Advantages of Plasma TVs over LCD TVs

Plasma TV Picture Contrast

The most striking advantage of plasma TVs over LCD TVs concerns the darkness of the darkest pixels they are capable of producing. A plasma television can display blacks and colours very similar to black in a much more accurate tone than when displayed on an LCD.

This greater contrast is due to the way LCD televisions have a back light that can sometimes shine through the screen, turning true black colour slightly greyish. Imagine a dark scary movie scene being shown on your home cinema television - anything but true black results in the picture being less immersive and takes away from the picture quality.

Viewing Angle of Plasma Televisions

Not all home cinemas are the same. The layout of your seating can vary significantly or the television may not be used in a home cinema at all, and instead in a public viewing place. In this case, the viewing angle of a plasma TV is a major advantage when compared with a LCD equivalent.

A televisions viewing angle is the difference in viewing position possible (when looking from the left, right, above, or below) before the screen picture starts to blend and distort. A good example of this effect were the laptop computers with LCD displays from the early to mid 1990s. Unless you were directly in front of the laptop the picture colour could become distorted or even unreadable. While the situation is much better now, plasma televisions still have the advantage over LCD ones in this aspect.

Picture Sharpness and Refresh Rate

The original LCD televisions did have a tendency to blur during fast moving scenes. A slight shadow could appear briefly after a white part of the screen turned black, and similarly going from black to white. This resulted in a noticeable difference in the appearance of the televisions sharpness. This shadow effect does not effect plasma TVs.

The good news is that this difference has been significantly reduced as new generations of LCD televisions have come onto the market, to the point that there isn't a major problem anymore. Be aware though that this effect is due to increases in LCD TVs refresh rates, and the refresh rate of an LCD purchase should definitely be looked at and compared with similar models.

Plasma TV Price & Sizes

Price is where plasma televisions have their biggest advantage over LCDs. Plasma TVs tend to come at much bigger screen sizes, that LCDs simply cannot match at the moment. While a 40 inch screen is still a very big screen, that's where LCD TVs tend to max out. Plasma televisions on the other hand can go as high as 60 inches or even higher.

Two similarly sized plasma and LCD televisions with similar features will almost always have the price advantage with the Plasma. The price difference can sometimes be in the vicinity of several thousand dollars, and this can obviously be a significant amount in the budget saved by choosing a plasma.

In summary, the advantages of plasma televisions include:

Better picture contrast
Wide viewing angle for wide theatres or public display
Superior picture sharpness without movement blur
Larger screen sizes at reduced prices