The FlatHDTV Blog

The answer is no, of course, since Plasma didn’t really go anywhere.

Sales of LCD sets have been increasing fast over the last few years, mainly because LCD technology has enabled builders to make sets in the 40 and 50 inch size range that can compete well with Plasmas, in terms of picture quality and cost. In the past, LCD dominated the smaller sizes and Plasma dominated the larger, so this trend seemed like a death knell for Plasma.

However, North American sales of HDTVs have surged since last quarter, with Plasma sales growing about 17% faster than LCD. One possible cause for this is the emergence of smaller sizes, like the Vizio 32 inch Plasma and the Panasonic 37 inch UK Series Plasma.

source: PC Magazine

Whenever new, amazing, and mysterious technology appears in the world, a new group of “experts” on this technology often appears out of nowhere. These people are full of good information and have the best intentions, but sometimes they get a little careless with their explanations and promote an idea that seems logical and makes sense, but is actually wrong.

The conventional wisdom behind HDTV tech, magic as it is, includes several of these logical but misguided tips. One goes like this: Plasma TVs contain a weird substance inside the screen, called “plasma”, which is so slippery and sneaky that it could leak out of the set if you lay it flat on the floor or in the back of your car. This reasoning supposedly explains why many retailers have a strict policy against shipping a Plasma TV any way except vertically. Some customers have even been obligated to choose an LCD over a Plasma because the back of their car wasn’t tall enough to take it away from the shop in a vertical position.

The real reason behind that policy is that a Plasma TV has a relatively fragile construction, with two panes of glass mounted very close to each other. If one was resting horizontally in the back of a truck, and that truck bounced over a speed bump a little too fast, the panes could bounce a little themselves and squeeze what’s in between.

What’s in between is not a pool of mysterious liquid, but an array of tiny cells that contain a special kind of gas. When the computer inside the TV tells them to, these cells light up like tiny neon lights, because the gas inside them is excited into what’s called a “plasma state”. If some of these cells get damaged by transport, there’s really no way to fix them. Laying a Plasma TV carefully down on your living room floor, however, won’t do any harm at all. Just don’t step on it.

Here are some references, in case you need a little more convincing:

http://www.dtvcity.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-leak.html

http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2006/06/plasma_tv_sales.html

http://www.answers.com/plasma+display?cat=technology

Pioneer has launched a new series of high-end plasma HDTVs known as the KURO series. In Japanese, “Kuro” means black, and these new plasmas are known for having the deepest, darkest black levels yet available in a consumer TV.

More info: Pioneer Kuro

If you’ve been researching HDTVs, you’ve heard about a nasty little problem, unique to Plasma and CRT sets, called burn-in. That’s when your $5000 Plasma screen gets imprinted with the ghostly image of a logo or menu box because certain parts of the screen have aged faster than the rest. But if it’s such a big deal, why do people keep buying expensive Plasma HDTVs? Is burn-in really worth worrying about?

Burn-In Susceptibility, 2007
The HDTV industry is very competitive these days, and Plasma manufacturers are really starting to feel the heat from the LCD industry. So, you can bet they’re doing everything they can to eliminate burn-in. Screen technology has improved to the point where proper use of the TV will definitely not cause a problem, but careless use just might. And several of the new Plasma HDTVs, like the Samsung HPT5064, have a “screen burn protection mode” built into the TV to repair mild damage.

Image Retention vs. Burn-In
Image retention is a common thing that you have likely seen after turning off a CRT television at night: the last image to appear on the screen stays there for a while after the TV is off, then fades away slowly. This is caused by a charge build-up in the phosphors (the glowing picture elements in the screen), and will go away after the display has been powered off for a little while. This is common in Plasma TVs too, but isn’t something to worry about.

Burn-in, on the other hand, is semi-permanent. Since it results from uneven aging of the phosphors, the “burned” image will persist forever. It can be caused by spending a lot of time watching stuff in 4:3 mode, watching a news channel with a stationary “stock ticker”, or playing a game with stationary screen elements. There are ways to fix a burned-in screen, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: follow a break-in procedure when the set is new.

The Break-In Procedure
If you’d rather be safe than sorry, you’ll need to go through a simple break-in process when the TV is new. Here are some guidelines from a report commissioned by Panasonic:

• Make sure the display is in a viewing mode (aspect ratio) that completely fills the screen (there are often three or more settings from which to choose). The panel is shipped in this condition, in what is called the “Just” mode.
  
• Turn down the picture control (contrast) to 50% or less.
• Briefly engage the 4:3 mode to confirm the side bars are set to mid-gray (there is usually an adjustment in the Setup menu that takes the sidebars from black to gray) to minimize the chance of burn-in.
• Return the set to a “full screen” (Just, Zoom, Full) position during the
  first hundred hours of use.
• During the first hundred hours of use it is best not to view the same
  channel for extended periods. This should prevent channel logos and
  other fixed images found on some channels from being retained.
• Avoid any static images (video games, computer images, DVD title
  screens, etc.) during the hundred-hour break-in.
• Continue to retain the picture setting at 50% or less.
• Limit the use of 4:3 aspect ratio mode (traditional picture size that does not fill the entire screen) to 15% of viewing time.
• Limit the use of static images (computer, video games, etc.) to less than 10% of viewing time.
• After one thousand viewing hours, panels are much less likely to experience image burn-in.

© 2004 Panasonic

The Bottom Line
HDTV experts agree now that burn-in is a vastly overstated problem. Complaints come from less than 5 percent of all users, but those people are understandably upset and vocal when the centerpiece of their home theater is ruined. Buying a late model Plasma, using a break-in procedure, and avoiding certain viewing habits should reduce the chance of damage to just about zero.

For more information on Plasma and other HDTV technology, check out FlatHDTV.net.

If you’re in the market for a flat panel HDTV, thin enough to hang on your wall, one of your big decisions is whether to go with Plasma or LCD technology. As recently as a few years ago, it was an easy decision: there were few LCDs larger than about 40 inches and there were few Plasmas smaller than 40 inches, so size dictated your choice. But now, LCD HDTV technology has been creeping into Plasma’s domain, with good quality and affordable sets as large as 70 inches. The popular 40 to 55 inch size range is now a battlefield of technology, and it’s starting to look like LCD will win that battle.

With the improvement of LCD picture quality, the growing support of 1080p resolution on LCD sets, and the appearance of 120Hz LCD sets, many of Plasma’s advantages are losing significance. And the technology shift is hitting Plasma manufacturers in the bottom line, as you can see here, here, here and here.

Plasma has traditionally been a better choice for watching sports because of the smoother motion display, but the new LCDs with 120Hz frame rates are just as good. And Plasmas have tended to have better contrast ratios, improving the detail in dark movie scenes, but the contrast ratios of LCD sets seem to get better with every new model.

So what does this mean to you, the consumer? Not much really, unless you’re employed in the Plasma TV industry. It’s good news if you’re trying to find a bargain on an HDTV, since Plasma prices are dropping steadily, especially on 2006 models. The Plasma HDTVs you can buy today are still excellent, and the future of the industry should have no bearing on that. The take-away lesson is that, if you’re looking for something with top quality in the 40 to 55 inch range, you should now seriously consider an LCD HDTV.

Check out FlatHDTV.net for more information on LCD, Plasma and DLP technology.