So you want the amazing quality of a plasma television or plasma display, but you don’t really know what to look for when it comes to features? After all, it’s a pretty big investment, you want to know what you’re buying right? No problem, here are few terms and features to remember when you are ready to purchase your plasma television or display. But first, lets talk about the difference between Plasma Television and Plasma Displays.
Plasma Televisions have TV tuners, and sometimes speakers, etc.
Plasma Displays are basically big computer screens, with no TV tuner or speakers.
Contrast Ratio - The brightness of a display at full white over the brightness of a display at full black. Because the black value is greatly affected by ambient light, some TV technologies calculate contrast ratio in darkened rooms. Basically, the larger the contrast ratio the greater the ability of a television to show subtle color details and tolerate various room light
Pixel Pitch - The distance, typically in inches or millimeters, from the center of one pixel to the center of an adjacent pixel. The more pixels, the higher quality the picture, and the less “blocky” the picture looks.
Resolution - The size and quality of the images the unit can display. Typically, the higher the better, especially on larger screens.
Panel Life - Plasma screens have a life span, once the panel life is reached the screen will typically fail and need to be replaced. This is not really to be of alarm though, most of today’s plasma screens have such a long panel life, you most likely won’t own the unit long enough for it to go bad. For example, one popular unit has a panel life of 60,000 hours. If you left it on all day every day, it wouldn’t go bad for almost 8 years.
Aspect Ratio - The height and width of the screen. Regular TV’s were traditionally 4:3 (full screen) and most new big screens and plasma televisions and displays are 16:9 (wide screen)
Viewing Angle - At what angle you can view the unit before it starts to get distorted or blurry. The wider the viewing angle, the more places you can see the screen from in your room.
Does it come with speakers?
I don’t know of any plasma displays that come with speakers attached, but a few plasma televisions do. They generally cost a little more, so if you already have a surround sound system, you might not need them.
Is it HDTV ready?
If you have HDTV service, you’ll need a display or television that is compatible with HDTV. Most newer televisions, especially plasma displays and televisions, but if you want it, it’s always best to check for it.
Does it come with a wall mount or stand?
Sometimes they don’t come with either, so you would have to pay extra for one or the other. This is one important aspect to think about when you’re comparing price, because these can get rather expensive if you have to purchase them separately.
What type of inputs does it have?
Most plasma televisions should have the standard inputs, like RCA (your typical red, yellow, white wires), S-Video, DVI, Component, but if there is one in particular that you need, you should always check and make sure that it is available on that unit.
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