LCD or Plasma
Choosing a television set can be quite a daunting task especially if you are looking for an LCD or Plasma. Choices abound and there are some myths about the technologies, too. Unlike what many believe, there are major differences between the two types and you can't substitute one type for the other merely on their looks.
What’s under the hood?
To be honest, there isn’t much of a hood to look under. But inside the sleek and thin exterior, plasma TVs employ a matrix of tiny plasma gas cells that are charged by precise electrical voltage to create a picture. In the case of LCD panels, liquid crystal display make up the screen. Imagine liquid crystal pressed between two glass plates to which varying electrical charge is applied to create an image. That’s an LCD television. Despite the advances made in LCD and plasma technology, however, there are experts and gamers (they really do use TVs a lot) maintain that CRT (cathode ray tube i.e. our regular TV) still offers the best quality. To the layman, however, it’s not the technology and how it works that matters too much. It is the quality of the TV that he is worried about. Both LCD and plasma TVs offer excellent picture quality. But obviously both have their pros and cons.
What’s best for you?
You can try to make decision based on the following aspects:-
Screen Size
Currently, plasma is king in terms of size. It’s just easier and more economical to produce plasma panels in sizes larger than 50 inches. Plasma has always led in the size to price ratio game and will continue to do so for some time. While, LCD is catching up, it’s still prohibitively expensive for consumers to buy very large LCD screens. This may change after a joint venture between Samsung, LG and Sony.
Picture
The final frontier and the reason you buy a flat panel is to get brilliant picture quality. A plasma panel currently has a better picture. It has higher contrast ratios, a more vivid image and shows blacker blacks. LCD on the other hand, can sometimes wash out colours and make dark blacks more like grey. LCD may look brighter but in terms of a pure stunning picture – plasma currently wins. Improvements are happening all the time and in due course, this should be rectified, but by then, plasma may have become the predominant choice. In addition to this, one of the major factors in favour of plasma TVs is their viewing angle. This allows viewers to sit at acute angles and still get a clear picture. But it’s not all bad for LCD TVs. LCD TVs have higher native resolutions than plasma TVs of the same size. What it means is there are more pixels on the screen and if you are one of those who like to see every minute detail, an LCD may offer more. Of course, this also depends on the source and an ordinary cable TV connection won’t let you notice the difference.
Durability
This is a no contest. An LCD panel is more robust, easier to transport and much easier to install. Whereas a plasma panel is heavier, more fragile and is mostly is mostly shipped by specialty carriers that know how to handle such delicate technology. Even installation of plasmas is trickier and best handled by professionals while most consumers can set up LCD’s themselves.
Burn- In
The biggest nemesis of Plasma continues to rear its ugly head even now. After extended periods, stationary images (say you paused a movie) ‘burn-in’ and produce an after-image ghost which remains permanently on the screen which means that even if you turn it off, a faded image of this will be visible. With new technologies such as ‘pixel shift’ and ‘wipes’ the current generation of plasmas have addressed the burn-in significantly. And if you are wondering about TV channel logos, they are translucent and don't leave the same sort of ghost behond. LCD’s have no such problem.
Screen Refresh
This is the arch-enemy of the LCD camp. In high contrast, fast motion video or when watching sports (more noticeable when watching a car race as opposed to cricket or snooker!) – you may see a blurred shadow following the action on screen. This is due to refresh rates on LCD being too slow to keep up with the fast pace of video. The current generation of LCD with refresh rates as low as 4ms have almost eradicated these artefacts but do keep in mind that it is negligible and not perfection. Plasmas have no refresh issues.
Half-Life
Half-Life is the time it takes the backlight within the TV to fade to half its original brightness. When you are looking at plasma or LCD TVs, you may come across a piece of information that says “60,000 hours” or some such number which denotes that TV’s Half-Life. In case of Plasma TVs, the accepted duration ranges between 30,000 and 60,000 hours while in case of LCD TVs, it is virtually guaranteed for 60,000 hours. If you actually convert this to days, it works out to about 2,500 days or about seven years of continuous viewing. Well, that means if you watch a movie everyday, it goes on for a whopping sixty years…
What else
Wait a little more! The running cost of a TV is something that many don’t consider. With increasing screen sizes, the power consumption will also increase and in this regard, LCD TVs outscore plasma TVs once again. LCD TVs are said to consume upto 30% less power than plasma TVs.
Also make sure that the TV you buy has HDMI in (multiple is better), true HD resolution and has good speakers built right in.
If you ask me, I will a wait a little more so that the story of the Real Picture becomes a Clear Picture!
Some approximate prices:
|
| LCD | PLASMA |
| SAMSUNG | Size Range: 20 to 42 inchesPrice: Rs.37500- Rs.360000The smallest from the Samsung stable, the 26-inch Bordeaux, comes with a price tag of Rs.37500. The largest, the 52-inch Full HD Mosel incorporates a full hi-definition 1080 pixel screen with 12.8 billion colours and even a memory card slot, and costs Rs.360000 (46-inch one costs Rs.185000). | Size Range: 42 to 63 inchesPrice: Rs.85000- Rs.540000Samsung’s 50-inch offering retails at Rs.170000 and the largest, the 63-inch LCD TV is available Rs.540000. all these TVs come with all the frills, including 60000-hour life expectancy, HDMI and HD readiness. |
| LG | Size Range: 20 to 40 inchesPrice: Rs.29000- Rs.140000With an in-built 80GB hard drive, LG’s Time machine LCD/plasma TVs do more than just show moving images. The 42-inch LCD version, with a wide viewing angle (178/178) costs Rs.140000. | Size Range: 42 to 71 inchesPrice: Rs.94000- Rs.3299900Supposedly India’s biggest Plasma TV, LG’s 71-inch plasma, with HDMI, HD readiness, 1920x1080P resolution with a viewing angle of 160°, costs rs.3299900. Smaller screens are available at Rs.94000 for the 42-inch model and Rs.460000 for a 60-inch Plasma. |
| SONY | Size Range: 23 to 52 inchesPrice: Rs.54990- Rs.499900Sony’s 40-inch KL-40x200A with 1920x1080 resolution (full HD) and a 178° viewing angle, costs Rs.199900. The larger screen size variants cost Rs.169900 for 46-inches and Rs.499900 for 52-inch. The smallest (23-inch) LCD TV comes at price tag of Rs.54990 |
Today the plasma wins by a whisker – tomorrow is anybody’s game…