| Looks can be highly deceptive; you must have heard | | | | use are certain drawbacks that plasma has not been |
| this adage often. And it holds so true in this case as | | | | able to improve upon. |
| well. Both, LCD and Plasma are flatter and thinner | | | | Two layers of transparent material that are glued |
| versions of your age old television. The outward | | | | together form the LCD panels. Technologically, it differs |
| appearance might be similar but the technology used in | | | | from the plasma in many ways. Out of the two, one |
| both is quite different. | | | | layer is coated with a special polymer that holds the |
| First things first, plasma television does away with the | | | | individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through |
| bulky picture tube and electron beam scanning of | | | | these crystals allowing them to pass or block light. An |
| traditional televisions. The technology it uses instead is | | | | image is thus created through a different technology in |
| based loosely on the fluorescent light bulb. Cells form | | | | LCD screens. An external light source is needed in |
| the entire display and within each cell two glass panels | | | | case such as this as the LCD crystals do not produce |
| are separated by a narrow gap in which is filled with | | | | their own light. A fluorescent bulb is hence needed to |
| neon-xenon gas and sealed in plasma form during the | | | | view the image created by the LCD. |
| manufacturing process itself. The gas gets charged | | | | Since no phosphors get burned up in case of LCD |
| automatically at specific intervals, whenever the | | | | screens, the heat generated is much less. Also, there is |
| plasma is switched on. The charged gas then strikes | | | | no direct emission of light from the screen itself. |
| red, green, and blue phosphors, which we call s pixels, | | | | Keeping the budget and requirements in mind, one can |
| and thus a television image is created. Screen-burn of | | | | now easily decide which one to go for-LCD or |
| static images and generation of heat after excessive | | | | Plasma…what do ya say?! |