Well, here goes Rob's bandwidth for the month. As a TV repair shop, I literally get asked this question daily. I don't like
any of the current technologies. All of them have problems. None of them are repairable. None of them will last reliably for more than 5 - 7 years before boards (unreplaceable and unrepairable) start failing.
Plasma and LCD look good in the store but not necessarily in the home. What will work will be decided by:
1: Seating distance
2: Seating angles
3: Room lighting
4: Control of room lighting
5: Signal sources (I'll get to your other post later - I type slow).
If you select a set based on these requirements, and calibrate it properly, then performance differences between the types will probably be negligible.
My personal preferences are DLP projectors and DLP Micro-Displays. Colors are excellent. The technology has the most development of the current tech. It has the fewest failure modes. It has
zero burnin possibilites. But you
will replace an expensive ($200 - $300) lamp every two or three years (regardless of the stated life hours).
All of the lifespan figures that you read are based on the assumption that the device
never breaks ! If it breaks and is over two years old, it will be a doorstop. (get the extended warranty)
In the service industry, we originally thought LCD microdisplays would be the best tech until we found out that the manufacturers would never supply the parts needed to perform real repairs. The ability to perform component level repair is what keeps sets working in the 5 to 15 year range when failures tend to occur (most failures are not normally terminal). When that becomes impossible then any failure (on the new sets) generally render them landfill fodder.
SXRD and the LCOS options are some manufacturers' attempts to bypass Texas Instruments patents on the DLP technology. Maybe they will do it successfully, eventually, but right now they are playing "catch up". They are attempting to duplicate the reflective method without infringing on other's rights. IMHO not ready for prime time. Rumor had it that Sony went LCD and SXRD because they refused to abide by TI's rules on maximum price for a DLP TV.
If you have some idea on the five points above, then meaningfull advice can be better offered. If your seating is 12 - 15 feet or more, then none of the current TVs are technically big enough. Nominal viewing distance on a progressive scan TV is four times the height of the screen. (they even basically agree with this at AVS) Diagonal measurements are meaningless, the height is the only determining factor.
The Home Theater Forum is a friendlier place for posting but does not contain the level of expertice that AVS has (if you can sort through the AVS noise).
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/index.php
Myself, I have an old (1998) Sony 53" RPTV for casual TV viewing and an InFocus 4805 projector (at 144" diagonal) for serious viewing. The $1000 cost is less that any repair possible on the new LCD, Plasma, or MicroDisplay TVs. I can replace it for $700 if a serious problem develops.
Plasma: To get it bright enough for a bright room, you will get burn-in.
High internal temperatures = short lived circuit boards.
LCD: Nothing specific except for heat related failures and I personally don't like the picture.
LCD MicroDisplay: I really don't like the picture.
DLP MicroDisplay: OK if you find a good manufacturer.
Manufacturers and picture quality: All of them will look OK with HD sources but only the good companies will look OK on analog and SD (or marginal) signals. Reason: signal processing. Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi employ quality deinterlacers and scalers while the Korean and no-name brands don't. Look for Faroudja, Pixelworks, (and possibly Telesonic) licensing on other brand sets. The big four will either use them or do it properly themselves; others you will have to check. The Faroudja chip is the difference between my InFocus PJ and your typical (higher resolution) business projectors. Even at ten foot wide, a BetaMax tape looks good.
