Welcome everyone to another post about TV technology explained. This time we’ll be going over a topic that still bothers some plasma TV enthusiasts, why are plasma TVs dead?
There are several reasons for it but first let’s cover why plasma TVs were good to start compared to LCD and LED.
Why Plasma TVs Were Good
In my opinion, one of the top features of plasma TVs was the incredible refresh rate. While it’s standard to have LED TVs at 60hz and “proper” 120hz TVs are expensive (I write proper because some companies like Samsung don’t tell the entire truth, see here for more information about refresh rate), it was common to see 400-600hz plasma TVs. However, keep in mind that just because plasma TVs had a higher refresh rate, doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a smoother picture because most TV shows and movies are recorded and played back in 24 to 30 frames per second (FPS). Refresh rate and FPS can accomplish the same thing but are too very different things. So, if the FPS of a video being played is too low, unless there is some additional technology included in the plasma TV, the high refresh could be useless. I explained that “additional technology”, refresh rate (hz), and video interpolation in more detail here.
Black levels were excellent on plasma TVs compared to LED. It seems that only with the introduction of OLED TVs that black levels become somewhat comparable, but OLED TVs are still rather expensive. Don’t think deep blacks are important? Think of most movies (especially action movies) and the number of dark scenes they have, for instance, Star Wars series, Dark Knight series, Dune, most Marvel and DC movies, and so on. The deeper the black levels, the better the detail in darker scenes.
Viewing angles was clearly a strong trait here. This meant that if you had a seating arrangement with family and/or friends sitting at various angles from the centre of the TV, they would see a rather clear picture. LED TVs during the time of plasma TVs didn’t have as good viewing angles which means the picture wouldn’t be as clear at off angles from centre. However with newer LED technology (such as OLED and QLED), viewing angles are now comparable to plasma.
Why Plasma TVs Are Dead
Plasma TVs had other strengths (even better picture than LED for a certain time) but the above were the main strengths. However, LED slowly took over and with the downfall of plasma, OLED and QLED took most of the advantages of LED and plasma, combining them but at a much higher cost.
One of the main reasons for plasma’s downfall was marketing. The powerhouse companies Samsung and LG were pushing LED heavily on consumers with tons of marketing. In fact, even the way LEDs were advertised in stores was in favour of LED, but many times not on purpose. Stores are usually brightly lit, even where TVs are displayed. Plasma TVs don’t perform well in brightly lit areas as they reflect too much light on the screen whereas LED don’t have as much issue in well-lit areas.
LED TVs were cheaper to manufacture which means mass production, which means some cost saving for TV manufacturers to produce them. Some of the cheaper cost in production passed to the consumers which meant cheaper model options.
Around the time when LED TVs were becoming very popular is about the same time governments in many countries (mainly in western Europe and North America) were advocating a bit more for energy efficient technology. LED TVs tend to use about 20-25% of electricity of a plasma TV of equal size.
Burn-in image was a major concern with plasma and consumers. While burn-in image on plasma TVs were rare, it still occurred more than LED TVs (not by much at regular home use). This was especially common in settings like restaurants and bars that would have huge TVs around with news and sports news playing which caused static images to burn into the image. Of course, when you see this, many consumers would ask a staff member about the TV type (like I did) and it would put them off from buying plasma. Again, this wouldn’t be common at home but because people saw this in public places like a restaurant, it would put them off from buying plasma.
There was a sudden surge in demand for large screen TVs. Large as in 65” and bigger which was cheaper with LED technology than plasma. In fact, there was even a demand for the opposite size type, small TVs, computer monitors and laptops. Some people with limited space would want small TVs such as 32” which were only available in LED. It was the same thing for computer monitors which went even smaller to 19”, they would be available in LED but not plasma. In fact laptop screens went even smaller to even 12”. This demand for very large and small screens tied back into the mass production point mentioned earlier.
Another item was weight. While this might sound like a minor point, you must consider that online shopping was only becoming more and more popular. The heavier the TV, the more expensive shipping cost became, this worked better for LED as those TVs were significantly lighter.
Lastly was heat generated from plasma TVs. Again, this seems like a minor point in the winter or countries with air conditioning in the summer. Except many countries globally are hot all year round and many countries don’t have air conditioning for the summer. So, imagine it’s 30 degrees celsius and you have your plasma TV in your main family room near a window, believe me plasma TVs could get dangerously hot. I say this as I noticed this at a friend’s house one time. The TV was so hot that I told them to ensure none of their home theatre wires ever touched the TV.
Conclusion
Well, that’s a wrap. Whether you like it or not, plasma TVs are no longer being manufactured and are likely to never come back. With OLED, microLED and other non-plasma TV technology advancing, there’s no need for TV manufacturers to look back.
Thankfully as mentioned earlier, LED technology continues to develop at a rapid rate and takes the best strengths from plasma and regular LED and combines them together.
