Conventional wisdom often dictates that when it comes to plasma TV size, the bigger the better. However, that is not the case.
The most obvious drawback of plasma screen TV size is the cost of the set itself, which increases with size, often quite disproportionately so, with only slightly larger displays costing a whole lot more. But a more hidden cost is the price of the electricity needed to operate your wonderful plasma flat screen TV.
Plasma televisions have gotten a bad reputation for being power hogs. Generally speaking, plasma TV power consumption is higher than that of LCD TVs. But, it’s interesting to note the good old CRT televisions (a.k.a. tubes) are just as power hungry as plasma TVs… per square inch of screen size that is. So the takeaway from all of this is that the larger your plasma screen, the larger your electric bill will be. Therefore, it’s to your definite advantage to not go overboard with the plasma flatscreen size you’re looking to buy.
And besides overreaching beyond your budget, by going overboard I mean getting a screen that’s the wrong size for the room it’s going to be placed in. Plasma flat screen TVs, and other large screen TVs for that matter, have a minimum optimal viewing range. If you get too close the image starts looking pixelated. As a general guideline, the viewing distance should be no less than one and a half times the diagonal size of the screen. So for example, for a 50 inch plasma TV the minimum distance is 75 inches, or 6’3″, for a 42 inch plasma TV it’s 5’3″, and for a big 70 inch plasma TV it is 8’9″. Therefore before you make your purchase, make sure have enough viewing distance.
Large screen TVs also have a maximum recommended viewing distance, beyond which the immersive quality of the large screen starts getting lost. And that distance is roughly three times the diagonal length of the screen.
The television market is flooded with different technologies, and that’s because no TV technology is perfect. Every technology, including that of plasma television has its strengths and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages.
In this post I detail the most important advantages and disadvantages of plasma flat screen TV technology to help you make an informed decision and figure out if a plasma television is the right choice for you.
Advantages:
Plasma televisions are thin and can be mounted on a wall.
Are slimmer and weigh less than rear projection televisions, and of course much less than CRT televisions.
Produce better color accuracy, brightness and contrast than any other TV technology except for CRTs.
Have a great viewing angle. Unlike LCD televisions, plasma TVs can be viewed from extreme side angles without picture degradation.
No motion blur due to high refresh rates and fast pixel response times. This makes plasma televisions superior at displaying fast motion video such as action movies and sports programming.
Disadvantages:
Plasma televisions are susceptible to screen burn-in. Burn-in occurs because the light emitting phosphor material in plasma screens degrades with use, loosing its luminosity. Therefore, if some areas of the screen are constantly made to emit higher levels of brightness than other areas, the phosphor degrades unevenly across the screen resulting in “ghost” images. Newer model plasma televisions contain technology to mitigate this problem, however screen burn-in for plasma displays can still occur under extreme conditions. Plasma televisions therefore should not be used if long periods of static image display is required.
As mentioned above, the light emitting phosphor in plasma screens loses its luminosity over time, and therefore, regardless of screen burn-in, a plasma TV will dim with use. For newer model plasma TVs this effect may become noticeable after 10 years of 8 hours a day of use, so for normal household viewing it may not be a big problem.
Susceptibility to large area flicker, where image flicker becomes noticeable within large areas of similar color.
Susceptible to reflection glare.
Consume more electricity on average than LCD TVs.
Because plasma television screens contain pressurized gas, they will have trouble operating at high altitudes where the pressure is low. The typical plasma TV will do just fine below 6000 feet, with some models rated for higher altitude operations. If you live at high altitude, check the rating of the plasma television you intend to buy.
