If you want to buy a new television but you have no idea where to start, these tips should help you. There are lots of differences between LCD, LED, and plasma and these differences may be a defining factor in your shopping choices.
LCD
What is it? It stands for “liquid crystal display” and each pixel is made up of crystals. These televisions use fluorescent tubes to light their displays, so they aren’t as bright as LED televisions. This type of television is actually a dying breed, and most are being converted to LED instead, so let’s move on to LED televisions.
LED
LED televisions are technically LCD televisions, but they have a different light source. LED stands for “light-emitting diodes” and they are used to light up the crystal pixels. They are very thin, light, and easy to move and mount.
There are two types of LED televisions. There is the kind that is lit from the back through a grid, and there is a kind that is lit from the edge of the television screen by rows of LEDs instead. The backlighting LED is more expensive and harder to find, and the edge-lit televisions are much thinner and very compact.
LED televisions do well in rooms with a lot of light, but they don’t look as good as plasmas when the lights go out. LEDs don’t have trouble with image retention, but they are blurry and less uniform in their imagery than Plasma TVs.
Plasma
Plasma televisions are the most precisely lit televisions because they do not use any kind of lamplight. Each pixel is individually charged with electricity and controlled using gas. Because of this, plasma televisions are not as thin as LED or LCD televisions, and they do not come in small screen sizes due to the pixels. Since they are so large, it is harder to mount a plasma television.
Plasma televisions don’t do very well in rooms with windows and light, but they look amazing in the dark and have great black levels. They sometimes suffer from image retention, but they usually refresh and recover in about a minute, so the problem isn’t long lasting.
These televisions are also more expensive, and if you find a cheap plasma television you’re probably not getting a very good one, so watch out.
