When it comes to buying yourself a new television, there has long been a debate as to whether purchasing a plasma or LCD TV is the best option. Both are very popular and there are good reasons for choosing either, however if you are a bit of a technophobe those reasons may not exactly be clear.

The first thing to do is to establish the difference between the two different types of technologies. Lets start by describing the workings of the plasma TV. Plasma televisions consist of millions of tiny gas cells which when combined make up the image which you see.

An LCD television makes use of liquid crystals to produce the image, hence the abbreviation for Liquid Crystal Display. The picture itself is created by varying the electric charge which is applied to the crystals. The image is then lit by using a combination of LEDs or fluorescent tubes. One of the main differences between the two technologies is that an LCD pixel is still lit from behind even when it is being used to display a dark section of an image, whereas with a plasma TV the cell is actually off – giving a blacker image.

The backlighting that can be found on LCD TVs has improved considerably over the years, however the general consensus is that plasma TVs have always been a few steps ahead in terms of picture quality. Another disadvantage to choosing an LCD TV is that there is a slight time lag between when the LCD pixels turn from an on to off state. Even on the best quality LCD TVs you will find that the picture refresh is around 5 milliseconds or a little less. This may seem like an insignificant amount of time, however it can compromise the smoothness of the image movement.

Plasma televisions tend to have the more enviable reputation of having cinema quality picture, however that is not to say that you will have to pay a vast amount of money in order to get this. It is not that difficult to find an affordable plasma TV if you shop around, however it should go without saying that price should be one of the main factors when deciding between an LCD and plasma.

At the end of the day the person who is best placed to decide which television to buy is you. Of course you will have to take your budget into account as well as your personal viewing tastes. If you are not too picky over the picture quality and you are just looking for a large screen on which to play video games then perhaps you can sacrifice a little picture quality if it means you can have a larger screen. On the other hand you may be a real film connoisseur who wants to set up a high end home cinema in which case a top spec LCD television is perhaps the way to go. If you are in any doubt at all then take the time to visit your local high street retailer where the specialist staff will no doubt be happy to assist you with your decision making.

Edward Kendricks writes for CTS (www.cts-networks.co.uk), UK specialists in TV freeview systems installation.

Edward Kendricks writes for CTS (http://www.cts-networks.co.uk), UK specialists in TV freeview systems installation.

Author Bio: Edward Kendricks writes for CTS (www.cts-networks.co.uk), UK specialists in TV freeview systems installation.

Category: Advice
Keywords: audio visual, technology, TV, plasma, HDTV, LCD TV, entertainment, home, leisure, cinema