Plasma TV Vs LCD TV

Size

Screen size is a factor for comparing Plasma with LCD TV. Plasma has advantage in the domain of 50 inch or more screen size. This is because in respect of cost of production and capacity, plasma still has an advantage over LCD. However for less than 4 inch screen depth and smaller screen size (37 to 4 inch), LCD has the edge.

Price

Here again plasma has more margin than LCD for large screen sizes with price advantage becoming more pronounced for a 60 inch plasma diagonal. But if pixels per display panel are considered, more of that is found in LCD HDTV in the same price tag. The price advantage for smaller range of 37-44 inch is tilted in favour of LCD. Although nowadays the price tags for both LCD and plasma in that screen size range are same, providing more pixels by LCD for same screen size gives it an edge over Plasma.

Picture Quality

In the field of overall picture performance, both Plasma and LCD run neck to neck. Both offer the latest TFT-LCD flat panel that displays high contrast, great colour reproduction and bright and clear images. They work fine in different room ambiences. Because of anti-glare technology, LCD is better viewed in a brightly lit room. In contrast, the natural and rich colour in plasma make their viewing better in lower to normally lit rooms. But so far as contrast and image details are concerned, Plasma outsmarts LCD in respect of deep black display due to simultaneous display of light and dark contents.

Viewing Angle

The current generation of LCD has taken away a very clear advantage of Plasma- the viewing angle. However cheaper LCD sets due to off-axis viewing and not specifying viewing angle may provide poor quality of picture compared to a plasma display.

Viewing Distance

Viewing distance depending on the screen size remains same for both forms. But if the available viewing distance is short, LCD is preferred over Plasma due to less visibility of its pixel structure.