Has LED caught up to Plasma?


I know that the plasma tv's in the past were always considered to be better than the LED or LCD formats. I'm wondering if this is still the case. With improvements in technology, has the gap narrowed? I bought a 42" Panasonic Plasma over 8 years ago (and yes, it's still working...wished it would have died by now! lol) and am looking to upgrade to a new 55" tv. In all honestly, when I chose plasma back then, I thought the picture quality of both the plasmas and the LED/LCD models were both very good. Even though my plasmas has lasted all these past 8 years, my big concern is that they do heat up quite a bit....where LED's run much cooler. I'm thinking this might translate into a longer life with and LED tv instead of a plasma. What would you buy today if you were buying??? Plasma or LED?
calgarian5355

Showing 2 responses by loomisjohnson

i actually spent (too much of) the weekend looking at tvs with a friend and conclude thusly:
1. the overall quality and technological sophistication of flat panels, esp. at the near-giveaway prices, is really incredible
2. to my eyes, the top leds (samsung, sony) have the most vivid, detailed pictures--surprising, since i thought plasma was still the superior technology. the leds do run a lot cooler, too.
3. motion blur on lcd/led seem to be a thing of the past--it doesn't seem to be much more of a factor than on plasma. viewing angles are still much better on plasma.
4. traditional (non-led) lcd tvs are significantly less sharp than the good leds and plasmas; it looks like manufacturers are phasing out the larger size lcds. there are also fewer 720p models out, probably because manufacturing costs of 1080 have gotten so cheap.
5. wearing glasses to watch 3D is really annoying.
avguygeorge makes a good point--the demo material at the store are juiced-up bluray played in a brightly lit room, which may not be representative of how the tv will perform at home on broadcast (often non-hd) material. the stuff i watch (pawn stars, military channel) looks much better on my ancient 480p panasonic plasma than on my fancy modern 1080 samsung lcd, perhaps because video tends to look better closer to its native resolution.