At Panasonic, we make both LCD TVs and Plasma TVs.
In our opinion, the general rule of thumb is that if you need a small screen TV under 40" diagonal measurement, then LCD TV is the better option.
For big screen sizes of more than 40" diagonal measurement or larger then a Plasma TV is recommended.
Plasma & LCD use different methods to display images on the screen, so they produce different results. These results are better suited to different conditions.
LCD TVs are back lit and therefore perform well in smaller, brightly lit environment set-ups such as in the kitchen or bedroom. LCD Televisions are also lightweight and can be moved about easily, which means they can be placed almost anywhere the user likes.
The images produced by Plasma TVs, on the other hand, are ideal for the ambient lighting conditions of your living room, lounge room, rumpus room or home theatre.
For viewing big impact, fast moving action from movies to sport, we recommend a big screen Plasma TV so the whole family can enjoy the experience.
LCD TVs may lose contrast and colour if watched from wider angles.
Panasonic VIERA IPS LCD panels have overcome this to a great extent, giving richer and more vivid colours from wider angles, giving more people in the room a great view. However, for the richest and most vivid colours from all angles, Plasma is the recommended choice.
If more of your family are likely to be watching at one time, together in a living room or home theatre, you'll enjoy higher contrast and better picture quality from almost any angle with Plasma.
However, if you have a smaller or narrower room, a room where you will watch from one set angle (like a bedroom), or will mostly have only one viewer, LCD will perform well.
So when choosing your flat panel TV, ensure you view the TV from angles that you would experience at home. That way, you'll be happy that your TV will suit its intended purpose.
The lighting conditions in the room where you will be watching your flat panel TV are critical to which technology you should choose.
In an LCD TV the screen is illuminated by a backlight. In the majority of LCD TVs, this backlight is a series of fluorescent tubes. They are relatively unaffected by reflected glare and deliver bright, subtly modulated images even in brightly lit rooms or near windows through which the sun is shining.
In a plasma TV panel each individual cell emits light, so the entire screen produces bright images with deep, expressive blacks under typical living room lighting conditions. Dynamic sequences with lots of motion, such as sporting events or action movies, are rendered smoothly and fluidly. The powerful impact of plasma TVs makes them ideal for group viewing by the whole family.
An important thing to remember: the lighting in electrical and homewares stores is typically several times brighter than that of the average home.
A Plasma screen that does not appear bright in a store may well turn out to be perfectly suited to the darker, ambient conditions of your living room. An LCD screen that looks clear in the store could turn out to be unrealistically bright when you get it home. Remember, you watch TV at home not in a retail store.
Plasma technology is relatively new, having been originally developed as a full colour screen at the time of the Winter Olympics in Nagano (1998) as a means of showing sporting events on larger screens than is possible with box-type televisions.
Plasma technology works on the rapid electrical discharge in the individual cells to produce an image, and so can react almost instantly to changes in picture content. This makes Plasma TV response time practically zero. This makes Plasma the perfect technology to view the excitement and vibrancy of the Olympic Games.
To change an image on an LCD TV screen, tiny crystals on the panel have to physically rotate. This has meant that LCDs have been prone to motion blur, particularly during fast moving action. Recent developments in LCD technology have gone some way to reducing the appearance of motion blur, but some LCD still cannot match the virtually instantaneous response time and moving image resolution of Plasma technology.
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