You must have heard a lot about both LCD and Plasma TVs and keen to buy the best choice for your home. However, before you visit a store or look online, you must know what distinguishes the two. For starters, both Plasma and LCD TVs are sleek, offer high-resolution quality pictures and are priced competitively. What sets them apart is their technology.
How a Plasma TV Works
A Plasma TV constitutes of millions of small pixels within the colour scheme Red, Green and Blue (RGB) that are combined to produce various other color combinations. A Plasma TV works when electricity is passed through its two panels filled with neon and xenon gas. The pixels contained within the TV are lit up by the liquid gas and form an image. Its high color resolution scores over a LCD TV and is great for watching movies.
How a LCD TV functions
In a LCD TV, there is a panel of cells filled with liquid crystals. When electricity passes through these cells, the liquid crystals let light to be filtered through them. The different colours are produced by blocking the various wavelengths of light. The result is similar to a spectrum created by a prism. A LCD TV is best for playing computer games and digital photography. LCD screens are mostly used for computer monitors.
Comparative analysis between Plasma and LCD TVs
When you are comparing a Plasma TV with a LCD TV, you should start by size considerations. Plasma TVs are generally bigger, with sizes ranging from 32 inches to 63 inches. You can even get larger Plasma TVs measuring around 100 to 103 inches but these are not meant for domestic use and are much costlier than the average sized Plasma TVs. You can get 160 or 174-degree angle displays with a Plasma TV, ideal for a large viewing audience.
LCD TV is not a good option for very large group viewing and were historically primarily meant for single display like a person sitting in front of a computer. Again, LCD TVs are primarily meant for data display and not video because they have lower refresh rates. However, with the advent of modern technology, you can get LCD TVs with refresh rates as low as 5 ms.
The single greatest disadvantage of Plasma TV is that it suffers from burn-in and after-image ghosts when stationary images are viewed for long. Burn-ins can also occur if you use your Plasma TV for video games with permanent dashboards. LCD TVs do not face the burn-in phenomenon but ghosting can occur due to ‘retained pixel charge’. This problem is being tackled by the introduction of the ‘pixel orbiter’ technology.
LCD TVs score over Plasma TV in terms of display life. Because Plasma TVs have a high half-life of 30,000 to 60,000 hours, they may not last so long. LCD TVs provide a cooler running, less screen glare, brighter in lighted rooms and consume less power than Plasma TVs. LCD TVs are quite a lot cheaper than Plasma TVs.
