What TV Tech Is Best? LED v Plasma

We'll help you make the decision when buying...

Its a difficult decision to make when deciding which type of TV you should choose when you go out to buy a new set, especially with the stores full with marketing materials and point of sale set ups from the manufactures; aimed at convincing you to forgo what you have read and researched before and go with their "recommendations".

The technology in how you get to see the picture isn't your only consideration now days either, with the invention of the 'Smart TV App's', Media Players built into the sets and of course, 3D. 

If you are looking to throw a bit of money at your screen; we gather you are as you're reading and researching, the above come pretty much as standard now days. However the app's within these TV's vary vastly depending on the contracts the manufacturers have with content suppliers, such as BBC, Facebook etc.. 

To see our blog on Smart TV platforms, please see here. 

So guessing you are buying the set based on best pictures for your environment, below we have explained the technology behind LED and Plasma, with their Pro's and Con's, and which is likely to be the best choice for you. 

LED TV's - Explained

You might be thinking this comparison is missing a major player, LCD. Nearly all manufacturers call their sets LED's so not to be labelled with the tag, "Older Timer LCD", although they're actually LCD's anyway! Old style LCD's use to have the fluorescent tubes we find in office blocks, garages and American wannabee wrestling YouTube video's, but these were bulky, expensive and very uneconomical, and like our day to day lives, these tubes have been superseeded by the brighter, smaller and more economical LED's.

Two types of LED TV's exist; Edge Lit LED TV's where a strip of LED's round the edge of the screen light the panel, and a Back Lit, where a grid of LED's sit behind the panel. 

Both have Pro's and Con's although unless your looking at specialist TV's at the top of the market, you will struggle to find a back lit TV. It is much more common to find edge lit LED TV's. 

For our review of the the differences in the LED technology, please see our LED Blog here. 

Pros of LED

Edge lighting gives the manufacturers the tools to be able to make their LED TV's ultra thin, with the latest Samsung 8000 series, just 39mm, or old school 1½ inches! This aesthetic advantage has been exploited by the manufacturers, playing on the minds of potential owners, especially when these TV's are wall mounted. 

LED's can produce a very wide range of of colours, allowing the these LED TV's to produce very life like images and skin tones, together with hard to produce red, green and blues. 

As above a major benefit of LED TV's is their efficiency, meaning the power consumption of these set's is minuscule compared to Plasma's. The latest top of the range Panasonic 50" LED is 52W a kettle is 2000W!

LED's are also very bright, meaning a typical lounge, with windows and patio door's will not struggle to produce a crisp, awe inspiring picture, whilst also overcoming reflections on the screen, due to the brightness. 

Cons of LED

The big negative against LED's is their inability to create truly deep stunning blacks. This is because despite being able to dim the LED's on screen, they can't be dimmed in small area's, meaning area's on screen that should be black, are flooded with light from area's that should be bright.

Manufacturers of course try and convince you they can, with demonstrations in store, usually showing bright radiant slower scene's rather than dark sultry or fast paced dark-bright-dark scenes often seen in movies. 

Dynamic contrast, which is the engine the TV uses to dim the LED's, often called a fancy name by each manufacturer, i.e Sony and their Iris 3, often is slow to respond to changes of scenery from light to dark or visa versa, meaning there is an annoying drop in brightness for a split millisecond.

Backlighting produces issues as well, as this lighting can sometimes give an uneven lighting issue, where darker scene's are often brighter towards the edge and corners of the screen, rather than at the middle. 

Another slight annoyance is the lack of viewing angle LED's give, due to the nature of where the light is coming from when providing the picture. Colours lack saturation when viewed from the side (or just not from dead in-front), meaning colours change or lack definition, going against why you are going to buy a new TV!

Plasma TV's - Explained

Where as in LED TV's the individual pixels, are the LED's shining a light through a filter, Plasma's have three individual plasma chambers (red, green and blue) for each pixel, and when current flows through these chambers the gases inside each chamber form a plasma and grow, thus giving us the colour of that individual pixel. 

Plasmas have been on the market since the late 90's when Pioneer and Fujitsu brought them into the market, and have held a premiere position in the market since. Panasonic in September 2013 announced it planned to withdraw from the plasma market, a move met with disappointment by many in the AV market. Samsung and LG are the last two remaining mass producers of this iconic tech, hopefully for many years to come. 

Pros of Plasma 

This is as simple as stunning, cinema like Blacks. Due to the nature of the current passing through the plasma chambers to give the pixels their colour, by withdrawing the current from the pixel, then the blacks are as black as the panel.

As there is no need for the artificial dynamic contrast element to Plasma's, the switching of scenes from dark to light or light to dark does not bring a difference in brightness levels when switching.

Response times for Plasmas are vastly faster and quicker than their LED counterparts, ensuring a much reduced ghosting element to fast moving 3D action. 

Viewing angles aren't so much of an issue either, because the colours are made directly behind the pixel, whether you are viewing the screen from directly in front or 80 degrees to the side, the vividly of the colours and saturation of the picture should stay constant.

Cons of Plasma

The lack of peak brightness, meaning that whilst the blacks are really deep, the whites struggle to get to the levels seen with an LED. This shows up as a problem only when viewing the TV in a particularly bright room. 

The inefficiently and power consumption for some people make this a con, although each person is going to work out whether this is important to them on a personal level. Plasma's typically will consume 4/5 times more power than a like-for-like LED equivalent model. 

The Verdict; LED or Plasma

And the verdict is in, and the winner is....

Well neither clearly wins over its rival, its more to do with personal preference and the environment that you are going to place the screen into. 

If you want the best picture in 2D and 3D in a darkened room, and electricity costs are not a worry then a Plasma would be our recommendation. Conversely if you are placing the TV into a bright room, where you will be watching run of the mill TV, and you are sitting directly in front of the set then an LED all the way!

So hopefully as our first blog this has answered a few questions for you, but should you have any further questions when drop the author Gavin Cox a comment below, and we'll be only too happy to respond.