Plasma Television

Is Plasma television the holy grail of high definition TV?

Modern times can be truly be called the 'digital age' as most of the everyday gadgets like TVs, cameras, microwaves, washing machines etc. are all microprocessor based - those tiny devices that store a host of instructions and control the operation of the appliance.The capture of images through camera, transmission and processing of images are all digitized now.

Consumers have widely adapted to gadget miniaturization whether it is a digital camera, laptop, cell phone etc. They have come to expect better quality, ease of use, portability and enhanced features. Their older counterparts like manual cameras, huge computer systems or the bulky radio walkie-talkies have now all been dumped into history. Everyone prefers to use the technologically advanced models that are more convenient to use. Even children demand buying the latest technology gadgets and are at ease using them.

Televisions are no exception to the digital wave that is sweeping across various industries and plasma televisions have come to replace the old bulky cathode ray tube based TV sets. Better quality TVs are now available everywhere. Plasma televisions are the result of years of development of new technology now integrated with digital signal processing inside the TV. Before buying a plasma television set, the user has to be aware of the pros and cons of the new technology as well as the features that come with the plasma TV. One has to be an informed buyer - knowing the advantages and disadvantages of the new technology. Some of them are discussed in the paragraph below.

Plasma televisions have a higher resolution than conventional cathode ray tube TVs, more true to life colors due to the advanced plasma panels and digital signal processing inside the TV. They also have flat screens that eliminate distortions in the image, resulting in less eye-strain and the thin panel design saves on storage space. Plasma television screens have a wider aspect ratio (16:9 instead of 4:3) and a brightness that is uniform throughout. Plasma panels have tiny picture elements - pixels for short - that are equally energized giving the screen uniform brightness. Wider viewing angles, the capability of accepting a wide variety of video inputs, and pictures not being influenced by nearby magnetic fields from loud speakers, are just some of the other advantages of plasma televisions.

Plasma TVs are truly a consumer's delight with superior picture quality, ease of use and handling and enhanced features. Engineers are continuing to improve plasma television technology through research to meet high customer expectations and making it more user friendly with an increasing number of features.

Typical Plasma screen models start out at 40" or 42". Once seen as large-screen TVs, this size screen is now the baby of the bunch with 50", 55" and 60" models now being available.

The largest plasma screen available (at least at the end of 2006) was 103" and would set you back a cool $50,000.

Any Plasma television that is marked as "HD Ready" is able to receive HDTV signals.