Computer and Technology

Plasma televisions are the latest in a long line of ever evolving television technologies, designed to bring the beauty of the movie theater into a home setting. A plasma television displays images in a digital format, which thus produces that of incredibly higher quality pictures. Although a more early generation plasma television was obviously more expensive, more recent models have been priced at levels acceptable to many consumers, as is evidenced by the soaring popularity of these models.

How Does a Plasma Television Work?

The term plasma television refers to televisions that replace the traditional cathode ray picture tube with a layer of gas sandwiched between two clear screens, eliminating much of the need for the bulky electronics necessary to produce quality pictures on traditional television sets. This gas is especially designed to allow electrons to interact with the unit, displaying images transmitted digitally.

The primary advantages of a plasma television are many, including the matter of the wide range of colors that they display, their thin profile (typically less than 4 inches) and the ability to wall mount the unit.

Additionally, a plasma television can produce images that are truer to what the cameraman or film director intended. The wide range of colors ensures hues more closely match the tones of the objects in the image. The crispness and clarity of plasma television images is unparalleled in home entertainment equipment. Finally, most plasma televisions display images in letterbox format (i.e. images that are wider than they are tall) which means the sides of the original image shot of film are not cropped as they must be to display on traditional televisions.

On the other hand, a plasma television has a rather limited life span, because the gas inside the screen, which produces pictures when it reacts with specific electrons, is subject to breakdown; some sources say most plasma televisions have about 60,000 viewable hours, after which point, picture quality is 50% or less of what it was when the set was put into use. Optimal viewing quality occurs for only about the first 2000 hours of viewing, from then on quality starts to decrease.

Plasma television sets should be used with digital cable for optimal picture quality. Additionally, a relatively strong and reliable signal must be available. Plasma televisions require a lot of data to produce the high quality pictures users expect. This cannot be guaranteed without a good digital cable connection. In addition, plasma televisions produce such detailed images they sometimes highlight flaws (either in the image itself or problems with transmission) that would be imperceptible on more traditional (i.e. less detailed) television types.