When it comes to TVs, consumers have shown

This, of course, completely screws the few of us who do put picture quality at the top of our requirements. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Example: Thinner TVs actually decrease picture quality because they can't do local dimming nearly as well with an edge lit LED TV versus a backlit TV, but you can't have a thin backlit TV, at least not yet. Oh well...I guess those who can afford it get a projector. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Local dimming FTW - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

SLAP FIGHT! - Big Joe Silenced

Tinfoil has a point there. :^) - Friar Will

Plasma has large field flicker and gives me a headache, which is a complete showstopper. Didn't help that the one I tried (a Panny Vsomething or other) was not sharp at all. Compared to my old Sony SXRD and current LG TV it looked like complete ass. Complete headache inducing ass. I wanted to be on the plasma bandwagon, but it just failed miserably as a technology for me and still does. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Picture quality is inherently subjective, since we each have different perceptions and different eye strength and appreciate different things (such as "warmth"). I'm really not good at detecting picture quality differences at all, personally. - Stephen Mack

But Alex, let's say you had two TVs side by side, and they were mostly identical, but one had a picture that was 5% better in your opinion -- but that one cost ten times as much. Would that be worth it to you? - Stephen Mack

But motion smoothing is definitely of the devil. And it's very popular. - Andrew C (✔)

I have a Pannasoinc plasma and a Samsung LED. The Samsung is vastly superior. - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

Who says I'm not? :) - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

Cristo, all plasmas suffer from large field flicker, even yours. It's an issue inherent with the technology. Most people just don't know how to look for it and don't get headaches like me. Put on a movie with a large bright field like a white background, view the TV through your peripheral vision and you'll see it. Of course, you'll say that you don't see it, but you are obviously biased. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Stephen, there's no reason for me to make such a choice. They could be making TVs that cost the same as what they do today (or even less because backlighting technology is more mature) that perform far better than edge lit sets. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Also Stephen, anyone can detect most artifacts when they are trained on what to look for. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Alex - I think you hit the nail on the head for your whole argument when you said "most people just don't know how to look for it." The bottom-line is, people might care about picture quality, but the average consumer just doesn't know what to look for. Many people assume that all they need to know is that a television is "HD", and that the picture quality will be basically the same across that market. They don't know that they're supposed to look at things like black-level, response time, etc. when buying a TV; they just know they want it to be HD. - COMPLICATED MR. NOODLE

And they know that they want it to be thin, hang on the wall, be big, have 3D with active glasses (passive glasses are so old tech so they gotta suck, right?), apps like an iPhone, connections for their memory cards, yadda yadda. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Is the high-end TV market dead? Did I miss the memo? - Eric - Final Countdown

If you can find me a backlit high end TV, then no, it's not dead...otherwise...yes, they killed it. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

What about the LG 55LM8600 or the Sony XBR-55HX950? - Eric - Final Countdown

Or go Sony XBR-84X900 for 25K. - Eric - Final Countdown

What is his handle on AVForums? I'd like to see the discussion. - Eric - Final Countdown

Given the popularity of reality TV shows, would picture quality really make that much a difference? - Steven Perez

Plasma are in the throws of its last days, whether you love it or not. - Eric - Final Countdown

Alex, if you get a headache from plasma, then you shouldn't use it--but, sorry, I *love* my Panasonic (except customer support), which is always in THX mode--it just looks more natural than any LED/LCD I've seen. Somehow, training myself to look at it through peripheral vision to see if I can see problems: Nah. (And they've gotten power consumption down to reasonable levels.) - walt crawford

Oh, and Cristo? Not really. It was my wife who first said "real grass doesn't look like that" when we were comparing LCDs and plasmas (with ref. to the LCDs), and neither of us are high-end film aficionados. Just regular consumers who can tell the difference between real HDTV and simulations or SDTV. - walt crawford

*pops popcorn* - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

Alex, just as a hypothetical, would you be willing to pay, say, twice as much for a TV with 10% better picture quality (all else being equal)? - Stephen Mack

Stephen, yes, if I had the dough. And Walt, you can love it, but it doesn't mean it's the better technology or even that it looks better. You'll never see properly calibrated TVs on the showroom floor, so you can't really do side by side comparisons, unless you can get them to set two TVs to THX mode. And the problems are there whether you train yourself to see them or not. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Eric, my handle should be ITBlogger or BloggingITGuy there. I'm not sure I've gotten involved in many arguments there. As for high-end, if it's not a projector, it's probably not high end. You won't see many million dollar home theaters that are designed around direct display TVs, if any. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Eric, that LG is edge lit. You can't get TVs that thin with LED backlighting. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

And I'm not even going to bother to look at the Sony. Sony is junk. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

See, I've had both the best picture (when comparing similar models from multiple manufacturers side by side) and the best luck repair-wise with the Sony TV's I've had. According to 'all the people,' that's wrong, but it isn't wrong for me. Picture quality was just about the highest requirement I had. - Jennifer Dittrich

I'm glad that Sony stuff is working out for you. It didn't for me and so much so that I can only speak about the brand in extremely bashing terms. They just don't deserve to be in business after the SXRD fiasco. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Krav maga is more my style. :D - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Alex: We're just not going to agree here (and most reviewing sources say properly-calibrated plasma offers better pictures than properly-calibrated LCD, so I'm not just going to accept your assertion). As to Sony: Until fairly recently, Sony made the best TVs. But "made" is crucial here: Sony no longer produces screens of any sort, they're just a packager. (We had an XBR Trinitron for many, many years...) - walt crawford

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