plasma versus lcd displays made in china

Buying a TV and wondering what type of display tech is better? We’ve got the lowdown for you in this LCD vs Plasma buying guide. These two technologies produce images through vastly different processes, and each comes with a different set of pros and cons. So before we dive head first into which type of screen is better and why, it’s helpful to understand the technology behind each type of screen. Don’t worry, it’s not as complex as you might think.

LCD is short for liquid crystal display, and while the TVs made with this tech come in a few different varieties (namely CCFL-backlit and LED-backlit), the panels they use are the same. LCD panels are typically composed of two sheets of polarized material with a liquid crystal solution between them, so when an electric current passes through the liquid, it causes the crystals to align so that light can (or can’t) pass through. Think of each crystal as a shutter or gate, either allowing light to pass through or blocking it out. After passing through the frontmost polarized pane, the light then passes through a color filter that leaves it either red, green, or blue. Each cluster of red green and blue makes up one pixel on the screen. By selectively illuminating the colors within each pixel, a wide range of hues can be produced on the larger display.

Plasma displays work in an entirely different way. Instead of using a backlight and a set of filters to illuminate pixels on the screen, images on a plasma TVs are created by ionized gas (plasma) that lights up when you run an electrical current through it. The easiest way to undertand it is by thinking of each individual subpixel on the TV as a tiny neon light, or perhaps a miniature version of the florescent tubes you might be sitting under right now. The pixels that make up a plasma display are almost exactly the same technology, just on a much smaller scale.

For those of you who care to understand the science behind it all, here’s how the magic happens: An electrode applies an electrical current to a small cell filled with a noble gas mixture (usually neon and xenon). This excites the gas, ionizing it and transforming it into a plasma. This plasma emits ultraviolet light – which we can’t see – but when the UV light hits a phosphor coating that lines each cell, it causes the phosphor to glow and put out light that we can see. Depending on which particular phosphor the cell is coated with, it will create a red, green, or blue glow. Just like with LCD displays, each cluster of red green and blue subpixels makes up one pixel on the screen (see header image).

Due to the fact that plasma displays have the ability to completely turn off individual pixels, they boast far better black levels than LCD displays. Although LCD tech has improved over the years, the panels still aren’t that great at blocking out light completely, which makes it really hard for them to achieve true blackness on dark scenes. This is especially true of CCFL-backlit LCD screens. Some LED-backlit LCD TVs with local dimming can achieve black levels comparable to those of plasma TVs, but they’re generally much more expensive.

Because of the way they’re designed, plasma TV’s are also better at controlling the relative level of brightness of each red, blue, or green subpixel, so they typically produce greater contrast, more realistically textured images, and richer colors than their LCD counterparts.

Plasma displays also tend to have much better viewing angles than LCD TVs, mostly because the polarizing filters on LCD panels tend to cut out light that isn’t traveling straight forward. Since plasma displays don’t rely on filters to manage the light you see, their pictures can be enjoyed from a relatively wide angle without losing any integrity. Some higher end LCD TV’s incorporate technology to improve viewing angle, but most still aren’t on par with plasma displays.

When images move quickly across a screen, sometimes the pixels on an LCD panel can’t turn on and off fast enough, which results in what we call motion blur. Plasma screens generally don’t have this problem because the florescent phosphor coating in each subpixel stops glowing just a few nanoseconds after the electrode turns off, but LCD screens take a bit longer. This is because the crystals that control the flow of light (ie, shutters) take some extra time to open and close. That being said, however, many newer LCD screens feature refresh rates of 12oHz or faster, which effectively cuts out the problem of motion blur. Lower-end models might still have this drawback though, so be sure to check refresh rates before you buy anything.

If you’ve done even a small amount of research on plasma screens, there’s a good chance you’ve come across a thing called burn-in. This refers to an image that persists on the screen even after the image that created it is long gone – kinda like when somebody shines a flashlight in your face and you can still see streaks when you close your eyes. Burn-in works in the same way, but on your TV. If something bright stays on a plasma screen for too long (like CNN’s ticker or the Discovery Channel logo) it can sometimes leave a visible ghost behind after the image has gone away. This was a big problem in early plasma displays, but burn-in has largely been eradicated now that manufacturers have devised ways to cycle power to the phosphors and keep them from staying lit for too long. Still, it’s probably not a good idea to leave a static image on your screen for days on end.

Plasma TV’s are much more power-hungry than their LCD counterparts. Generally speaking, a CCFL-backlit LCD screen consumes about half the power of a plasma screen of the same size, and a LED-backlit LCD screen uses even less power than that. Depending on the cost of electricity where you live, you might want to factor in power costs if you’re thinking about buying a plasma TV.

Despite all the advances plasma technology has seen over the years, it still can’t match the brightness enjoyed by LED or CCFL-backlit LCD screens. This makes LCD TVs a better option for rooms with lots of light – especially since plasma TVs almost always have glossy, reflective screens.

So which type of TV should you go with? It depends on a few different factors, but if you’re looking for the best picture at the lowest price, definitely go with a plasma TV. Plasma sets cost roughly as much as your typical CCFL-backlit LCD TV, but offer a picture that’s on par with or better than some of the best, most expensive LED TV’s on the market.

However, if your home theater setup is in a room that’s got a lot of windows and ambient light pouring in, or you just have to have the thinnest TV on your block, you might want to opt for an LCD TV. So long as it’s within your budget, we recommend buying an LED-backlit or edgelit LCD TV – they’re thinner, prettier, and more energy-efficient than their CCFL cousins, but also more expensive. CCFL-backlit LCD TVs should only be a last resort – avoid them if at all possible.

A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be released to the public.

Until about 2007, plasma displays were commonly used in large televisions (30 inches (76 cm) and larger). By 2013, they had lost nearly all market share due to competition from low-cost LCDs and more expensive but high-contrast OLED flat-panel displays. Manufacturing of plasma displays for the United States retail market ended in 2014,

Plasma displays are bright (1,000 lux or higher for the display module), have a wide color gamut, and can be produced in fairly large sizes—up to 3.8 metres (150 in) diagonally. They had a very low luminance "dark-room" black level compared with the lighter grey of the unilluminated parts of an LCD screen. (As plasma panels are locally lit and do not require a back light, blacks are blacker on plasma and grayer on LCD"s.)LED-backlit LCD televisions have been developed to reduce this distinction. The display panel itself is about 6 cm (2.4 in) thick, generally allowing the device"s total thickness (including electronics) to be less than 10 cm (3.9 in). Power consumption varies greatly with picture content, with bright scenes drawing significantly more power than darker ones – this is also true for CRTs as well as modern LCDs where LED backlight brightness is adjusted dynamically. The plasma that illuminates the screen can reach a temperature of at least 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). Typical power consumption is 400 watts for a 127 cm (50 in) screen. Most screens are set to "vivid" mode by default in the factory (which maximizes the brightness and raises the contrast so the image on the screen looks good under the extremely bright lights that are common in big box stores), which draws at least twice the power (around 500–700 watts) of a "home" setting of less extreme brightness.

Plasma screens are made out of glass, which may result in glare on the screen from nearby light sources. Plasma display panels cannot be economically manufactured in screen sizes smaller than 82 centimetres (32 in).enhanced-definition televisions (EDTV) this small, even fewer have made 32 inch plasma HDTVs. With the trend toward large-screen television technology, the 32 inch screen size is rapidly disappearing. Though considered bulky and thick compared with their LCD counterparts, some sets such as Panasonic"s Z1 and Samsung"s B860 series are as slim as 2.5 cm (1 in) thick making them comparable to LCDs in this respect.

Wider viewing angles than those of LCD; images do not suffer from degradation at less than straight ahead angles like LCDs. LCDs using IPS technology have the widest angles, but they do not equal the range of plasma primarily due to "IPS glow", a generally whitish haze that appears due to the nature of the IPS pixel design.

Superior uniformity. LCD panel backlights nearly always produce uneven brightness levels, although this is not always noticeable. High-end computer monitors have technologies to try to compensate for the uniformity problem.

Earlier generation displays were more susceptible to screen burn-in and image retention. Recent models have a pixel orbiter that moves the entire picture slower than is noticeable to the human eye, which reduces the effect of burn-in but does not prevent it.

Due to the bistable nature of the color and intensity generating method, some people will notice that plasma displays have a shimmering or flickering effect with a number of hues, intensities and dither patterns.

Earlier generation displays (circa 2006 and prior) had phosphors that lost luminosity over time, resulting in gradual decline of absolute image brightness. Newer models have advertised lifespans exceeding 100,000 hours (11 years), far longer than older CRTs.

Uses more electrical power, on average, than an LCD TV using a LED backlight. Older CCFL backlights for LCD panels used quite a bit more power, and older plasma TVs used quite a bit more power than recent models.

Fixed-pixel displays such as plasma TVs scale the video image of each incoming signal to the native resolution of the display panel. The most common native resolutions for plasma display panels are 852×480 (EDTV), 1,366×768 and 1920×1080 (HDTV). As a result, picture quality varies depending on the performance of the video scaling processor and the upscaling and downscaling algorithms used by each display manufacturer.

Early plasma televisions were enhanced-definition (ED) with a native resolution of 840×480 (discontinued) or 852×480 and down-scaled their incoming high-definition video signals to match their native display resolutions.

The following ED resolutions were common prior to the introduction of HD displays, but have long been phased out in favor of HD displays, as well as because the overall pixel count in ED displays is lower than the pixel count on SD PAL displays (852×480 vs 720×576, respectively).

Early high-definition (HD) plasma displays had a resolution of 1024x1024 and were alternate lighting of surfaces (ALiS) panels made by Fujitsu and Hitachi.

Later HDTV plasma televisions usually have a resolution of 1,024×768 found on many 42 inch plasma screens, 1280×768 and 1,366×768 found on 50 in, 60 in, and 65 in plasma screens, or 1920×1080 found on plasma screen sizes from 42 inch to 103 inch. These displays are usually progressive displays, with non-square pixels, and will up-scale and de-interlace their incoming standard-definition signals to match their native display resolutions. 1024×768 resolution requires that 720p content be downscaled in one direction and upscaled in the other.

Ionized gases such as the ones shown here are confined to millions of tiny individual compartments across the face of a plasma display, to collectively form a visual image.

A panel of a plasma display typically comprises millions of tiny compartments in between two panels of glass. These compartments, or "bulbs" or "cells", hold a mixture of noble gases and a minuscule amount of another gas (e.g., mercury vapor). Just as in the fluorescent lamps over an office desk, when a high voltage is applied across the cell, the gas in the cells forms a plasma. With flow of electricity (electrons), some of the electrons strike mercury particles as the electrons move through the plasma, momentarily increasing the energy level of the atom until the excess energy is shed. Mercury sheds the energy as ultraviolet (UV) photons. The UV photons then strike phosphor that is painted on the inside of the cell. When the UV photon strikes a phosphor molecule, it momentarily raises the energy level of an outer orbit electron in the phosphor molecule, moving the electron from a stable to an unstable state; the electron then sheds the excess energy as a photon at a lower energy level than UV light; the lower energy photons are mostly in the infrared range but about 40% are in the visible light range. Thus the input energy is converted to mostly infrared but also as visible light. The screen heats up to between 30 and 41 °C (86 and 106 °F) during operation. Depending on the phosphors used, different colors of visible light can be achieved. Each pixel in a plasma display is made up of three cells comprising the primary colors of visible light. Varying the voltage of the signals to the cells thus allows different perceived colors.

Control circuitry charges the electrodes that cross paths at a cell, creating a voltage difference between front and back. Some of the atoms in the gas of a cell then lose electrons and become ionized, which creates an electrically conducting plasma of atoms, free electrons, and ions. The collisions of the flowing electrons in the plasma with the inert gas atoms leads to light emission; such light-emitting plasmas are known as glow discharges.

Relative spectral power of red, green and blue phosphors of a common plasma display. The units of spectral power are simply raw sensor values (with a linear response at specific wavelengths).

In a monochrome plasma panel, the gas is mostly neon, and the color is the characteristic orange of a neon-filled lamp (or sign). Once a glow discharge has been initiated in a cell, it can be maintained by applying a low-level voltage between all the horizontal and vertical electrodes–even after the ionizing voltage is removed. To erase a cell all voltage is removed from a pair of electrodes. This type of panel has inherent memory. A small amount of nitrogen is added to the neon to increase hysteresis.phosphor. The ultraviolet photons emitted by the plasma excite these phosphors, which give off visible light with colors determined by the phosphor materials. This aspect is comparable to fluorescent lamps and to the neon signs that use colored phosphors.

Every pixel is made up of three separate subpixel cells, each with different colored phosphors. One subpixel has a red light phosphor, one subpixel has a green light phosphor and one subpixel has a blue light phosphor. These colors blend together to create the overall color of the pixel, the same as a triad of a shadow mask CRT or color LCD. Plasma panels use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to control brightness: by varying the pulses of current flowing through the different cells thousands of times per second, the control system can increase or decrease the intensity of each subpixel color to create billions of different combinations of red, green and blue. In this way, the control system can produce most of the visible colors. Plasma displays use the same phosphors as CRTs, which accounts for the extremely accurate color reproduction when viewing television or computer video images (which use an RGB color system designed for CRT displays).

Plasma displays are different from liquid crystal displays (LCDs), another lightweight flat-screen display using very different technology. LCDs may use one or two large fluorescent lamps as a backlight source, but the different colors are controlled by LCD units, which in effect behave as gates that allow or block light through red, green, or blue filters on the front of the LCD panel.

Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image, measured in discrete steps, at any given moment. Generally, the higher the contrast ratio, the more realistic the image is (though the "realism" of an image depends on many factors including color accuracy, luminance linearity, and spatial linearity). Contrast ratios for plasma displays are often advertised as high as 5,000,000:1.organic light-emitting diode. Although there are no industry-wide guidelines for reporting contrast ratio, most manufacturers follow either the ANSI standard or perform a full-on-full-off test. The ANSI standard uses a checkered test pattern whereby the darkest blacks and the lightest whites are simultaneously measured, yielding the most accurate "real-world" ratings. In contrast, a full-on-full-off test measures the ratio using a pure black screen and a pure white screen, which gives higher values but does not represent a typical viewing scenario. Some displays, using many different technologies, have some "leakage" of light, through either optical or electronic means, from lit pixels to adjacent pixels so that dark pixels that are near bright ones appear less dark than they do during a full-off display. Manufacturers can further artificially improve the reported contrast ratio by increasing the contrast and brightness settings to achieve the highest test values. However, a contrast ratio generated by this method is misleading, as content would be essentially unwatchable at such settings.

Each cell on a plasma display must be precharged before it is lit, otherwise the cell would not respond quickly enough. Precharging normally increases power consumption, so energy recovery mechanisms may be in place to avoid an increase in power consumption.LED illumination can automatically reduce the backlighting on darker scenes, though this method cannot be used in high-contrast scenes, leaving some light showing from black parts of an image with bright parts, such as (at the extreme) a solid black screen with one fine intense bright line. This is called a "halo" effect which has been minimized on newer LED-backlit LCDs with local dimming. Edgelit models cannot compete with this as the light is reflected via a light guide to distribute the light behind the panel.

Image burn-in occurs on CRTs and plasma panels when the same picture is displayed for long periods. This causes the phosphors to overheat, losing some of their luminosity and producing a "shadow" image that is visible with the power off. Burn-in is especially a problem on plasma panels because they run hotter than CRTs. Early plasma televisions were plagued by burn-in, making it impossible to use video games or anything else that displayed static images.

Plasma displays also exhibit another image retention issue which is sometimes confused with screen burn-in damage. In this mode, when a group of pixels are run at high brightness (when displaying white, for example) for an extended period, a charge build-up in the pixel structure occurs and a ghost image can be seen. However, unlike burn-in, this charge build-up is transient and self-corrects after the image condition that caused the effect has been removed and a long enough period has passed (with the display either off or on).

Plasma manufacturers have tried various ways of reducing burn-in such as using gray pillarboxes, pixel orbiters and image washing routines, but none to date have eliminated the problem and all plasma manufacturers continue to exclude burn-in from their warranties.

The first practical plasma video display was co-invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign by Donald Bitzer, H. Gene Slottow, and graduate student Robert Willson for the PLATO computer system.Owens-Illinois were very popular in the early 1970s because they were rugged and needed neither memory nor circuitry to refresh the images.CRT displays cheaper than the $2500 USD 512 × 512 PLATO plasma displays.

Burroughs Corporation, a maker of adding machines and computers, developed the Panaplex display in the early 1970s. The Panaplex display, generically referred to as a gas-discharge or gas-plasma display,seven-segment display for use in adding machines. They became popular for their bright orange luminous look and found nearly ubiquitous use throughout the late 1970s and into the 1990s in cash registers, calculators, pinball machines, aircraft avionics such as radios, navigational instruments, and stormscopes; test equipment such as frequency counters and multimeters; and generally anything that previously used nixie tube or numitron displays with a high digit-count. These displays were eventually replaced by LEDs because of their low current-draw and module-flexibility, but are still found in some applications where their high brightness is desired, such as pinball machines and avionics.

In 1983, IBM introduced a 19-inch (48 cm) orange-on-black monochrome display (Model 3290 Information Panel) which was able to show up to four simultaneous IBM 3270 terminal sessions. By the end of the decade, orange monochrome plasma displays were used in a number of high-end AC-powered portable computers, such as the Compaq Portable 386 (1987) and the IBM P75 (1990). Plasma displays had a better contrast ratio, viewability angle, and less motion blur than the LCDs that were available at the time, and were used until the introduction of active-matrix color LCD displays in 1992.

Due to heavy competition from monochrome LCDs used in laptops and the high costs of plasma display technology, in 1987 IBM planned to shut down its factory in Kingston, New York, the largest plasma plant in the world, in favor of manufacturing mainframe computers, which would have left development to Japanese companies.Larry F. Weber, a University of Illinois ECE PhD (in plasma display research) and staff scientist working at CERL (home of the PLATO System), co-founded Plasmaco with Stephen Globus and IBM plant manager James Kehoe, and bought the plant from IBM for US$50,000. Weber stayed in Urbana as CTO until 1990, then moved to upstate New York to work at Plasmaco.

In 1994, Weber demonstrated a color plasma display at an industry convention in San Jose. Panasonic Corporation began a joint development project with Plasmaco, which led in 1996 to the purchase of Plasmaco, its color AC technology, and its American factory for US$26 million.

In 1995, Fujitsu introduced the first 42-inch (107 cm) plasma display panel;Philips introduced the first large commercially available flat-panel TV, using the Fujitsu panels. It was available at four Sears locations in the US for $14,999, including in-home installation. Pioneer also began selling plasma televisions that year, and other manufacturers followed. By the year 2000 prices had dropped to $10,000.

In the year 2000, the first 60-inch plasma display was developed by Plasmaco. Panasonic was also reported to have developed a process to make plasma displays using ordinary window glass instead of the much more expensive "high strain point" glass.

In late 2006, analysts noted that LCDs had overtaken plasmas, particularly in the 40-inch (100 cm) and above segment where plasma had previously gained market share.

Until the early 2000s, plasma displays were the most popular choice for HDTV flat panel display as they had many benefits over LCDs. Beyond plasma"s deeper blacks, increased contrast, faster response time, greater color spectrum, and wider viewing angle; they were also much bigger than LCDs, and it was believed that LCDs were suited only to smaller sized televisions. However, improvements in VLSI fabrication narrowed the technological gap. The increased size, lower weight, falling prices, and often lower electrical power consumption of LCDs made them competitive with plasma television sets.

Screen sizes have increased since the introduction of plasma displays. The largest plasma video display in the world at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, was a 150-inch (380 cm) unit manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) standing 6 ft (180 cm) tall by 11 ft (340 cm) wide.

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic introduced their 152" 2160p 3D plasma. In 2010, Panasonic shipped 19.1 million plasma TV panels.

Panasonic was the biggest plasma display manufacturer until 2013, when it decided to discontinue plasma production. In the following months, Samsung and LG also ceased production of plasma sets. Panasonic, Samsung and LG were the last plasma manufacturers for the U.S. retail market.

Could you elaborate on plasma versus LCD TVs? My old telly has just given up the ghost and I don"t really know the difference between the two. Fergus M Crossen

Both plasma and LCD TVs are attempts to solve the same problem: how do you make a big, flat screen without forcing a very large and very heavy bit of glass - a cathode ray tube - into an unnatural shape? Of course, both solutions have their own problems.

Plasma screens work by lighting up tiny cells of rare gases (xenon and neon) sandwiched between two plates of glass, so it is fairly straightforward to make large screens. These screens are very bright and have good contrast with deep blacks. They also have wide viewing angles, so you still get a good view from the side.

LCD screens use columns of liquid crystal molecules controlled by a matrix of transistors (in TFT or thin-film transistor designs). Some of these transistors are likely to be defective, which leads to dead pixels, and the larger the screen, the harder it is to avoid them. LCD screens are lit from behind, so they are not as bright or as contrasty as plasma screens, and may look less bright if you are off to one side. Also, they don"t react as quickly as plasma screens, and may smear fast action.

LCD screens also have some useful advantages over plasma screens. They are thinner, lighter and more robust, which makes them much easier to move around. For those with ecological concerns, LCDs use little power, whereas plasma screens use lots. Further, an LCD should last roughly twice as long as a plasma screen, which may have a "half life" of only 30,000 to 40,000 hours. (The "half life" is when the screen has degraded to half its brightness, and you may well throw it away.)

As always, different buyers value different features. If you want a really big wall-mounted screen and money is no object, go for plasma. If you want a small or medium-sized screen that you can move around, go for LCD. Either way, look for a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and an "HD ready" logo, so you will be ready for high-definition TV.

Contrast ratio is a measure to compare the darkest black with the whitest white. Plasma TVs score well on this parameter with a contrast ratio of up to 3000:1. LCD TVs have a contrast ratio of up to 1000:1; however, this metric is calculated differently for LCDs so it"s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Plasma TVs, in general, offer a better contrast than LCDs.

Older models of Plasma TVs can suffer from burn-in produced by static images. After extended periods, stationary images "burn in" the screen and produce an after-image ghost which remains permanently on the screen. This no longer affects new Plasma displays, as they continually shift the image around to prevent the image from being stationary.

LCD TVs do not suffer from burn-in. However, it is possible for individual pixels on an LCD screen to burn out. This causes small, visible, black or white dots to appear on the screen.

Plasma TVs are capable of displaying deeper blacks. Improved black levels help render better those difficult-to-define quality attributes like picture depth, scene detail - especially in television and movie scenes where lots of dark and light content is shown simultaneously, and color richness. Indirectly, a better black level also leads to better rendering of picture contrast.

In comparison, the nature of LCD technology – where a backlight shines through the LCD layer – makes it hard for it to achieve true blacks, i.e. true absence of light. There is always some light leakage from adjacent picture elements in an LCD panel.

LCD TV displays reproduce colours by manipulating light waves and subtracting colours from white light. This makes it more difficult for maintaining colour accuracy and vibrancy. But, LCD TVs have colour information benefits from the higher-than-average number of pixels per square inch found in their displays.

In plasma TVs, each pixel contains red, green, and blue elements, which work in conjunction to create 16.77 million colours. Colour information is more accurately reproduced with plasma TV technology than it is with any other display technology, including LCD TVs.

Plasma TV displays refresh and handle rapid movements in video about as well as normal CRT TVs. LCD TVs were originally designed for computer data displays, and not video. Refresh rates are therefore not as good, but LCD TVs are fast catching up.

LCD TVs life span is typically 50,000-60,000 hours, which equates to about 6 years of 24/7 use. However, LCD TVs will actually last as long as its backlight does, and those bulbs can be replaced - so in essence there"s nothing which can wear out.

The life span for Plasma TVs is 25,000 to 30,000 hours, which equates to about 3 years of 24/7 usage before the TV fades to half the original brightness.

Plasma TVs do not use Mercury while LCD TVs do in their CCFL backlight. However, this issue is a red herring. Most common high-efficieny phosphorescent lamps use mercury and it is not a big deal. The amount of mercury used in LCD TVs is very small and besides, the user never comes in contact with it.

Most electronics retailers carry both LCD and Plasma TVs, including Best Buy, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Dell, Target, P.C. Richard & Son, Sears, Costco and hhgregg.com.

SEOUL (Reuters) - LG Electronics Inc.is creating its smallest plasma display panel for the Chinese TV market, a company spokesman said on Monday, as the loss-making flat screen division struggles to diversify its customer base.A saleswoman demonstrates the use of an LG Electronics 55-inch Full-HD LCD TV equipped with a liquid crystal display from LG.Philips at the Korea Electronics Show in Goyang, October 11, 2005. LG Electronics Inc. is creating its smallest plasma display panel for the Chinese TV market, a company spokesman said on Monday, as the loss-making flat screen division struggles to diversify its customer base. REUTERS/You Sung-Ho

South Korea-based LG, the world’s No. 2 maker of plasma display panels (PDPs), will supply 32-inch plasma panels -- the smallest the company has ever produced -- for unspecified Chinese TV set makers, the spokesman said.

He added LG would offer its 32-inch PDP screens at a lower price than similar-sized LCD panels but did not give a price. Production volume has yet to be decided.

It said on Friday it would halt production at the smallest of its three domestic plasma panel lines before the end of June, a move analysts see as a step towards a broader restructuring.

Plasma screens, which once dominated the 40-inch-and-larger TV market with cheaper price tags and technical advantages, have been pummeled in a price war with liquid crystal display (LCD) screens backed by larger production lines and economies of scale.

Analysts expect plasma makers can enjoy price competitiveness for a while in the 50-inch-and-above segment, but the market has yet to grow as flat-screen TV demand is still focused on smaller sizes, particularly in emerging markets.

Given up for dead less than a year ago, plasma TVs are making a comeback, with manufacturers boosting sales forecasts amid a continued shortage of LCD TVs and surging demand in developing countries.

"Plasma isn"t going to disappear," said Jeff Kim, an analyst at Seoul"s Hyundai Securities. "It is still competitive in large formats, and will compete until 2010."

In less than two years, plasma-display technology has gone from dominant format to afterthought, then back to a viable option. In early 2006, plasma was the cheapest and most available choice in the 40-inch flat-panel TV market due to lower production costs and an ability to make larger panels.

But only months later, LCD makers ramped up large-size production and quickly overran the market with LCD screens. Plasma makers then saw prices plummet and profits vanish.

South Korea"s Samsung SDI and LG Electronics, the world"s second- and third-ranked plasma panel makers, were particularly hard hit in 2007 due to price falls.

Plasma screens use tiny charged gas bubbles to display images and more natural color, while liquid crystal displays (LCDs) use crystals sandwiched between glass and a back-lit unit. Plasmas offer crisper picture quality but use more power and are heavier; LCDs offer brighter images but can be blurry.

"Someone asked me, "What"s going on? Why all these new displays? I thought plasma was dead!"" said Yoshi Yamada, chief executive of Matsushita"s North American unit, referring to crisper images and low-energy consumption screens on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

LCD shortage, China demand"Plasma"s success is essentially due to lack of supply in LCD," Hyundai"s Kim said, referring to tightness in LCD screen supply due to LCD makers" decision to cut back investment after the industry suffered severe losses due to oversupply in 2006.

With demand skyrocketing for flat screens of all sizes, plasma has found a lucrative niche supplying developing countries with relatively small TVs at competitive prices.

LG launched a 32-inch plasma TV last year that sold well, particularly among Chinese eager to buy flat panel TVs ahead of the August Beijing Olympic Games but unwilling to pay for LCD.

Still, manufacturers won"t stick with plasma unless they earn significant profits. The plasma market could face another slump in 2009, when big LCD makers" latest production lines start mass-producing 50-inch panels, further eroding prices.

"Plasma has to find an appropriate fit in the marketplace," Timothy Baxter, executive vice president of consumer electronics at its North American operations, told Reuters.

He said plasma, which had until now been marketed as a cheaper alternative to LCD, is repositioning itself with the addition of high-definition features.

"Plasma is certainly well on its way to becoming a very niche high-end product," said Paul O"Donovan, an analyst at Gartner. "It won"t disappear, but it will move into the very high end of the market"

In a market where bigger screens have higher price tags, O"Donovan said Matsushita"s 150-inch plasma display, unveiled at CES, exemplified that drive to the very high-end.

But Matsushita may not be as concerned about the difference between plasma and LCD — mostly because a vast majority of buyers don"t really care about the underlying technology — and is preparing to expand its lineup to include 40-inch LCD TVs.

"Plasma and LCD technologies have grown closer together as engineers work to overcome the disadvantages of each. It has become more difficult for consumers to tell them apart," said Matsushita executive Toshihiro Sakamoto. "What will count next is design and how easily consumers can use TVs to link to applications."

The last company to make plasma TV screens for U.S. consumers said this week that it would stop production of plasma sets in November. The widely expected announcement by LG has put the final nail in plasma TV"s coffin.

Samsung stop making plasma screens by November. Panasonic, the only other manufacturer of plasma TVs for U.S. consumers, shut down its plasma screen production in 2013.

As the TV makers sell off their existing plasma TV inventory, tech consultancy IHS expects that plasma TVs will no longer be available in U.S. stores after the 2014 holiday shopping season.

There are still a few Chinese companies producing plasma TVs, but they don"t sell their televisions in the United States. They too will likely stop plasma production by 2016, IHS forecasts.

TV buyers have opted for the less expensive, higher-resolution and lower-energy LCD TV technology over plasma TVs. Once a popular high-end option for HDTV sets, plasma technology has been outpaced by LCD, which includes the super-thin LED TVs.

Plasma TVs are composed of pixels filled with gas that light up in different colors when they"re hit with an electrical current. LCD televisions use screens made of liquid crystals that are lit up from behind to create images.

Plasma TVs offered what many considered to be the best picture quality on the market in the past few years, albeit at higher prices than LCDs. They gained favor thanks to their brighter images, warmer tones and wider viewing angles.

With no more major manufacturers outputting plasma displays, many reports and analysts have claimed the technology is now dead. After four decades of ups and downs and innovations, it seems plasma displays are just another victim of out-with-old, in-with-the-new mindset.

Plasma displays have many advantages and are even more affordable than current LCD screens, but that still hasn"t been enough to curb public perception and boost sales. So, in memory of plasma, we"ve rounded up a brief history, complete with hallmark moments, of the technology.

A plasma display is a flat-panel display once-commonly used for televisions 30 inches in size or larger. Plasma displays are thinner than cathode ray tube displays, a technology used in the first commercially-made electronic television sets.

Plasma displays are classed plasma because each pixel in the screen is illuminated by a tiny bit of plasma. When an electrode applies an electrical current to a small cell filled with a noble gas mixture (like neon and xenon), it excites the gas, then ionizes it, and transforms it into a plasma.

The plasma then emits ultraviolet light, and once that light hits the phosphor coating lining each cell, it causes the phosphor to glow a visible light. Just think of of each individual subpixel on a plasma display as a tiny neon light or florescent tube. The technology is the same, just on a smaller scale.

Plasma displays have been known to boast better black levels than many LCD screens, although LCD technology has greatly improved in recent years. Pricier LED-backlit LCD screens with local dimming, for instance, have black levels comparable to those of plasma displays.

Due to how plasma displays work, they can provide precise control of the relative level of brightness and intensity for red, blue, and green subpixels. The displays therefore have deep contrast, textured images, and rich colours. Due to the lack of polarising filters, they have good viewing angles too.

Another advantage is that the florescent phosphor coating lining each subpixel can stop glowing within nanoseconds, eliminating a problem known as motion blur. Pixels in lower-end LCD screens cannot shutter or close as fast, meaning they have poor refresh rates, which results in motion blur.

Burn-in was a problem often associated with early plasma displays, but it can still occur today. It happens when the same picture is displayed for long periods. If something bright is shown on a plasma display for too long (such as a network logo), it could leave a visible-yet-faint image behind.

Plasma displays are also known for their large energy consumption, especially compared to, for instance, an LED-backlit LCD screen. And despite all that energy waste, plasma displays, which are highly glossy and reflective, sometimes don"t shine as bright as new LED or CCFL-backlit LCD screens.

Kalman Tihanyi, a Hungarian engineer, developed the first flat-panel display system in 1963, and about one year later, a monochrome plasma display was invented and presented at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the PLATO Computer System.

Manufacturers like Ownes-Illinois and Burroughs Corporation made plasma displays, which were known for their neon orange and monochrome look, throughout the 1970s. IBM then popped into the plasma scene in 1983, when it introduced a 19-inch orange-on-black monochrome display.

The 1990s saw the emergence of full-colour plasma displays. Fujitsu demonstrated a 21-inch hybrid display in 1992 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then three years later, it introduced the first 42-inch plasma display with a 852x480 resolution.

Philips followed Fujitsu’s footprint and came out with a plasma display of the same resolution in 1997. It was marketed with a steep price tag of $14,999. That same year, Pioneer entered the market of making and selling plasma displays. And the rest is history.

Panasonic showed off a 103-inch plasma display panel at CES 2006. The display had 1080p HDTV resolution and was the world’s largest plasma display at that time, edging narrowly ahead of the 102-inch Samsung plasma display shown off the previous year.

Panasonic (then called Matsushita Electric Industrial) made jaws drop again in 2008, when it showed off a 150-inch set at CES 2008. The display stood 6-ft tall by 11-ft wide. By this time however, plasma displays had peaked in popularity and were steadily losing ground to LCD screens.

Nonetheless, Panasonic once again stole the show floor at CES when it debuted a 152-inch plasma television that had 4K resolution and 3D technology. The television set cost well-over $500,000 when it launched.

There have been many plasma display manufacturers over the last few decades, but the following were known for their world-class displays: Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Sanyo, Magnavox, Sony, Vizio, LG, and Hitachi.

The company sold many of its Kuro-branded plasma technology patents to Panasonic, one of the last remaining manufacturers concentrating on plasma displays. That said, Panasonic eventually ended sales of plasma displays in March 2014.

The Consumer Electronics Association revealed in 2013 that Americans spent $2.15 billion on 2.98 million plasma displays in 2012. In comparison, during that same year, Americans spent about $16.8 billion on about 36.2 million LCD screens.

It’s not clear why Americans (and the rest of the world, for that matter) drifted away from plasma displays. The technology, which was once expensive, was more affordable than many LCD screens on the market.

Some reports have claimed that LCD is widely perceived by consumers as being both better and newer than plasma. Perhaps it"s because LCD screens tend to appear brighter and don’t have burn-in issues. They also use less electricity, a growing concern for budget-conscious and green shoppers.

Although the 2013 report from the Consumer Electronics Association forecasted that Americans would buy 1.33 million plasma displays for a total of $923 million in 2015, that amount most likely wasn"t (and isn"t) enough for television manufacturers to continue investing in the technology.

LG"s withdrawal from plasma display means there are no major suppliers making plasma displays. The company first started manufacturing plasma displays in 1999, four years after Fujitsu made the first commercially available television using the technology. It is the last major manufacturer to withdraw from the market, following earlier moves by Panasonic and Pioneer.

Chinese firm Changhong Electric Co will now be the only plasma display maker left in existence, but it is unclear how many of its displays will end up in televisions outside of China. Analysts believe that there will be no more plasma displays by 2017.

In the old days of digital television, a year or two ago, choices were simple. If the screen measured lessthan 37 inches diagonally, it would be a liquid crystal display panel. From about 37 to 50 inches, it would probably be a plasma panel. And larger sizes would be rear- or front-projection sets.

But as flat panels have grown, categories have blurred. For 60-inch, or 152- centimeter, screens, plasmas startingabout $3,000 are an alternative to projection models starting about $2,000. A bigger rivalry exists between LCD and plasma panels of about 40 inches, where prices are virtually identical. For example, the most popular plasma from LG Electronics, the 42-inch 42PC3D, sells for $2,000; and its 42-inch LCD, the 42LC2D, sells for $2,100. (Model numbers and availability may differ slightly in Europe and Asia.)

The first step in answering that is to get past antiquated stereotypes. Plasma, for instance, is still haunted by burn-in - the tendency to retain marks from images displayed on the screen for too long.

But for modern plasmas, burn-in usually disappears after a few hours of displaying other content, according to David Katzmaier, a senior editor for home video and audio at the online technology publisher CNET. In fact, plasmas are sturdier overall than they used to be. Many new screens are expected to last 60,000 hours before losing half their brightness - the standard measure of a screen"s lifetime. Modern LCDs are also rated for 60,000 hours. That is more than 23 years of watching TV seven hours a day, every day.

"Plasma has to find an appropriate fit in the marketplace," said Timothy Baxter, executive vice president of consumer electronics at Samsung"s North American operations.

He said that plasma, which had until now been marketed as a cheaper alternative to LCD, is repositioning itself with the addition of high-definition features.

"Plasma is certainly well on its way to becoming a very niche high-end product," said Paul O"Donovan, an analyst at Gartner. "It won"t disappear, but it will move into the very high end of the market."

In a market where bigger screens have higher price tags, O"Donovan said that Panasonic"s 150-inch plasma display, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, exemplified that drive to the very high end.

But Panasonic may not be as concerned about the difference between plasma and LCD - mostly because many buyers do not really care about the underlying technology - and is preparing to expand its lineup to include 40-inch LCD TVs.

"Plasma and LCD technologies have grown closer together as engineers work to overcome the disadvantages of each. It has become more difficult for consumers to tell them apart," said Toshihiro Sakamoto, a Panasonic executive.

If you"re in the market for a flat-screen television, then you probably have one big question you want answered: plasma vs. LCD; which one is right for you?

The two different camps of flat-panel display standards will, of course, gladly spruik the advantages of their own standard and the deficiencies of the other. But what type of display — plasma or LCD — is actually better? And which will give you more bang for your buck?

Plasma and LCD panels may look similar, but the flat screen and the thin profile are where the similarities end. Plasma screens, as the name suggests, use a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells charged by precise electrical voltages to create a picture. LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are in layman"s terms sandwiches made up of liquid crystal pushed in the space between two glass plates. Images are created by varying the amount of electrical charge applied to the crystals. Each technology has its strengths and weaknesses, as you"ll read below.

It"s not what"s happening behind the screen that"s important — it"s how the screen performs as a television that matters the most. In that regard, both plasma and LCD TV sets produce excellent pictures, and the differences between them aren"t as pronounced as they used to be. While the latest plasmas are particularly good, LCD sets are quickly catching up in terms of quality, with advances like LED backlighting.

For basic home cinema-like usage, plasma screens have a slight edge over LCDs. This is because plasma screens can still display blacks more accurately than LCDs can, which means better contrast and detail in dark scenes. The nature of LCD technology, where a backlight shines through the LCD layer, means that it"s hard for it to achieve true blacks because there"s always some light leakage from between pixels. As LCD/LED technologies such as polarising filters and dynamic backlights improve, the quality gap between the technologies grows narrower.

Apart from better contrast due to its ability to show deeper blacks, plasma screens typically have better viewing angles than LCD. Viewing angles are how far you can sit on either side of a screen before the picture"s quality is affected. You tend to see some brightness and colour shift when you"re on too much of an angle with LCDs, while a plasma"s picture remains fairly solid. Plasmas can also produce richer, more natural colours, due to both light leakage and to a limit on the hues that LCD can reproduce.

Plasma pundits will also tell you that some LCD screens have a tendency to blur images, particularly during fast-moving scenes in movies or in sport. While that was true for older generation LCD screens, newer models have improved significantly — so much so that the differences in performance between LCDs and plasmas in this regard is almost negligible. (While the pixel response time, measured in milliseconds (ms), can give you some indication of an LCD"s performance with fast-moving scenes, it"s not always reliable.)

Traditionally, the biggest advantage that plasmas have had over their LCD cousins is price, particularly in the large screen end of the market. Depending on the resolution, plasma is still able to beat most equivalently priced LCD screens. Plasmas currently sold in Australia generally run between 42 and 65 inches wide, with the cheapest 1024x768 standard-definition 42-inch selling for under AU$1000.

At present, the mainstream plasma size is 50 inches, but sizes of 60 inches and above are becoming more common. At these sizes, plasmas tend to be two thirds or less than the price of the equivalent LCD, due to the high manufacturing cost of LCD panels.

Apart from becoming increasingly price-competitive, LCD has the edge over plasma in several other key areas. LCDs tend to have a higher native resolution than plasmas of similar size, which means more pixels on the screen.

LCDs also tend to consume less power than plasma screens, with some of the newer "Eco" LCD panels able to use half of the power than equivalent plasmas, with the trade-off being lower brightness.

In terms of bulk, LCDs are also generally lighter than similar-sized plasmas, making it easier to move around or wall-mount. This is because LCDs use plastic in their screen make-up, whereas plasmas tend to use glass.

LCD pundits point to the belief that LCDs have a longer lifespan than plasma screens. While this may have been true of earlier plasma models — which dropped to half-brightness at 20,000 hours — many modern plasmas have the same 60,000-hour lifespan as LCDs. This means that both types of TVs will last for almost seven years if left on 24 hours a day.

You might have also heard that plasmas suffer from screen burn-in, an affliction not commonly associated with LCDs. Screen burn-in occurs when an image is left too long on a screen, resulting in a ghost of that image "burned in". Newer plasmas are less susceptible to this, thanks to improved technology and features such as screensavers, but burn-in can still be a problem. However, after a few days most burnt-in images will fade — they are no longer permanent.

If you"re in the market for a big-screen television — and we"re talking 50 inches and above — then we"d suggest plasma as a safe bet. Plasmas give you more bang for your buck at the big end of town, and while LCDs can give you better resolution, plasma still has the edge in terms of picture quality.

At the smaller end of things (17- to 42-inch TVs), LCD is the only way to go if you want something slim and tasteful. And the best thing is that LCDs are getting cheaper all the time.

There has also been a lot of debate surrounding use in bright environments versus dark, cinema-like conditions. The traditional wisdom is that LCD performs better during the day due to its backlighting system, and that plasma works best in a dark environment, as it uses a glass front. Nonetheless, products like the non-reflective glass plasmas and LED-backlit LCD panels with their better blacks completely turn this logic on its head.

In the past couple of years, several new features have cropped up, but the most pertinent to this discussion is 3D. While it"s possible to manufacture a 3D screen with both LCD technology and plasma, based on our extensive testing, a plasma screen is the best at producing 3D images and reducing the artefact known as crosstalk, or ghosted imaging. Be aware that there is still very little content available in 3D, and that the technology is still evolving. Buy a set for its 2D abilities first, and then consider 3D.

While most screens are now full high-definition (1080p), resolution is a consideration when you"re looking at budget screens. Budget LCDs and plasmas feature either 1366x768 or 1024x768 (720p) resolutions. If you"re buying a screen that"s 42 inches or larger, though, there"s now no reason to get anything less than 1080p.

Panasonic announced today that it"s closing down its plasma TV assembly plant in Shanghai, China – the latest stage in the reduction of its plasma display capacity in the face of a market increasingly dominated by LCD TVs.

The company has already pared back its plasma display panel production in Japan, as part of cost-cutting measures brought about by what"s expected to be a net loss of some Y765bn (around £5.3bn) for the current financial year.

The Shanghai plant hasn"t been operating since last September, and its closure reflects a market oversupplied with plasma TV manufacturing, and the failure of the technology to sell in large quantities in China, which Panasonic saw as a major growth market.

And the TV product mix is changing: two years ago Panasonic sold 7.5m plasma TVs in a year, representing almost 40% of its TV sales, but this year it expects to sell just a third as many, and for LCD-based TVs to account for 84% of all sales.

The company says it isn"t abandoning plasma: it still makes display panels in Japan, and sets are assembled at several plants worldwide. And that includes China: some of the capacity of the Shanghai plant will transferred to an existing LCD TV factory in Jinan, Shandong Province.

LG.Philips LCD began production of seventh-generation TFT LCDs (thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays) at its facility in Paju (Korea) at the beginning of 2006. The ramp up was over six months earlier than previously planned, prompted by increasing demand for LCD TVs and PCs. The expansion made it the world’s largest LCD production facility. Philips made a pilot production run at the end of November 2005, and has started production of 42in panels from its 1,950mm x 2,250mm glass substrates.

The company is investing $10 billion and expects annual sales close to $3 billion, more than 90% of which will be from exports. The 1,650,000m² complex takes the LG.Philips LCD industrial cluster to 3,300,000m², housing next-generation LCD production and R&D facilities. Preparatory work was completed by March 2004.

The fab is located in Paju, Kyonggi Province, north of Seoul. LG.Philips LCD and the Kyonggi provincial government has provided infrastructure including industrial water systems, electricity utilities and roads. The investment has created around 5,000 new jobs.

TFT LCDs have three layers. A glass plate substrate with TFT transistors is at the bottom, a glass plate colour filter on top and the liquid crystal is injected between the two. Although LCDs are fluid, they show long-range order like solids. The molecules are roughly bar shaped but with anisotropic values of reflective index, dielectric constant, conductivity and viscosity: all have different values along different axes.

The transistors apply voltages to the liquid crystals to control the vibration direction of polarized light passing through them. This affects the light permeability of the individual LCD pixels to form images.

TFT-LCD screens are flatter and lighter than CRTs, consume less power and generate lower electromagnetic emissions. Besides going into TV sets for the home, TFT LCDs will be used in monitors for mini notebook PCs and hand-held computers, medical equipment, car navigation and entertainment systems and avionics instrumentation.

Philips has been improving the technical limitations of TFT-LCDs, particularly angle, brightness response time. The company now has 20.1in UXGA, 23in WUXGA and 30in WQXGA+ TFT-LCD panels for large-scale, wide monitor-specific TFT-LCDs for desktop monitors.

The glass plates are heated in a vacuum chamber and source gas is introduced. An RF or DC voltage on electrodes inside the chamber forms a plasma which produces and deposits the precursors on the glass substrate.

During sputtering, the high-energy gas ions inside the plasma collide with the surface of a (negative) target, knocking out the target materials which are deposited onto the (positive) plate.

LG.Philips LCD is a 50:50 joint venture between LG Electronics and Philips Electronics. The company produces TFT-LCDs for notebook PCs, desktop monitors, LCD TVs and special applications including car navigation systems, avionics, miniature notebook PCs, hand-held PCs and medical diagnostic machines. Higher value 18in-and-above screens make up more than 20% of LG.Philips LCD’s total TV LCD production.

The company has also invested a total of 3.3 trillion won (just under $2 billion) to build a new sixth-generation TFT-LCD plant in Gumi, south of Seoul. In addition to its Korean facilities, where the core panels are made, LG.Philips LCD has expanded its Nanjing, China, fifth-generation module plant, where it has produced more than one million TFT-LCDs for desktop monitors (module yield is more than 99%). In Nanjing, panels are equipped with other components before being sold to monitor and TV set manufacturers.

Many people become confused by what type of flat-panel TV—plasma or LCD—they should purchase. The technology you pick will depend on a number of factors, including screen size, viewing conditions, price and, ultimately, your perception of which one looks the best.In terms of size, LCD flat-panels start as small as 10 inches and go up to 65 inches. Sets above 52 inches, however, can get expensive. Unlike smaller LCD TVs which typically have old-style 4:3 aspect ratios, all plasmas are widescreen. Plasmas start at 37 inches and go up to 103 inches.

LCDs are available in smaller sizes, allowing them to go where a 37-inch plasma will not fit. They also provide incredibly bright images when viewed on center. If you plan on watching your TV in a room with a lot of light, LCD has the edge over plasma, both with its bright picture and its special surface coatings that reduce room reflections.

LCDs generally have slower video response times than plasmas, which is noticeable primarily on sports and fast action scenes. They also have a narrower viewing angle, meaning that as you move off center, the image contrast and brightness drop off. Most LCD panels (as well as plasmas) are factory preset to stand out in the very bright lighting at most stores. When you get them home and out of the box, however, they are way too intense. You should change the menu setting from factory preset (usually Vivid) to Movie, Cinema or Standard (depending on your set) and lower the contrast (also called Picture Control) to the halfway point for the best picture.

If your television is going to be in room with normal lighting, plasma will provide superb image quality, dark blacks and bright whites over the widest viewing angle. However, if you need a screen below 37 inches, LCD is really the only choice available. Enclosed patios, really bright rooms with skylights or untreated windows, and sunny kitchens are all excellent spots for LCD displays of all sizes.

Plasmas have wide viewing angles, meaning you can sit off-center and still see a very good picture. They have high contrast ratios, excellent color, deep blacks, fast response times for viewing scenes with a lot of motion such as sports, and generally lower prices than LCDs above 42 inche