Every product we buy has multiple models/options and it's up to us to decide which one we think is best. Sometimes instead of buying products for our personal requirements, we fall in the trap of advertisements and commercials and we buy a product just because it looked good in the store. Though both Plasma and LCD TV's are very similar, there are many technical aspects that allow consumers to have a few different choices when picking the right TV for them. In the store, you can hardly tell the difference between Plasma and LCD TV's. They look very similar, and if you don't take a closer look it may be hard to spot the main differences between Plasma and LCD TV's. The main differences between the two are the quality of the picture, features, cost, and lifespan. .
Before discussing which screen is better, it's important to know the technology behind both TV's. LCD is short for liquid crystal display. "LCD panels are composed of two sheets of polarized material with a liquid crystal solution between them. When an electric current passes through the liquid, the crystals align so that light can pass through." (Prindle. D., 2013) Plasma TV's work in a completely different way. "Rather than using a backlight to light up the screen, the images on a plasma screen are made by an ionized gas (plasma) that lights up when an electric current goes through it." (Prindle. D., 2013) In Layman's terms, think of each pixel on the TV as a small neon light, just on a much smaller scale.
As LCD technology grows, it can be difficult to see the differences between the picture qualities in both types of TVs. Because plasma screens can turn off individual pixels, they display darker blacks than LCD screens. Although some LCD TVs can display blacks that compare to Plasmas, they are much more expensive. The pixels in LCD screens don't respond as quickly to those in plasma screens, which results in what is called motion blur.
