In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

[hifiguy]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

the good thing about costco is that you can take the thing back if you don't like it.. or even a year later take it back hahaha

Costco has a 90 day return on consumer electronics effective about 6 weeks ago.

http://www.whychooseplasma.com.au

Take a read of the above link. It is a study that was done in Austrailia on what the average person thought about LCD vs Plasma before viewing and being educated on both technologies and then their thoughts after. An interesting read if you are into it.

My personal opinion. Larger than 37", go plasma: 37" or smaller, go LCD.
Controlled light in the viewing area, go plasma. Direct light on the screen in the viewing area go LCD.

The top 3 brands for plasma are: Panasonic, Pioneer Elite, Hitachi

The top 4 brands for LCD are: Sharp Aquos, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung

When making a buying decision remember that the actual panel itself is only about 30% of the TV, the other 70% is video processing. At $999 for 42" plasma, you are getting marginal processing at best.

[RobG]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

I went through the same ordeal a while back, some good opinions in here:

TV Options

[Kor]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

To be frank, a lot of the information on LCD technology is changing faster than people can write these guides, so make sure if you are researching this to compare the latest LCD panels. On the "whychooseplasma" site they rank using criteria like colours, response time and brightness. These can be seen in the specs and many new LCD's eclipse plasmas in terms of response, brightness and colours.

[hifiguy]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

The problem with trying to research "specs" is that there is no agreed upon standard for how to measure them. The two specs that many consumers are comparing are contrast ratio and response time. The sad thing is, these are the two most abused specs when it comes to manufacture claims.

Response time: The time it takes for a TV to go from Black to White to Black. Many suppliers, especially of LCD TV's, are measuring from grey to white to grey which is much faster than black to black. Kudos to the main players in this market though, as most of them are stating "grey to grey" as a subnote in their measurement.

Contrast Ratio: The ratio between the blackest black and the whitest white a TV is able to produce. There are many suppliers that are claiming 5000:1 and greater (Sharp actually claims 10000:1) on their panels. The proper measurement should be under normal viewing conditions. Many suppliers do their black measurement with the TV turned off. You watches their TV when it is turned off? Again, Kudos to the main players again, as they are starting to provide two figures in this category; Dynamic (the bogus number) and Native (the more realistic number)

[Kor]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

Well as you state, it is difficult to get straight answers, but not impossible.

[RobTheGob]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

Costco has a 90 day return on consumer electronics effective about 6 weeks ago.

I've only heard of this change with respect to US Costco sales. Only rumours of this in Canada so far...

Also - the changes won't affect "grey" market items. They are usually sold with an over the counter warranty - and in most cases Costco gives the customer the option of repair, exchange or refund.

[hifiguy]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

Also - the changes won't affect "grey" market items. They are usually sold with an over the counter warranty - and in most cases Costco gives the customer the option of repair, exchange or refund.

Costco is currently selling "grey" market Sharp Aquos TV's. If you call Sharp Canada whether or not they will cover the warranty on these pieces, they will answer with a resounding "not a chance". You would therefore be stuck trying to get some local servicer to fix it for you by getting parts out of the US and I would pretty much guarantee that Costco is not going to pay for that. Sharp USA is trying to determine which of their US distributors have sold to Costco and remove the Sharp product from their line-up. I have had friends that have been unable to return consumer electronics products to Costco already.

[RobTheGob]

Re: In the market for a 37" or 42" do I want Plasma or LCD?

Costco is currently selling "grey" market Sharp Aquos TV's. If you call Sharp Canada whether or not they will cover the warranty on these pieces, they will answer with a resounding "not a chance". You would therefore be stuck trying to get some local servicer to fix it for you by getting parts out of the US and I would pretty much guarantee that Costco is not going to pay for that. Sharp USA is trying to determine which of their US distributors have sold to Costco and remove the Sharp product from their line-up. I have had friends that have been unable to return consumer electronics products to Costco already.

Costco will definitely stand behind anything they sell - out to the full time frame of the warranty. I suspect that if there was an issue having repairs completed after the warranty period - they'd help then too. Nobody beats Costco customer service.

As far as warranty repairs go - you are correct, Sharp Canada has no interest in performing warranty work on grey market items. But Costco will gladly do whatever it takes to fix things on such an item. The warranty simply becomes "over the counter" and if a repair is not desired (or possible) - they simply refund the purchase price or find a suitable substitute.

But once out of warranty - you can't believe that the Sharp service won't take your money, can you? Sorry - but that's absurd. They will gladly repair items from the US as will others service providers. Money talks.

I've returned large consumer items recently after 60 days and was told by the south Costco staff that the changes talked about on the internet are with regards to Costco USA only.

If you check both the .com and .ca Costco sites - you can clearly see a difference in the return polices. So far - no change in Canada.