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Hybrid Plasma?

Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 28, 2011

A salesman at a store I visited said the Samsung PN64D8000 is a hybrid plasma with LED backlighting, which makes it much better than the Panasonic plasmas. He says it has the brightness of LED and all the qualities of plasma. What is your opinion of this technology?

Joe Souders

Yikes! Retail salespeople don't always know what they're talking about, but this is far worse than I've ever heard of before! There is no such thing as a plasma/LED hybrid—the PN64D8000 (shown above) is a straightforward plasma, nothing more. We haven't reviewed Samsung's flagship D8000 plasma yet, but I suspect it's very good. We know for sure that Panasonic's flagship VT30 plasma is very good—the review will appear in the September 2011 issue of Home Theater. I doubt you can go wrong with either one.

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