Large Screen Televisions: Plasma or LCD?

So it's time for you to choose a new television.

Unless you've been really unlucky or are a gadget freak, it's likely that things have moved on since you last looked at televisions. Nowadays, your big choice after screen size is between LCD and plasma high definition televisions.

So what's the difference and which type of display should you choose?

When large flat screen televisions were first introduced, almost all the available screens were plasma. Now you have the option of LCD as well, except at the really giant screen sizes where LCD technology isn't a viable option.

An LCD screen is made up of lots and lots of small dots or pixels. These are turned on and off as needed but if a pixel fails, it will show up as a black dot. You're most likely to notice this on a PC monitor but it also shows up on television screens. You're less likely to notice it in this situation unless a cluster of nearby pixels fails, which will then start to bug you as you watch. You can guard against this to an extent by making sure that your manufacturer's warranty covers pixel failure but some guarantees put a minimum number of failed pixels before the warranty applies.

Plasma screens create their colors by sending an electrical charge which is then passed through a pixel grid a bit like the old fashioned television screens.

It is generally thought that plasma screens produce blacker blacks than LCD screens, which tend to display a dark charcoal gray instead.

At very large screen sizes then plasma wins hands down because of the technicalities of producing flawless LCD screens.

One of the best current 50 inch HDTV plasma screens is the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U. It has a high 30,000 to 1 contrast ratio which makes for stunning television viewing and game play and it's quite affordable. You can discover more out more about the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U here.