Advantage LCD

LCD : the basics

Contrary to what your might think, LCD technology has been around longer than plasma. It's that plasma affinities with larger screen size gave it a head start over LCD, which has only recently started to conquer its size demons and break free of it its traditional PC shackles. LCD TVs work like this. A liquid containing individually controllable crystals is suspended between two transparent panels, and when these crystals are activated by voltage, they align themselves so that they either allow a certain amount of light (produced by a florescent tube behind the panel) to pass through the panel, or else block it off. Both the lit and unlit crystals create visible pixels that together compose the final image on the screen.

Why buy LCD?

Screen life - We've seen some industry claims that LCD can last twice as long as plasma (around 40 years at 4 hrs of use a day). Even though we suspect that such claims show a distinct LCD bias on the part of the source. it does seem that LCD can last a bit longer than plasma.

No Screen burn - Plasma screens are susceptible to something called screen burn, which occurs when a bright image, is displayed on sceen for an extended period of time. The constant saturation 'tires' plasma's phosphors. leaving a permanent shadow of the bright image behind. LCD technology is pretty much immune to this problem.

Slimness - Because there is no need for gas filled or heavy glass fronts in a LCD screen, LCD tend to be slimmer and lighter than plasmas.

Brightness - LCD technology can generally deliver brighter pictures than a plasma - though more brightness isn't automatically better if it is used to disguise a lack of contrast.

Power consumption - LCDs generally use less power than plasma TVs because they don't need to power hundreds of electrodes to stimulate phospors.