Plasma vs. OLED | What a Difference a Decade Makes!

Plasma TVs still have something of a cult following. Once the pinnacle of TV technology, plasma televisions offered the best black levels, most accurate colors, and smoothest motion ever seen from a TV before. Today, OLED has supplanted plasma as the top TV technology on the market, but how do the two compare? We pit Samsung's best plasma TV (also the brightest plasma ever against Samsung's best OLED TV ever. Let the fun (and nostalgia) begin!

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00:00 Intro
01:02 Plasma Rewind
04:21 Plasma Performance
06:07 Sponsor: Upway
07:38 Plasma vs OLED: SDR Comparison
08:42 Plasma SDR vs OLED HDR Comparison
11:02 Motion Resolution
12:01 Final Thoughts

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[DanD]

I have a 15 year old Samsung 50" 1080p Plasma TV and it's absolutely amazing...the best room heater available to date!!

[supergrendel]

The thing I liked most about plasma was that content just looked natural. No messing with 27 different settings to get motion and color to look correct. You just plugged it in and everything worked flawlessly. I love my 77" A80J but find the "features" almost overwhelming.

[cdnm]

Still rockin' the plasma tvs; 60" Samsung in the theater room, 50" Pioneer Kuro in the living room and a 42" Panasonic in the bedroom. 😀

[guyr]

My ancient plasma TV still looks better than my 2018 Samsung QLED TV.

[SMB]

I now own a LG OLED but I had a Panasonic plasma for about 6 years and I must say, there are still aspects about it that I miss. It was especially great for watching sports and fast moving action movies.
Love the OLED though, easily best TV I've ever owned

[tazzedout]

I still have my Panasonic 65 inch plasma tv I got back in 2009. It still works like a champ!

[derekwebster]

Still have a 50" Panasonic Viera Plasma that's 13 years old and it looks great. We haven't had 1 issue with this tv. The key question will be, how long are these OLED's going to last without burn-in??? Will these OLED's still be going strong after 10, 13, 15 & 18 years??? People love their Plasma's because of their reliability and still great picture quality.

[BigChaz]

Still watching my ZT60 Plasma and enjoying every moment.

[NelsonMunoz]

I still have my Panasonic Plasma in the Living Room! Hard to retire because the picture is so amazing!

[Jimo]

My Panasonic plasma is over 14 years old, still looks great

[glassd]

What is up with your frame rate? You animating on 2's to save some money on shots?

[wmrrock]

I still have a Panasonic plasma and the picture - after all these years is still beautiful at 1080p

[hfiemfn]

Still got a 50” Pioneer plasma in our main room upstairs. Still looks great, deep blacks and vibrant picture. Oh, it’s a 720p as well. Yes, we have newer stuff elsewhere, but it’s still the king. Yeah baby. 👍🤪🇨🇦

[JFinns]

10:30 this is what I've been thinking for years. HDR is the biggest upgrade, sitting back on the couch I barely notice the higher resolution (beyond 1440p or so) but HDR and all the color/depth/highlights/etc. it brings is just awesome.

[isak]

More comparisons like this. Most of us don't buy new TVs every year, but perhaps every 5-10 years, so this kind of video is exactly what we need. I still haven't upgraded from my LG B7 OLED (i.e. model year 2017), and part of the reason is that I'm not sure it's worth it only with regards to picture quality. I recently bought a smaller LG C2 for another room and compared that to my B7, and the difference where subtle.

[pandasong]

Panny ZT60 still rules. Watching a blu ray on it is as good as it gets, but I still have hope for the future.

[kizanko]

Am I the only one seeing low framerates?

[gorrilaunit]

*Not picking a Panasonic plasma is a travesty* 😅

[SlotHits]

The THX Certified Panasonic Plasma TV and the Pioneer Kuro were phenomenal and still hold up today .. Plasma still wins the smooth video

[roccobruno]

Having had both the Samsung and the Z series ZT60 Panasonic Plasma, the Panasonic was easily the better television. Now having just said that, I can't wait to see the Sony A95L QD-OLED as I'm sure it will be my next television.