Plasma or LCD - a difficult choice

As the days of black and white TVs have quietly "sunk into oblivion", the devices with a conventional kinescope are gradually falling out of fashion. A new generation of flat-panel TVs is gradually gaining a TV market. Prices for them have already dropped significantly, and many consumers are thinking about what to change their morally obsolete "box". And here arises a natural question: what is better - plasma or LCD TV.

And to solve this dilemma, it is necessary to understand the differences between them. And there are differences between them, and they consist in completely different principles of image submission to the screen. Each of these technologies has its disadvantages and advantages. And to find out what is different plasma TV from the LCD is a little deeper into the history of creating these technologies.

LCD technology has been known for more than a hundred years, since 1904. Initially, liquid crystals were developed in order to transmit a "dead" image. These are the displays of watches and calculators. This went on for many years, until this technology was first used for computer monitors, and then for conventional TVs.

Well, the technology of "plasma" was discovered in 1964. But for the first time for the television screen it was used in 1998, during the Winter Olympics in Nagano. This technology made it possible to broadcast an image on a large screen, the dimensions of which for traditional TVs were not available.

And now it's worth going through the main parameters of TVs, which are interesting for consumers. And one of them is the screen size. In this confrontation - plasma or LCD - the plasma is leading. First, the minimum size of the plasma screen is 32 inches. Secondly, plasma TVs with a diagonal of 42 inches are still cheaper than LCD-TVs with the same size. But the first point does not always work for plasma. After all, not all need big TVs, and not all they can afford. Therefore, in the segment of the market for televisions with small screens, unequal competition for liquid crystals can be made only by old good kinescopes.

Plasma or LCD - these two technologies are measured not only by size. Energy consumption is also not the last factor. And if more recently plasma panels turned the counters faster than LCD-TVs, now they almost equaled electricity consumption. Also controversial is the parameter of TVs as the viewing angle. With plasmas everything is clear - on them the image remains clear within 160 degrees. And some manufacturers of LCD screens claim that they achieved a viewing angle of 178 degrees. But these figures cause some doubt. After all, the picture on these screens fades and loses contrast at much smaller angles.

Many people who have fallen asleep black-and-white TVs, remember how many then served "Records" and "Birches". Their service life was estimated in decades. Also now, the one who faces a choice - plasma or LCD - is interested in how much it will serve its new acquisition. Manufacturers of LCD-displays declare that their "offsprings" can work up to 40 years, if they include an average of 4 hours each day. At the same time, the lifetime of plasma panels is considered to be half that. But to prove this statement will be possible only in 10-20 years, when the first "long-livers" appear with each of the "warring sides". And now we can say with certainty only one thing: LCD displays really have a longer service life.

Another important aspect of the dilemma - plasma or LCD is color transfer. In this parameter, the plasma uniquely wins. This is achieved by a method of blocking light in such panels. In the plasma, inactive pixels are turned off, and therefore there is no outside light on the screen. And in LCD technologies, light constantly penetrates into the slits of the pixel grid. This gives the colors a gray and distorts the natural shades.

And at the same time, plasma screens can suffer from burnout. Such an effect can occur if a static picture hangs on it for a long time. And the phosphor "wears out" from such intense "work". This will cause the silhouette of the residual image to become visible on the screen after a while. And LCD TVs do not suffer from such a "disease." Also, many of the parameters of TVs depend on the manufacturer, his conscientiousness. And this applies to both technologies. And which of them to choose, everyone has the right to decide for himself.