What's it going to be, Plasma or LCD? Television technology explored.
13 Aug 2007
Are you shopping for a new television? Have you decided what you are looking for? There are so many choices out there how will you ever decide? There are seemingly unlimited technologies to choose from. There are Plasmas, LCDs, DLPs, CRTs, HDTVs, rear projection, front projection, flat screen, flat panel just to name a few and the list of different technologies seems to grow by leaps and bounds every year. This is actually a good thing for the consumer since it means an ever improving quality of products to choose from but all this technlogy makes the job of choosing all the more difficult.
There isn't enough space here to examine all the different technologies in any signifigant detail but we can look at a couple of the more popular choices on the market today and make some comparisons. Two of the most popular types of television are Plasmas and LCDs so lets take a closer look at these.
Starting with the screen size we see that the Plasmas tend to have some advantage currently with screens from around 32 to 63 inches while LCDs range from 13 to 45 inches on average, however LCDs are catching up. While there are larger screens available in both types they tend to be more expensive than most people are willing to pay for but they are becoming more affordable as technology improves over time.
Another aspect of the screen is the viewing angle which comes into play when the television is placed in a larger room to accomodate more people usually with the larger screen televisions. There isn't a big difference here with the Plasma having around a 160 degree angle and the LCD with about 175 degrees.
An important trait to consider when comparing these two is the refresh rate of the screen which is the ability of the tv to handle rapid movemente in video such as action scenes and also comes into play if you plan to use the tv for video games. The plasma has a slight advantage over LCDs here but again the LCDs are improving as they were originally designed for data not video. You should be looking for rates from 15ms all the way down to 5ms.
Here's something you don't want to happen to your new high dollar television. Its called burn-in where a permanent ghost type image is burnt into your screen when these images are on your tv for long periods of time such as tv station logos or control panels in video games or anything that stays in one place too long on your screen. Plasmas have this tendency while LCDs do not. However plasma manufacturers are using new technologies to prevent this and the newer models are less likely to suffer this problem. Also to be fair LCDs have a similar problem though due to different reasons when pixels retain their charge too long or get stuck ghosting is possible.
Next lets consider the life span of the two tv types which should always be a big part of any purchase. Here the LCD takes the lead by a good margin. While the plasma has a lifespan of 20,000-30,000 continuous hours of use before the gases used to make the images starts to fade the LCD can go on for 50,000-75,000 hours and even then the bulb used to backlight the screen can be replaced. The plasmas are also very fragile while LCDs are fairly durable making shipping, handling and installing a possible issue as well.
If you also consider that plasmas are a little heavier and bulkier where the thinnest plasmas are about 3 inches thick and the LCDs are around only 2 inches making the LCDs less expensive to ship and easier to install, then the LCDs start to look like they might be a better choice.
There are other issues to think about such as screen brightness where the plasmas probably have better contrast and better black backgrounds while the LCD screens don't reflect as much light and therefore seem to be brighter but ultimately the choice will be one of personal preferance.
To be sure with technology constantly changing at a rapid pace most people will find it hard to aquire all the information needed to always make the perfect purchase but you have to spend some time doing a little research in order to insure you will be happy with what you buy and that it will suit your needs effectively.Do your homework before you buy and enjoy your purchase.
