Buyers

Guide

Are LED TVs Better than LCD and Plasma TVs?

In terms of picture quality, LED TVs are better than LCD TVs, but these still dont match plasma TVs. For the same price, you can get a bigger-size LCD or plasma TV
the natural images, by producing maximum possible colour shades. The higher the dynamic contrast ratio, the better the detailing of the image on the LCD TV. Plasma TVs have higher contrast ratios than LCD panels. For example, LG plasma TVs are engineered to drive dynamic contrast ratio as high as 2,000,000:1 as against 150,000:1 for LCD TVs. The higher contrast ratio of plasma TVs results from their ability to turn the light source off for individual segments of the screen. This means parts of the screen can be completely dark while others display bright colour. By contrast, traditional LCD screens have a single backlight array that can only alter brightness levels for the entire screen. Viewing angle. A wide viewing angle allows a big family to view the screen comfortably at the same time. The narrower the viewing angle, the smaller the range from which the TV screen can be viewed at acceptable image quality. Typically, plasma TVs offer wider viewing angles than LCD TVs, with their image quality remaining unaffected at wide viewing angles while LCDs exhibit colour shift and loss of brightness. Hitachi claims its LCD televisions offer an industry best viewing angle of 178 degrees, while its plasma televisions have no viewing angle problem (they offer free-viewing). Response time. Response time is the pixel refresh rate (from black to
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lanning to replace your good-old CRT TV with a brand new flat-panel TV? Or buying a flat-panel TV as part of your home theatre? Whatever be the case, when you are in a store to buy one, you are likely to get confused between LCD, plasma and the recently launched LED TVs. The three may look identical at a
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glance but similarities disappear once you look past the thin form factor and big screens. Which is better, LCD or plasma? Or, is it a safe bet to go with the new and expensive LED TV? To find out, lets compare some of their important technical features.

LCD vs plasma TVs

Contrast ratio. The dynamic contrast ratio helps the TV panel to reproduce

Guide

Buyers

Samsung LED TV

white and back again) for producing great extent. the image on the screen. The slower Power consumption. LCD TVs use the pixel refresh rate of the panel, the a single fluorescent lamp for backlighthigher the response time. This results ing. On the other hand, the neon gas in the judder and ghost image formainside a plasma TV requires every subtion on fast-paced action scenes and pixel to be lit individually, consuming sports watched on the TV. more electricity. Plasma screens refresh each inIn general, LCD TVs consume dividual cell much faster than LCD about half the power consumed by screens. So these can display fast moplasmas. This is one main reason why tion free of blur and jitter. However, LCDs are widely used in computer manufacturers are improving the way monitors. LCD TVs handle motions by introducPrice. Plasma TVs cost less than ing 120Hz setsdoubling the number LCD TVs, especially at larger screen of video frames and smoothing out the sizes. For instance, for the popular motion. Some have even introduced 102cm (40-inch) size, the difference in 240Hz TVs that quadruple the number of frames. Screen reflection. LCD screens have matte finish as opposed to glossy plasma screens. So these dont suffer from screen glare as plasma screens do. The glass panel of plasma TV reflects light, which makes it difficult to watch in a brightly-lit room. Many plasma TV manufacturers are using special techniques like anti-reflective filter to minimise reflections, however. The anti-glare coating being done on Hitachi Plasma TV screens lowers the Sony Bravia ZX LCD TV reflectivity of the glass to a
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price could be Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000.

LED TVs: How good are they?

LED TVs are nothing but LCD TVs with LED backlighting. These allow the LCD to have better blacks, contrast and colours. While LED TVs still dont match plasma TVs in terms of picture quality, these fare far better than normal LCD TVs. LCD TVs employ cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) for wide gamut colour reproduction. The demand for even more realistic colours has led to the growing popularity of

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Buyers

Guide

LEDs as a backlight source. LED monitors use LEDs as a backlight instead of fluorescent lamps. Just as CRT and LCD monitors use RGB as primary colours to realise diverse colours, RGB LEDs are used in LED monitors to create white and acts as a backlight unit. LED backlighting provides a wider colour gamut than previous monitors as LEDs colour wavelengths have a higher purity level than fluorescent lamps. Additionally, as a semiconductor device, LED monitors have the added advantage of a longer life span,

Hitachi plasma TV

typically lasting over 100,000 hours. Samsung is the first company to introduce and manufacture LED TVs in India. It has introduced three LED TV Series6, 7 and 8in the Indian market. While the Series 6 LED TVs are priced between Rs 125,000 (102cm) and Rs 150,000 (117cm), Series 7 LED TVs are priced between Rs 140,000 and Rs 180,000. Series 8 LED TVs are available in 140cm screen size priced at Rs 350,000.

LCD vs plasma vs LED TVs

Manish Sharma, associate professor at IIT Delhi, explains that plasma TVs produce better picture quality than LCD TVs due to their higher brightness, higher colour contrast, wider colour gamut and faster refresh rate. However, the brightness of plasma TVs goes down by about 30 per cent over a period of five yearsreducing to 70 per cent of the original bright8 2 j u ly 2 0 0 9 e l e c t ro n i c s f o r yo u

ness. This is one big factor contributing to lower sales of plasma TVs than LCD TVs. On the other hand, despite the picture quality advantage of plasma TVs, people prefer LCD TVs because their costs have gone down. Also, these can be made thin like plasma TVs. Five years ago, LCDs were not bright enough. But today, their brightness and colour gamut are much betterthough still less than plasma TVs. The recently launched LED TVs are brighter than LCD TVs. Also, these can be made very thin2.5 cm (one inch) or less. But this advantage of LED TVs is not very important in the Indian context: Thickness doesnt matter much to an average Indian consumer if a TV can be hung on the wall. However, in markets outside, like in Europe, USA and Japan, thickness of the TV is the selling point. Also, LED TVs are very expensive at the moment, making sense only to the premium segment. For low- and mid-end consumers, LCD TVs are a good option. Screen sizes like 107 cm (42 inches) and 127 cm (50 inches) are not suitable for most of the Indian households as rooms are generally small and people dont watch TV from a distance of six metres or more. (Ideally, the distance between the viewer and the screen should be three to six times the vertical height of the screen (which should be placed at the viewers eye level)) Those who intend to set up home theatres can go for LED TVs, but for the same price they can get bigger-size LCD TVs. Maybe, in five years, LED TVs will go down in price.
The author is a deputy editor at EFY. The prices mentioned by her are only indicative and may vary
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