Both LCD & Plasma are flat screened and thin, but this is where the similarities end. Both use very different technology to deliver you quality results and no longer do televisions require a bulky picture tube. This has seen a revolution in televisions by allowing them to now be mounted on walls and become a design element as much as a source of entertainment.

So here comes the tech talk;

A Plasma screen has “neon-xenon” gas injected between two glass panels, then sealed in plasma during manufacturing. Plasma screens then use an electric charge to turn these gases into a plasma, which then hits red, green and blue phosphors, showing an image on the television.

A LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display screen, contains millions of tiny crystals sealed in a special polymer layer. These crystals are manipulated with an electric field, and backlit to display various colours.

So which is better? What should you buy? Each has advantages and disadvantages, but depending on what priorities you place on your viewing, you can be satisfied with either option.

As Plasma requires phosphors to be burned, it generates quite a lot more heat than LCD, and in turn is more energy hungry. It does however produce better colour accuracy and saturation than LCD, and is able to display much deeper blacks and stronger contrast. They are also ideal for low light environments.

LCD screens are unable to produce dark blacks, because they work by blocking the light that is passed through. Achieving a total 100% block to produce a true black is not possible. Despite this, LCD produce a brighter image than plasma, and tend to produce less glare. With a cooler running temperature, LCD screens use less energy, so will cost less to run than plasma. To add another element to give you more to think about is the evolution of LED screens. LED utilise the same liquid crystal layer, but instead of using the “regular” backlit source (cold cathode fluorescent lights), they use light emitting diodes, also known as LED’s. LED screens will certainly be the direction going forward in the future of LCD screens.

So which technology is for you?