In the last 10 years, TV technology has advanced to a great extent and has brought in state of art technologies in providing the finest flat-screen TVs. The most important aspect of the technology used has mainly focused around the size, resolution and compatibility and with this, in the last 5 to 10 years there has been a gradual change in the choice and viewing expectations of people.
The manufacturers have now started to put in unique features in their flat-screen TV models making the product having a distinctive advantage of full film effect viewing along with outstanding sound technology. There are various types of flat-screen TVs in the market today, and in order that you could decide between Plasma, LCD, and a LED TV, you ought to know a bit about the differences.
Overview of Plasma TV: The display in a Plasma TV is made up of millions of tiny plasma cells, and to put it simply, these cells emit light to create a complete image on the screen when a precise voltage is applied to them.
Plasma TVs available now offer larger screen size than LCDs. The screen sizes of Plasma TVs that are commonly available in the market include, 30 inch, 42 inch, 50 inch and 63 inch models, while the LCD TVs are limited to smaller screen sizes, which range from 10 inch to 40 inch models. Presently larger screen sizes of more than 60 inches are being made available in the market. One favourable point is that, the LCD technology is more flexible, which allows wide variety of screen sizes to be developed.
Advantages on Plasma TVs:
- Plasma TVs are available in larger display screen sizes.
- Plasma has better black levels, and also the contrast ratio.
- Plasma TVs can be viewed from any angle, as long as the viewing angle is between 160 to 180 degrees. - Plasma TVs have top refreshing rate which captures every detail in a fast action scene.
- Plasma screen can display billions of colors, producing smooth gradations of shades, enhancing the picture quality to a great extent, making the images life-like and realistic, responding sharply to fast moving images.
Disadvantages of Plasma TVs:
- Plasma TVS do not perform as well at higher altitudes.
- Plasma TVs are more susceptible to burn-in of static images.
- Plasma TVS are thicker than LCD TVs and hence much heavier.
- Plasma TVs produce glare in brightly lit rooms though some advancement in technology has been made to correct this.
Overview of LCD TVs: LCD TVs have Liquid Crystal Displays, a technology which is seen being used in computer monitors, cell phones, and at times are found in camera screens. LCD screen was first created for computer monitors, and now with the application of the technology in LCD TVs, they seem to be a bit better when you are playing games on your TV. However, the choice entirely depends on the user, since some like the vivid colors in Plasma TV, which comes from its deep black levels.
LCD panels work with liquid crystal solution being sandwiched between two polarized glasses. When an electrical voltage is applied to the liquid crystal, the crystals rotate, and this changes the polarization of the light passing through them. A LCD panel does not generate light by itself. It just filters or subtracts its back light source to create an image on the screen.
Advantages of LCD TVs:
- LCD TVs have better longevity than the Plasma. The average life-span has been predicted as more than 30 years.
- The display of LCD TVs uses lower power compared to Plasma TVs, but has more consumption than LED. - The screen sizes of LCD TVs are available in various sizes starting from computer monitor screens to over 60 inches.
Disadvantages of LCD TVs:
- The TV has a very poor contrast level and responds slower to fast moving images, creating a blur.
- The prices of LCD TVs are higher than the Plasma, and because of the demand and increased production the prices are gradually falling.
Overview of LED TVs: The term 'LED' stands for Light Emitting Diode. It is an electronic component which emits light when a certain voltage potential is applied to its terminals. Though the TV using this technology is call LED TV, but the LED light source is used as the TV's backlight, while the TV screen is actually LCD. Though some current TV models use CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps), LED form of backlighting remains a far more efficient TV backlight system.
The Advantages of LED TVs are as follows:
- With LEDs as the backlighting source, the TVs have a far better dynamic contrast level than LCD TVs, since it uses a direct backlighting technology.
- LED TVS are ultra thin as much as about an inch in thickness.
- The power consumption of LED TVs are less than the LCD TVs currently available.
- Out of the flat screen TVs available in the market today, LED TVs are considered to be most reliable.
The disadvantage is that LED TVS are higher priced than LCD TVs, but prices are expected to come down with increased production.
The above is an attempt to provide a basic conception about the differences between the three technologies available presently in flat-screen TVs which would help a buyer to decide which TV to buy.
