LCD vs Plasma?
LCD versus Plasma? which is better?
I often visit the appliance centers on malls because I’m always amazed with electronic gadgets. Oftentimes I see new models of Televisions in front rows, from small to huge TVs or from thin to thinnest. All are indeed impressive with its superb picture quality. I could then infer that the future on TVs is on FLAT SCREENS.
Before, I thought that flat screens are all the same. Yet lately, I found out types of flat screens, these are PLASMA SCREENS and the LCD types. I then make few searches and found from a site (http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs/0,239035250,240036500,00.htm) few distinctions between PLASMA and LCD Flat screens. Here’s a tabulated presentation of the differences:
| PLASMA | LCD | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIFFERENCE | Uses plasma cells | Uses liquid crystals | |
| PICTURE QUALITY |
displays black more accurately | Hard to achieve true black | LCD is steadily improving with every new generation |
| CONTRAST | Has better contrast and details in dark coloured TV or movie scenes than LCD | Since it could hardly achieve true black, it has lesser contrasting effects | |
| VIWIENG ANGLES-are how far you can sit on either side of a screen before the picture’s quality is affected | Better viewing angles | Has narrower viewing angles than Plasma |
LCDs entering the market lately have viewing angles equal to or greater than some plasmas |
| BRIGHTNESS | Produce a brighter colour | Less bright due to light leakage on an LCD affecting its colour saturation. | |
| PRICE | Cheaper particularly in the large screen end of the market | More costly |
Nowadays, LCDs matched Plasma prices and sometime even cheaper. |
| RESOLUTIONS | lesser resolution | have higher native resolution than plasmas of similar size, which means more pixels on a screen | |
| POWER CONSUMPTION |
Higher power consumption |
consumes less power than plasma screens. Power saving at up to 30% less than plasma |
|
| WEIGHT | Often heavier than LCDs | Lighter than similar sized plasmas, making it easier to move around or wall mount. | |
| LIFE SPANS |
20,000 hrs - 60,000 hrs | Some says LCDs have longer lifespan than plasma screens*Guaranteed for 60,000 hours. | True for earlier plasma models, which would lose half of their brightness after more than 20,000 hours of viewing. Later plasma generations have bumped that up to anything between 30,000 and 60,000 hours. |
| SCREEN BURNS
occurs when an image is left too long on a screen, resulting in a ghost of that image burned in permanently |
Some plasmas suffer from screen burn in | not commonly associated with LCDs | Newer plasmas are less susceptible to this bacause of improved technology and features such as screen savers, but burn-in is still a problem. But after a few days of use most burnt-in images will fade — they are no longer permanent. |
| OTHERS | some LCDs have a tendencies to blur images, particularly during fast moving scenes in movies or in sports | True for older generation LCD screens but newer models have improved significantly *the differences in performance between LCDs and plasmas in this regard is almost negligible |
Recommendation: (based on the website given above)
For big screen television market(50″and above), Plasma screens are suggested as a safe bet. Plasmas give more value of money. While LCDs can give you better resolution, plasma still has the edge in terms of picture quality.
For smaller ends(15″ to 42″ TVs), LCD is the only way to go if you want something slim and tasteful. And the best thing is that LCDs are getting cheaper all the time.
Read more details about this topic here or at http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs/0,239035250,240036500,00.htm
kugihana ah