Plasma and LCD Buyers Guide

Plasma or LCD?

The huge range of flat screen Plasma or LCD units now available can be bewildering. Below is a brief guide to how to make sure you specify not only the correct unit in terms of technology, but also to think ahead and plan what future use there may be for the screen, and whether a commercial panel is more appropriate than a more consumer orientated “TV”.

Plasma Technology

Plasma television technology is similar in the way it creates light to a fluorescent light bulb. The display itself consists of cells. Within each cell two glass panels are separated by a narrow gap in which neon-xenon gas is injected and sealed in Plasma form during the manufacturing process. The gas is electrically charged at specific intervals when the Plasma set is in use. The charged gas then strikes red, green, and blue phosphors, thus creating a visible image. Each group of red, green, and blue phosphors is called a pixel (picture element).

LCD Technology

LCD panels are made of two layers of transparent material, which are polarized, and are "glued" together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through individual crystals, which allow the crystals to pass or block light to create images. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source, such as a florescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become visible to the viewer.

Commercial or Plasma Display?

Both Plasma and LCD come with a variety of options as standard, or user configurable. The simplest place to start when making your buying choice is what do you want the screen for and what are the likely sources that you intend to plug into it? Most manufacturers produce screens in two distinct channels – “Domestic\Consumer” and “Commercial”.

Commercial Screens generally contain a more extensive range of inputs and a higher technical performance compared to Consumer screens; The warranty is often longer with replacement units provided. Commercial screens are normally used for Digital Signage solutions, information screens and video conferencing.

Consumer screens tend to look more stylish than their commercial counterparts, and contain a number of features that improve the viewing experience. The majority of consumer screens are now equipped with built-in Digital Freeview tuners, speakers and domestic inputs such as scart and HDMI.

A relatively new development is the integration of PVR Hard disc in screens (Personal Video Recorder). This operates in a similar way to Sky Plus, and records Freeview channels directly to the screens own “recorder”. Typically they are 160gb which will allow you to record over 80 hours of television.

Plasma and LCD Technology Comparison