Peter Griffin: Plasma's best for the big picture

Panasonic has bet billions on plasma superseding LCD screens.

Silent robots slink around Panasonic's plasma TV factory in Osaka, Japan, juggling big slices of glass squished together to form flat-panel TV screens for the world market.

My impression of that factory when I visited a couple of years ago was that it was big, efficient and almost devoid of people.

Now, Panasonic - betting that the future of big TV screens (42 inches and above) lies in plasma technology - has built the world's biggest plasma factory in Amagasaki, western Japan.

The plant cost US$790 million ($1.15 billion) to build, covers the equivalent of 15 football fields and will boost Panasonic's production to 300,000 plasma screens a month. The robots will be working overtime to meet huge demand for plasma screens driven by tumbling prices. Panasonic estimates worldwide demand for plasmas will reach 10 million this year and it wants a 40 per cent share of the market. It has 29 per cent but faces competition from South Korean manufacturers Samsung and LG.

The new factory is, effectively, a multi-billion-dollar gamble by Panasonic that plasma will fend off competition from rival LCD (liquid crystal display) screens, which are increasingly being made at 42 inches and above.

Plasma has held the market for large TVs as the screens are cheaper to mass produce. LCD reigns supreme for TVs up to 37 inches but 42-inch LCD screens have been on the market for years and manufacturers such as Sony, Sharp and Samsung have big ambitions for the technology which they see as superior to plasma.

The gap between the two technologies is narrowing but plasma has traditionally been viewed as better for bigger screens because of its high-contrast ratio (the difference between the blackest black and the whitest white), good colour reproduction and wide viewing angle.

While LCD has a crisp look and the screens are lighter than plasma equivalents, it is limited by low contrast ratio and a slow refresh rate, which causes the dreaded screen-door blurring effect.

A quirk of LCD technology also means it is near impossible to completely blacken the screen because some light will always seep through the pixels that make up the screen. This leads to slightly off-black or charcoal shades.

But LCD boasts higher screen resolution than plasma so has the potential to offer superior picture quality as people move to high-definition video sources.

These differences are slowly being cancelled out but ultimately choosing between the two comes down to personal preference.

When you're spending thousands on a TV set, reserve the right to look at several for extended periods to decide which is most pleasing to look at. I like the crispness of a decent LCD screen but can't stand the off-putting jagged effect on some of the larger screens during action sequences.

I'd stick to plasma for 42 inches and above for the moment.