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| Home | Introduction | Displays in Europe, trends in 2004 | Flat screens | Albiral in NAB 2004 | New ALBIRAL products | Technical notes |
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Plasma technology | ||
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Plasma is a technology based on phosphorous, and it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of this technology. Advantages COLOUR SATURATION: Plasma screens offer good colour saturation, which is important for the faithful reproducing of colours. VIEWING ANGLES: Plasma is an emitting technology and can be viewed from extreme angles. Disadvantages HOURS OF LIFE: Phosphorous degrades rapidly, and the screen contrast is reduced by 50% after approximately 10,000 hours of operation. POOR CONTRAST AT NORMAL ROOM LIGHTING: Phosphorous is a reflector, which degrades the contrast ratio at normal room lighting conditions. HIGH CONSUMPTION AND HEAT GENERATION: Plasma has a high power consumption, especially when the content calls for a lot of white. BURN-IN: The phosphorous is susceptible to being irreversibly damaged when a fixed image is displayed for a length of time. |
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Comparing TFT/plasma |
BURN-IN:
Owing to the use of phosphorous in plasma technology, the risk of burn-in, long known in CRT technology, is very high following several hours operation.
Despite the fact that some manufacturers use a system to attenuate this phenomenon, these effects persist, and the risk of burning the phosphorous permanently and irreversibly continues to be high.
TFT technology has eliminated this phenomenon once and for all, as well as guaranteeing a monitor life significantly longer than that of plasma monitors.
RESOLUTIONS: The native resolution of LCD monitors depends on the panel (see Albiral LCD Technology Training Manual).
The native resolution of plasma monitors is 853*480 or 1024*768.
Plasma technology does not achieve a reduction in pixel size.
BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST: LCD technology offers better results than plasma technology under the same room lighting conditions. TFT technology absorbs the light, whereas plasma technology reflects the light.
COLOUR: At present, plasma technology has a higher colour spectrum and true colour reproduction than TFT technology. Nevertheless, TFT technology is developing rapidly in this field. Plasma reproduces green more accurately while TFT is better in red and blue.
LIFESPAN: TFT technology has a far longer lifespan than plasma technology.
VIEWING ANGLES: At present they are practically the same.
CONTROL/PILOTING There are three means of control available in TFT: RS232/RS-485, NaViset Administrator and DDC/CI. In plasma, only RS-232, and only on some models.
RUNNING AND MAINTENANCE COSTS:It is relatively easy to repair a TFT monitor but very difficult to repair a Plasma monitor.
POWER CONSUMPTION: LCD monitors present a reduction in power consumption and therefore in cost of 36%, in comparison to a plasma screen used over the same period of time.
VENTILATION:TFT technology gives off less heat than plasma technology. Plasma gives off more heat, needs ventilation which also produces noise, and the risk of mechanical failure is therefore increased.
WEIGHT: A TFT monitor weighs 40% of a plasma monitor of the same size.
DEPTH: TFT technology allows for a greater slimness than plasma technology.
ALTITUDE: In TFT monitors, the limit for use is 4,000 m, while in plasma technology the limit for use is between 2,000 and 3,000 m.
MAXIMUM SIZE: Plasma 80 inch, TFT 42 inch (currently available).
PRICE: TFT is from 30 to 50 % more expensive than Plasma.
AVIALEC, S.L C/ Fātima, 25 - 08512 SANT HIPOLIT DE VOLTREGĀ (Barcelona) SPAIN Tels. 34 93 850 23 76 / 850 23 83 Fax. 34 93 850 2550 / 850 23 72 Email: avialec@avialec.com