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LCD TV’s VS. Plasma TV’s The general public has always thought about the controversy of the differences in LCD and Plasma TV’s. When a person goes to a store it is very hard to distinguish between plasma television set and a LCD television set. The sales people hardly even know the difference but people rely on them to be telling them the truth about what is better for the buck. Just remember when buying a television the sales man gets paid depending on how much a person buys, so they are going to try to gear the buyer toward the biggest most expensive TV and that is not always the best choice. Looking at plasmas and LCD’s they are identical in size, basic function, and brands. Although differences sometimes are hard to see just by looking at them. No one wants to make a large purchase of one of these wondering “what if I bought the other one.” So the point of this paper is to go over a few major parts of the two different types of TV’s to give whoever more knowledge of this product that may help the readers with a decision of a purchase. This will hopefully benefit everyone in the future if anyone is ever confused of what kind of TV they would like to purchase. Although all LCD and Plasma televisions may look and work the same they are different in many ways.
The first thing that this essay is going to cover is the makeup of each type of TV’s. The Plasma TV’s are made up of hundreds of thousands of individual pixel cells, which allows electrical pulses. These electrical pulses excite rare gases called xenon and neon lights to glow. The lights light up proper balances of blue, red, and green colors. Each pixel is an individual microscopic florescent light bulb. These bulbs receive signals from computer software on an electrostatic silicon board. LCD’s are made up with the same background of a projection screen TV. Which contain a matrix of thin film transistors also known as TFT’s these supply voltage to liquid crystal filled cells put in between two sheets of glass. When they are hit with the electrical current the crystals are twisted at the perfect angle to filter white light that is generated by a lamp behind the screen. The first thing that people think about when they purchase a new TV other than the size and price is picture quality. Both plasma and LCD televisions have exceptional picture quality although one is better than the other. The contrast and back levels are very much different between the two, plasma TV’s have a brilliant black but use the most energy while displaying white or light colors. This can cause a weird noise when displaying white. LCD TV’s are the opposite about using the most power LCD’s use the most power while displaying in a darker color. In this particular category LCD has the disadvantage because the colors are not as crisp, and also the off axis viewing of this type of TV is less than Plasma.
With Plasma TV’s you can see virtually 180 degrees as of the LCD viewing angle is about 120 degrees. What this means is that when someone is viewing a LCD TV if they are looking at the television from the side then the picture is not very clear. On the other hand with plasma people can look at it from the complete side and still see the picture. As far as the color accuracy the plasma wins again, depending on the room lighting. In a room that is darker the plasma works a lot better with crisper colors. The lighter rooms the LCD does a little bit better. If someone wanted to purchase a TV to use mainly for their computer usage then it would be better to purchase a LCD television for a few reasons. The LCD uses 1080p resolution while connected to the computer while the plasma only uses 780p resolution. Also the other thing people have to worry about with plasma is the burn in on the screen. With LCD people don’t have to worry about burn in on the screen at all although the plasma they do. Burn in on a screen means that if the same image stays on the