Plasma Vs LCD

When Deciding between LCD and Plasma TVs, you are trying to decide between two different technologies trying to produce the same result, excellent picture quality and super sharp colour balance that will look the same (ie like a television) and make them available in similar sizes.

When this happens and the same problem is tackled from different directions, each direction will excel in different areas. We will try and point out the advantages of Plasma over LCD and LCD over Plasma TVs, when we have done that we will chuck in LED just to complicate things further.

In the past price and size have been big issues when comparing LCD to Plasma Screen TVs This has all but become a non issue over the past few years, Advances in LCD technologies have made it possible to produce larger Screens at competitive prices when compared to Plasma Screens.

The differences between the 2 technologies arise through the different ways they tackle getting the image into the screen,
Plasma Screen televisions accomplish this via hundreds of thousands of little containers (pixels/cells) containing neon type phosphor gases ( Xeon, Neon and Argon) these are excited by electric voltage (electrons) causing them to glow, adjusting the voltage adjust the colour allowing extremely precise colour reproduction creating a vivid and bright colour image onto the screen for you to view

LCD on the other hand, uses TFTs (thin-film transistors) that supplies a voltage to liquid crystal display cell between two sheets of glass. The crystals work by twisting and untwisting according to the voltage supplied and in doing so block or unblock the light allowed to pass through the glass, in such a precise way that the light passing through produces the required colour, this is achieved by blocking the unwanted colours present in the light. The light is produced behind the screen by a lamp, its this blocking of light to produce colour that causes the LCD TV to appear slightly duller then its Plasma counterpart.( LCD have fought back in this area with the introduction of LED LCD TVs I will cover these separately as they have changed the LCD so much it needs re-comparing to Plasma)


PICTURE QUALITY

Over all the picture quality of both LCD and Plasma is exceptional, though again both have their strengths and weaknesses, Plasma does have the edge due to it extremely good fast action image rendering capabilities, LCD tends to leave a slight trail behind fast moving objects displayed for example the path of the ball in a football game will form a slight comet tail behind it and in the cheaper models may jerk slightly as the display catches up with the actual image. (I must stress here that this is slight, and LCD has made huge improvements to the point where some people may not even notice this) Plasma will always give the better picture quality in normal to low light condition ie. Sitting room bedroom etc, LCD will give better quality in normal to high light conditions, ie conservator, kitchen bright situations like advertising screens in well lit shopping centres etc.

You need to think about placement of your TV here, and when its going to be used most, evenings on the sofa or daytime in the kitchen.

COMPUTER USE

For computer use there is now real comparison to be made, the finer detail LCD is capable of makes it the best choice for computer display or Video gaming. But again I have to clarify, a good quality plasma will hold its own against LCD even in computer display.

FAST MOVING ACTION IMAGES

As mentioned Plasma displays with their excellent performance with fast-moving images and high contrast levels are the Screen of choice here.

The response time of LCD TVs has improved immensely in the last couple of years, they still suffer from a slight comet tail effect, where the individual pixels are just slightly out of step with the image on the screen. During fast moving sports scenes, the most discerning eyes can detect this slight motion response lag.

There are some lower quality Plasma manufacturers that still produce cheaper but inferior screens that produce the afore mentioned comet tail when moving from light to dark across the screen. LCD also has its cheaper versions where quality is not so good as the majority of manufacturers. this will be true of every technology though, its the consumer that needs to weigh up price and quality to reach what they consider Value for money, picture quality depends so much on the ambient conditions of the room and the personal preferences of the viewer that it is impossible to state categorically one screen is better than another, even if technically it is

HIGH LEVEL USAGE

This will not affect many people but: Should you want to use your TV above 6500 feet then LCD is the only real choice, Plasma screens suffer from the air pressure difference and produce a hum like a florescent tube that is on its way out.

LIFE SPAN

LCD Screen TVs will last as long as their back light lasts, though it should stay as bright as the day you bought it until the light goes The light may change its colour slightly with age, this can play havoc with the colour display on the screen and the TV may need re calibrating, manufacturers claim that their displays last, on average, 50,000 to 65,000 hours. It may be possibly to change the bulb if this happens, but we have not been able to establish this as fact, manufacturers seem to be keeping this information close to their chests, in theory it should be possible, if it is not this would mean purchasing a new television.

Plasma, on the other hand, uses active gases (Argon, Neon and Xenon), which glow, each time they are used their effective life is reduced, manufacturers state a half life of 60,000 – 100,000 hours is what should be expected. This means that after 60,000 – 100,000 hours the screen should be as half as bright as when it as new, but would still work, the gasses cannot be replaced and your screen will continue to grow dimmer until you can no longer see the images.

SCREEN BURN IN

Screen Burn-in does not affect LCD screens the technology of twisting crystals does not retain memory of it most common position and therefore no visible burn in occurs.

In the past Plasma displays have suffered from Burn In, this is due to the premature aging of the gasses when in constant use (static image on screen), and the discolouration of the display medium (the screen) Plasma Screen manufacturers have made huge improvements to the technology over the last few years and burn in is almost a thing of the past, though i personally would still hesitate to leave something on pause for more than 15 minutes the manufactures are now claiming its is safe for up to an hour (you do so at your own risk)

PRODUCTION SIZE & COST

Television measurements are measured in inches as a diagonally across the screen (top right to bottom left corners).
Though both LCD and Plasma televisions are available in large sizes LCD up to around 50in Plasma up to around 65in, Samsung has produced a 100in Plasma Screen.

LCD has always suffered from poorer picture quality the larger the screen as the technology improves the larger screens are better and better but LCD cannot at the moment match Plasma for quality in the largest sizes, every time it does so they bring out a larger Plasma.

Costs have evened out over the last few years as the different technologies have both become cheaper to produce but plasma screen televisions still have a slight edge when it comes to purchase price, on the other hand LCD Screens have the edge when it comes to running costs, the average LCD Screen will consume about 2 thirds of the power needed to run a Plasma Screen TV

RESOLUTION

LCD displays will have a higher resolution per same size comparison than plasma. The lowest resolution of a 40 inch LCD will be 1366 X 768 – easily full HD resolution in 1080i or 720p. A 42 inch HD plasma has a resolution of 1024 X 768. While this is not quite HDTV resolution, it’s close enough so that it’s difficult to detect the difference. A 50 inch plasma TV will have a HD resolution of 1366 X 768 and now many also have 1920 X 1080, while a 45 inch LCD displays 1920 X 1080 (1080P) resolution.