Flat screen HDTV 50″ LCD or Plasma?
If price is not an issue, then I will have to say plasma, by a very small margin, has better picture quality. Plasma is a mature technology, while LCD flat panel still has room to improve. And given the latest models by Sony, Sharp and Toshiba, I will say LCD is a worthy rival to plasma in terms of picture quality. Personally, I will pick LCD over plasma, since I think the picture quality of the best LCD TVs out there is good enough for me, and the slight disadvantage outweighs the issues with plasma. Plasma TVs can not avoid the burn-in problem, which will come up sooner or later if you watch 4:3 pictures without zooming. The 2 black bars on the side will age less than the center portion, in other words. Now this problem of plasma is probably exaggerated by LCD TV makers, since it might be years before you see the difference in aging depending on how you use your TV, and 4:3 programs are slowing being phased out in the mainstream. The overall aging of plasma panels is also faster, but
Comparison Plasma televisions LCD televisions Advantage Screen Size Screen sizes range from 32 inches to 63 inches. Larger plasmas, like a 103 inch unit from Panasonic, are in production, but are still prohibitively expensive for consumer use. Sizes range from 13 inches to 45 inches. As with plasma, there are larger LCD TVs made, like a 100 inch display recently released by LG, but they are not readily available or affordable at the consumer level. Plasma TVs are the current size champions, particularly when comparing TVs that consumers can easily purchase. LCDs are catching up in size with their developing technology, however, and may surpass Plasmas in the near future. This may be due to difficulties in producing glass large enough for larger plasmas. Viewing Angle Up to 160° Up to 175° LCD TVs have the advantage here, but by a small margin. Your viewing experience is not going to be ideal at 160 or 175 degree angles. LCD TVs used to have a problem in this area, primarily because LCD
I did tons of research before deciding to buy an LCD early this year. I went with an LCD because it has higher resolution than plasma and is future-proof because it handles 1080p. Plasma has a large potential drawback in the form of burn-in or permanent ghosting. If you leave the same image on the screen for too long (like that little logo stations like to keep in the lower right-hand corner), it can leave a permanent impression on your screen. LCD sets supposedly last longer, too, but in practice no one has really been able to prove this yet (not in the real world because they’re still too new). Plasma sets can have better contrast ratios and black levels than LCD, but at this point both are pretty much tied when it comes to picture quality, except that you can get LCDs at higher resolutions at a reasonable price. Higher resolution should translate into better quality when watching High Definition content. As for DLP, they’re less expensive and can also handle 1080p resolution, but th
