Proper handling of a 50" plasma TV
 

At the needling of a few friends who are fellow plasma dislikers, I made this video yesterday... Excuse the sound quality (wind came up and blew into the mic), and excuse the goofiness of the narration... I've always said I'm a good TV tech; not video narrator, LOL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-xTJEU81eI

The set is a 2009 Maxent 50", and was junk... Please don't blast me for wanton waste; it had a bad display, plus was missing the sustain board, and had cockroaches in it.

Charles

Plasmas and LCD's are a waste of time and money to repair. Old CRT's are worth the trouble to save. I'm kind of glad you did that. The hype about flat-panel TV's nowadays is getting pretty ridiculous.

Nice!:thmbsp:

A cannon is another "proper" way to handle them working or not.

2 years!? Talk about bad for the environment. Ill take something full of lead that lasts 50 years any day.

Fun video Charles, however I think stuff like this just stirs the pot and invites retaliation.

I for one get tired of all the "Flat Panels suck" threads that pop up about once a month, (or week).

HD is here to stay, life is too short to keep watching Low Def for any reason other than nostalgia.

I'll continue watching Bluray Discs on my Plasma and enjoying it very much thank you.

People (I know some of you do use HDTV) can keep watching your CTCxxx if you prefer it.

I won't call you a mouth breathing Luddite if you don't call me one of the brainwashed, Kool Aid drinking Masses. :yes:

HD is great, but..
These thing were pushed as a type of must have bling on people who really couldnt afford or need them.
Most casual users dont need HD but they were the first ones to max out there credit cards so they could look cool. (their HD flatpannel is fed through the composite video port from a vcr)
The short lifespan and difficulty to repair compounds the problem 10x. Millions of good working CRT sets going into land fills and these only having a 2-4 year lifespan is an environmental mess.
It just adds to our debt enslavement disposable consumer culture.

as much as i enjoy the great pix on my 75 xl100, 82 xl100, my dimensia set and an old 77 cc2 set i have realized that it is time to move into the 21st century and get a real daily watcher - and also to retire the vcr's and vhs tapes - don't really have a large library of vhs anyway -

a question - what is the minimum screen refresh rate that you folks find acceptable for negating motion blur? 60hz to me is unwatchable - 120 is so so. anyone have a newer set with a 240hz or higher refresh rate?

I have a 2009 Panasonic Plasma that is 600hz, however from what I read Plasma and LCD can't be compared based only on the numbers.

I'm quite happy with the set, the picture is excellent and I haven't noticed any motion blur, it's not even Panasonics top of the line set, actually one of their less expensive models, had 8000 hours on it last time I checked, bought it with 800 hours on it because it was a demo.

I don't know what improvements have happened to LCD's recently other than LED backlighting so I can't say how they perform.

A friend at work bought a Sharp? LCD/LED backlit set and he loves it, it replaced a very troublesome (and not very old) Mitsubishi DLP projector that ate bulbs and had PS problems.

Like anything I would expect the better brands to work better and last longer than something from a low priced "junk" brand (Think Westinghouse, Orion, RCA, Zenith, Funai etc).

I also have a Sony Grand Wega LCD Projector that's about 5 or 6 years old, never had a problem, not even a bulb with 10,000 hours on the clock.
Other than weak black levels that set has one of the best pictures I've ever seen.

I don't think any decent set today will be less than 240 Hz, make sure it has plenty of HDMI inputs though, at least three I would think.

Composite inputs are fine for standard DVD provided it's a Progressive Scan player which they probably all are any more.

Dan I have to disagree with you on this, yes some people wanted them as status symbols, just like people wanted Cel Phones at one time, or Gucci Handbags, (even Color TV used to be a Status Symbol), but truth is we needed a new Standard, NTSC was 60 years old and the resolution was never all that good, just look at an NTSC Big Screen and that becomes painfully obvious.

It was a bottleneck, like using a 486 computer in a Quad Core world. :yes:

I realize this is territory even I shouldnt step foot into but, I must agree with member ctc17 regarding the environmental impact of these throwaway units. I don't care if it can do 240Hz refresh rate and 1080, as much as can it withstand NORMAL use without giving up completely?!

And yes, it's sickening to think how many CRTs hve been tossed just in the past few years....millions, millions.

A much nicer "crunch" than I expected!

I don't really hate LCD/plasma, etc. What I hate is the crappy build quality.

do I or any one of us really need a new flat panel lcd/led/oled/plasma set - probably not.
do I like the incredible picture displayed on even the cheap wally world under $300 sets - your damn skippy I do.
am I concerned that a new set I may purchase have a short life span? not really. sorry folks for appearing to be environmentally unfriendly, but I am convinced a new set is far less toxic to the planet than my '60 Zenith Frederiksburg - which just "lost" a massive transformer - no telling really what the hell the black goo inside that beautiful walnut cabinet is.

Don't let menstart about the crap I find in these sets from the factory!!! Some of them I'm surprised passed certification !

Yes I repair quite a few LCD/plasma's. I just love how they incorperate the "bare minimum" circuity to operate knowing it will fail miserable right out of warranty.

And yes I have a CTC-11 in my bedroom. Still works! In the year 2050 the plasma will for sure be a thing of the past and none will work unless one has been restored. As a matter of fact plasmas built in 2005 are almost obsolete now!!!

The thing that really get me is why if these companies proclaim they are concerned about the environment then why would hey build a product and market it knowing it's goona fail in 4 years ending up in a landfill or dumped somewhere.

Now that's the proper way to treat a flatscreen Charles.

HD should stand for "Horribly Distorted," at least this current digital version of it anyway. The Japanese developed an analog-based high definition system back in the 1980s that did not have the compression artifacts which are so common today, and would have used CRT technology as its primary display. But put me down as one of those who believe NTSC worked very well and did not need replacing. The switch to digital TV broadcasting that was forced on the American people is just another example of excessive corporate influence within our government.

I believe the name of the Japanese analog HD system was MUSE.