Plasma Technology
How do Plasma Televisions work?
The basic idea of a Plasma TV screen is to illuminate tiny colored fluorescent lights to form an image. Each pixel is made up of three fluorescent lights, a red light, a green light and a blue light. The Plasma TV display varies the intensities of the different lights to produce a full range of colors. Each cell acts like a mini fluorescent tube, emitting ultraviolet light which then strikes red, green and blue spots on the screen. These spots glow to build a picture.
In an ordinary gas each atom contains an equal number of positive and negative charges; the positive charges in the nucleus are surrounded by an equal number of negatively charged electrons, and each atom is electrically "neutral". A gas becomes a plasma when the addition of heat or other energy causes a significant number of atoms to release some or all of their electrons. The remaining parts of those atoms are left with a positive charge, and the detached negative electrons are free to move about. Those atoms and the resulting electrically charged gas are said to be "ionized". When enough atoms are ionized to significantly affect the electrical characteristics of the gas, it is a plasma.
Plasma TVs have some key advantages over LCD televisions. They tend to produce deeper blacks and richer colours, have wider viewing angles and typically boast a faster response time. This is the amount of time it takes a pixel to go from black to white and black again, and means the TV copes better with moving images, reducing the chance of blurry or stuttering pictures.
One of the main drivers in Plasma TV's renaissance is the latest version of 3D TV technology. Plasma HDTV sets deliver a superior 3D viewing experience compared to LCD TV displays, because of Plasma TVs' faster pixel response time which leads to a reduction in 'crosstalk' (where ghost/double images are seen around objects on screen due to the image stream intended for one eye being contaminated by that from the other).
LCD TVscreens have a longer life compared to Plasma TVscreens, although both types of HDTVs can experience burnout. Black and white speckles may form on LCD TV screens and are caused by the burn out of the individual pixels in screen. On the other hand, the phosphor pixels in Plasma TV screens can become too hot and burn out on static images (so don't keep your Plasma TV paused for too long!).
The Plasma TV enjoys the benefit of providing the best image quality and contrast ratio. Plasma TV screens capture individual frames in a highly detailed manner.
