Money
Getting the best deal
Plasma or LCD? The big screen test
Technology writer Jonathan Margolis sheds light on the screens
What’s the difference between plasma and LCD TVs?
Whatever anyone tells you, there is a significant difference between these two varieties of the large, thin, flat-screen TVs which dominate the market these days.
Most of us - even people in the shops - either say plasma and LCD are the same thing, or that LCDs are better than plasmas, which is not necessarily the case. It's all become extra-confusing because all flat-screen sets tend to be called 'plasmas'. Plasma does not mean the same as either big or flat.
Why did the confusion arise?
The reason 'plasma' is used as a generic term is that the first flat TVs on the market in 1997 - the super-expensive ones that the well-off hung on their walls - happened to be plasma. In fact, LCD is the older technology, but was originally designed for static displays - screens at exhibitions, computer displays and the like.
A couple of years later, manufacturers began adapting LCD screens for moving TV pictures and models like the Sony Wega range and lately their Bravias began to gain popularity as they were perceived as being newer. LCDs appear to have a sharper, brighter picture than plasmas (something we’ll return to).
Within a couple of years, Sony, along with well-known LCD manufacturers such as Philips, Sharp and LG, began to promote their LCD screens and, with a combination of compelling marketing and superb TVs, convinced us that LCD was superior. Henceforth, plasma was seen as a thing of the past, or as necessary only in screens of above about 42in, for which LCD technology is not suitable.
What do plasma and LCD mean?
In a plasma panel, hundreds of thousands of tiny holes are sandblasted into glass and filled with a mixture of inert gases. Each cell is wired with electrodes that electrically heat the gases into a super-hot plasma. This plasma excites a phosphor coating to emit light in various colours. An LCD (liquid crystal display) screen has hundreds of thousands of transistor-like pixels, whose molecular structure and colour changes as different levels of current flow through them.
The crucial difference between the two is that an LCD display has to be backlit with a powerful electric bulb.
So does anyone think plasma is better?
Yes, a group of companies that specialise in plasma screens – Panasonic (whose sexy Viera range has been plasma’s biggest success), Pioneer, and Hitachi. They say plasma, while it lacks the punchy backlit impact of LCD and appears to some to give a softer picture, provides a more sophisticated image, especially in a darkened or semi-darkened setting where you might want to settle down and watch a film. The blacks on a plasma screen are much denser, especially in the darkened room. They also argue that plasma is better at handling fast-moving sport.
Is the difference obvious to most people?
Pioneer has set up a side-by-side plasma/LCD comparison. And it’s certainly convincing, even though we wouldn’t be surprised if, say, Sony (whose newest Bravias have more or less solved the problem LCDs have with those fast-moving pictures) could mount an equally impressive side-by-side exhibit to prove its point. But as you spend more time with plasma TV, its subtler charms do start to seduce you. My impressions have been backed up, interestingly, by consumer research in the UK, France and Germany last year for Pioneer and Panasonic. The research firm Synovate found that 603 randomly selected consumers in controlled circumstances preferred the image on a plasma to that on an LCD.
So what TV should I buy?
It depends how and what you watch. In a darkened room, even the best LCD makes deep blacks look grey and transparent.
But if you often watch TV in daylight or with lights on, an LCD may well suit you better.
* This article first appeared in the October edition of Saga Magazine
