Plasma TV owners, former or current, how do you think it holds up to OLEDs today?

[sionydus]

I never had a Plasma and had only seen them with jacked up calibration settings at stores. But I recently read a CNET post or two where people grieved their dead Plasma and dragged their feet to get a new OLED display. Wondering if that's a common sentiment. Before that, I assumed these OLEDs, especially higher-end Sonys and LGs were the best consumer display available outside maybe projection.

 

[Lace]

I still own a plasma that I use in my gym room. I still get comments from people on how beautiful the picture quality is. It is dim and runs hot compared to the OLED in the living room. The motion is better on the plasma but the blacks/HDR on an OLED simply can't be beat.

 

[Ogre]

This was me. Waited like… 10 years to upgrade my Panasonic plasma. And it's still in the house. Of course, had I known an OLED would look this good, I woulda upgraded sooner tbh

 

[smuf]

I have an LG C1 after holding onto my Panasonic ST50 for years. The OLED is better at pretty much everything except motion.
Moved the plasma to the bedroom and it still looks really good. Holds up great considering its age.

 

[Praetorpwj]

I never had a Plasma and had only seen them with jacked up calibration settings at stores. But I recently read a CNET post or two where people grieved their dead Plasma and dragged their feet to get a new OLED display. Wondering if that's a common sentiment. Before that, I assumed these OLEDs, especially higher-end Sonys and LGs were the best consumer display available outside maybe projection.

Click to shrink...

I personally haven't moved on from plasma to OLED mainly because my primary system is now based around a high end projector.

Another reason is my existing plasmas have performed so well. I have a Pioneer Kuro from 2008 which at the time was state of the art and one of the last Panasonic plasmas from 2013. Both are superb.

OLED throws a bright, colourful image that's great for 4K HDR. But they are lousy for motion and don't handle lower resolution material particularly well both of which a 1080p plasma can cover well. Can't speak to burn in but apparently that's not such a problem.

Separately it's quite tiring to watch direct radiant light as opposed to the reflected light of a projector. With a decent projector coupled with a Lumagen processor handling DTM I can get an OLED quality image 132". Your never going to get an OLED that size and it would be almost impossible to watch for long periods.

Micro LED screens which are just around the corner should sort some of the OLED weaknesses out.

 

[Douche McBaggins The 4th]

Still on plasma. Sports are amazing on it. Boxing especially. Don't invite me if you bumping led. Has to be at least qled. And even then the motion doesn't come close.

 

[Armouredpriest]

I keep a Plasma for retro games and older HD games, as well as watching stuff if I'm sick in bed.

response times on Plasmas are nearly as good as CRTs.

 

[BetterOffEd]

We finally upgraded our Panasonic TH50PZ850U to an LG OLED TV 65GXPUA this February. For a brief week before the new entertainment center arrived we had them both in the same room so we decided to compare them as best we could. To our untrained eyes, the plasma still held up quite well. The plasma didn't reach quite the same black levels, and was dimmer, but also seemed to handle motion better. Playing some of our blu rays the plasma still looked plenty good in comparison. For a brief minute I was wondering if it had been worth upgrading... of course, then we got some 4K/HDR content going on the OLED and dove into the smart features and needless to say we are happy we made the purchase

(It's also nice to know I will never have to lift that plasma again, ugh)

Still, the Panasonic plasmas really continue to hold there own for 1080p content and gave us a fantastic 11 years of HD. If I had a bigger place I'd have hung onto it in a guest room or something.

 

[Rukes]

I have a last gen Pioneer Kuro, still considered one of the best HDTVs ever. Missing 4K and HDMI ARC, but everything else is perfect and probably not gonna go 4K OLED until this dies.

 

[Douche McBaggins The 4th]

I have a last gen Pioneer Kuro, still considered one of the best HDTVs ever. Missing 4K and HDMI ARC, but everything else is perfect and probably not gonna go 4K OLED until this dies.

Click to shrink...

Got a Panasonic vt30 from 2011 and a ut50 from 2012. I'm going down with the ship too.

 

[henhowc]

If my plasma didn't die around 2017 it would have probably meant that I didn't get a new tv until after ps5 launch.

 

[BLEEN]

Plasma still holds its own in a lot of respects.

Its biggest pitfall is lack of 4k and unfathomable weight and heat.

But it makes up for that with some of the best picture quality and motion handling in the game.

You ask me which I would like, currently? I would choose plasma just based on the price and better compatibility/fit for older consoles.

 

[Soap]

Plasma does handle motion very well, but I can honestly say an LG OLED was a fine replacement. I don't think I miss my plasma as much as other people do.

 

[ViperVisor]

Viewing angle was crazy. We did get burn in from sports and news channels.

 

[Laephis]

The LG OLED was a significant upgrade over my Panasonic plasma TV and there wasn't any grieving involved.

But I did put it in storage and hold on to it "just in case.". 😀

 

[Lkr]

motion clarity on plasma is still better IMO, but the oled is night and day. my plasma burned out on me years ago though so i'm not as fond of the tech as if it was still kicking

 

[Gwarm]

My plasma was great for the time, but it was only a 720p set. I recently bought the LG C1 and it is heads and shoulders above what I remember the plasma being.

 

[kanuuna]

I owned one high-end Plasma set (ZT60). It definitely produced the best picture I had seen up to that point. Superb, really. But as a novice to the technology, it also presented its own headaches.

Horizontal line bleed
Very aggressive ABL
Very much prone to IR
Dithering
Noise
Noticeable input lag

Upgrading to OLED completely pruned some of these issues, and the issues that technology shares with Plasma are far less prevalent (e.g., ABL rears it head in HDR content, but is never a concern with SDR content with screen brightness set around 80-110 nits, IR and burn-in is nigh non-issue by comparison and input lag measurements from the current state-of-the-art are far, far more favorable for gaming purposes). And that's without going into the benefits of OLED with perfect blacks (as opposed to 'incredible', or other superlatives used to describe black levels on Plasma sets), HDR and supplemental conveniences that have continued to develop since Plasmas were culled from the market ('Smart TV' features that are worth a damn). I wouldn't trade the perfect contrast of an OLED display combined with good HDR performance for anything less.

 

[donkey]

I have a last gen Pioneer Kuro, still considered one of the best HDTVs ever. Missing 4K and HDMI ARC, but everything else is perfect and probably not gonna go 4K OLED until this dies.

Click to shrink...

Same here. Still rocking my 60" 9G Kuro. Still a beast and it works great as another heater as winter starts kicking in. 🤣

 

[Aldo]

OLED is better, but Plasma is still better than LCD, if you can handle the crazy dithering and line bleed. It still gets those "wow this looks great" comments from people almost 10 years later.

 

[bionic77]

Plasmas were amazing for older games. The motion and input lag stills seems better than anything on the market today.

For modern stuff OLEDs are way better. Games today are designed around newer tvs and you get a much better picture quality.

 

[Thorrgal]

Had a Pana, now I have and OLED. Sold the Pana to a coworker and still holds great 12 years later he says. My first OLED (2014) already looked better than the Pana though. Those blacks are impressive as hell.

 

[Richiek]

I remember my Samsung plasma TV having great picture quality, but generated way too much heat in my room, and when I replaced it, I noticed my electric bill go way down.

 

[Ultima_5]

I️ still primarily use my Panasonic plasma from the last wave. I've experienced OLED at friends houses but it isn't impressive enough to justify the cost to upgrade for me…. That plasma was only like $650 lol. Fucking great set

 

[Warszawa]

Still rocking a frankly ancient panny plasma from 2005 in the bedroom. Got a 4K philips tv in the living room, average at best but the ambilight system is really nice.

The panny is DTV resolution at 852x480p bought specifically for retro gaming. Its not perfect, a little dim due to its age, and I can sometimes notice the moire when Ive hooked my AppleTv, colour banding etc

But it looks lovely with my Saturn and N64, low lag and a very slight softness that suits SD content. Theres a 'presence' to the image on a Plasma thats hard to explain like a well setup CRT. I'm curious how a Retrotink 5x with its scan line emulation would look like.

 

[Deleted member 83599]

Still got a lot of affection for my old Panny ST60 but have absolutely no regrets about upgrading to the LG CX.

The differences in weight, power consumption, and black levels more than negate any downsides from the transition.

 

[tokkun]

Motion sucks on OLED. It manages to be both blurry and stuttery. People used to get mocked for turning on motion interpolation, but I feel like it is often necessary with an OLED.

Aside from that, everything else is better. Deeper blacks, higher brightness, less image retention, higher resolution, HDR support, better form factor, no issues with coil whine or buzz from power supplies, less pixel noise, eARC, VRR, better apps, lower input lag.

but Plasma is still better than LCD.

Click to shrink...

Nah. Plasma was great for its time, but I would definitely take a modern high-end LCD over high-end plasma.

I appreciate what plasma can do if you put them in a carefully light-controlled environment with SDR material that has lots of fast-moving scenes. It is still the best display technology for those conditions but it's too narrow of a niche. The higher brightness and better anti-reflective coating of modern displays just crushes plasma as soon as you get to bright room conditions. And even in dark room conditions, I wouldn't want to give up HDR support on newer movies.

 

[oracledragon]

I've still got a Panasonic 54" S2 from 2010, still works great. Primarily it is used for games, and I've always preferred the motion on it. I've got multiple friends who have upgraded to newer tech, 4k etc, and those sets look great but I have no regrets sticking with my old S2.

 

[Kensation]

Had a plasma up until a couple years ago. It had burn-in all to hell by the end.

 

[doof_warrior]

went from a panasonic plasma to an lg cx this year

literally the first thing i noticed is how much worse it handles motion
got used ot it quickly, and obviously the oled is better in almost every other way

but man do i wish they had kept iterating on plasma tech...
my tv still looked fucking great 10 years later

 

[Petruccis Biceps]

I currently have my Panasonic plasma from 2010, still haven't upgraded to OLED due to its motion handling. I've been toying with it for a couple of years now, but I think this upcoming year will finally be the year. If they still made 4k plasmas, I would buy one.

 

[dubc]

I'm still using my Panasonic plasma from 2009. I'm with it until it dies and then I may even try to resurrect it.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

My panny is 11 years old now I think and it's still our main tv and looks incredible.

 

[apocat]

Still on a Panasonic plasma. I've been tempted to upgrade for higher resolution, but other than that I'm perfectly happy with it.

 

[LakeEarth]

I had my Panasonic Plasma for a decade, and the upgrade to a CX was jarring. Having just played Horizon Zero Dawn on my plasma, a quick switch over to the new TV showed me how much I was missing. Games that had HDR support made my launch PS4 look like a whole new console.

 

[Walter White Walker]

I still have the plasma TV I bought several years ago and it's still great.

 

[metsallica]

Kuro Elite 101FD (final gen) still going strong and looking wonderful.

 

[Deleted member 13101]

These tvs, mine included, have since reached their half-lives in terms of brightness. But unless they've died by now, they don't seem so much dimmer. The motion is still really good compared to later 4k tvs. Yeah I'd love to get the 4k and hdr going and will do so eventually I suppose.

 

[sirap]

OLED is better in almost every aspect but I still love watching SDR/classic content on my plasma. There's a naturalness to the image that modern panels just don't match.

 

[Kadey]

Mine are all dead. I still prefer the design of tvs from those times to today. Like everything today is just a screen so it's going to get to a point where the design is only the stand. I love the way the XBRs and Kuros look.

 

[somato]

I'm still using my 42ST30 and 60VT60. No real plans to upgrade until something dies.

 

[Red]

Motion looked better on the plasma. My last plasma, a Samsung F8500, also got exceptionally bright. There was an adjustment period while I got used to my CX. I think I preferred movies on the plasma. Games are much better on the CX though.

 

[Fushichou187]

Bought a Panasonic 42" plasma in pristine condition used in 2010 for $300 and it has been amazing for me all these years, power consumption aside.

Finally took the plunge and purchased a new TV (55" LG C1) a few weeks ago and have no regrets. The OLED screen looks incredible and the brightness & sharpness of the image is striking when I compare watching the same content on the old plasma.

 

[345]

i have a 2007ish 50-inch panasonic plasma that's still going strong at my parents' place, and i really did love it during the PS3/360 era, but there's honestly no comparison with my OLEDs today (C8/CX).

the one thing i will say is that i feel like that plasma was better for watching sports on, but that's probably a function of the lack of progress in broadcasting tech as much as anything.

 

[Slackerchan]

I had a Samsung plasma up until 2018, right before RDR2 came out. The plasma was alright but a long session of Bioshock Infinite resulted in a burn in scare that had me being much more cautious about what I play. I've had some banding issues on my LG OLED but nothing that worried me nearly as much as that particular incident.

 

[karmaforgotme]

I had one of the great 50 inch Panasonic plasmas too. I got a 4K Samsung LCD TV once 4K became a thing and moved my plasma to the bedroom. It wasn't even close, I always preferred the plasma. That said I did get a LG CX OLED last year, and it blows it away. Best TV I have ever owned. I did turn one of my bedrooms into an office due to working a hybrid schedule and I moved the plasma in there. It died a month later.

 

[IrishNinja]

curiously reading here to see if folks feel current oleds touch the black levels of plasmas

I keep a Plasma for retro games and older HD games, as well as watching stuff if I'm sick in bed.

response times on Plasmas are nearly as good as CRTs.

Click to shrink...

ehh wish this had been the case for me, my current one was one of panasonics last ones and its 3d, even with that turned off the lag is bad unfortunately

 

[IBetUHav]

OLED is great but I miss perfect gray uniformity.

 

[sangreal]

I have a final-gen kuro and a c8. The plasma is still great for a big, 1080p, hdr-free TV but it doesn't hold a candle to the OLED for most my purposes

 

[pswii60]

Much prefer my OLED to my Panasonic VT65, OLED has way better motion for 50hz/24hz content which is riddled with DFC on the plasma.

For 60hz gaming though, the plasma wins for motion. But I'd still take the clean 4k image in my OLED over it. And I play most games at 120hz which offers similar motion clarity to plasma but without the flicker.

Overall though, whilst I used to love my VT65, when comparing to the OLED it's just dim, has aggressive ABL, obvious IR, and there's the obvious flicker which you really notice once you've been away from CRT/plasmas for a while.