The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

I don't like throwing anything away, especially if it was expensive to begin with. I've made some good income selling repaired electronics.

Worked for an educational software development firm as an intern for a while. They had huge logistics problems. Hardware disappearing off record and things like that. Brought home some quite new Lenovo Thinkpads last year. DDR3 Intel boards with late model Core 2 Duos in them. Some with discrete graphics chips. All of them were written off at some point as broken or outdated. They were nearly brand new and most of them only needed minor things like keys replaced or a cracked LCD cannibalized from another broken unit. If I didn't take them, they were destined for the dumpster, so It was hardly stealing. Sold 3 completely rebuilt high-end business-grade Thinkpads at $1000 a pop. They were easily worth twice that. You could still easily get $600 a piece for them.

The DLP HDTV sold for $1500. Mind you DLP units are still very expensive.

 

Ok, I think you guys got the wrong idea. My ethics are flexible, but NOT THAT flexible. I would never take advantage of an unsuspecting person. E.g. computer repair. That's not exactly what I meant.

If I were to sell myself, that would go against my ethics. But, money is money LOL! This is just an example. No single person is harmed in my attempt to make money And to that, I say "Good day scallywags!"

 

I would have to disagree. One can get a 73" DLP for $1600, compared to a Panasonic or Samsung Plasma 65" at $2500-$3300. Plus, I have never seen a comparison of a DLP to top rated Plasma TV's. Of course, it could be that I have never seen those ratings, if they exist.

I have a Samsung 64" Plasma, which was the highest rated TV in 2012.

 

Plasmas are cheap for what they are, and better at motion response, but I need a bit more versatility with an HDTV when I buy one - the sort of content they could be displaying may well be the sort of stuff that causes burn-in, or at least serious image persistence. I don't find the quality of LCDs to differ enough to bother me, even if they are a bit more expensive per inch.

 

Mmm, I like our 50" 720P plasma. But I also prefer LCD. I'm always so worried, that somebody will cause burn-in to the plasma. I also don't find the quality to differ much. Though there is something about the black levels on the plasma that's attractive

 

Burn-in is a natural place with Plasma, it's going to happen. The other issue is life expectancy which is much less then LCD. Still Plasma is better even though it costs more for time use.


Harvard,

Canada + Ducks = Canucks

I't just a slang they don't always have to have a logical basis.

As to the boarder not moving that is not true. As it isn't for Mexico or the US or really any country in this world.

 

Our plasma is six years old

 

Yeah it's black levels mainly, but I don't honestly find them bad on modern LCDs.

 

Most plasma's have a mechanism to eliminate any burn-ins, at least, mine does.

 

Mine is 6+ years old too and you can tell, like with what Sam pointed out the black levels. Mine still looks great with bright scenes but dark scenes not so very good, it has degraded severely.

sytyguy, Mine does too but I'm sorry it doesn't eliminate burn-in, none of them do. Just like this new Motion 120 nonsense does for controlling motion on LCD's.

 

Plasmas don't impress me in the slightest. I might even go so far as to say I prefer LCDs over them. DLP is just fantastic. This was also a few years ago. AFAIK the retail price of that particular TV was $4000.

 

I guess you don't like a sharp vibrant screen then as Plasma kicks butt on LCD's, still, however getting beyond the motion issues of my new LCD it would be close to a Plasma. I like DLP for a rear projection TV but I won't buy another rear projection TV as they are not as good and are more bulky, being cheaper isn't always enough.

 

Modern high-end LCDs are plenty of 'sharp and vibrant' - I have no complaints when comparing them to Plasmas.

 

Indeed. My Dell U2410 is wonderful. As is my JVC 37" LCD HDTV. Zero complaints

 

The UltraSharps are anything but vibrant tbf - with the anti-glare (which I still think I prefer for a desktop environment) and the low contrast, they're not ideal multimedia displays, adequate though they are for that job.

 

Have seen way to many plasma's after 5 years deteriorate one way or another, a good LCD set in my case anyway far outways them, I have two sets one will almost be 8 years old I once mentioned before it's on almost 24/7 not the slightest loss of anything, than again we all have our preferences.

 

As I say, to me Plasma seems the more rudimentary technology - I think it's older (in terms of HDTV usage), it's cheaper and faster, but has to be looked after more carefully, and longevity is as you say perhaps more questionable.
To me, the cheaper price isn't worth the other downsides - I like not having to worry about having accidentally left a static image on the screen for hours and burning it in after having had it in HDTV mode on the desktop or something. It's not something people should have to worry about any more.
I do look forward to when OLED (actual LED TVs, not the falsely advertised LED backlit LCD TVs we have now) becomes mainstream, but for the time being they do have longevity problems.

 

That is exactly why I went with a LCD this time around, but I wouldn't say my excellent LCD is way sharper then my old Plasma. I've put them side-by-side and the Plasma is still better for color/sharpness, then my brand new 120 LCD.

The fact that the LCD will last much longer and is much lighter definitely out ways the Plasma even with the motion issues, which does drive me crazy from time-to-time.

Nice to here from you Fred!
Stevo

 

Motion issues?