It really depends on your other uses.

For occasional television and movie watching, I would suggest looking into plasma. Plasmas tend to be superior to most LCDs when it comes to price vs. performance and usually offer an excellent contrast (how dark the black shades are and how light the white shades are) as well as picture sharpness and vividness of colours

In regards to cons for plasmas, they have one issue that you'll usually hear about called burn in or image burn. Basically, if you have a picture up on the screen for a prolonged period of time, it will make a shadow of sorts that is burned into the panel (i.e. If you leave a DVD menu on for a long period of time, it will make  an impression of that menu on the screen that will be visible when the screen is turned on but blank).

LCDs are great all-rounders. Depending on the make and model, most have excellent response time, varying levels of refresh rate (60-240hz), contrast and colours.

You best option? Swing by a location and take a look at the units. We have all kinds of movies and television shows on display (or ready for displaying) and any of our in-store associates would be willing to show you, first hand, the benefits of both LCD and Plasma.

Different stores will have promotions with different cable companies. Here in the Burlington store we have a promotion with Cogeco where you will recieve 8 months of HD for 9.99 with a purchase of a television, which is a great way to get started into HD.

If you feel that you won't be going HD any time soon and you are solely sticking to basic cable, then my recommendation would go towards plasma. Based on there specifications plasmas have better refresh times, response times, and contrast. LCD's aren't bad but when stacked up against plasma the colours and overall picture quality are worse than its counterpart. Basically all of these new TVs are optimal for viewing in HD (being wide screen, and being able to handle high-def signals). Basic cable stations will look stretched on a wide screen, ultimately leading to pixelation and and more jagged look.

I would highly suggest looking into high-def promotions to get you started.

I personally can't watch LCD because of motion blur and other common issues associated with them like clouding, flashlighting, blooming and poor off axis viewing but that's me. Weather you like LCD or Plasma do yourself a favor and get a 720p model for basic cable because it's more forgiving with lower resolution content compared to a 1080p set.

---

Question80391 wrote:
I have basic cable, which tv would look best through it: plasma or LCD?

---

Depending on the size you're looking for, the best price varies.

Since it's only basic cable, all you need is 720p.

Here's some sizes that are best price for what you need:

30-39" - Toshiba 32" LCD 720p HDTV

40-49" - LG 42" Plasma HDTV

Also tell us everything you'll be using it for - gaming? bluray? hddvd? or just standard TV?