What's difference between LCD and plasma television?

writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, it's good to see you all, except we can't see you and you can't see us. But you know, there's always that other medium on which we're not. But I think the public is familiar with the This is as smooth as it. I'm just tripping. All Okay, you know what, I'm gonna just take over from here. Okay, all right, So we're gonna talk about television's HDTV S fly panels. Specifically, we're gonna talk about

l C D s versus plasma displays. And if if you're like me, you know, if you've ever gone into an electronics store and you see that huge wall of televisions. You may wonder, like, all right, well, I see there's some of them are plasma, some of them are l c D. What's the difference, doesn't doesn't make a difference, Um, And what's the best choice for me? And which one can I afford and can have installed in my house

later this afternoon. Which one's gonna allow me to have the largest possible TV for the least amount of money. That's usually the way I go. That's I don't think, no, no, I think that's pretty common. But of course there are other things to take into consideration, like bigger is not always better. For one thing, you want to make sure you have the best picture quality and you want to you know, there it also depends on what kind of stuff you like to watch on television, because some displays

are better at showing certain kinds of action than others. Well, um, I guess then it comes down to what kind of technology will do that for you. And you know, most of us grew up with crt s, the cathode ray tube. Um, those are the bigger TVs that certainly not flat panel, but you know they had a pretty good picture because they were using an electron gun to illuminate phosphors in the back of the TV screen and that produced a

really clear picture. And and in fact, there's some techno files who would argue that they still provide the best picture, that the picture from one of those sets, like an HD TV set that's uses that that technology is actually superior to plasma or l c D, but they don't really make a whole lot of HD cathode ray tube sets,

and that they're giants there. Yeah, there's a lot of space exactly, And and that's that's part of the issue here, is that once people started seeing these flat panel displays, you know, they're really sexy and sleek, and you know, you can just imagine having this really kind of high tech looking entertainment center with this as the centerpiece. Um that's got a very you know, enticing appeal to it.

And yeah, you might be able to get a better picture on a larger machine, but you know you kind of balance it all out, like, well, what's more important to me? Is it more important to have the really sleek machine that still looks amazing or to have the absolute best, uh, visual performance. And I think a lot of people, you know, they you know, they tend to go to the flat panel for one, thing has been marketed as like the top of the line in uh

in displays. So now it's part of that has to do with marketing, But I mean you can't underestimate the the appeal of that that thin wall mounted you know display. That's true, that's true. Well, Um, there have been a lot of different technologies that people have used to create the thinner or even flat panel displays. I mean they're um, you know, oh LED's the organic light emitting diodes. There are you know, the DLP l c os, you know, a bunch of stuff. But it really comes down to, well,

at least for the most part, plasma versus c D Right. Yeah, I think oh LEDs will probably be something we'll see more of in the future, but right now, um, the technology is still pretty new. So the sets that are out there are very small, like around eleven inches pretty much it, and they're very very expensive. Um, but they're also wafer thin, and they're super do wafer thin, and there are beautiful latin I tell you, and um, you

can even you can even make them so that they're flexible. Yeah, you could bend them around things if you I mean granted you have to build that into it. It's not like every set's gonna bend around everything. But um, it's really cool technology, but it's still brand new, comparatively speaking, and so it's uh for most of us, prohibitively expensive. So l C D S and plasma, let's get down to the brass tacks, as it were. So let's talk

a little bit about the technologies behind these. Um, I'm just gonna do kind of a quick high level thing here, uh, hime in whenever you like. Alright, So, liquid crystal displays uses this stuff called liquid crystals. It's it acts kind of like a liquid, kind of like a solid um, and it's a it's essentially two glass plates with a layer of these liquid crystals in between. And by applying electricity to this layer, that's what you allow light through,

uh to create the pictures. And so these televisions are back lit. There's a light source behind this layer of liquid crystals that provides all the light you see on the television. Plasma displays use an ionized gas. That's what plasma is. It's a gas that can conduct electricity and it lights up only when there are when there's something

to show. On the screens. There's no backlight there. It's just uh, electricity activating this gas to create light, So you don't you don't have a constant backlight like like you do with l c ds, And that becomes important in a minute. Yeah. The neat thing about the plasma is that when you introduce some free um atomic particles into the plasma uh atoms, they basically excite the different atoms by replacing electrons and it makes them bounce around and when they do that, they give off light um.

So it's, uh, it's sort of an atomic reaction. You're talking about actually subatomic really, because you're talking about electrons and photons here. This is quantum stuff. You're watching quantum TV. It's pretty awesome. I I really want to make a quantum leap joke, but okay, well I'm not gonna Yeah, I think that's a been dated anyway. So anyway, so we mentioned the back light for l c D s. Now that that's one of the big differences between the l c D displays and the plasma displays. This can

affect something that is called contrast ratio. If you ever start shopping for TVs, especially flat panels and h d t V s, you'll you'll likely run into a lot of talk about contrast ratios, and well, what is a contrast ratio? It's the difference between the essentially the whitest whites and the blackest blacks that that display can show. So the bigger that number, like say say you say it's one thousand to one, the bigger that number is, the more colors that can show, the better the blacks

are going to be, the better the contrast is. So a fifty thousand to one is a much better contrast ratio. And in general, plasma screens show blacks better than l c ds. And that's because, like we said, there's no backlight on a plasma. So if you want to watch a lot of movies, for example, a lot of really like kind of you know, dark, grim movie type things. They say, you want to watch The Dark Night, there

are a lot of blacks in that movie. You know, you get like the black of the night, you get the black of the Batman costume, you get the black of the car, all of these things, um degrees of black exactly. Yeah, it goes from you're going to see the difference between them the pastel black from Yeah, for your spinal tap fans out there's a paste black. But they the if you have a screen that can show a very good contrast ratio, a very wide contrast ratio,

you'll be able to see all that clearly. They're not going to blend into one another. It's not gonna look blocky or anything like that. Um So, plasma screens are really good at that. L c D s are are getting better, but traditionally they were seen as not being very good as far as the contrast ratio goes. But

that's changing. Yeah, that's changing. There. There are a lot of improvements in that field right there, and and there are other change things that traditionally were different between plasma and l c D that are increasingly becoming non factors because the improvements in the technology have reached a point

where it's it's getting hard and hard to tell the difference. Now, if you look at a lot of people's top you know, top television lists, I think you'll probably see more plasmas than l c D s even now, because that's the general consistent consensus is that they show more vibrant colors and the contrast is better. You can have larger sets, larger sets they don't. There's there's not really a problem

with blurring with fast action. Some of the older l c d s had a problem with that where if something was moving across the screen very very quickly, you can get a blurring effect. So if you were watching something that had a lot of fast action in it, like you know, most sports, then you would get this kind of blurring effect, especially at high definitions. UM plasma

didn't have that problem. But now again with l c d s, they know, you're just starting to see l c d s with like incredible refresh rates, which is how many times uh the television refreshes the picture that's on your screen. Um, you know they're a hundred twenty hurts is not unheard of, and that's that means it's refreshing at a rate about like a hundred twenty times a second. It's really really fast. And there are even faster ones coming out that I saw at c S,

which were two hurts, so four times a second. Then yeah, so when well two hundred forty times a second, yeah, not four times a second, you're thinking you're you're dividing by minutes um two of a second. So that's so fast. I mean we can kind of detect around like like film I think is what like twenty four frames per second something like that, So this is ten times that. Um. The idea here being that that it makes smoother transitions.

You don't see the blurring effect with with really fast motions. But still plasma kind of holds the advantage there, but it's not a not a really discernible one unless you're paying incredibly close attention. And then there's the power consumption issue. Yes, because l c D s are traditionally considered to be the more energy efficient technology. Yes, in general they are, but not as much anymore, not as much anymore, um.

I mean even I remember a few years ago that, uh, some communities were starting to ban the sale of new plasma televisions because they used so much energy, right, And I can talk a little bit about why that is. The main reason is that, uh, you're having to essentially shoot electricity to excite these these atoms, you know, to in order to give off light. Well, even when you turn that television off, the electricity is still is still draining,

you know. Vampire power is what a lot of people call it, um, because it has to stay ready, you know, for the next time you turn it on. People don't want to wait for it to warm up there and sucks down electricity and and so you get a lot more draining uh when the even when the device is turned off than you would with an l c D screen screen and l c D s also have to warm up. They just don't have as long a warm

up time as plasma. And we're talking when we're talking about long warm up times, we're talking about a matter of seconds. But we've become so impatient as consumers that we expect when we put hit that power button, we expect that screen to come on pretty darn quick. So um, but your I can give you one example of a time when a plasma screen will pull less electricity than an l c D. If you're watching something that's perfectly black, because the l c D has a backlight and it

will always be lit. Good point. If you watch nothing but the black, are sorry. If you watch nothing but the dark, Knight or spinal tap, yeah, something like that, then yeah, you're gonna you're gonna pull less power with your plasma display. But in general, yes, it's gonna it's gonna consume more power. Now, a lot of companies have developed UM power saving techniques to reduce that. In fact, it's become more and more important. I saw a lot

of that C yes as well. They had a lot of different companies hooking up televisions too, UM electronic meters telling you how much energy it was pulling at any particular time, and they would line up previous models like here's the set we released in two thousand five and two thousand six, you know, all the way up to two thousand nine, and then maybe even like prototype models

for for future ones. And you could see that the energy consumption peaked sometime around two thousand seven or so and then dramatically began to drop because that's when everyone started getting more environmentally conscious and also just an idea of serving power to save money. Right, So yeah, so that is also changing. UM. So it seems like the battle between plasma and l c D is almost becoming

a moot point. It's sort of a pick the set that's best for you, because in general, they're all going to be about the same level of energy efficient, they're all going to show pretty much the same colors. Of course, it's always good to have a professional calibrate the TV because looking at it in the showroom. Well, it may or may not be the kind of thing it's it's not going to look the same in your house when you actually get at home. It's been calibrated specifically for

that store exactly. Yeah, so it's important to calibrated either by a professional or if you know what you're doing, you can do it yourself. Yeah, there's some televisions that actually have calibrations software installed, so that uses UH uses light sensors to detect how much light is in your room, and then we'll calibrate the contrast and brightness and everything on its own, so that way you get the what presumably would be the best picture for your such a oation.

I can talk about a couple of other minor things. UM plasma screens. They tend to have a glassy UH display, so there's very reflective. So in general it's better to use a plasma display in a room that has, you know, low lighting. So if you have a lot of bright lights. UH plasmas tend to be really reflective, you may not be able to see what's on the screen very well. UM l c D might be better in that case, because most of those have a non reflective or Matt

style finish on their on the front display. So better for your man cave is plasma, right, which is exactly what I have. I mean, I turn all the lights off. I got the I mean I don't have a plasma display that I've got a man cave. Um. Yeah, I turn off all the lights when I when I watch. I've actually got a rear projection TV, so I've got one of those monsters. Um. But uh, the yeah that if you're if you're gonna watch in a dark room, plasma is a good choice. I mean you're going to

get a great picture. Uh and uh and actually the funny thing is plasma is still a little less expensive than a comparable l c D. If you're looking at the the big, big screens, you know, the on the smaller end price is pretty much negligible. But if I'm talking about like, if you're looking at sixty three inches like a monster TV, plasma tends to be a little less expensive than l c D. Right, And also they do get bigger. You can get the really big monster

TVs in in plasma. Actually, I don't even know if you can find an l c D in sixty three in you might have to drop down to fifty five. But well, uh, you know, if you're done talking about plasma and l c D. Wow, I do have a trump card, Yes, hit me with it. I want to uh remind you of your pet favorite TV. Are you talking about the Mitsubishi Laser View, Yes, I am, and you know that the manufacturer says that it takes one third the power of a plasma TV and has twice

the color. So uh, but it does it with lasers, which means doesn't tell you that it just has twice the yellow, twice the yellow. That's just a joke. That's only only twice one color exactly. Yeah, yeah, we have half the blues, but three times the yeah, I'm just kidding. However, it's also eight times more expensive, you know, because it's brand new technology uses lasers instead of vel C D S or plasma or and it's it's gorgeous and it also is three D ready Yeah, but you've actually seen, yes,

I have, and it's it's pretty capful. It's you know, when I first read about I thought I wanted one, and then I saw one and I knew I wanted one, So I still want one. I'm not gonna buy one any type soon don't don't have seven grand laying around to spend on it, but it does. It is very, very impressive television. It's not a flat panel um so it's not gonna you're not gonna mount that on your wall unless you have a you know, a real load

bearing wall right there. But it's it's definitely an impressive television. Yeah, well, I guess that I don't have any more TV. The only thing I could talk about is burning, but that's

not even an issue anymore. So, Yeah, there used to be a big issue used to if you had let's say that's your video gamer, and you would put a game on pause for eight hours where you go sleep and then you come back and play some more with with plasma, if those colors were we're sitting there on the screen for that long, you would see like when you'd start the game, you'd see that there was a ghost image of whatever it was that was paused for

those eight hours, and sometimes the ghost imaged wouldn't go away, it was burnt into the screen for pretty much ever and ever, um LCD didn't really have that problem as much as almost almost uh didn't exist. But that's pretty much been solved too. That so you don't get too many issues with plasma burning unless unless you're just being really extreme, like you pause your video game and then you go on vacation for a couple of weeks, then

you might have a problem. But you know that's that's again, that's an extra beream case, and that would be a certainly not a good way to conserve electricity. No, that would not be very eco conscious of you. I mean I would never do that, but Poulette wouldn't put it past him. So anyway, well, you know what, I've got something else we can talk about, but before we get to it, I think we need to thank your sponsors. Yes,

audible dot com. If you go to www dot audible podcast dot com slash tech stuff and sign up, you'll get a free download. And they've got fifty thousand books on audio as well as podcasts and and other other products as well. And if you're like me and you listen to lots of stuff on the train, it's a great, great resource. And we have a couple of picks that we'd like to talk to talk about something that we

could recommend as potentially your first free download. My choice would be stuck in the box of life in local TV news. Um, if you're like me or a TV junkie. Um, and I mean a TV news junkie. I you know, actually did an internship in a TV news room when I were in college. And this is by Donna McNeely, who is a former anchor, reporter, producer, and writer. She even narrates it herself, and it's gotten. It's got an

excellent reviews. Um, you know, only only one five star review on Audible, but I looked up the book just to see how everybody else feels about it, and it's got excellent reviews everywhere. So I would definitely check that out. Wonderful. Yeah. My uh suggestion also comes from something that I had a huge passion end when I was a kid and

I was watching TV. Um, actually one of my heroes, I would say, uh, and the book is It's Not Easy Being Green and other Things to Consider by Jim Henson, The Muppets and Friends, And uh, yeah, I was a huge Jim Henson fan as a kid. Um, you're still still I am a Joe huge Jim Henson fan. Also come from a family of storytellers and puppeteers, so that kind of helps too. But anyway, this book is is

about the man Jim Henson. It's kind of about his philosophy and his views and um, and I recommend that one that's a that would be a and I mean I want it. Either of those or any of fifty thousand others could be your first free download if you sign up at www dot audible podcast dot com slash tech stuff. Okay, so let's get back to my favorite segment. I'm sure it's yours as well. Listener mail. Oh that's loud. Yeah, well, you know it's we have to alert them. It's really

so it's early yet. This is true. So this listener mail comes from our listener, Jamie McCarty. Jamie actually has a correction for us, which we appreciate. Jamie was very polite and um and was also praising us quite a bit in this email. But I'm gonna skip right to the the correction. This is about our our podcast where we talked about games with GPS receivers. UM. GPS receivers do not transmit any information back to the satellites. The power required to transmit back to the satellites would be

way too much for such small devices. Actually, the device is simply receiving and coded time stamps and up to date satellite constellation coordinates that provide enough information for the receiver to calculate its position. While it's possible to send out positional information, it requires a cellular radio waves or satellite modems and I guess now WiFi, which is which only the most sophisticated devices have. Thanks Jamie. That actually,

that's that's true. Unless it has one of those devices, it's not going to send out any signals. It's just acting as a receiver, otherwise it would be a GPS transceiver yep, yep. So it's basically coordinating, uh, the signals it receives and figuring out where you are based on that information. So yeah, just getting bombarded by signals all the time as long as you're someplace where there's an open area to the sky. Yes, yes, So thanks very much, Jamie.

We greatly appreciate that. And if you would like to write to us, you can do so at tech stuff at how stuff works dot com. And uh, if you want to learn more about l c d S and plasmas, we have any of information on the website. That's how stuff works dot com. And we will talk to you again really soon for moralness and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works? Dot com brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, Are you