LCD vs Plasma HDTV
LCD vs plasma HDTV - which is best? If you're looking for a
flat-screen, slim and sexy display, to watch HDTV, you have a
choice of two technologies, LCD and gas plasma.
Each has benefits and disadvantages and so each is more
appropriate in specific circumstances.
Historically, the LCD vs plasma HDTV choice has been fairly
simple. If you wanted a flat-screen that was about 40in or
bigger, you had to choose plasma, otherwise you should choose
LCD. However, as LCD technology improves, LCD HDTVs are getting
bigger and most of the major manufacturers expect the number of
LCDs they produce to grow steadily over the next few years while
the number of plasmas will decrease. However, if you're looking
for a flatscreen TV today, plasma still has a lot to offer.
To understand the LCD vs plasma HDTV question, we need to look
at the way the two technologies work.
LCD
LCD HDTVs work by shining a light behind an LCD panel made up of
a fixed number of pixels. Each pixel is either red, blue or
green and is switched on or off when a voltage is applied to it.
When voltage is applied to a pixel, it is switched off, meaning
that light can't shine through it.
The main advantage of LCD vs plasma HDTV is that LCD panels
don't suffer from what's called burn-in. This is a feature of
plasma TVs where they are used to watch TV stations with logos
permanently displayed on-screen or where they are used for video
gaming with games that have static images such as a cockpit on
flight simulators. The image literally 'burns-in' the screen
meaning that even when the image is not present you can still
see a faint trace of it on screen. So for video gamers in
particular, LCD is a better choice than plasma.
Plasma
Plasma HDTVs have over a million chambers which house one or a
combination of gasses. When a voltage is applied to one of these
chambers the gas ionizes and emits ultra-violet light. This
light strikes red, green or plue phophors coated on the inside
of the chamber and a pixel emits this color light.
Plasma HDTVs tend to have better contrast than LCDs because,
even when a pixel on an LCD panel is switched off it doesn't
block all the light coming through and therefore the pixel isn't
completely black. Plasma HDTVs also tend to have a wider viewing
angle than LCDs, as on LCD HDTVs the contrast and colour of the
image can change when the screen is viewed from different angles.
LCD vs Plasma HDTV conclusion
Technology is changing rapidly, but for now (July 2004) it's
still true to say that at sizes of 40in and above, plasma offers
a less-expensive and generally better solution. For screen-sizes
less than 40in LCD is better. However, as LCD technology
improves and prices fall, this will change.