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Feature: Page (1) of 2 - 03/15/06

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The Great Display Shootout Part 1: CRTs vs. LCDs vs. Plasmas vs. Projectors

Selecting the display technology that?s right for you

By Guy Wright

You?ve seen the ads for all those spiffy new flat panel displays, plasma screens, big-screen TVs, DLP, and home theater projection systems but is one technology actually better than another? Which display systems give the best picture under which circumstances? And most importantly which system is right for you? In this two part article we?ll try to sort out the differences between each of the display technologies, point out their good points and bad points, and hopefully steer you in the right direction when you?re shopping for a new TV.
 

Keep in mind that in this article we?re not talking about any one specific manufacturer, make or model. Rather these are generalizations based on reviews, tests, articles, personal observations and research done by a number of different people over time. Displays will vary from one manufacturer to another, one model compared to another, and even from one individual unit to another of the same make and model. Display technologies are also constantly evolving so what?s true today may change tomorrow. Unfortunately this can mean that in an effort to reduce costs some manufacturers will use older, cheaper and less sophisticated technologies. That bargain-basement flat panel display or projector might look good in the showroom but you may find that it suffers from problems that have been solved in the newer, more expensive models. (This is especially true with LCD and DLP technologies which have gone through some major improvements over the past few years.)

We also aren?t going to make a distinction between standard definition (SD) or high-definition (HD) since all of these display technologies are available in HD or HD-ready versions (and will look their best when displaying HD images). In fact, since most of these technologies have to scale the signals to match their native resolutions before they can display anything, an HD-capable display has to go through extra steps in order to display an SD signal and that can degrade the quality somewhat. Some people find that when they get their new big screen, HD set home it doesn?t look that much better than their old set when watching regular TV shows but once it is connected to an HD signal (hopefully a signal that matches the set?s native resolution) the image quality goes way up. Of course, in order to watch HD on your new set you?ll have to get an HD receiver (unless one is already built into your new set) and connect it to an antenna or sign up for HD service with your cable or satellite company and they?ll give you a new HD set top box. And just because you?re already subscribing to a ?digital? service from your cable or satellite company doesn?t mean you?re getting HD signals ? all HD signals are digital but not all digital signals are HD.

The Players
Before we get to the real nitty gritty it helps to understand the various technologies and how they work. So lets take a look at the different types of displays that are out there (and a few that are right around the corner).

CRTs
It wasn?t that long ago that the only display option available to the general public was the good old CRT or Cathode Ray Tube. CRTs have been the dominant display technology for so long that they have become the standard when evaluating all other types displays. As you probably know they create images by firing an electron gun mounted at the back of the tube through a series of powerful magnets. The magnets bend the beam of electrons so that they strike tiny phosphorescent dots that have been painted on the inside front of the tube causing them to glow momentarily. Each dot or pixel is comprised of three different colored phosphors (red, green, and blue) and by carefully triggering (or not triggering) these sub-pixels they can create images with millions of different colors. CRT color reproduction is considered to be about as accurate as you can get (assuming that you have a good quality CRT and it is properly calibrated). They are the best at reproducing subtle shades of gray ? particularly at the darker end of the spectrum. They are also, unfortunately, heading for extinction as more and more manufacturers switch over to other technologies such as LCDs and plasmas. CRTs are essentially analog devices which means they can accept just about any resolution input without having to do a lot of scaling or resolution conversions ? tasks that can cause problems for other, all-digital technologies.