Flat-Panel HDTV Choices: LCD vs. Plasma HDTV – Part 1 (Picture Quality, Price, and Power Consumption)
Not long ago, there was a clear and easy answer to the LCD-vs.-plasma choice in flat-panel HDTV buying. LCD was a good choice for small screen sizes, and for anything over 32-inches, plasma was the answer. As LCD manufacturing has ramped up better, LCD panels have become available in larger sizes at lower prices, and the choice is no longer quite so clear. The arguments made by each side in favor of their technology tend to get very technical, and they can all be traced back to the completely different ways LCD and plasma TV technology works. Hopefully this article will help you make sense of the different arguments.
The Short Answer: The short answer is that we think LCD is a better choice now because of the wide availability of full 1080p resolution sets and the incredible strides in picture quality that technology has made. You will usually have to pay more for a 1080p LCD than for a 720p plasma of the same size, but we think the extra cost is worth it. While plasma does offer a great picture with fantastic color and contrast, we think its higher power consumption and lower resolution makes plasma HDTVs less desirable than the latest generation of LCDs.
There are a number of ways to frame the LCD versus plasma debate. We think these are the key areas to look at: picture quality, price, and power consumption. Image quality is the hardest to understand so we’ll focus the most explanation there.
Picture Quality: When trying to gauge the picture quality a flat-panel HDTV is capable of producing, attributes and features to consider are contrast ratio, color gamut, resolution, panel response time, refresh rate, and the image processing involved. There are no easy answers for whether plasma or LCD wins at any one of these measures. Because the image processing involved can have such a big effect on the other features, two panels of the same size and year from two different manufacturers could have vastly different performance. Whichever you choose, we highly recommend top tier brands as these companies are furthest ahead in new processing technologies for improving picture quality. LCD brands we recommend are Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Philips, and JVC. Plasma brands we recommend are Hitachi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Philips.
Price: Nothing changes faster in HDTV than price. In 2005 the answer was that for any screen size bigger than 32-inches, plasma was a better value, in the first half of 2006 the answer became anything over 40-inches. Now it’s becoming a toss up all around. The truth is, LCD is fast becoming the technology of choice at screen sizes 52-inches and below-Plasma’s traditional territory. To compete, plasma prices came way down in late 2006, and we don’t forsee them going back up. Currently there are incredibly good deals to be had on 42-inch and 50-inch 720p plasma HDTVs from top brands like Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Hitachi. For a little more money you could opt for a full 1080p LCD HDTV at a slightly smaller screen size. Long term we expect LCD to win on price (this is a guess we could still be wrong) because of the benefits that technology gets from a difference in manufacturing techniques. In the short run (over the next couple years) we expect the plasma companies to do their best to give LCD stiff competition on price.
Power Consumption: Because LCD uses a backlight system and closes pixels off to produce darkness, the power consumption of an LCD HDTV is constant whether the image is bright or dark. Plasma panels produce more brightness by pumping more energy into each cell or pixel that needs to be brightened, and it turns down the power to cells that need to be darkened. As a result, plasma power consumption varies with the brightness of the picture. For most content people tend to watch Plasma HDTVs tend to use more power. It is true that plasmas are likely to use less power displaying dark scenes, or movies that are dark in general, but averaged out; plasmas do tend to use more power. Most content people watch tends to be on the bright side, and most people prefer to set their TVs for more brightness. Along with the higher power consumption of plasma, comes heat output. All this ends up adding to energy bills. Even with recent efficiency improvements in plasma technology, plasma HDTVs will tend to consume a third more power than the same size LCD HDTV.
- Related Post :
- Flat-Panel HDTV Choices: LCD vs. Plasma HDTV – Part 4 (Image Processing, Screen Burn-In, and High Altitude)
- Flat-Panel HDTV Choices: LCD vs. Plasma HDTV – Part 2 (Contras Ratio, Color Gamut, and Resolution)
- Flat-Panel HDTV Choices: LCD vs. Plasma HDTV – Part 3 (Response Time, Refresh Rate and Frame Rate)
- Advantages & Disadvantages of LCD and Plasma
- LCD Flat Panel TV
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