Plasma vs LCD

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As 2008 begins to knock on our doors, if your after a new television for the new year then you may be wondering plasma or lcd; what's the difference? Technically speaking plasma uses thousands of tiny gas cells, whereas LCD uses liquid crystal cells.

Most critics still agree that plasma TVs produce a better picture, they are able to display more colours and deeper blacks and whites. They also have a faster response time which means plasma screens do not suffer from as severe ghosting as LCD. I recently tested a large LCD TV and with fast moving sequences you will occasionally notice a ghost like blur around people on screen. Somewhat like a complete body halo. Plasma screens are also cheaper at larger sizes, you will notice that 50-70 inch plasma screens are considerably cheaper than their LCD counterparts.

However, it does seem like LCD is getting the upper hand on plasma. Most retailers seem to be stocking more LCD. The reason being the HD revolution. LCD can handle higher resolutions, so anyone wanting to get the maximum resolution performance out of their new HD set top box, ps3 or xbox 360 will want an LCD screen. LCD also uses a considerably lower amount of power, upto 30% less. And they do not suffer from static image burn, important for those gamers who pause their action from time to time.

Overall if your after a very large television, which will be primarily used for films and dvds then I'd pick plasma. But if your looking for a 32-40 inch screen to play HD video games then I'd pick LCD. However, if your buying a top of the line plasma or lcd you really wont notice much difference.