Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm considering installing a big-screen plasma (or LCD) TV in our
meeting room at the inn, for use during presentations, etc.

An alternative (and, to me, more important) use of this equipment would
be as "God's Own Flight Simulator" for visiting pilots and their
families to use. I think it would be way cool to have a wall-sized
flight simulator display available for our guests, and it would be a
great way to hook kids of all ages on aviation in general. (Most of
our guests are not pilots, despite the aviation theme...)

It would also be cool to have "movie nights" at the inn, showing
classic aviation movies. 'Top Gun' on a 60 inch plasma TV would be a
great draw!

Sadly, I haven't kept up with this technology, and I notice there are
several competing systems. Also, I'm starting to see the long-awaited
convergence between computers and TV, with Dell offering flat panel
"displays" that look just like TVs.

Is anyone on the 'group an expert with this stuff? Anyone already
own one? Can anyone recommend (or steer me clear from) any brands?
Are all plasma TVs usable as computer monitors, too?

I'm not an expert on this stuff, so let me get that out of the way right
upfront. My employer, however, is the world's largest maker of glass
for flat panel displays and we have a plasma, DLP and LCD TV display in
our R&D center. I often look at them as I'm walking by and to my eye,
the LCD TV is consistently the best looking, however all three are very
nice. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

The main drawbacks to plasma are screen burn-in and power consumption
and heat output. The latter aren't that big a deal, but the former is.
We had plasma flat panel displays installed around our facility 4-5
years ago to display company news, etc. and they are all having to be
replaced now due to really bad burn-in. For TV use, this isn't as big a
deal as the picture is constantly changing. However, for certain
applications such as ours where we had a stock ticker across the bottom
which had a color band which didn't change often, the burn-in is very
quick (it was noticeable in less than two years).

The main drawback to LCD is cost, although this is catching up to plasma
quickly, and sometimes problems with fast motion. You get a "shadow"
following the action due to the somewhat slower response of the LCD as
compared to plasma or DLP. Also, they aren't yet available in sizes as
large as plasma.

I'm less familiar with DLP, but I believe it has a problem called
"rainbow" affect due to the use of a color wheel for RGB generation.
Another unknown is how long those little MEMS mirrors will last as they
are wiggled to and fro billions of times.

Personally, I'd lean toward LCD unless I really needed the size offered
by plasma.


Matt