Plasma Vs. LCD Video

Since flat panel televisions became popular in the early to mid-1990s, the debate over plasma and LCD and which is better has been raging. One consumes more energy, while the other reportedly offers better features, but when it comes down to it, don't you just want to know which displays better video? After all, tons of cool new features don't really mean anything if the video quality of the TV is bad. Plasma and LCD technologies offer advantages and disadvantages that should be considered before purchasing a product that features either of these screen technologies.

The Facts: No matter which you prefer, there's no denying the fact that the latest LCD and plasma HDTV's are capable of delivering excellent picture quality and both display technologies have improved hugely over the past couple of years. That being said, both plasma's and LCD's have different strengths that make it more suitable for specific viewing situations. For example, flat-panel televisions have great video when you're sitting directly in front of them, but you're not sitting dead center, the picture looks less bright and vivid and you'll see differences in color. In this particular circumstance plasmas have the upper hand because viewing angle limitations are more of an issue for LCD's. This is because most LCD's use a fluorescent backlight that's constantly shining and the pixels are like shutters, opening and closing to let light through or to block it. This shutter effect causes changes in picture brightness if you move further away from the front of the set.

Features: A number of LCD televisions now include anti-blur technology. Models with a 120Hz refresh rate are fairly common, but many now offer 240Hz refresh rate and the faster the refresh rate the smoother video motion will look on an LCD T.V. LCD and plasma T.V.'s use different methods to illuminate their screens, which is the reason for the differences in motion resolution between the two televisions. The shutter effect in LCD's mentioned earlier contributes to motion blur, but the anti-blur technology featured in LCD's eliminates this smearing effect. Looks like this one goes to LCD's.

Considerations: Deciding which flat panel T.V. type is best for you can be very difficult, but you need to consider a few facts before making the decision. For example, if you like rich colors and deep black levels, if you enjoy sitting "off-axis" when watching T.V., or if you don't watch many TV shows or play video games with static images on the screen for extended periods of time, a plasma set is for you. If, however, you're concerned with conserving energy or you watch a lot of TV shows or play video games with static images on the screen for extended amounts of time, an LCD screen is your best option.

Benefits: Plasma's seem to have one major benefit over LCD's in terms of video. It seems as if LCD's- because of the way they're lit and built mechanically- feature a less crisp picture. In other words, their video is slightly less natural looking than the images featured on plasmas.

Display: Plasma screens are capable of display blacks (or other very dark colors) more accurately than LCD's, which means technically, plasma's are capable of providing better contrast and detail during dark scenes. Once again, this has to do with how LCD's are built; they have a backlight that shines through the LCD layer, making it hard for the television to display true blacks because of leakage between pixels. Plasma's may not have the upper hand in this regard for long, however, because this is improving with every new generation of LCD's.

Source:LCD vs. Plasma