Plasma screen are, in fact, lit by each "pixel", which is made up of 3 glass capsules containing an exitable gas. Electricity is applied to the capsules to produce color.
Plasmas posess far superior contrast ratios and color temperature across the range of their display ability. As a matter of fact, The Pioneed Kuro plasma is still the king of television.
LCD televisions use florescent backlights that leak through the open, twisted, and closed pixels, defeating black levels, which affects their contrast. They also tend to color whites. These two things combined affect their color reproduction. Nevermind the fact that even the new 120hz models suffer from motion problems on any fast moving scene in a movie. Adding frames in an LCD helps a bit, but it doesn't solve the problem. People don't understand refresh rate, and that's why these things just seem like good ideas to everyone.
If you have a Kuro TV, and The Pioneer Elite player, you get something special. doubled 24 fps playback. Every frame shown twice. Why is that special? It's the way movies are played in the theatre. It's the best way to watch movies in HD.
120hz messes things up, you only have to watch some fast moving scenes on an LCD right beside a plasma to see it. The stores don't calibrate any of the sets right, and that's why the lcds pop and the plasmas look dull. Set the up properly, and the color capability of a plasma will flat out drain the blood from your face. The difference between what you see in the store and what you get after setting it up is greater than night and day.
Recently, a 720p plasma even won out in a test against a bunch of 1080p tvs of other types. Of course, this wasn't in consumer reports, either. It was in a real home theater magazine.
Now, LCDs have their place. If you have kids around, they are less likely to be damaged from knocks and nerf balls and things. On top of that, Plasmas have trouble at high altitudes, like airplane high. Plasmas also are extremly heavy compared to an LCD, so if you plan to move them at all, you had better be fairly strong. And the biggest drawback is the size. You can only get them from a certain size up. Used to be 40 inches, but it has probably changed.
LCD televisions are also marginally cheaper, since more store brands are available. They are getting better, but they are no plasma, and I don't think they ever will be. There is nothing wrong with buying one, but don't say that plasmas are bad becasue you read it on the internet.
People are spending thousands on these things, and you don't want to give them the wrong information.
Cheers,
Kennith
