LCD vs Plasma

LCD vs Plasma is often the next decision facing consumers who have decided that a flat panel display best suits their needs. Both have strengths and weakness and selection of plasma or LCD is dependent upon the individual consumer’s needs and preferences. Presently, LCD HDTV have a significant number of sales lead over plasma HDTV. The Bestselling flat panel list at Amazon is a reasonable gauge of a the relative popularity of each display type.

LCD HDTV

Plasma Display Technology in Brief

Plasma technology is based on pixels containing three sub-pixels (or cells) of microscopic fluorescent lamps in the primary colors red, green and blue (RGB). Variation of the intensity of these sub-pixels produces a wide palette of colors. The lamps don’t actually produce a visible light and require a scintillator (phosphor) coating which converts the invisible radiation into visible light.

Plasma Display Strengths

Wider, more vibrant color range equates to more realistic pictures. Plasma displays do not create the RGB sub-pixels by filtering the backlight as with an LCD displays and have a wider range of color reproduction from the scintillator materials available.

Wider viewing angles than LCD are achievable as each cell produces light directly. This means that there is less dimming, contrast loss and color shift at larger angles from the display centreline for a plasma HDTV. The difference is not is great as it previously has been however with LCD manufacturers having made significant improvements in the width of the viewing angle before image quality is compromised with figures of 170 to 176 degrees commonly quoted.

Deeper blacks provide more detail in darker scenes. To create black plasma pixels are turned off to emit no light which is more effective than the darkening of liquid crystals to block the backlight in an LCD display. Some backlight seepage through the liquid crystals does occur. Once again, LCD manufacturers have made significant improvements in LCD display black levels to close the performance gap. Light leakage in an LCD display can also degrade color saturation (intensity).

Superb contrast, produced by superior black levels, is a feature of plasma displays. The Imaging Science Foundation, a group that consults for home-theater manufacturers and trains professional video calibrators, considers contrast ratio the most important aspect of picture quality followed by color saturation (intensity), and color accuracy with resolution coming fourth.

Rapid response time for excellent motion handling. The rapid electrical discharging of the individual cells which make up pixels give plasma displays an ultra fast response time making them ideal for viewing video with fast moving objects such as sports broadcasts.

Plasma Weaknesses

Lower Peak Resolution. Due to plasma pixel size limitations plasma HDTVs have size (about 40 inches diagonal) and resolution (1080p, 1920×1080 pixels) restrictions.

Lower screen brightness than LCD displays means plasma HDTVs do not perform as well in higher ambient light levels as LCD displays. This is only a problem if you intend to watch your HDTV in bright light which will degrade the picture quality of any display.

LCD Display Technology in Brief

Liquid crystals don’t emit any light. All the qualities but, also all the faults of the technology, stem from that key characteristic. As with plasma displays, an LCD pixel is made up of three primary color sub-pixels. LCD crystals act like light valves controlling the amount of light from the backlight allowed through. Color is added by filters with brightness control achieved by the darkening or lightening of the liquid crystal regulating the amount of light allowed to pass through. This is a simplified explanation with the actual physics involved depending upon polarization of light.

LCD Display Strengths

Higher native resolutions / smaller display sizes are possible due to the smaller pixel sizes of LCD displays. For screen sizes below 40 inches LCD displays have higher resolution for the same screen size.

Higher screen brightness than plasma displays. Higher screen brightness from strong backlights means LCD are more suited to higher ambient light environments than plasmas.

Significantly lower power consumption than plasma displays of the order of 30 percent

Generally lighter and slimmer than plasma displays making them easier to move and wall mount

LCD Display Weaknesses

Narrower viewing angle range there is dimming and color shift at shallower angles than plasmas

Prone to motion blur LCD displays have a slower response time than plasma displays resulting from the longer time it takes for liquid crystal cells to go from white to black to white again. With fast moving on-screen action there is the possibility of smearing or break-up of the image. However, the performance gap has closed significantly with LDC HDTV with response times of 4 ms available.

Plasma vs LCD Factors that Now Provide No Distinction

Plasma Burn-in Myth

Susceptibility to burn-in has not been included as a weakness of plasma displays as it has been proven to be not the case with modern plasma displays. Plasma displays under normal or even excessive viewing conditions are not susceptible to image burn-in. Plasma manufacturers been successful in developing materials and techniques to avoid burn-in such as pixel shifting (or orbiting), improved phosphor materials, white washing and scrolling. Tests have shown that even under extreme conditions (still images for 24 hours or more) some image retention may result but, is quickly and easily fixed with normal viewing. Pioneer is confident enough that burn-in is not a problem to market plasma PC monitors.