Flat Panel Advice

The main technology behind most flat screen TV’s is either Plasma or LCD. Here we try to give you some basic advice on how to make a decision on what to buy. Firstly, how do they work? The boring stuff…..

PLASMA

Dependent on the information in a video signal from your analogue/digital tuner, SKY box, DVD player, gaming console the Plasma television lights up thousands of tiny dots (called pixels) with a high-energy beam of electrons. In most systems, there are three pixel colours red, green and blue which are evenly distributed on the screen. By combining these colours in different proportions, the television can produce the entire colour spectrum.

Plasma TV’s are very large and thin with good contrast ratios providing excellent colour reproduction and smooth images. With an HD source TV, gaming or films can be viewed in cinematic colour.

LCD

LCD technology is based on the properties of polarized light. Two thin, polarized panels sandwich a thin liquid-crystal gel that is divided into individual pixels. An X/Y grid of wires allows each pixel in the array to be activated individually. When an LCD pixel darkens, it polarizes at 90 degrees to the polarizing screens.

The pixel darkens in proportion to the voltage applied to it: for a bright detail, a low voltage is applied to the pixel; for a dark shadow area, a higher voltage is applied. LCDs are not completely opaque to light, however; some light will always go through even the blackest LCD pixels.

LCD technology is advancing rapidly and is a good alternative to Plasma. LCD typically has a longer life span and uses less power than CRT or Plasma. With the advance of the HD ready and Full HD models picture quality is improving in leaps and bounds look for low millisecond response times to give you sharper clearer images.

Comparisons	LCD	Plasma	Notes
Size	25"-50"	42"-50"	Plasma offers very good image quality on larger screens 42” and above but do not rule LCD out, as the newer models have superb image quality.
Brightness	500 - 600(cd/m2)	1000 - 1300(cd/m2)	Although the brightness has a higher measurement on Plasma this is a bit misleading as Plasma has a “shiny” surface and therefore gives a higher rating. In actual viewing they appear no brighter. In bright environments LCD is a better choice as they do not reflect as much light.
Contrast	500:1 - 3000:1	3000:1 - 10000:1	Plasma has the ability to display a higher level of black detail.
Life Span	60,000 hours+	Up to 60k hours	Plasma no longer has a problem with life expectancy, if you view on average 5 hours a day then that will take you 27 years before you need to replace the screen. Plasma may however deteriorate in brightness and colour accuracy over time where LCD does not.
Viewing Angle	Generally up to 170 degrees	Perfect viewing angles	LCD colour and brightness may be affected from extreme viewing angles, plasma does not suffer from this.
Latency	Can show blurring on fase moving scenes	N/A	LCD can blur on fast moving scenes to avoid this look for response times of under 12ms.
Screen Burn	N/A	Can suffer from screen burn	In some cases if an image is displayed for a long time on a plasma screen this can result in screen burn which could be temporary or permanent in extreme cases.
Colour Accuracy	Excellant colour accuracy on newer screens, blacks not as good as plasma	Very accurate colour accuracy	Both technologies now have very good colour accuracy. LCD is not as good on blacks but does not suffer from flicker which can be seen in plasma on occasion.
Power Consumption (42" Screen)	150W	250W	Plasma uses more power.