Plasma TV (and the death of projectors)
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I can attest to this. We had a teacher almost have a heart attack due to one of these going while she was doing a presentation in a lab. 2 students were showered with the dust. Not a happy day for our IT director who had to explain why his projectors were suddenly time bombs. It happened again the next week (that one gave a grade school kid nightmares) and I quietly replaced every bulb the week after that on all the remaining projectors of that shipment. I wonder if any of them remember all this. Heh, might be fun in that place soon since I figure they will start going in November.
I wired an Electrolytic Capacitor in backwards once, it was a big one too. The Boom from that was like a bomb going off.
------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Yes, but in the winter that plasma tv lets you save on heating costs just by running it. ;)
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I think mine is rated at 60,000 hours till half life. Which is over 6 years if you left it on 24 hours a day.
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Unpaid overtime is slavery.
Trollslayer wrote:
Meetings - where minutes are taken and hours are lost.
Shelby Robetson wrote:
rated at 60,000 hours till half life
Why am I scared at the radioactivity of your tv set? With that short of a half life it has to be dangerous...
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What's the difference between Plasma and LED technology?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
'LED' is LCD with LED backlighting instead of a cold cathode fluourescent lighting. It's still a transmissive display and whilst LED backlit LCDs are very good if you want GOOD colour plasma still wins.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
:-D ...must ...hide ...credit cards...
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Bah. At 103 inches, each pixel's the size of a <choose_small_coin_in_your_local_currency>.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Bah. At 103 inches, each pixel's the size of a <choose_small_coin_in_your_local_currency>.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Shelby Robetson wrote:
rated at 60,000 hours till half life
Why am I scared at the radioactivity of your tv set? With that short of a half life it has to be dangerous...
sigh.:thumbsdown:
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Unpaid overtime is slavery.
Trollslayer wrote:
Meetings - where minutes are taken and hours are lost.
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I don't know what country you're living in; but I'm not aware of any that have coins slightly less than 2mm in diameter. :rolleyes:
The latest nation. Procrastination.
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The same to you: from urban dictionary (may be NSFW)[^]
The latest nation. Procrastination.
:laugh: I have a mug on my desk (a present from my daughter for Father's Day a couple years ago) with the caption "Professional smartass" on the side.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Harvey Saayman wrote:
be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
I agree because I watch a lot of HD programming/Blue Ray disks/HD gaming but... ... if you watch non HD broadcast quality or standard DVDs (and don't own a XBox 360 or PS3) then you can get poorer visual performance on Full HD as it has to fill more missing pixels to fill the screen. For many people who rarely/never watch HD broadcast/recorded material etc, "HD ready" can be a better choice.
Dave
Generic BackgroundWorker - My latest article!
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Why are you using VB6? Do you hate yourself? (Christian Graus) -
Has the super-size TV set become an object of vulgarity?[^]
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
That article cracked me up. I thought it would be a polemic on the consumer culture; instead it was interior designers whining (probably the same people who fill rooms with gauche furniture without regard to use.)
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That article cracked me up. I thought it would be a polemic on the consumer culture; instead it was interior designers whining (probably the same people who fill rooms with gauche furniture without regard to use.)
And at that interior designers have much worse things to be pitching fits over. My sister's friend does it for people with stupidly much money (her record is $100k for a stove) who'll blow $10k on a Lucite bed frame. For those of you not in the know, Lucite is a different band name for the same thing as Plexiglass; what rednecks use to fix broken windows. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
The latest nation. Procrastination.
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'LED' is LCD with LED backlighting instead of a cold cathode fluourescent lighting. It's still a transmissive display and whilst LED backlit LCDs are very good if you want GOOD colour plasma still wins.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
There are also two kinds of LED backlighting, one with channel groves and the LEDS on the edges and the other with a 2D array behind the LCD elements - there is a good explaination of the differences here (see #4)[^]
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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Or just don't buy one and go outside instead.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
and watch the neighbors TV from their window - don't forget to bring your universal remote so you can change their channel :laugh: (that should freak them out)
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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There are also two kinds of LED backlighting, one with channel groves and the LEDS on the edges and the other with a 2D array behind the LCD elements - there is a good explaination of the differences here (see #4)[^]
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
Yes, a guy at work bought an edge LED TV - not quite as good as the rear LED but personally I found it better than CFL. LG are very competitive on LED and plasma these days.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
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Actually, I'd be happy to save you the money. Just give me your GPS coordinates and I'll have some of my friends shell your house. :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Will the co-ords of the guy on the corner do? He annoys the Hell out of me.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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What's the difference between Plasma and LED technology?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
One thing I haven't seen mentioned about plasma vs. LCD is weight and heat. Since you mentioned hanging it on the wall I figured I'd point out that plasma screens will probably weigh quite a bit more than an LCD of comparable size, and plasma sets (generally) consume more power and therefore generate more heat. I can actually feel the heat coming off my 42" plasma in my bedroom when I'm standing a couple of feet away. Neither is a big consideration for me though. I love my plasma screen and all things considered, I think it's the best picture for the money. If you've used an LCD computer monitor recently (who hasn't?) then you're already pretty familiar with LCD tech. Though the panels used in TV's may be more advanced, there isn't much difference in the basic way they work.
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When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
One of my good friends has worked in the home theater business for years, and i've been working with him off and on for quite a while. with LCD's you never have problems with burn in, the picture isnt as good because of the CFL backlight you'll never get a true black, some get close though. With LED or Plasma the tv can shut off sections to give you closer to a true black but i think Plasma's still have some form of a backlight, at least they used to. They also used to have problems with burn in, i hear its been fixed but i still wouldnt trust it. You also used to have to have them serviced and recharged every couple years(just like the light bulbs from that projector), they may have fixed this too but it still may happen. I've also read several articles that have said that since LCD tech is scaling better and getting into the size ranges that were dominated by plasmas a lot of the manufacturors are discontinuing the plasma lines because of the lower cost of LCD panels. Personally my preference is for CRT rear projection or CRT projectors, the 57" sony i have now on 1080i cant be beaten for picture quality. They wont go to 1080p but oh well. I'm not sure what Full HD or HD Ready means, but i'd imagine HD Ready only has a true resolution of around 720p(1330x720) or less, and Full HD will go up to full 1080p(19xx x 1080). I cant remember the full res for 1080p, but always check what the native resolution is on any tv you're looking to by, some tv's will take any input than just scale it down to whatever their native resolution is.
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