Making the Right Choice: LCD TV or Plasma TV?
Perhaps you are planning to get a new TV for yourself. You might be looking at LCD TV (liquid crystal display) or a plasma TV and try to figure out what’s the difference between these two.
Both the Plasma and LCD have inherent strengths and weakness. Physically, these two types of TV are quite similar. Both of them offer very thin panel-like shapes with the LCD just a little thinner than the plasma. However, they employ different technology in an attempt to deliver similar results. So, which TV is better?
Technically, there are no simple straightforward answers in term of which is better. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the LCD TV is generally lighter for any given size and it is also cooler to operate. It generates less heat compared to the Plasma TV. The LCD TV might be a better choice if you intend to wall mount your TV as it is lighter and more secure. Having said that, LCD TV loses out in terms of size as a purchasing factor. Larger screen sizes are available for Plasma TV. It easily reaches 65 inches and more. The LCD TV is catching up in this disadvantage by trying to come out with larger screen TVs. In terms of cost, an LCD TV is more expensive than a Plasma TV of similar size.
The Plasma TV has better contrast ratio and colour details such as colour accuracy and saturation. It also has a better viewing angle compared to LCD TV. The LCD TV generally produces brighter pictures and has a better advantage in its native resolution. Regardless of size, all LCD TVs come with native high definition resolutions compared to Plasma TV. The resolution of a standard LCD TV model is usually of 1,366 by 768 pixels or 1,280 by 720 pixels compared to a budget plasma TV which is only 800 by 480 pixels only. The high-end models of LCD TV can even have up to 1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution.
In terms of motion tracking, Plasma TVs has a better advantage. Some LCD screens tend to have blur images especially during fast moving scenes in sports or movies. On the other hand, Plasma TV might sometimes suffer from screen burn problems. Screen burn-in occurs when an image is left too long on a screen and results in a ghost of that image being burned in permanently. However, this problem has been gradually overcome in the latest Plasma TVs. Newer Plasma TVs are less susceptible due to the improved technology.
LCD TVs have an edge in terms of power consumption. LCD TVs generally can save up to 30 percent power usage compared to Plasma TVs. LCD TVs have longer life spans in comparison to Plasma TVs. Compared to LCD TVs, Plasma TVs have altitude problems. Plasma TVs do not perform as well at higher altitudes. This problem doesn’t exist for LCD TVs.
Both LCD TV and Plasma TV have their advantages and disadvantages over each other. Of course, the last factor to consider is still the budget in your pocket!
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Entries (RSS)
March 19th, 2007 10:02
One thing I can tell you is that if you live above approx. 6,500ft sea level, LCD is your only choice. Plasma TV’s, because of some interaction with the gas envelope that I only vaguely understood, tend to buzz and burn out in weeks or months at high altitude. I found this out in Santa Fe when the Best Buy salesman made sure I wasn’t a Los Alamos resident before selling me a plasma TV.
PS for my money plasma is still much better than LCD in matching price ranges.
March 20th, 2007 23:21
Well even after eading this rticle,i am nable to justify which to buy.i read this blog and the prices are in Rs can i know in dollars price sof lcds
http://hdtvindia.blogspot.com
March 21st, 2007 23:10
Power consumption LCD vs Plasma:
The article is not correct about power consumption differences between plasma and LCD. The article is probably based on the manufacturers quoted numbers (which deserves a foot note) the consumption of an LCD display is constant and will not change in relation of the displayed image (the manuf.quoted numbers are in this case the min.,max and average consumption) A plasma screen will consume less power when the displayed image is dark and more when light, The quoted figure is the maximum power consumption. In daily usage the difference between lcd and plasma is very little.
Below the results of a test done in Germany:
Test done by AVt.o.p. messtechnic in Germany, they tested a panasonic 42px60 plasma, LG 42LC2R LCD, Philips 42PF7621D LCD, Sony 40s200 LCD and a Samsung LE40R71B LCD. They measured the total energy consumed watching movies from DVD
Result watching 6 days, 7 nights (German version) (This is a movie that is quiet bright)
1. LG 42″ LCD 200.10 Wh
2. Sony 40″ LCD 208.60 Wh
3. Philips 42″ LCD 218.90 Wh
4. Panasonic 42″ Plasma 230.40 Wh
5. Samsung 40″ LCD 239.20 Wh
Result watching X-Men (A rather dark movie)
1. Panasonic 42″ Plasma 200.80 Wh
2. LG 42″ LCD 205.70 Wh
3. Sony 40″ LCD 213.80 Wh
4. Philips 42″ LCD 224.60 Wh
5. Samsung 40″ LCD 246.70 Wh
The Sony and Samsung were 2″ smaller then the rest of the screens but they could not take advantage of this fact. (The Samsung actually preformed the worse in both movies)
June 15th, 2008 03:18
On my Sony 46″ LCD TV, the backlight on the maximum setting uses 100 watts more than the backlight on the mininimum setting (237 watts vs 137 watts). My Kill-a-Watt also says my Sharp 26″ LCD TV showed a similar correlation between the backlight setting and energy usage. The Sony 46″ LCD TV has a Power Saving setting which reduces energy usage to 87 watts (instead of 137 watts), though the picture is pretty dim in Power Saving mode. No other picture settings other than backlight had any effect on the power usage.