Actually, "Elite" is a Pioneer trademark brand, so it was probably a Pioneer plasma television. While one of the leading brands and original developers of plasma displays, Pioneer is no longer manufacturing televisions - a causality of the current economic times.

That said, LCD has become the defacto standard in displays, while plasma still has a small niche following.

LED is a term used to describe the backlighting technology used in an LCD display. Each pixel in an LCD display is made up of little elements of red, green, and blue that act like "shutters" to control the amount of light that passes through them from behind.

For years small thin florescent lights were used in televisions and notebook PCs - now LEDs, which use much less power and whose light levels can be more easily controlled, have replaced the florescent tubes.

The best selling brand currently in the US is Vizio and you can find the best prices in the warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam's.

You may also see 120 Herzt refresh and 240 Herzt refresh displays advertised - take it with a grain of salt. It is an attempt to reduce some blurriness in fast action that uses interpolation to "make-up" information that is not there. Often, with introducing it's own artifacts.

As far as 3D, it's a whole other topic in itself, but as far as consumer response to it has already showed, forget it!

Bill - Thanks for your response. I will be heading out this week-end to make a purchase. Thanks for jogging my memory that it was in fact a Pioneer.

I am going to go to the dealer where we purchased that tv -it's a stereo/tv shop and price some LED tv''s - then hit Best Buy. I do not hae a Sams or Cosco card..

Bill - So I went and looked at the Sony models and I also found a nice Panasonic - it is a plasma. IT has everything you could ever want and many things I will NEVER use.
The small store has boxed 2010 units at a good price.
LX900 that's the fully loaded one (52 inch) for 2K
LX909 little less bells but nothing that I can't live w/o same price.
EX710 which is a 55 inch for $1,500
The big box has the 2011 version of the EX710 for $1,800
All are LCD HD

The Panasonic is 55 inch. for $2,070.00
I guess what I liked about the Panasonic is that from what the salesman said w/plasma you can see the full screen even when you are off to the side of the tv. He also said plasma has the richest and truest black. And he highly recommened the plasma for quality.

Now, I don't know which one to buy - can you suggest and tell me any cons of the Panasonic Plasma?

Also, if a tv has skype, and all that other stuff I will never use, am I asking for problems w/these built in features that aren't important to me anyway?

Thanks

Golly-by-gosh! You sure brought up quite a comparison for me to comment on!

Yes, what the salesman told you was true, but a little bit more 10 years ago... LCD displays have improved dramatically.

The viewing angle is hardly applicable since who is going to watch a television 160 degrees from center?

Yes, blacks are better, but it's a relative contrast ratio when actually viewing video. Many people in broadcast and video editing prefer older CRT displays because of their ability to better display blacks and help them match up video scenes and get better edits. But NO televisions produce black - just turn the TV off... is the screen really black? No, it's only the perceived black to white ratio.

While Sony has had a history of very well designed and built products for years, I believe, they have had more than their share of problems in recent years. Panasonic has a very good reputation in design and engineering over the years, and I personally now tend to have a little more faith in them.

So, the difference here is now that the Panasonic plasmas will use up to three times the electrical power (roughly 450 watts versus around 150 watts for a 55 inch), weigh about twice as much (could be a concern if wall mounting), and plasmas have problems with reflections and sometimes remote controls (due to them generating IR light energy).

But if those were my ONLY two choices, I'd have to go with the Panasonic - but neither would really be one of my first choices.

Look at other major brands such as Sharp, Toshiba, and Vizio. Also compare remote control functions and feel, on-screen menu intuitiveness, and sound quality.

LCD is the best. LG is the best brand

LCD vs Plasma is a personal viewing preference. Both give great pictures nowadays. Sports and movie viewing typically favors plasma. I've tried LCD, but I hated the soap opera effect on LCD. Off axis viewing is also better on plasma, but LCD has improved in this area. Plasma screens are more prone to glare in very lighted rooms, but they have also improved on earlier models with anti-glare screens. LCD have brighter picture, but plasma has richer more natural colors.

Well, I finally went and got my new tv ! I purchsed the Sony 55 Bravia - LED. I can't recall the model - but, it was one down from their top of the line model.

So far, I LOVE IT !!!

I got so tired of looking and reading about TV's that I just gave up and bought the one that I felt had a very nice picture!

If YOU love it, that's all that matters. I hope you enjoy you're new TV.

We invested in a 55 inch tv a year ago and at the time I did a ton of research. In the end we opted for a Panasonic Viera 3d Plasma TV and got a deal where it came with 3 sets of glasses, a blue ray player and the Avatar movie. So far, we've been extremely happy with it. They say the Plasma TVs use more energy, but I haven't noticed a change in our bill. I was also afraid of screen burn, but the newer technologies have a way of preventing that as well so neither of those things has been a problem at all.

At present, we don't use the 3D part very much but figure it will probably be popular before we're ready to invest in a new tv. It really does work well and now at least we'll have it when more movies are available. The picture on the Viera is amazing, Panasonic is famous for it's deep/rich pictures and the tv does not disappoint. The only contender we considered was the Samsung but I read one review after another about a humming issue that would have driven me nuts. My sister has a Vizio and while they are an okay tv, I read repeatedly that the quality was not as good.

No matter which tv/brand you choose, I would make sure it has the option for wi-fi connectivity as well as streaming with HULU Plus and Netflix. All we do now pretty much is stream and if I wasn't still in a contract with our satellite provider, I'd be canceling it and saving the cash.

If you like all the technological features and Quality of picture then TV Brand does not matter a lot. After all it is a thing.

We are using sony L.C.D 42" T.V.It is also good to watch.