John-Michael Del Valle’s Blog

LCD vs Plasma was one of the most common questions I received while working at Circuit City. It’s probably the first thing we explained to all the rookies. The problem with this was who was telling the person the differences. Everyone is bias to one or the other deep down inside, even myself. Hopefully by the end of this post you’ll get both sides of the picture.

I want to get this straight. Majority of things you’ve heard about plasma’s are WRONG. This will help you decide which is best for YOU. It would annoy me greatly when people would just write off plasma straight from the get go.

Technology:
Plasma – “Many tiny cells located between two panels of glass hold an inert mixture of noble gases. The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which then excites phosphors to emit light. Plasma displays are commonly confused with LCDs, another lightweight flatscreen display but with very different technology.” –Wikipedia

Plasma’s use phosphors gas to produce the image.

LCD- “A liquid crystal display (LCD) is an electro-optical amplitude modulator realized as a thin, flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector.” – Wikipedia

LCD’s use a back light to produce the image.

Environment:

The first thing everyone should know is that the environment where the television is placed is everything. This could make or break a certain television you’ve been eyeing. The amount of light coming into the location of the set is important. If you can’t control the light this could cause problems. I’d say some of the best televisions on the market right now have screens and frames that reflect light. This could be a great annoyance to anyone.
Plasma’s are known to have the screen made of glass where as LCDs have a plastic like screen. This obviously makes it a problem for majority of people with tons of light to go with plasma. Now on the flip side it has become a trend for one of the big names, Samsung, to use a very glossy screen. Samsung’s top models have an extremely glossy screen. Keep in mind some of the Sony models have a glossy finish to them.

Another thing to consider while talking about your environment is the growing trend of piano black frames of newer sets. Your screen may not be something to be worried about when it comes to glare but the frame might be a problem.
When it comes to LCDs you want to have some sort of ambient light to be in the room which helps balance the extremely bright backlights of LCDs. While the darker the environment the better the plasma gets. This goes back the idea of the type of technology.

Sizes:

The size of a television can usually tell you what type of television it is. If the television is smaller than 40” and is a flat panel it’s a LCD. The smallest plasmas are 42” that I know of. Plasmas all generally follow a set pattern when it comes to sizes. They go 42”, 50”, 58”, & 60”. Panasonic has just introduced the 46” size for the first time this year. When it comes to LCDs it gets extremely sporadic. Most manufactures follow to specific pattern. The most popular two Sony and Samsung follow the 32”, 40”, 46”, 52”, & 55” pattern. Some of the others like Sharp, LG, & Toshiba go 37”, 42”, 46”, 47”, 52”, & 65” as their pattern. This of course not the rule of thumb but it’s more or less the general idea. Majority of the larger sets that are more affordable are the plasmas because it’s easier to manufacture a larger set compared to the LCDs.

Picture Quality:

This is a difficult subject to address when not comparing specific models to each other. One of the main things I’m going to touch on is the different type of image each produces. LCDs are known to be the brightest sets with extremely high contrast ratios because of the backlight. This in turn creates an extremely intense and vivid picture. The plasma is a whole different game. Since the colors are produced by gas and not by a light it is argued that picture it creates can be softer. With this said it’s fairly simple to look at a set and determine which is a lcd and which is a plasma when you walk into a store. The LCDs will just jump out at you with a vivid picture and the plasmas will seem a bit dull next to the LCDs. Do NOT let this fool you to think that plasmas can’t compete next to an LCD. The problem is a result of the environment. High end stores will only allow a plasma to be placed in a dark environment. The difference in pictures goes like this in reality. LCDs if not properly calibrated smudge colors because they are showing all the bright colors. You’ll tend to not see many shades of each color. Blacks seem to all be one shade of black because the contrast is jacked up so high. Plasmas in a controlled environment create endless shades of colors but not visible if too much glare and light is hitting the set. Also because light is not producing the colors black is usually extremely black. You’ll hear from the pro’s talk about the black levels of a set. The reason for this is because the dark the black can get means it can create more of a nature feel to the colors. Black is actually black and not a grayish monotone color. Majority of people will see a LCD and fall in love with the bright vivid picture and say how dull the plasmas look or they’ll see a plasma and fall in love with how life like the colors are and complain how artificial the colors are on a LCD.

Another thing worth mentioning when talking about quality is how both do when encountered with fast motion scenes. This is where unfortunately LCDs do not shine. With fast action sports like hockey and football LCDs create tons of pixilation or squares around extreme movements. Plasmas have the upper hand when it comes to sports and action packed movies. When it comes to gaming the best is old tube TVs but plasma is considered to be better than an LCD. Now if you compare low grade plasmas to a good LCD you can count on the LCDs to win. Older model plasmas had a problem with extreme fast motion creating a ghost like image. LCDs have created new models of LCDs that have 120 Hz technology. While this is to smooth out edges created in fast motion it has also create artifacts where it seems like the image is stuttering and have a small trail. This has created a phenomenon called the Tri Ball Effect (TBE). The name comes from when a quarter back throws a ball and you see a trail of balls on the screen that makes it seem like three balls are on the screen.

Resolution:

The first plasmas were enhanced definition (ED TV) which is a resolution of 480i. These sets are extremely rare and are not considered HDTVs so try to stay away from them. Right now a high def television has two main resolutions: 720p & 1080p. Resolution use to vary on the two options until recently. While large plasmas have been around longer they didn’t produce affordable 1080p models in plasma till last years (07’) models. Projections and LCDs were the first sets to commercially see the implementation of 1080p. This in turn created an inflation of LCD prices in the large sizes because of the 1080p models. Now is finally the time you see both plasma and LCDs to come in 1080p models in large sizes. From 2007 and before you had to decide if you wanted to pay for the 1080p in LCDs or go with the 720p in plasmas or LCDs.

A small tip for everyone which I wish everyone would know. If you are sitting further than 9 ft from the set FORGET about 1080p. If a study was done I’d say at least 80% of the people who own a 1080p television are not visually seeing the difference between 720p vs 1080p.

Longevity & Myths:

I’d first like to say that plasmas have a bad name because of the first generations of plasmas. I remember when I first started working at Circuit City I thought to myself blah a plasma why?! They diminish over time. Boy was I wrong in today’s world. Plasma’s have a shelf life of about 60,000 hours and Panasonics are now even claiming 100,000 on newer models. LCDs also have a life of 60,000 hours. Another thing that I was worried about when shopping for a television was the idea that I planned on using my TV as a computer monitor. I thought to myself plasmas get burn-ins if you leave the screen on for too long. While this was very true with the first generations of plasmas it is extremely rare in today’s models. Keep in mind burn-in can still happen with LCDs but you really have to abuse your set. One thing that I did not know and thought was a myth was that plasmas can’t be in high altitude. I did some research and it turned out that this is true. Since the image is produced with gas it doesn’t do well with the high pressure in high altitude.

Price:

Back when plasmas were first introduced the prices where outrageous. Times have changed. The price of plasmas has drastically dropped and now the prices of LCDs have sky rocketed. In the general gist of things if you compare similar sizes and technology you’ll find a way lower price for plasmas. The reason is because of manufacturing cost. It cost a company more to produce the plasmas compared to the LCD. Don’t get me wrong the prices are still up there but you’ll generally find the price of a 50” plasma to be cheaper than the price of a good 52” LCD. Granted you get what you pay for when it comes to televisions for the most part. If you are comparing the price of a Vizio 52” LCD to a Pioneer Elite 50” plasma you’ll most likely find the Vizio to be a steal & if you compare a 50” Panasonic plasma to 52” Sony XBR 8 you’ll consider the Panasonic a steal. I will say before the Sony XBR 8 hit the market the Pioneer Elite Plasma was the most expensive set on the market. Not the Sony XBR 8 LED LCD is the most expensive set on the market.

Now if you live a world where you want the best of everything this is how it will be for 2009. The best plasma will still be the Pioneer Elite on paper. The best LCD will be the Sony XBR 8 on paper. The Pioneer is a bit old now so the price has been driven down. The Sony XBR 8 will be the most expensive LCD for majority if not all of 2009. The only other commercial set that will be around that price range will be Mitsubishi’s new projection Laser TV. I don’t believe Pioneer has an estimated date for the new Kuro LCD, Pioneer has exited the plasma manufacturing and now is turning to LCD other future technology.

Conclusion:

Majority of people will go with LCDs because it’s almost full proof. Plasmas are being considered old technology and eventually predicted not to be around for much longer. Many of the top manufactures in previous times have pulled out; Pioneer and Fujitsu. Most people still have many myths about plasmas stuck in their head. As time goes on prices of LCDs keeps dropping which makes it much harder for plasmas to compete. Light is the major enemy to plasmas and this has eliminated many potential customers. While manufactures have created anti-glare screens it isn’t enough to sway the consumer. Plasmas have become a product of a niche market of consumers. While it can be debated the Pioneer Elite Plasma is still considered to be television on the market by the most respected high def gurus. The progression of LCDs moving to LED backlighting, Laser TV, OLED, SED, and FED we might see the end of the plasma era. I’ll tell you one thing… The Sony XBR 8 LCD has brought some serious competition.

I hope this has helped you understand the differences between LCDs vs Plasmas

Technorati Tags: LCD vs Plasma, LCD vs Plasma Guide, Pioneer Elite vs Sony XBR 8, Plasma vs LCD

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