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New! Leave a Review - Just bought a new plasma tv, then leave a review here.
A plasma screen is a flat panel display where light is displayed by the use of phosphors (emit the visible light). The phosphors are excited by a gas discharge between two panels of glass. The gas discharge is a mixture of noble gases which are not harmful (comply with guidelines for TV radiation emissions). Plasma screen TV's offer a large screen area that provides excellent picture quality with low picture distortion, unlike rear projection for example. There are currently a large number of plasma TVs available on the market, and it looks like it will become the main technology for large screen televisions.
The inventor's of the technology were Donald L. Bitzer and H. Gene Slottow. They were both members at the University of Illinois, and created the plasma display around 1964. Plasma screens did sell quite well in the 1970s, but as CRT displays became cheaper the plasma screen just couldn't compete. Ever since then plasma's have basically been a lucrative niche market, with companies such as Fujitsu General selling plasma's displays in the 1990's. Only since the year 2000 and the introduction of dvd / home cinema sets have plasma displays become mass market. The desire in the general population for home cinema displays and sound has hugely increased sales in 2003, 2004 and 2005. This has meant CRT has become a technology in decline. The future for large screen TVs is plasma. If you visit retailers like www.tribaluk.com you will notice how Plasma TV categories have substantially expanded. Prices have also plummeted in the past two years. Whilst a 46 inch screen had an average price tag of £3000 in 2005, now you can expect to pay £900 (end of 2007).
What the Screen Contains The plasma screen looks good from nearly every angle because it contains hundreds of thousands of tiny cells. These cells are made up from xenon and neon gas. These cells which contain gas are then positioned between two plates of glass. To produce the light needed to power these cells, electrodes are put between the two glass plates, and on each side of the cells. Then there are address and transparent electrodes surrounded by insulating material. It gets even more complicated with then a covering of protective magnesium oxide. Three separate subpixel cells make up a pixel on screen. These subpixels will have a red, green and blue light phosphor in it. A pixel is the smallest part of a picture which can be controlled individually.
A plasma screen produces a picture by,
HDTV is one of the major recent advancements in display technology. Since 2005 more and more plasma TV sets have become packaged with HDTV, so what exactly is it? To begin with HDTV stands for 'High Definition' TV, and simply put it's the ability of a TV to play a higher resolution signal available from TV networks and DVD discs. Therefore plasma screens which can display a HD signal are said to be HD ready, or HD compatible. HDTV broadcasts are delivered in the new 16:9 wide-screen format, this is the same aspect ratio in which movies are made. Most plasma TVs are manufactured in 16:9 aspect ratio so they are a perfect match. NTSC signals have been transmitted with an aspect ratio of 4:3, this has meant many TV sets have cut 20% of the image signal sent. When you read subtitles of a movie or documentary you will have noticed the writing moves off the screen. Generally speaking HDTV’s in the UK must meet a minimum resolution
standard of 1024 x 720 with a HDMI/DVI input (they are then classified
as HD-Ready). A HD ready TV must also have a HDMI or DVI connectivity
in order to accept a digital signal from the HD receiving equipment. Alongside
this an analogue component (YpbPr) connection. At the moment the technologies which are HD Ready, Screen resolutions: HDTV claims to promise a high resolution display which produces a well defined picture. As explained before a plasma image is composed of millions of small dots; which are named pixels. Whereas a typical TV image is composed of around about 366,600 pixels, a true 720p HDTV image has around 920,600 pixels. However a resolution alone does not equate to a realistic quality image, the computer control systems like Panasonic's VIERA help to alter the colour, brightness and contrast levels. Therefore do not always relay on the screen resolution alone when picking a plasma display.[?] The native resolution is the standard resolution of the plasma display
and not the resolution of the delivery signal. If the native resolution
of a screen is 1024X1024, and delivery signal is 1024X768, the TV will
convert the delivery signal to the native resolution of the TV. The closer
these signals are in resolutions, the better the image will be. This is
why a HD Ready TV will display a HDTV signal better than a normal TV set.
However the native resolution of HD Ready sets does alter, so it's best
to find a native resolution as close to the true HDTV signal of 1080i
as possible. Finally if your wondering what the difference between plasma
and LCD is, check our plasma vs lcd article. A/V connections: Most standard definition TV's come with composite, SD component, S-Video, and SCART connections. SCART being the most popular for Europe and the UK. HDTV sets requires a HDMI/DVI connection. Most LCD and plasma TV sets will allow you to pick from a standard list of native or true resolution settings. The most common are as follows,
Native resolutions of TV sets,
DTV Formats,
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Example of the quality
of a plasma screen display
- the thickness of
plasma's is a big plus point.
- Plasma pixel is
made up like.