What is the difference between a plasma and an LCD tv?

Question

What is the difference between a plasma and an LCD tv?

Answer 1

They are both flat panel types of TVs. Which technology is right or you varies on your lifestyle. Plasma handles motion way better than LCD, has a higher contrast ration and can display truer, deeper color since it doesn't have a back light to shine through and wash anything out. It has the widest viewing angles out of any TV and gives a more 3d effect when viewing. Great for sports and action movies. Looks even better in a dim room, since it has a glare. The glare doesn't bug like old curved tube tvs did since the screen is flat and a lot of the plasmas have a coating on the screen to help minimize it.

LCD has a noticeably brighter picture since it actually has a bulb inside. It typically doesn't have a glare, except for higher end Samsung models. The black levels which are best for detail and dept lack a bit and can seem purplish black. It uses less energy than the plasma, but cost more so it evens out in the end. The LCD doesn't suffer from picture retention after images are left on the screen for a long time, but even if plasma does it washes out completely so it's nothing to worry about. Go ahead and play video games on a plasma and watch the CNN ticker, you have nothing to worry about! BURN IN no longer exists. Bottom line, if you watch sports buy a plasma, the blurring effects of LCD can be annoying. The 120hz feature on some does help, but can give it a computerized look that some people don't like.

P.s. Don't believe the ignorant people that say you have to refill the gas on a plasma, it's sealed like an airplane, you can't do that. The gases also don't leak or cause and physical harm

Answer 2

A plasma screen uses plasma... an LCD screen uses liquid crystal.  In terms of quality, I personally prefer the LCD over the plasma, but it's really just a matter of personal opinion.  LCD is also a whole lot cheaper.

Answer 3

Both are good technologies,

Plasma tvs have gas inside them that gets ignited by electrodes, which forms the image on the screen.  Plasma tvs will offer deeper, richer color than an lcd, and will also refresh the image 4-8 times faster than an lcd.  However, there can be significant glare issues with a plasma because of its glass panel.  So, a plasma would be good if you generally watch tv in a darker room or at night, and if you watch fast movie programming like sports or action movies, but if you have a well-lit room you should probably consider and lcd.

LCD screens are made up of liquid-crystal-diodes (get it? lcd!). The diodes are lit by a backlight to produce the image on the screen.  An LCD image is extremely bright, and has a matte finish on the screen, much like a computer monitor, so there are no glare issues.  LCDs are great if you have a room with some light in it, because the tv is bright enough to not be overpowered by the ambient light in the room.

They both have the same lifespan, about 60000 hours of use.

You can usually find plasma cheaper at the same screen size as LCD.  Usually at 50+ inches the plasmas are much much cheaper.