Are Plasma TVs the Next BetaMax?

Lev13than writes "An article in the Toronto Star questions whether the battle between LCD and Plasma is the next VHS vs. Beta: "LCD is now in plasma country, and this means war — a war some say plasma can't hope to win". Rationale for LCD's victory include plasma's burn-in vs. LCD's ruggedness, improved images and falling prices. While the Beta analogy isn't particularly helpful (since both technologies play the same content), the article does raise interesting points."

LCD VS PLASMA VS CRT

[Danathar]

Sure, CRT's are cheap and great, but have you ever tried to move a large CRT? You need a crane! or 4 beefy guys from the gym.

Being a scrawny nerd with no muscle tone makes moving CRT's a problem. It's primary reason I dumped my nice 19 inch CRT monitor for an LCD.

pron

[HalWasRight]

If Plasma == BetaMax, does that mean in another year I'll only be able to watch pRon on my plasma TV?

Re:SED televisions will be a strong factor

[AEton]

I prefer edlin.

Re:LCD backlights will fade unevenly

[nsayer]

I view from a close distance, on a comfortable coach.

Our coach wasn't very comfortable - especially when yelling at us for doing our laps too slowly or making us do push-ups.

Re:LCD backlights will fade unevenly

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I'm torn

Hi Tom... oh wait, thats an R and N. my bad.

Re:If Plasma is betamax

[swillden]

I wouldn't say that CRTs are horrifyingly large. They're just horrifyingly large if you want them to be.

I wouldn't either, in general, but it depends on the depth of the space you have to put them in. I miscalculated when I had my family room remodeled. The shelf built for the TV is only 20" deep, and unless I wanted to have a 19" TV (for six people to crowd around?), that just isn't enough room for a CRT. So I had to go with something else. Given that anything shallow enough to fit was going to cost better than a grand, I figured I might as well spend some more and get something that everyone would really enjoy, so we ended up with a 50" DLP HD-TV. With a TV like that, it made sense to get a surround sound system, too. Oh, yeah, and while I was at it we really needed a small form-factor PC with DVI outputs to run Mythtv. Plus a couple TB of disk space for video storage (in the server).

That's the story I told my wife, anyway. "Sorry, honey, but I messed up that shelf and now if we want to watch TV in the family room it's going to cost us $3500. On the plus side, because of my mistake we'll end up with a nice home theater system."

:-)

Re:That's a good thing

[Stormwatch]

I'm seriously going to cry when PS/2 ports go extinct and USB adapaters stop supporting Vista DRM or whatever

Don't cry, emo boy! Unicomp sells an USB-based Customizer keyboard [yahoo.net] (the "heir" of the Model M). Also, I've emailed them, and they're planning to release a Macintosh-specific keyboard in a few months.