Drubin,
I will take plasma over CRT any day. CRT makes beautiful pictures, but I can't stand the size and weight.
It's true plasma will wear out. But life expectancy is defined at 50% brightness level, not 0%. Given many plasma are rating their panels at 80000 hours, you can do the math based on your viewing preference. You can further prolong its life by lowering its default brightness and improve pictures at the same time.
It's NOT true rear projection unit don't wear out. Sony tech is coming in tomorrow to replace my light engine since it has "grown" from 2 to 10 dead pixel in one year. I work in semiconductor and DLP are known to have "fatigue" and will eventually have dead pixels as well in addition to the bearing failure on the color wheel that Samsung is known to have.
No technology is perfect including the trust worthy CRT. But at $300 a year average for a plasma using 10 year life span I still think it's a good investment. For rear projection, if you factor in the cost of bulb at $200 every 2 years and 20 years of life span, I don't think you will come out that far ahead.
I will take plasma over CRT any day. CRT makes beautiful pictures, but I can't stand the size and weight.
It's true plasma will wear out. But life expectancy is defined at 50% brightness level, not 0%. Given many plasma are rating their panels at 80000 hours, you can do the math based on your viewing preference. You can further prolong its life by lowering its default brightness and improve pictures at the same time.
It's NOT true rear projection unit don't wear out. Sony tech is coming in tomorrow to replace my light engine since it has "grown" from 2 to 10 dead pixel in one year. I work in semiconductor and DLP are known to have "fatigue" and will eventually have dead pixels as well in addition to the bearing failure on the color wheel that Samsung is known to have.
No technology is perfect including the trust worthy CRT. But at $300 a year average for a plasma using 10 year life span I still think it's a good investment. For rear projection, if you factor in the cost of bulb at $200 every 2 years and 20 years of life span, I don't think you will come out that far ahead.