Digital Trends

Older plasma displays are notorious energy hogs compared to LCD panels. Walk by one that’s been on for a few hours and it almost feels like a Vermont wood stove in January. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but owners know they do convert quite a bit of precious electricity directly to heat. Enter the new generation of Panasonic plasma HDTVs, carrying Neo PDP technology that supposedly uses 33 percent less power to achieve the same brightness as the old 2007 models. Readers of Digital Trends know we have prefered plasma to LCD due to the rich, deep colors and super-fast response, which is just right for sports. Now let’s see if a more earth-friendly design makes us even bigger fans, or if a comparable LCD is the value buy.