, LCD displays were designed specifically to be workstations heads. They are smaller, have a higher DPI, run cooler, etceteras. They also tend to sport higher resolutions than any Plasma currently available, and with much better color accuracy to boot.



    Let's take a look at some displays...



    SGI 1600SW: 1600x1024, 17.3", widescreen. On ebay for under a grand.



    Apple Cinema Display: 1600x1024, 22", widescreen, and I think these still fetch a little under $2k.



    Apple Cinema HD Display: 1920x1280, 23", widescreen, and they're what, $3500?



    Now let's look at Plasmas...



    Panasonic 50": 1365x768, 50", widescreen, retails at $10k, can be had for about $7-8k.



    Panasonic 42": ~832x480 - 1024x1024, 42", widescreen, can be had for around $4-5k.



    Yeah, you can find cheaper plasmas than the Panasonic. However, hands down, Panasonic makes the best Plasma display. NEC and Panasonic actually. They get some really nice blacks which allow them to yield a better contrast ratio. You'll get what you pay for, so if you go with a cheaper plasma, you'll notice it.



    You're also going to get a significantly lower resolution with a plasma display, and you really need to be about 6-10 feet away from a plasma screen to use it properly. Again, these are display/presentation heads, not workstation heads.



    I'd venture to say that all of the aforementioned LCD displays are going to be much more color accurate than the plasma displays. This isn't just important for pre-press people, it affects image quality in general.



    Go LCD, plasma displays have been designed for motion video and public displays. Then again, if you use your computer as mostly an entertainment device, then get a plasma, and it can double as a TV head for you.
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