Panasonic Plasma Display

Advantages

Long life: the average name brand plasma tv will last 50 to 70,000 hours to half life ( brightness is 50% of original, it will still be 2 to 3 times brighter then a regular tv) This is around 20 years at 6 hours per day. Expect substantially less on a no name
      
Field of vision: A plasma screen tv has a field of vision of almost 180 degrees without loss of picture quality. From any angle you will have a great picture
      
Brightness: Plasma screens are very bright. 4 to 5 times brighter then an average tv.
      
Great contrast: The last two generations ( two years or so) of name brand Plasma screens have great contrast ratios. Look for a rating of 3000 to 1 or more.
      
Low operating cost: A name brand plasma is cheap to operate due to long life with virtually no maintenance. The cost of a nice EDTV 42 inch is well below 1.5 k and a 50 inch is around  2k. 60 inch plus are still highly priced per inch. This is substantially less then a LCD TV. 42 inch plasma tv screens cost almost half of a 40 inch lcd.
      
Instantaneous picture response: There is virtually no delay in any name brand plasma and therefore no artifacting that is experienced on LCD screens.
      
Natural looking picture: A plasma screen reproduces a picture in a similar manner to a standard tv .Name brand plasma tv colors tend to be natural looking and more accurate. Mo names can tend to be weak or soft on colors.
      
No real estate: A plasma screen hangs on a wall and takes as little space as a picture.

Disadvantages

Plasma screens can suffer image retention ( burn in) if a still image is left on the display for a extended period of time. For example, you would not want to use a plasma screen for a computer display constantly. If you were to use a Plasma tv for Video Display and occasional use it for computer, burn in would not be a factor. Also if you were to leave the plasma tv screen on a station such as Sky News, which has constant ticker tape across the bottom, for 24 hours a day, there would be noticeable burn in when you switched to a different channel. If by error you were to burn your screen, proper name brand plasma screens do have a "white flash" utility which eliminates the burn, however it will shorten the life of the plasma. If your primary use of the plasma screen is for TV viewing and dvd, image retention will not be a factor.
      
Size: Plasma screens are not available below 37 inches. There were some 32 inch units available but have been discontinued. Also 60 inch and above can be very pricey but prices are coming down.
      
Many no name junk units on market. Stick to name brands.
      
Pixel failure: This can be a problem with no name plasma screens. All the major brands have pixel policies which may allow one or two dead pixels. These are not noticeable unless you are right in front of the screen. A 50 inch screen has over  983,000 pixels. so one or two dead could not be seen. No name plasma screens have extremely poor policies which can allow higher then 10%. This would make the unit unwatchable. If the plasma screen has a orbiter function, this will greatly reduce the chance of pixel failure. We have sold tens of thousands of Plasma tv screens and can count the number of units which we have had pixel problems with on one hand. It should be noted we do not sell no name units.
      
Early models had poor contrast. the first generation plasma tv screens had poor contrast and brightness. Do not buy a used plasma screen: in the same way as you don't know how a clutch has been treated in a second hand car, the same goes for previous plasma display use. The units that have been out for the last two years outperform the older units by miles.