Introduction

Where do you spend the most time in front of a television screen? Is it on the couch watching a movie or at your desk surfing the web? Either way, new technology is emerging to improve your viewing experience. HDTVs are becoming a well developed medium of displaying high definition images that resemble real life. As the technology develops, it becomes more available to the general public. Soon, if not already, you will have to ask yourself which HDTV to buy. There are two major formats: plasma display panels, and liquid crystal displays. First you must understand how they work, then examine the similarities and distinctions that make each excel in their own way.

Liquid crystal displays are better known as LCD monitors. In most sets, there is a rear-panel lamp that shines through a system of liquid-crystals and thin-film transistors. The transistors supply voltage to the crystals, which filter the light to produce a specific wavelength of color. The combination of how bright the light is shining and which wavelengths are blocked produce the array of color (Connor 2009).

Plasma display panels, or PDPs, utilize thousands of individual pixel cells containing natural gases, usually xenon and neon. Electrodes send electrical pulses to the pixels, stimulating the gases to make them glow. In other words the screen is made up of thousands of tiny florescent light bulbs. Each bulb contains specific phosphors of red, blue, or green to acquire the desired color pattern (Connor 2009).