Who doesn't dream of owning a big screen TV for the ultimate in home entertainment? But if you're planning to supersize your TV set, which technology should you choose: Plasma or LCD?
With Plasma and LCD TV's becoming more popular over the years, prices are dropping down to the point where cost is no longer as crucial a factor in choosing one over the other. Since buying one of these babies is going to entail a considerable investment, you want to make sure that you're getting a big-screen TV that offers great picture quality and years of longevity.
Of course, size isn't the only concern among videophiles nowadays, because what we want are big flat panel TV's that enhance our viewing experience while eliminating the bulk of the conventional CRT (cathode ray tube) TV. Plasma and LCD both have legitimate claims to being the best technology for these flat panel TV's, so let's take a closer look at what each has to offer.
PLASMA TV:
What is Plasma, anyway? It's actually the gas inside a fluorescent light, made up of ions and electrons----you remember them from your high school science classes, don't you? A Plasma display forms images through thousands of tiny fluorescent lights with gas burning inside them. Pictures are created by combining pixels, with each pixel consisting of three fluorescent lights: red, green and blue.Those are the building blocks for reproducing a wide range of colors on your Plasma TV----and displaying Halle Berry in all her glory.
Meanwhile......
LCD TV's are powered by the same Liquid Crystal Displays that we see all around us in different devices, including laptop screens, microwave ovens, digital watches, calculators and DVD players. Unlike CRT's, LCD's are thinner, lighter and require less power, which is why they're so popular for miniature gadgets. You might think it's a contradiction to call it a Liquid Crystal when obviously it's a solid, but the molecules in an LCD share the characteristic of a liquid in that they move around, which accounts for the materials flexibility.
Videophiles generally maintain that PLASMA TV offers better picture quality for home entertainment. This is mainly because LCD TV's can't display black as well as PLASMA TV. Blacks tend to come out as dark gray. As a result, you don't have as much detail in shadows, giving PLASMA TV the advantage in brightness and contrast.
On the other hand, LCD offers sharper and more accurate images----compared to an LCD display, images on a PLASMA screen might look blurry. Also since, phosphors can wear out over time, old PLASMA TV's could end up with duller images.
Thanks to advances in technology, PLASMA and LCD now basically have the same lifespan. But PLASMA is more energy-efficient because each phosphor cell is illuminated only as needed, unlike the LCD bulbs that require full power all the time.
PLASMA TV is still cheaper than LCD TV on a price-per-inch basis. Since they don't require a backlight, PLASMA TV's are also thinner than LCD's.
However, the biggest issue facing PLASMA is the risk of burn-in, which occurs when a static image is displayed on your TV for hours on end. For example, if you spend lots of time playing games on your XBOX360, Playstation3 or Nintendo Wii, and you're using a PLASMA TV, you could end up with images burned on your screen......say, the life meter or heads up display in a game, which are usually present all throughout a session.
To be fair, experts will tell you that you would have to display that image for hours nonstop before the risk of burn-in becomes real. Besides, you can take steps to prevent it by not leaving them on in the first place and by reducing the contrast to 50% or less. PLASMA TV manufacturers have also come up with screensavers and other measures to minimize the burn-in risk. Still, this is one issue that does not crop up at all when you buy an LCD TV.
In the end, you can't really pick a clear winner, because each technology has the edge in certain areas.
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