3DTV: Why plasma is better
08 July 2010Most currently available flat-panel TVs use one of two different display technologies: LCD or plasma. But while LCD screens can sometimes appear cheap, they're not always the bargains they at first appear to be.
Many LCD TVs are not capable of displaying full HD, and because of the slower pixel response times of LCD screens, there are a number of good reasons to go for plasma – especially when it comes to displaying 3D content.
LCD screens work by sandwiching a layer of liquid crystal between two polarising filters. When a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal in each of the screen's pixels, the crystal 'twists', causing it to bend the light shining through from the screen's backlight. Because the polarising filter at the front of the screen only lets through light from certain angles, this causes the pixel to turn 'on' or 'off'.
The big down side to using LCD technology is the time it takes the liquid crystal to twist and untwist. This is called the 'response time' of the screen, and LCD's slow response times can cause fast-moving action to appear blurred and muddy.
For 3D, that's fatal. In order to create a convincing 3D image, it's vital that a screen switches cleanly from one image to the next, so that each eye sees onlywhat it's supposed to.
Panasonic's TX-P50VT20B and TX-P42VT20B Full HD 3D TVs use teh superior speed and precision of NeoPDP plasma display technology to provide an immersive 3D experience.
Each pixel in a plasma display is made up of tiny red, green and blue dots – the primary colours of light. Each of the tiny dots contains gas or 'plasma', and works like a tiny fluorescent light. The intensity of each of coloured dots can be minutely varied to create a vast array of realistic colours.
To do this, a voltage is applied to the cell. Positively and negatively charged particles in the gas rush around. When they collide, light is produced.
The benefit of plasma technology is that the tiny gas cells that make up a plasma screen light up almost instantaneously, providing much faster response times than are typically possible from LCD displays.
And because the intensity of each red, green or blue cell can be minutely adjusted, plasma displays can produce a much more lifelike array of colours than LCD displays.
Earlier generations of plasma screens have been criticised for not producing a picture that's as bright as some LCDs. But the pictures produced by Panasonic's NeoPDP plasma technology are over four times as bright as previous generations of plasma screen, and boast an ultra-high native contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1, giving you rich black tones and bright highlights.
The VT20 series also incorporates Panasonic's exclusive 600Hz Intelligent Frame Creation Pro technology. For every frame of a 60Hz HD TV picture, Panasonic's NeoPDP display technology sends 10 tiny pulses to the individual pixels on screen, creating a smoother, flicker-free image for superb clarity.
