What type of tv plasma or lcd

Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Robert Silva. Robert Silva has extensive experience in consumer electronics and home theater product sales and sales supervision; he has written about audio, video, and home theater topics since Robert has articles published on HBO.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Updated on December 31, Chris Selph. Lifewire Technology Review Board Member. Article reviewed on Jun 05, TVs have evolved over the years, and different technologies have come and gone. The TV market in the 21st century has been defined by large technological advancements. However, not long after, plasma suffered the same fate as its long-forgotten counterparts. Liquid Crystal Display LCD TVs have held the market share of sales since , and companies stopped manufacturing plasmas altogether by Before explaining the differences between each technology, it's important to understand how each TV displays an image.

Plasma TVs contain tiny pockets of gas, and when a voltage is applied to them, they turn into a plasma state. The voltage then strikes the mercury within the plasma to emit ultraviolet UV rays, which pass through phosphor cells to produce an image. Each pixel in the TV contains three phosphor cells: red, green, and blue, and these three colors combine to produce a color.

Essentially, plasma TVs don't require a backlight, and each pixel is self-emissive as it produces its own light. These are long tubes that are placed horizontally across the screen behind the LCD panel. When the light is turned on, it applies a voltage to the pixels, which makes them rotate a certain way to allow light through and produce an image. When it wants to display black, the pixels are rotated to create an opaque screen so that light doesn't get through.

This is what makes them different from plasma TVs because each pixel isn't self-emitting. It's also important to note LED is simply a marketing term used by manufacturers to describe their backlight. Learn about differences between full-array and edge-lit local dimming.

Plasma and LED TVs each present their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of picture quality, price, build, and availability.

It's generally thought that plasma produces a better picture quality due to their superior contrast ratio, but LED TVs became more popular because of other factors, like a lower cost and greater availability. Below you can see the differences in picture quality between two older TVs from It's clear the plasma was better at the time, but LED TVs have also gotten better since then, so picture quality has greatly improved. Contrast ratio was one of the main advantages and selling points of plasma TVs.

Since each pixel emitted its own light, it simply turned itself off when it wanted to display a black image. This allowed the TV to display very deep blacks, but because there was always a bit of charge left in the plasma, it still wasn't a perfect black level. However, technology has evolved to greatly improved the contrast of LED TVs, even to the point where it's also as good as what plasma once was. Still, you won't get a perfect black level, but most modern LED TVs produce such deep blacks that even in a dark environment it looks like perfect black levels.

For reference, plasma TVs had a max contrast of about 4,, according to DisplayMate. Learn more about contrast ratio. LED TVs are a clear winner here, and it's one of the reasons why they surpassed plasmas in terms of popularity. LED TVs get significantly brighter, so they can fight glare from light sources easier. Additionally, plasma TVs had to use glass on their front panel, which caused intense glare if you had any lamps or windows around the TV. LED TVs can use a coating on their glass panel to help reflect and diffuse light, making it a better choice for well-lit rooms.

Plasmas were designed for dark-room viewing, but since most people don't have dedicated home theater setups and often watch with a few light sources around, they weren't that useful. As you can see below, the plasma TV had pronounced reflections, to the point where it's even hard to see the image, and instead you're watching yourself watch TV.

Learn more about peak brightness and reflection handling. This means that the image remained accurate when viewing from the side, which was great for watching sports or a show with a few people. TV manufacturers have tried different technologies to improve viewing angles on VA panels. Some LED TVs feature local dimming as the means to compensate for the limited contrast and grayish blacks. This feature basically dims parts of the screen that are supposed to be dark, without affecting bright areas.

In some high-end LCD TVs, this can do wonders for the image quality, but if the local dimming is poorly implemented, it can also cause undesired defects, such as halo and bloom.

As far as monitors are concerned, almost every monitor on the market is LED-backlit, so you should look out for other specs such as refresh rate, panel type, response time, and so on. Don't make the mistake of buying a TV that's too big for your living room! For anything above 50 inches you should look to a plasma TV, as they provide more detail in larger formats. If you're looking to stick to a budget, both LCDs and plasmas will offer what you're looking for - LCDs for small televisions, plasmas for larger ones.

All new TVs sold in Australia come with an energy efficiency label, meaning that you can see how much electricity the TV will consume. With electricity prices constantly rising, it's important that you also take into account the ongoing costs to run your television.

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