Hi,
I'm new here. I'm in the market for a new TV. I've done lots of comparisons, research and I'll let you know that I'm picky about picture quality. I currently have a Toshiba 36" 720P widescreen CRT but the wife says we need a flat screen and I'd like something a little bigger. I'm leaning towards a plasma because the blacking out of shadows and the motion blur on the LCDs annoys me. I'm noticing one drawback of plasma when it comes to picture quality. They're flickery.
Do you know why they flicker and why LCDs don't? Also, what TV would you recommend for me?

1. Your existing TV is probably not a 720P CRT since they were very rare and more like computer monitors (almost all CRTs are 1080i native). See the following:

FAQ - Native Display Resolution vs. Input Format


2. Have a look at the following LCD/Plasma thread.

Plasma vs LCD


3. Have a look at the following post - useful for newbies to the forum.

HDTV Frequently Asked Questions: Please read this before posting in the forum

Yes, my TV is 1080i native and its capable of displaying 720p. Thanks for the links but its sort of all review in there and I read one of them already. The flicker question isn't answered anywhere in there.

Is that a technical term?

LCDs are a "sample and hold" technology, basically meaning the TV will create an image and hold it for 1/60 of a second or 1/120 of a second depending on the model. LCDs will hold the pixel value constant for the entire 60Hz or 120Hz refresh. This is the reason why LCDs don't flicker but at the same time why they blur.

Plasmas on the other hand don't sample and hold but use "pulse width modulation", this is one of the reasons why plasmas have less blur but have some flicker but most people don't notice it (but you obviously have).

You will notice in the future that LCD manufacturers will have to introduce some form of "flicker" in order to control motion blur, you can already see this in the Samsung 81 series, LED backlit LCD. It has a feature called LED Motion Plus, which basically strobes the LED backlights. This in turn reduces the amount of motion blur considerably but introduces flicker that some people may be sensitive to.

Thanks Jungle Monkey that really clears things up. CRT computer monitors drive me nuts at 60Hz, but don't bother me at just 75hz. The Samsung 81 series is 100Hz so I probably wouldn't notice the backlight flicker. Maybe one day there will be a 120Hz plasma...

I can't say that I've ever noticed a plasma that is flickery. The only ones that might be are the Toshiba (Hitachi) ALIS based ones since they actually are sort of interlaced while all other plasma's are progressive.

This is of course notwithstanding the inherent PWM.

Question; is your viewing room lit by flourescent lighting (including CFL, i.e. Compact Flourescent Lamps)?

If so, then the TV may be "beating" against the flourescent lighting. Try viewing during the day, or at night with no room lighting, or with just old-fashioned incandescant lighting.

The 81 series is only 60Hz but still has less blur than any other LCD out there including 120Hz models. This set maintains 800 lines of motion resolution whereas the best 120Hz LCDs only have 600 lines of motion resolution.

For comparison a Pioneer 6010 (1080P plasma) has 900 lines of motion resolution and a Panasonic 50PZ700 (1080p plasma) has 880.