Flat Panel Tvs and Monitors – the Dilemma of Choice

Your thin flat panel TV can grace your room by hanging on the wall like a piece of art, or it can sit on a trendy stand, catching everyone's eye when they enter the room, or just rest sedately on a table. But the technologies that go into flat panel TVs, namely LCD and plasma have their own pros and cons, depending on the application. Flat panel LCD TVs and flat panel monitors for computers use the same technology liquid crystal display which produces sharp and bright images in most lighting types.

LCD technology Popular Choice
LCDs shine light through pixel cells that have a red, green and blue component, but they cannot turn off certain pixels. Hence, the ability of LCDs to produce a pure black is less, which in turn has an effect on contrast levels. If the LCD panel is more than 40 inches wide, they are obviously more expensive than flat panel plasma TVs and rear projection TVs. But they are affordable when you look for 15-21 inch-wide screens for smaller rooms. Major manufacturers who make these are Sharp, Philips, Dell, Samsung, Sony, etc.

The main advantages of liquid crystal display panels are that they are lightweight, thin and do not consume much power. CRT or conventional cathode ray tube monitors are being used lesser and lesser because of the obvious advantages of flat panel LCDs over them. LCD displays are mostly TFT panels or thin film transistor LCDs, an active matrix. They have the property of high quality displays and smaller size, which is what makes them popular for many uses.

Plasma Flat Panel TVs
The other flat panel option - Plasma TVs - look very elegant and streamlined. You can choose the best from Sony, Pioneer, Samsung, Philips, and Hitachi etc. whose wide screens can be anything from 36 inches to about 70 inches. These are renowned for their color accuracy and can be viewed from anywhere in the room. They pass an electric charge to cells filled with gas, which in turn respond with a burst of ultraviolet light to produce images; hence plasma TVs are said to be prone to the burn in phenomenon.

Flat Panel TV LCD Or Plasma Which Is Better?
Flat panel TVs have great advantages in terms of being thinner and lighter making them a better option in terms of flexibility in placement. The digital display quality is precisely controlled producing an amazing array of colors. They are immune to magnetic picture distortions, so you don't have to worry about putting them close to speakers that are not shielded. Flat panel TVs give you good image focus making straight lines look straight. About the only downside is the fact that flat panel TVs are costlier than conventional TVs. So thin is definitely in with both LCD and Plasma TVs. Plasma TVs are invariably larger than LCDs and have a wider viewing angle. In terms of brightness, LCD panels are better when lights are bright. Plasma TVs produce blacker blacks.

This is the time prices are getting more and more affordable, since prices for LCD and Plasma TV are decreasing quite fast.