Plasma or LCD?
You want to buy a new flat panel TV. But you don't know which to choose: a giant plasma or a bright LCD. It's best to ask yourself some questions about the planned usage of you new TV, before going to the local media-store. For example, in what kind of environment will you be using the TV? Do you want a cinematic theatre in the living room, or a compact television to watch in your bedroom? Some other things you might want to pay attention to is whether you will be using the TV continuously or to watch a movie now and then. This makes it hard to choose between LCD and Plasma since they both excel at different aspects. Nevertheless, with the growing technologies and the more advanced hardware inside, these flat panel-TVs keep getting better and better. Let's go through some relevant details in which LCD and plasma's differ.
1. Visual performance
HDTV support: The minimum resolution to enjoy HDTV to as it was meant to be is 1280x720. Almost any large LCD and Plasma TV support this resolution these days, but not all. So pay attention to it, since it will be most likely that HDTV will become standard in a few years. It would be a bummer if you have to buy a new TV again to enjoy HDTV. HD-ready doesn't automatically mean it can display HDTV in its native resolution, so don't take that as an easy answer.
Brightness: LCD wins this one, LCD TVs are much brighter then plasmas. To be more exact: plasma screens turn out to have approximately100 cd/m2 and LCDs about 450 cd/m2. Cd/m2 stands for candelas per square meter.
But. Brighter is not always better. It depends on the surrounding lighting. For instance, if you're watching in low lit living room, less brightness is more pleasant for your eyes. If the surrounding environment is intensively lit, then it's best to have a higher brightness screen, like a LCD. Of course you can adjust the brightness on the TV-set itself, but this might not give the optimal performance.
Viewing angle: When flat panel TVs were just released plasma had the biggest viewing angle of approximately 160 degrees. These days LCDs are just as good. This really depends on the model itself.
Saturation: This aspect is definitely better with plasma screens. Saturation is the amount of gray displayed in a color. plasma's can display black better then LCDs do. LCDs always show a dark gray color, not black. This is because plasma-TVs can turn off pixels completely when they need to display black. Black pixels on a LCD always catch a little bit of light which makes them dark gray.
Contrast: LCD has a higher contrast ratio then plasma. Plasma screens turn out to have a contrast ratio near 200:1, while LCDs have a contrast ratio that's twice as high. This is measured by comparing the blackest with the whitest pixel. The more these differ, the better details will be displayed on the screen.
Response time: A very important issue if your planning to watch a lot of sports or other intensive movements on your new TV. One of LCD's weakness is it's high response time. plasma screens have around 15ms response time. This means it takes 15 milliseconds for a pixel to be active, inactive and active again. For LCDs it takes about 10ms more. If you're watching a soccer match for example on a LCD, with low response time. You might see a white ghost trail behind the fast moving ball. And other artifacts. On the other hand, recent LCD-TVs have been improved to have about 16ms response time, almost as good as plasma, but of course there's a price tag attached.
2. Price/size
The price of flat panels depends on allot of things, like: brand name, contrast ratio and response time. It's size is actually the biggest reason of difference in price. Plasma TVs range from 32 inches to 60 inches. LCDs range from 13 inches to 45 inches. Larger screen sizes are available but still seen disproportionately expensive for normal consumers.
Plasma comes out better if it's for it's size/price rate.
3. Other issues
Screen burn in: Plasma TVs can suffer from burn in when the same picture is showed on the same spot for a long time, for example logo's in the upper corners. Or the black/white border when screen the screen size doesn't match the resolution. This was a very big problem some time ago, when plasma TVs where just new. These days the problem is mostly exaggerated because the newer models don't burn in that easy. But LCD is always the safest choice considering burn ins.
Power consumption: Plasma TVs use about three times as much power as LCDs do. This is because of LCD are pretty efficiently lighted by a florescent backlight. plasma TVs however have every pixel lighted separately which makes it use more power then LCDs.
Life span: This is a more difficult part since there are allot of rumors these days about Plasmas disappointing longevity compared to LCDs. This is in allot of cases true. plasmas have around 20,000 to 30,000 hours of lifetime, this means it can be used for around 20 years when normally used. LCD screens have a twice as big lifespan: 50,000 to 60,000 hours this equals about 40 years when normally used.
LCDs are lighted with a backlight which may eventually change color slightly and die out. This lamp can be replaced, although manufactures don't really speak out loud about this. Plasma TVs just get a lower and lower brightness, since the gasses inside wear out. This can't be repaired or replaced.
But actually there isn't really a winner here because the lifespan of these TVs so heavily depends on the model itself, manufacturer and the usage.