LCD Versus Plasma HDTV
Your brain is so easily fooled

Franco Vitaliano

February 17, 2009, Bush is out, and so is your analog TV.  Coincidence?—Or vast left wing conspiracy? You be the judge. 

But you can easily fill the world-is-all-B&W void in your heart. Enjoy a $4 a gallon ride down to your local mall, bring along what’s left of your home equity line and buy a new HDTV. Oh sure, you could always get an HDTV to analog converter box to keep the Philco going. But your trailer park neighbors would look down on you. Use that old CRT box as a chicken coop.

Jeez, Sarah, all those new HDTV screens sure are flat, just like the world, so what we gonna do? Maybe this cheaper LCD set is better than that pricey plasma HDTV? So, uh, hey, Chuck, the-former-investment-banker-now-a-clerk, what’s the difference again between plasma and LCD? “Well, the viewing angle is narrower with an LCD than with a plasma set, and, like, the picture could get all messed up if you sit off to the side.” 

Don’t believe him. Chuck is still getting his minimum wage chops. The narrow viewing angle thing is somewhat true—If you are passed out on the floor, so far off angle to the set that the sled dogs now have a better seat than you.

Under most normal seating conditions, you should notice little difference between current LCD and plasma sets. But Chuck, eager for a store bonus, may hit you with, “Well, ECW’s Boogeyman will be a blurry mess on that cheap LCD when The Miz slams him down.”

Sharp AQUOS 52" LCD 1080P HDTV (LC-52SE94U)

What Chuck is clueless about is LCD’s don’t flicker; their pixels are always on while displaying a single video frame. Strangely, when things are supposedly moving quickly around, like Boogeyman hurtling through the air, the brain interprets lack of motion during a static single video frame as LCD blur.

 

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