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Plasma or LCD - So what is the difference
and which is better?
June 2009
This is a question that
we are routinely asked by our clients. See below a guide designed to
help you understand the key issues and to assist you in choosing the
best possible solution for your digital signage project.
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Key Issues |
|
Comment |
LCD or Plasma? |
|
COLOUR ACCURACY |
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Where lighting
conditions are low then the Plasma will display better
colour richness whereas LCDs are superior in brighter areas
because of anti glare technology and levels of brightness. |
LCD |
|
CONTRAST / BLACK LEVELS |
|
The contrast
ratio is important as it effects the richness of the images
displayed. LCD displays are much improved but Plasma has the
lead. For DVD sources and TV signals then plasmas out perform
LCD. Contrast is just one measure of display quality. |
Plasma |
|
HANDLING |
|
LCD's tend to be
lighter and thus are much easier to install. This is
primarily down to the use of plastic rather than glass used
in plasmas. Plasmas also require more "gentle" handling. |
LCD |
|
ISSUES |
|
Burn-In, the
issue where an image persistently displayed on the screen
e.g.. A TV channel logo, becomes "burnt" onto the screen
used to be a big problem for Plasmas, has been dealt with
for the most part in newer models. Not at all a problem for
LCD's. |
LCD |
|
MULTIMEDIA |
|
The resolution of
LCD panels are typically higher than Plasma and thus are
more suited to displaying large amounts of data such as
multimedia content or where there is a large amount of text. |
LCD |
|
POWER |
|
Again this varies
by model and manufacturer but as a rule of thumb plasma TV
consumes around a third more power than the equivalent LCD
display. |
LCD |
|
PRICE |
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Typically LCD is
more competitive under 50" and Plasma over 50" |
- |
|
PRODUCT LIFE |
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Traditionally LCD
was superior but gap has narrowed. Really depends upon model
and manufacturer. |
- |
|
VIDEO |
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LCD can suffer
from a slight "trailer" effect, due to response rates which
can cause blurring of fast motion video e.g.. sporting
scenes. Plasma typically has a faster response rate. |
Plasma |
|
VIEWING ANGLES |
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Viewing angles of
160° for Plasma and 120° for LCD's. This means that as you
move away from viewing a display from the centre the image
becomes faded and more difficult to see properly. |
Plasma |
The above are
generalisations and when you select quality commercial LCD's or
Plasmas then in many cases issues like contrast, colour accuracy and
lifespan may be quite marginal.
Also it is worth noting
that if you go for a quality commercial LCD, this will beat a bottom
of the range Plasma in every area and vice versa.
The key is to ask
yourself the following questions:
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What is the format of the content
primarily going to be? Is it TV, DVD, Flash, HTML etc?
Whilst top end LCD and Plasma's are very close in terms of
quality, if the display is primarily for TV then Plasma is the
most suitable and if the content is going to be high resolution
graphics then LCD would hold the advantage.
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What are the lighting conditions?
In many cases public displays are situated in areas with natural
light or bright lights e.g. malls, retail outlets or banks. In
such a case LCD wins out.
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What size do I need? Assuming
that the content and lighting conditions do not rule out either,
then the technology chooses itself if the answer to this
question is a panel over 50" in size i.e.. Plasma is more
competitively priced above 50".
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Which of the top end commercial
display suppliers are doing the best deals? The LCD and
Plasma markets are incredibly competitive and the canny buyer
can get great deals by exploiting this.
We hope that you find this article
useful. |