So it’s time for you to choose a new television.

Unless you’ve been really unlucky or are a gadget freak, it’s likely that things have moved on since you last looked at televisions. Nowadays, your big choice after screen size is between LCD and plasma high definition televisions.

So what are the differences between them and which display type is your best choice?

When large flat screen televisions first came in, almost all the available screens were plasma. Nowadays you will almost certainly have the option of LCD as well, except at the really large sizes where LCD technology hasn’t caught up yet.

An LCD screen is made up of lots and lots of small dots or pixels. These are activated as needed but if a pixel dies, it will show on screen as a black dot. This is most noticeable on a computer monitor but it also happens on televisions. the difference is that you’re less likely to notice it on a television screen unless a cluster of nearby pixels fails, then you’ll begin to focus on that spot as you watch. You can guard against this to an extent by making sure that your manufacturer’s warranty covers pixel failure but some guarantees put a minimum number of failed pixels before the warranty applies.

Plasma screens create their colors by sending an electrical charge which is then passed through a pixel grid a bit like the old fashioned television screens.

It is generally regarded that plasma screens produce a blacker black than the same size LCD screen, which tend to display a dark charcoal gray instead.

At very large screen sizes then plasma wins hands down because of the technicalities of producing flawless LCD screens.

One of the best current 50 inch HDTV plasma screens is the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U. It has a high 30,000 to 1 contrast ratio which makes for stunning television viewing and game play and it’s quite affordable. You can discover more out more about the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U here.