Xigga

It’s quite clear that plasma is loosing it’s ground to LCD. I never thought plasma TVs had any chance to begin with. The first flat-panel TV I saw was a Pioneer plasma at BestBuy. It looked nice, but cost $13,000! There weren’t any LCDs there. After a year, it was down to about $9,000, if I remember correctly. This is when LCD TVs started coming out. Currently plasmas are cheaper than LCDs, but there’s a reason. They aren’t as good as LCDs. Let’s do a comparison.

Advantages

Cost - Today you can find plasmas a lot cheaper than a LCD for the same size. Cost is important because you’re paying for it.

Size - You can get plasma’s larger than 52″ for a good price. There are only a couple LCDs out that are larger than 52″. One is the Samsung LNT5781Fwhich is 57″, and the other is a Sony KDL-70XBR3, which is 70″. But it seems like Sony will stop making those. Buy the 70″ as fast as you can because it’s only $32,999.00. Or you can buy a car, your loss.

Disadvantages

Heat - Plasmas create a lot of heat, more than CRTs. More heat means more wear, which shortens the life of the parts. It’s the same thing with computers. If you don’t ventilate them, they will run 5-10 degrees celcius higher and it will shorten the lifespan. The current half-life rating of plasmas is around 60,000 hours. Compared to 20,000 a couple years back. They accomplished it by shifting the pixels over a certain interval. This is unnoticeable to the eye because it’s a minor shift. It shifts about 1-3 pixels in a single direction. This reduces the time each pixel stays active.

Burn In - Burn in is common to plasmas, CRTs, and LCDs. But plasmas are easily affected. If the image doesn’t change on the screen for 30 minutes or more, then it will burn in to the screen. The brighter the image, the stronger (easily noticeable) the burn in. LCDs take longer to burn in, even then it’s hard to notice. You can easily see a burn in if you display a solid light-gray image.

Power Consumption - Plasmas use as much power as CRTs, and some times more. The power consumption for plasmas is around 200-240 watts. CRTs are in about the same range. LCDs usually range in 130-175 watts. It depends on the size of the TV. The new LED LCDs use less power.

Fragile - Plasma screens have a glass panel. You have to be careful because it can crack and cause the gas to escape. No gas means no TV. LCDs have a plastic material screen, and plastic can absorbe stress and return back to it’s shape. Some older LCDs had a protective glass layer, but if it cracked your TV would still work.

Conclusion

The biggest concerns are heat and power consumption. Heat and power consumption go together. The more power it uses, the more heat you get. Within a couple years plasmas will cease to exist. LCDs evolved faster, and overcame it’s drawbacks faster than the plasma technology. If you want a cheap TV and don’t mind upgrading in 5 years, you can go for it. Don’t get comfortable with LCD either, there are two technologies that are emerging, SED and OLED. Stay tuned…