Hello there! With plasma TV technology now having disappeared over a decade ago, you may be wondering if there are still any good reasons to consider purchasing one of these relics in 2023. Below I walk through a comprehensive overview of plasma TV history, pros and cons, and available alternatives, hopefully giving you all the background needed to make an informed decision.
While plasma TVs do still offer superb motion clarity and contrast ratio that even surpasses modern displays, significant downsides like image retention, bulkiness, noise and heat output rightly doomed them to the technology graveyard. After weighing plasma‘s redeeming characteristics against the admittedly superior modern options, I don‘t recommend plasma TVs for most buyers today beyond niche retro gaming uses.
However, their decade run absolutely revolutionized television experiences in living rooms across the world during the late 90s and 2000s. And plasma research paved the way for future innovations. This article serves as a fond look back at what plasma achieved in its heyday as we determine whether remnants can still fill useful roles today.
A Brief History of Rise and Fall of Plasma TV Popularity
The commercialization of plasma display panels began in 1997 when Fujitsu released the first mass-produced plasma television – a 42-inch model priced at an astonishing $17,500! But despite the steep cost, it marked the first time this promising technology made its way into consumer households after nearly 30 years of ongoing display research.
As manufacturing processes improved in the early 2000s, prices began dropping more rapidly even as average screen sizes grew. Competing liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions using older cold-cathode fluorescent lamps couldn‘t yet match plasma‘s superior contrast and color.
| Year | Average Plasma TV Price | Average Plasma TV Screen Size |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | $17,500 | 42" |
| 2003 | $4,999 | 43" |
| 2006 | $1,799 | 46" |
| 2009 | $1,099 | 51" |
But by the late 2000s, LCD technology enjoyed rapid innovation of its own – introducing improved LED backlights, 120Hz refresh rates, and larger screen sizes while achieving parity on contrast and color reproduction. As seen in the table below, LCD televisions (using CCFL and increasingly LED backlights) began dominating plasma in worldwide market share by 2008.
| Year | Plasma TV Unit Market Share | LCD TV Unit Market Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 12.4% | 82.5% |
| 2007 | 7.6% | 88.3% |
| 2008 | 5.2% | 92.3% |
The last plasma manufacturers ceased production around 2013/2014 as LCD and soon emerging LED, OLED and QLED televisions proved more versatile and captured consumer interest. But their decade in the spotlight revolutionized home entertainment and paved the way for rapid display advancements.
Now let‘s examine some key reasons plasma TVs were once so revered along with the critical flaws that led to their downfall when evaluating a purchase today.
Plasma TV Benefits: What They Did Well
During their stretch as the pinnacle of living room television technology, plasma displays earned excellent marks in these core performance areas:
Response Times and Motion Clarity
With phosphor cells lighting and extinguishing extremely rapidly across millions of miniature display sites, plasma TVs essentially eliminated motion blur. This capability made them highly sought after for sports programming and gaming where fast on-screen motion could cause smearing on slower LCDs. Even today, plasma televisions handle motion clarity as well or better than all but the most advanced modern displays.
Contrast and Black Levels
By leveraging self-illuminating light-emitting pixels, plasma TVs achieved darker blacks and thus higher contrast ratios than even the best LCD/LED television technology of their day. Only modern OLED displays with per-pixel local dimming finally surpassed plasma on this front. Their deep blacks and vibrant colors made for outstanding movie watching and gaming experiences.
Viewing Angles
While most LCD panels show degraded picture quality from wider seating positions, plasma displays maintain their high contrast and color performance even at extreme side angles. This lets more viewers enjoy the superior image fidelity. For shared living spaces like family rooms, plasma TVs delivered a superior large-format viewing experience.
So those represent three standout areas where plasma televisions still outclass many modern mass market options. But they came alongside some massive drawbacks we‘ll cover next.
Downsides That Led to the Demise of Plasma TVs
For all their strengths producing gorgeous images, widespread plasma TV adoption suffered crippling setbacks from:
Temporary Image Retention and Permanent Burn-In
Plasma displays utilize precisely calibrated gas voltage differentials to activate their self-illuminating pixels. But imbalances can occur both temporarily and permanently.
Temporary image retention manifests as stubborn afterimages lingering on-screen after changing channels or inputs. These often fade after a short time. Permanent burn-in qualifies as true damage, however, as voltages get stuck activating specific pixels. This leads to permanent darkened patches or distortion on affected sets.
Modern display technologies almost completely eliminated these image artifacts. But plasma remains highly susceptible due to the nature of its gas-based pixels.
Excessive Bulk and Weight
On average, plasma television depth and weight far exceeded comparable LCD sets:
| Plasma TV | LCD TV | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Size | 50 inches | 50 inches |
| Depth | 4.3 inches | 2.4 inches |
| Weight | 69 pounds | 35 pounds |
While later manufacturing improvements trimmed their proportions, wall mounting or moving plasma TVs between rooms proved challenging. They imposed layout limitations and struggled matching the slim, lightweight designs offered by LCD and newer technologies.
Excess Heat Output and Energy Consumption
Maintaining the plasma gas excitation states inside millions of precisely engineered cells generated substantial heat along with prodigious energy consumption:
| Plasma TV | LCD TV | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Size | 50 inches | 50 inches |
| Heat Output | 150 watts | 65 watts |
| Power Consumption | 313 watts | 189 watts |
Most plasma televisions relied on loud internal fans working overtime to dissipate all this excess heat. But despite the racket, sets still ran dangerously hot to the touch. Higher energy bills accompanied the required air conditioning to offset these mini-furnaces.
Beyond those critical deficiencies, plasma TVs also trailed LCD and LED-backlit sets introducing larger screen sizes, thinner profiles, 4K resolutions, smart platforms and other future-looking enhancements.
They rapidly aged into dinosaurs as display innovation shifted to solid state technologies using quantum dots, organic light-emitting diodes and locally dimmed LED backlight arrays to push visual performance.
Top Alternatives to Consider Instead of Plasma TVs
If buying a plasma television no longer makes sense after weighing their limited enduring benefits against critical drawbacks, what are the best modern display technologies to consider today?
I break down top options below ordered by typical price brackets:
Entry-Level 4K LED TV
| Screen Size | 43" to 70" |
| Resolution | 4K UHD (2160p) |
| Backlight | Full array LED |
| Refresh Rate | 60Hz |
| Smart OS | Roku, Google TV, Fire TV |
| Price Range | $300 to $800 |
Entry-level 4K LED smart TVs offer four times the resolution of the best 1080p plasma sets along with integrated streaming platforms. Their LED backlights aren‘t as uniform or responsive as premium sets, but major strides in image processing provide excellent colors, contrast and motion.
Check out the Hisense A6 Series or TCL 4-Series LED TVs.
Mid-Range QLED TV
| Screen Size | 50" to 85" |
| Resolution | 4K UHD (2160p) |
| Backlight | Full array LED |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz |
| Smart OS | Tizen, WebOS, Roku |
| Price Range | $800 to $2,000 |
Quantum dot LED (QLED) TVs add a nano-crystal subpixel layer for over a billion color variations with increased luminance and accuracy. Their finely tuned spectral output combines with better local dimming algorithms on higher-tier edge-lit, direct lit or full array backlights competing closer with former plasma strong suits. Representing a standout value proposition compared to ultra-premium OLEDs, mid-tier QLED series like the Samsung Q60B or Vizio P-Series Quantum X deliver outstanding performance.
High-End OLED TV
| Screen Size | 48" to 83" |
| Resolution | 4K UHD+ (2160p+) |
| Backlight | Self-illuminating OLED |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz |
| Smart OS | webOS, Google TV |
| Price Range | $1,200 to $4,000 |
At the leading edge, OLED TVs with self-illuminating organic light-emitting pixels achieve plasma-like perfect blacks. Transformative per-pixel local dimming unlocks infinite contrast for the most lifelike images on the market. LG‘s acclaimed C-Series OLED models offer the pinnacle of current display technology with beautifully tailored colors and impeccable response times in addition to their signature inky blacks.
While still carrying premium price tags only recently crossing under the $1,000 threshold for some model sizes, OLED TVs represent the closest spiritual successors to beloved plasma sets today.
So those give you an overview of the best current television technologies. Almost any mid-range or better LED-backlit LCD panel surpasses all but the highest-end late generation plasma displays on overall versatility and performance at this point.
The Last Word Before Purchasing a Plasma TV
I hope this guide provided useful background for deciding whether one of those aging plasma TVs still presents good value here more than 10 years past their discontinuation.
In most typical usage scenarios, even entry-level LED/LCD televisions match or exceed plasma‘s enduring strengths like motion clarity and contrast while minimizing historical drawbacks like burn-in.
Mid-tier QLED and especially high-end OLED displays showcase how much the entire industry bounded forward while plasma faded from view. It takes sentimentality or niche retro gaming uses to justify buying one of these dinosaurs today.
But we bid a fond farewell to plasma‘s outstanding decade run at the forefront of living room innovation. Those beloved screens produced many fantastic memories and drove rapid progress benefiting current television, smartphone and computer displays.
Please let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to dig deeper into display technology evolution across the eras.
