The hidden cost of plasmas
Lets see here. The advantages of plasmas: great colors, good price and long life. Disadvantages: potential of burn-in, big ones cost a lot and high power consumption. Burn-in can be avoided and get a better job if you want the bigger sets. *joke* Power consumption of plasmas can be more then you think and with the rising costs of energy, it is something to think about.
CNET ran some tests and charted out the power consumption of all TVs. A scan over the data does not reveal anything surprising. LCDs have the lowest power consumption and plasmas are the worst. Just like we posted a few weeks back, Panasonic's plasmas are the best in their class. LCD and DLP based rear projections tend to offer the consumer a good balance of size verse power however.
They have 20 of the industry's top TVs all charted here. It is worth a look if you are looking for a new HDTV. Personally, I don't think I would make it a deciding factor but it is something to think about.
