Plasma Displays

Plasma is possibly the most contentious of all the HDTV technologies, and may be surrounded with more myths and misinformation than anything other than CRT. Plasma HDTVs tend to be very expensive. Unlike other HDTV types, plasma technology isn't used for projection. All plasma displays are flat panels. Over the past few years many issues ranging from burn-in to low resolutions, have been improved greatly.

Advantages

Modern plasma displays offer good color reproduction, contrast, and black levels.

Disadvantages

Plasma displays have a lot of potential issues associated with them. They consumer more power than LCDs and like those displays may also suffer from dead pixels. Since images are produced using gas sealed into small glass compartments, the pressure difference from high altitudes can cause them to work harder (consume more power) to operate properly. This can cause not only higher energy bills, but also a buzzing sound and possibly fan noise if the display has them. There are a few plasma HDTVs designed specifically for high altitude conditions that don't have this problem. Even when operated under normal conditions, plasmas generate a fair amount of heat.

resolution can also be a major concern for plasma buyers. Cheaper plasma displays sold for HDTV viewing may have resolutions of 1024x768 or 1366x768. Being fixed pixel displays, this means that every incoming HD signal has to be scaled. Other low end plasmas are actually EDTVs.



Compare flat panel HDTVs in our Hardware section


Version History

v1.0 2007.10.31 Original Version by Rich Fiscus
v1.0.1 2007.11.25 Blossary links updated by Rich Fiscus
v1.0.2 2007.11.26 Images added by Rich Fiscus