If you are currently considering buying a television for your home, you find that you are faced with two options - Plasma TV or LCD flat screen TV. Both types of TV employ completely different technology, although they both hope to achieve the same result. And because the technology used is different, each will have its own unique advantages and disadvantages. When considering whether to buy a Plasma or a Flat Screen, it's wise to consider both.

How Plasma TV works.

The challenge of creating any television set, is to create moving images by lighting up the screen. Plasma TV achieves this by using fluorescent light bulbs. The display is made up of cells. Each cell has two glass panels. Between each glass panels, there is neon-xenon gas. When the set is in operation, the gas is charged and that's when it knows whether it should strike red, green or blue phosphors. A set of red, green and blue phosphors makes up a pixel.

How LCD TV works.

LCD TV also uses fluorescent bulbs to produce light to form the images. However, instead of using phosphors to form the images, crystals are used instead. In Plasma TV, there is the application of mercury, which is natural chemical. In LCD TV, very little mercury is found. Or at least, the user doesn't have the chance to come into contact with the chemical. Similar to the Plasma TV, each pixel of the LCD TV is made up of 2 glass panels. Between the panels are crystals instead of gas. The crystals will allow or disallow light to form the images.

So should you go for Plasma or LCD? Let's weight the pros and cons.

Plasma technology allows much richer and deeper colors. For example, Plasma TV can render deeper blacks compared to LCD TV. Colors are also more accurate and precise, and motion lag is almost non-existent. However, due to the heat generated by the phosphors, the lifespan of a Plasma set is not as long as that of an LCD set. The good news is, with technological improvements, this is changing.

LCD TV cannot produce images that are as sharp as Plasma TV. But it can produce brighter images, and it runs at significantly cooler temperatures. One major drawback is that if the pixels get damaged on the display, they cannot be replaced. You can still continue to use the TV set if you wish, but you will have to bear with the disturbances. When you can't stand the irritation any longer, the entire set must be replaced.

It's interesting to observe that both types of TV has continued to thrive in a marketplace with fierce demands. Performance levels for Plasma and LCD TV has continued to improve, and prices are coming down. Today, very little separates Plasma TV and LCD TV. Even prices have come down to competitive levels.

Your final buying decision, should therefore be based more on the technology than on pricing. In other words, if you prefer better display quality on bigger screens, and you don't mind the additional energy consumption, Plasma would be a better choice. However, if you prefer a lighter weight TV that uses less energy, LCD TV would be the ideal candidate.