50 " Plasmas Lg And Samsung

[tigerbeer]

Hi,

there are currently two models of 50 inch plasmas going at value for money prices. would like to grab one of those but thought I'd go to the forums and see if anyone has done a comparison between them. One is this:

LG plasma

And the other one is this:

Samsung

Prices are almost the same around 20-21k. Anyone know which one would be a better buy?

[rodentwarrior]

I just bought a 50 inch Panasonic plasma 3D in London.

I was told by the salesman that the 2 best makers are Panasonic and Samsung.

[OlafStapleton]

LG very low quality in comparison with other Named TVs

[GetLost]

I'd agree. Samsung any day over LG. I'm tempted, myself.

[stgrhe]

I just bought a 50 inch Panasonic plasma 3D in London.

I was told by the salesman that the 2 best makers are Panasonic and Samsung.

Pioneer Elite Kuro Pro (very expensive) is probably the best plasma around followed by Panasonic's Viera G-series. However, plasmas consume about three times more energy than e.g. a LCD TV with LED back-light, which to a great extend is generated into heat. But plasmas do have better angle-views than LCDs but are on the other hand poorer with regards to light reflections from e.g. sun.

As for LCDs I would go for the Samsung any time and I do recommend the OP, if his budget allows for it, to seriously consider choosing one of Samsung's with LED back-lights - their new UA-types so-called "Smart TVs". I bought the 46" series 6 after a thorough evaluation and it is really a master piece. They do also come as 55" if 46" is too small. I got mine for 50,000 baht, cash payment, from PURE Electric (Index).

Edited July 26, 2011 by stgrhe

[astral]

My thought too, Why Plasma?

Power hungry beasts.

The new LED versions are slimmer and use less power.

[rodentwarrior]

I just bought a 50 inch Panasonic plasma 3D in London.

I was told by the salesman that the 2 best makers are Panasonic and Samsung.

A friend bought a Lada not so long ago and the salesman told him that Lada is one of the best cars on the market.

The OP wanted an independent view, I gave an expert's opinion from a retailer that deals in pretty much all the TV manufacturers.

He didn't ask about the opinion of a Lada dealership salesperson.

[tigerbeer]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

[aussiebebe]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

You got a great deal on that, especially the credit card discount. I'm really interested to know what deals are out there, thanks for posting.

[GM1955]

Great Deal on the big Plasma, I have a Panasonic 50", had it for a year, paid 31,000 for it, fantastic picture quality. It's not 1080 its 768 but unless you view from a distance very close to the screen, you can't see any difference.

My Mate has a 1080 LCD TV, I tried the Documentary ' Planet Earth ' on his TV I have the HD download, very nice too, then we went round my place and played it on my Plasma, we both agreed the Plasma was the better picture, but of course LCD has its advantages too, light reflection and power consumption.

Large screen Plasma TV's are a bargain at this time, remember how much they used to be a few years ago !!!!!!!

[metisdead]

An off topic post and reply have been removed.

[craigt3365]

Great Deal on the big Plasma, I have a Panasonic 50", had it for a year, paid 31,000 for it, fantastic picture quality. It's not 1080 its 768 but unless you view from a distance very close to the screen, you can't see any difference.

My Mate has a 1080 LCD TV, I tried the Documentary ' Planet Earth ' on his TV I have the HD download, very nice too, then we went round my place and played it on my Plasma, we both agreed the Plasma was the better picture, but of course LCD has its advantages too, light reflection and power consumption.

Large screen Plasma TV's are a bargain at this time, remember how much they used to be a few years ago !!!!!!!

We have a 42" and a 50" Samsung Plasma. Both 720, not 1080. I love them. We don't watch that much TV, so not too worried about energy consumption. I did a lot of comparing and feel the plasma has a better picture, unless you are playing blue ray...then the LEDs are incredible. But for normal stuff I download, they are great. I do full 1080 downloads for some movies, but not all. Usually sticking to 720 if I can....saves time.

The only drawback I have is reflection on the screen. If watching during the day, which is rare, I usually close the curtains. And you for sure can't beat the current prices.

I'm a bit disappointed with the sound quality. One room is hooked up to a good surround sound stereo...the other room does not have that and it's a big difference.

I just couldn't justify the additional price for the LEDs based on our viewing habits.

[katabeachbum]

Plasma has much softer contrasts and million times better responsetime than LCD. I have one Philips LCD 42, and the rest are cheap LG and Samsung 42 and 50 plasma.

Plasma generates more heat, so LCD is for GF daily soap, and 50 plasma for my dvd movies few nights a week

to chose between Samsung and LG, is more about where you live and what kind of service if have problems. Samsung is terrible her in Phuket, LG is ok.

knock knock never had a problem with any of them, oldest one 3 years now, but fridges/icemakers and washingmachines samsung sucks on service

[JimGant]

It's not 1080 its 768 but unless you view from a distance very close to the screen, you can't see any difference.

Don't you need 1080 for full-experience Blu-Ray?

I did a lot of comparing and feel the plasma has a better picture, unless you are playing blue ray...then the LEDs are incredible.

Would a 768 LED be superior to a 1080 plasma for Blu-Ray?

Also, where do LCDs fit into all of this -- are all LCDs now upgraded to LEDs (you tell by my questions I'm a novice with this stuff).

[craigt3365]

It's not 1080 its 768 but unless you view from a distance very close to the screen, you can't see any difference.

Don't you need 1080 for full-experience Blu-Ray?

I did a lot of comparing and feel the plasma has a better picture, unless you are playing blue ray...then the LEDs are incredible.

Would a 768 LED be superior to a 1080 plasma for Blu-Ray?

Also, where do LCDs fit into all of this -- are all LCDs now upgraded to LEDs (you tell by my questions I'm a novice with this stuff).

I'm not an expert, but would imagine 1080 would be the best bet for BR. If you have a 1080 LED and a BR player, it is truly amazing.

Not all LCDs are LEDs. Drives ya crazy, eh????

[HKLiving]

Would a 768 LED be superior to a 1080 plasma for Blu-Ray?

Go with 1080p LED if you can. Plasma I would go with Panasonic.

Of course you could just buy the one I have for sale in the classifieds haha

[Tywais]

Large screen Plasma TV's are a bargain at this time, remember how much they used to be a few years ago !!!!!!!

I have a 42" Panasonic Plasma bought several years ago. I paid 100k for it and it was marked down from 295k as it was an end of year stock clearance to make room for the new models. Even after all these years it has a really great picture connected through a VGA port to my dedicated media center computer. I remember seeing a very large plasma TV then going for 1 million baht.

Most likely if I were to get a replacement it would also be a Panasonic plasma, though I would take a closer look at the LED models for comparison.

[astral]

Some of the plasmas on sale are still only "HD ready"....... ie 720

You do need 1080 for the best effect, especially with 50"+ screens.

[stgrhe]

Also, where do LCDs fit into all of this -- are all LCDs now upgraded to LEDs (you tell by my questions I'm a novice with this stuff).

Actually, there are no LED TVs - they are all LCDs with LED back-lights, which is an entirely different story. However, I can honestly say that my Samsung LCD with LED back-lights (new version called Smart TV) is stunning also when watching broadcast TV (The Malaysian Astro (can be seen from Bangkok and south thereof) has about fifteen HD channels now and beats the shit out of the pathetic Ture TV).

[tigerbeer]

Also, where do LCDs fit into all of this -- are all LCDs now upgraded to LEDs (you tell by my questions I'm a novice with this stuff).

Actually, there are no LED TVs - they are all LCDs with LED back-lights, which is an entirely different story. However, I can honestly say that my Samsung LCD with LED back-lights (new version called Smart TV) is stunning also when watching broadcast TV (The Malaysian Astro (can be seen from Bangkok and south thereof) has about fifteen HD channels now and beats the shit out of the pathetic Ture TV).

You are right, went to a buddy's house in malaysia with 47 in LED and watched their ASTRO HD channels. like u said, beats the hell out of Truely (expensive) visions.

[ricklev]

I bought the lg cited by the op a few months ago for about 20k. It's beautifully designed and seems to have a great picture. I'm no expert though.

[John 1]

I have a 50" plasma Samsung no problem had it for 18 month's well 2 days ago 2 small lizards got in and shorted something out so TV broke. As it was over the 1 year warranty I go a local to try to fix he cleaned out the lizards and said a board had a problem and can't fix as he doesn't have the part. Now the good news I take it to Samsung service centre and they say leave it and will call back with price to fix. Well they called back within a day and said main board broken and Samsung will replace for free as main board has a 2 year warranty.

[astral]

That is good news for Samsung owners.

[John 1]

The rest of the good news is it was fixed and delivered back to me for free total of 4 days and this is with new main board that had to be ordered from Bkk I'm on Samui.

[FarangBuddha]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't been in the stores for a few months and this is new to me...playing video files directly from a thumb-drive or attached external HD. Does the TV itself have the software to directly play the video files or are you using a WD Live or some similar device to decode the video and just using the TV as a display?

[tigerbeer]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't been in the stores for a few months and this is new to me...playing video files directly from a thumb-drive or attached external HD. Does the TV itself have the software to directly play the video files or are you using a WD Live or some similar device to decode the video and just using the TV as a display?

Hi it plays directly from the thumb drive or hdd without any additional media boxes. i play files direct from my hdd (a verbatim 500gb drive). its fantastic. it however does not play some wmv files. but so far has played many mkv and avi files of mine.

[FarangBuddha]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't been in the stores for a few months and this is new to me...playing video files directly from a thumb-drive or attached external HD. Does the TV itself have the software to directly play the video files or are you using a WD Live or some similar device to decode the video and just using the TV as a display?

Hi it plays directly from the thumb drive or hdd without any additional media boxes. i play files direct from my hdd (a verbatim 500gb drive). its fantastic. it however does not play some wmv files. but so far has played many mkv and avi files of mine.

Interesting...my last TV, a 3 year old so Bravia, didn't have this feature. To play movies, had to decode through an attached box of some sort or connect my computer. This would be interesting as have disconnected the notebook and was thinking of what video box to buy but now I guess I don't have to.

[craigt3365]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't been in the stores for a few months and this is new to me...playing video files directly from a thumb-drive or attached external HD. Does the TV itself have the software to directly play the video files or are you using a WD Live or some similar device to decode the video and just using the TV as a display?

Hi it plays directly from the thumb drive or hdd without any additional media boxes. i play files direct from my hdd (a verbatim 500gb drive). its fantastic. it however does not play some wmv files. but so far has played many mkv and avi files of mine.

That's my experience with my Samsung. Not bad...but doesn't play all media files...and I don't like the interface as much as the WD. But it ain't bad!!!

[FarangBuddha]

LED's indeed consume a lot less power but the prices are less than half of that of LED. You might say that in the long run, you would save with LED due to electricity charges but how long over the long term? We do not intend to use it all day as we have another LCD that the kids would watch their cartoons on. We needed this for a new living room that we made and which we would only watch 2-3 hours each night. or perhaps less. We did see a nice Samsung smart tv for about 55k. for the 55Inch. Very nice indeed. Maybe a couple years down the road

Ended up buying the Samsung 51" 450 series at 19,700. Sticker price at Powerbuy 21,990, 1 K discount. and on top of that 7% with SCB credit card discount and 10 months interest free. Good enough picture quality for 700 plus pixels vertically. Also a USB point on the screen that i tried to play my mkv movies off my HDD. worked like a charm. Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't been in the stores for a few months and this is new to me...playing video files directly from a thumb-drive or attached external HD. Does the TV itself have the software to directly play the video files or are you using a WD Live or some similar device to decode the video and just using the TV as a display?

Hi it plays directly from the thumb drive or hdd without any additional media boxes. i play files direct from my hdd (a verbatim 500gb drive). its fantastic. it however does not play some wmv files. but so far has played many mkv and avi files of mine.

That's my experience with my Samsung. Not bad...but doesn't play all media files...and I don't like the interface as much as the WD. But it ain't bad!!!

Especially for free

I can always transcode into whatever format plays best.

[tigerbeer]

Especially for free

I can always transcode into whatever format plays best.

so when's the shopping day ?