Should You Choose a Plasma or LCD TV?

When you have already made the decision to bring your home entertainment theatre to the next level, and take advantage of the latest in television technology you will be met with a few different choices. Currently there are three main options in the latest wave of televisions to hit the markets and those are LED, LCD, and Plasma versions. Each of these terms describe the particular ways in which the TV creates the images you see on the screen.

With plasma TV's this is done through an ionization of gases and with LCD's the pictures are made with liquid crystals. LED's are actually a sub category of LCD TV's and they too work off of liquid crystals. There are a few distinctions between LCD's and Plasma's that you will want to take into account before you make your final decision. 

Firstly, plasmas will generally come larger than LCD's, with a normal range for plasmas being between 32 and 65 inches, and LCD's will typically be between 14 and 46 inches. If you are in the market for a bigger screen then a plasma will be your best option. Yet in that same vein, because an LCD television will have more pixels per square inch than plasmas you will get a higher picture resolution from them. For crisper and sharper images you will benefit from the LCD screen if you are picking a smaller size.

When it comes to the colour of your screen, plasma TV's will be able to provide a more vivid and vibrant image because of the method they work off of. Because LCD's work a bit slower, for moving pictures they are not able to cast the same colour quality as their plasma counterparts.

Along with colours it is worth noting that when it comes to contrast ratio an LCD will usually have one of 1000:1 where a plasma one will have 3000:1. What this means is that plasma screens will give you a superior depth for pictures that are low light because they generate darker black levels.  If you are going to be viewing your movies and shows in a darker room environment then a plasma screen will be the better choice; however if you are going to have more than enough light when watching your TV an LCD will suffice just fine.

At this point you may be feeling that plasma TV's are the way to go, but LCD's do have a few benefits of their own. Due to their composition they are much lighter than plasma TV's and when you are mounting them on a wall you don't have to worry about adequate support. Secondly they will also consume much less power than a plasma, about 50 percent less actually.

Finally, if you are in a place of high altitude you may want to choose an LCD TV over a plasma one for the simple fact that at a high altitude you will notice that the plasmas emit a buzzing noise. This is because of the gases that create their pictures; you will not have to worry about this occurring with the liquid crystals used in LCD's.

These are a few of the major differences between LCD and plasma TV's, and depending on where you plan to place your television and the screen size you prefer you will want to weight these distinctions.

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