LCD vs Plasma: Getting the Picture
If you are looking for a new television, it’s no longer a matter of just choosing the size and design that suits you. Now you also have to choose between the technologies used to make them, of which the main two are LCD and plasma. These are what have transformed televisions from bulky boxes to sleek, ultra-thin, flat-screen devices and allowed home users to buy huge screens of a size that was once only seen in corporate offices.
So how do you choose between LCD and plasma? We can help. By comparing their features here you can decide which one will suit you best:
- First impressions: size and weight
- Picture quality: colours and resolution
- What will you be watching?
- Where will you use it?
- Practical matters, such as burn-in and consumption.
But first, a quick technology lesson
How they work
LCD TVs consist of a matrix of tiny, coloured, liquid crystal cells. When light from behind the screen is shone through them, the cells light up. Signals control the amount of light shining through each cell, allowing each one to emit a different shade of the appropriate colour.
Plasma displays also have an array of tiny cells, but in this case they each contain an inert mixture of gases. When a voltage difference is created between the front and back of the cells, the gas turns into a plasma which emits photons, which in turn cause phosphors on the back of each cell to give off coloured light. It’s the same sort of technology as a fluorescent lamp.
In both cases, each pixel is actually made up of three separate cells that are red, green and blue, so that the pixel can display any one of billions of colours made up of a combination of red, green and blue light. The TV picture is created from all the differently coloured pixels on the screen.
Back to topFirst impressions
Due to the way that LCD and plasma televisions work, it used to be hard for manufacturers to design small plasma screens and large LCD TVs. For a few years this made the buying decision a lot easier, as there was little crossover in the middle size range and your choice of technology was determined by the size of screen that you wanted: large screens = plasma and small screens = LCD.
Now, though, LCD TVs are being sold with larger and larger screens. You still won’t see any very small plasma screens, so if you want anything less than around a 32in screen, your choice is between an LCD and old-fashioned cathode ray tube (CRT) TV. But if you want 32in or more, you will need to consider other factors to get the right technology. At the lower end of this crossover plasma screens tend to be more expensive than LCD TVs of the same size, but the largest LCDs are more expensive and the price differential can vanish.
LCD and plasma TVs are very thin compared to traditional CRT televisions; usually a matter of a few inches thick at most. This means that they can be hung on a wall, as well placed on a stand. However, plasma screens are usually thicker and significantly heavier than their LCD counterparts, so you need to take extra precautions when mounting them on a wall: remember to make sure the wall is suitable, as well as the mounting kit and screws.
The extra weight of plasma screens means they are not as easy to move around. And they are renowned for being more ‘delicate’ than LCD TVs, although manufacturers do what they can to reduce this problem. But if you think you may want to change where your television sits, you should bear these issues in mind.
Back to topPicture quality
First, let’s consider colour. Or rather, let’s look at the total absence of colour: black.
The quality of the black on any TV can strongly affect how good the overall image appears. Plasma screens have long been renowned for offering true, or near-enough true, black as the cells can be switched off completely. Light leaking through the pixels of an LCD screen, however, means that a cell that should be black can appear slightly grey instead. Better greyscale reproduction means that you can get more detail in dark picture areas.
Plasma screens have also, historically, been able to display a wider range of visible colours than LCD TVs and have better colour saturation, allowing more authentic tones in colours overall.
Manufacturers of LCD TVs have made great strides in rectifying these issues, so it’s no longer a given that the colours on a plasma TV will be better than on any LCD model. And LCDs can generally deliver brighter pictures than plasma TVs, although you need to make sure this isn’t just used to make up for lack of contrast. For guidance on assessing TVs, see our TV buying guide.
While plasmas have led the way in terms of colour, LCDs have traditionally offered higher resolutions (the number of pixels; see our TV buying guide for more information). This allows them to show more visible detail compared to lower resolution plasma screens. However, proponents of plasma screens argue that their better colour quality and faster response times (the time to change the colour of each pixel) more than compensate for this.
Back to topWhat will you be watching?
The fast response times offered by plasma screens mean that they can be better for watching fast action sequences and sports. Conversely, the higher resolutions of LCD TVs can make them better for use with high definition (HD) and computer sources, with LCD’s picture brightness making them good for computer gaming and animated movies.
Reading reviews and seeing a TV in action (showing the kinds of output you want to watch, preferably from the same kind of source) are your best ways of judging which will be best for you.
Back to topWhere will you use it?
As we explain in our TV buying guide, you should always buy a TV that is an appropriate size for where you plan to use it. And we’ve mentioned above that you need to take extra care if you want to mount a plasma TV on a wall. However, you also need to consider where you will sit in relation to the screen as you watch it. Despite what may be quoted in their specs, plasma TVs have a wider decent viewing angle than LCD TVs: as you move from being directly in front of an LCD screen across to one side, the colour and brightness will fall off more quickly than with a plasma TV.
Also think about the ambient light. Both types of TV should be fine in most lighting conditions, but LCDs are marginally easier to see in bright light than plasma screens.
Back to topPractical matters
Aside from their sometimes heftier price tag, plasma screens can be more expensive to own after you’ve bought them as they tend to use more electricity; up to twice as much as LCD TVs. Both use significantly more than CRT TVs, in both normal and standby modes.
Plasma screens also have shorter half-lives (where the light emitted drops to half of its original brightness). However, the figures still indicate a very long life for the average TV user, so this is a bit of a red herring as it’s quite likely you would be considering replacing any TV, no matter what type, by that stage anyway.
Finally, plasma TVs can suffer from ‘burn-in’, where any image on the screen that is static for significant periods during the first 100 hours or so of a TV’s life become permanently etched on the screen. So the kind of thing you watch when you first get your TV (including images that are a different proportion to the screen, resulting in black bars at the sides or top and bottom) can make a real difference to what you see on screen for the rest of the time you own it. Manufacturers have been addressing this over the last few years, though, and as long as you follow the guidelines in the manual, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Back to top| Feature | LCD | Plasma |
|---|---|---|
| Sizes | All sizes | From 32in upwards |
| Comparative weight | Lighter than plasma | Heavier than LCD |
| Wall-mounting | Yes, but needs special mounting kit | Yes, but extra weight means more care over mounting kit and suitability of wall |
| Colour and blacks | Getting better | Wider colour spectrum and historically better blacks than LCDs |
| Response times | Getting better | Historically better than LCDs |
| Viewing angle | Narrower than plasma | Wider than LCD |
| Resolution | Better than plasma | Worse than LCD |
| Viewing in ambient light | Marginally better than plasma in bright light | Marginally worse than plasma in bright light |
| Running costs | More than CRT in standby; less than plasma in operating mode | More than CRT in standby; more than LCD in operating mode |
| Bunn-in | Not an issue | Prone to burn-in during first 100 hours |