Plasma sounds awesome and when introduced, was the sure fire way to get a super sexy slim TV. Now that the honey moon is over, what makes the Plasma TV a bad buy, and what are big brand stores not telling you? Let's look at some of the reasons I wont' be buying a Plasma TV anytime soon.
High Altitude Will Destroy Your Plasma TV
Maybe higher altitudes won't make it explode in a vivid colorful splash, but higher altitudes do cause your Plasma TV to work harder. Generally any Plasma TV above 7,000 feet above sea level is working much harder than a Plasma TV at sea level. Keep that in mind you richers living way up in the mountains.
Noisy Cooling System
Plasma TV's produce an overwhelming amount of heat and this heat must be dealt with. So, much like your computer, there are a series of fans within the Plasma TV that are constantly running when the TV is on. Often times I've found the noise from these fans to be annoying and enough to ruin a movie watching experience. It's 2009, can't we come up with some quieter fans!?
Other TV's besides Plasma will have fans as well, but generally these run at a much lower velocity. Next time you are in an electronics store, pay attention to the noise that over priced paper weight is making.
Gamer Lag
Even if you have the reflexes of a fox, a Plasma TV will produce lag in your gaming experience. Basically not all video games are made to display in such high resolutions, so frame rates attribute to a slight lag. Generally this will only effect games that require specific timing, like Guitar Hero, FPS games, etc... Casual gamers, you probably won't notice, move along.
Ghosts In My Plasma
Kind of like a typical screen burn, 'green ghosting' is when after a scene changes you still see patterns of the previous image. This can be a lot more noticable when going from a very bright image to a dark image. It sucks and frankly ruins my Plasma experience. It will go away, unlike typica burn-ins, but can make for a crappy viewing experience on games or even movies.
Conclusion
I don't care that there are not truely competitively TV's on the marketplace. My beef is with Plasma televisions and I'm very disappointed as a whole. It doesn't matter what manufactuer it is, a Plasma TV is scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of useful technology.
We need low heat, no ghosting, thin TV's that are capable of lasting 30 years like previous CRT's no matter the altitude. But I guess then we wouldn't be the throw away society that supports rushed technology and punishes early adopters.
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I also write articles, actually praising electronics, over at the Buy-HD.com blog. For more high definition articles check it out.