Comparison Between Plasma & LCD
LCD, or liquid crystal display, and plasma are two types of high-definition television technologies. Both technologies were invented in the 1960s but did not become feasible for replacing cathode-ray tube televisions, mainly due to cost, until the early 2000s. Since then, the size and quality of LCD and plasma technologies have rendered older TV technologies obsolete. The decision on whether to purchase a LCD or a plasma television depends on how you feel about certain strengths and weaknesses of each type of television.
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Display Technology
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LCDs create an image by using a fluorescent backlight to pass light through a liquid crystal solution, which is a substance that is suspended in a state where it exhibits the qualities of both a liquid and a crystal. When an electric current is passed through the liquid crystal, the molecules of the crystal line up and block light from passing. By combining the passing and blocking of light with a color filter making thousands of tiny color pixels, an image is created.
Plasma televisions create an image by having millions of tiny glass bubbles suspended between two sheets of glass and coated with a phosphor. These bubbles are filled with a gas that will turn into a plasma and give off ultraviolet rays when an electric current is applied. These UV rays then hit the phosphor coating and make it glow, which creates the image that you see.
Unit Cost
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For most of the 2000s, plasma televisions cost less when buying screens bigger than 40 inches, but by 2010, both plasma televisions and LCD televisions cost about the same based on the size of the screen.
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Screen Brightness
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LCD televisions have good brightness both in low lighting conditions and in situations where there is high ambient light. Plasma televisions look just as good in conditions with high ambient light, but are not quite as good as LCDs in low-light conditions.
Black Levels
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Black level means how deep the color black looks on the screen when it is surrounded by other colors. Plasma televisions have excellent black levels, with the color black really standing out in low light conditions. LCD televisions, in general, have poor black levels because they operate with a backlight that must be blocked. Blacks usually look like a very dark gray on LCD televisions.
Field of Vision
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Field of vision is the angle that someone can be looking at a television (90 degrees would be completely from the side) and still see the picture. Plasma televisions have an excellent field of vision and can be watched from any angle. The best LCD televisions will have a maximum viewing angel of 45 degrees away from center. Beyond this 45 degrees the picture quality will diminish.
Monitor Use
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Almost all high-definition televisions have ports in the back to enable you to hook up a monitor if you desire. LCD televisions are ideal for this as they create excellent still images and are immune to image burn. Plasma televisions will show a good picture when hooked up to a computer, but are susceptible to image burn, which is a real possibility when using a plasma television as a computer monitor.
Major Drawbacks
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Because LCD televisions work by blocking light, the quality of motion on the screen will depend on how fast the liquid crystal solution can block the light and allow it to pass again, which is called pixel response time. LCD televisions that have poor response time will leave a trail behind moving images, a process called ghosting or image blur.
Plasma televisions work by passing an ultraviolet ray through phosphor coated glass, making the phosphor glow. If a phosphor is forced to glow the same color for several hours, it can become stuck on that color and create a burned-in image. Most brand name plasma televisions have a way to erase the burn, but at the expense of the length of life of the television.
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References
- Photo Credit Plasma panel image by Nikolay Okhitin from Fotolia.com
