Know Your TVs - OLEDs vs. LCD vs. CRTs vs. Plasma

CRT TV - The First Mass Market Offering

Sample CRT TV

Technology is rapidly expanding and this has played out exceptionally in the television market. We've seen this market explode with many significant upgrades from the early days of CRT TV. CRT TVs featured the cathode ray tube, a high vacuum tube. This tube allows cathode rays to produce a luminous image on a fluorescent screen. This technology was chiefly employed in televisions and computer monitors. While the CRT technology ushered in the golden age of television and made a television set a standard feature in most homes, these sets were often bulky and heavy and lacked the portability of the newer models which would follow. Additionally, CRT technology lacked the brightness of later technologies.



LCD Opens Up a Brighter World

TCL LCD TV - Betta Home Living Keperra

CRT technology was eclipsed by a new technology in the 1990s, the LCD TV. The LCD is a liquid crystal display which utilizes white or coloured light emitting diodes as backlighting. In LCDs, shutter-filter pairs form a sub-pixel, which allows the colours to blend together and form a pixel. This new technology no longer required the bulk and heft required of the CRT. LCD technology led to the development of the flat panel TVs, which were lighter, more portable, and could hang on the wall. LCD also provided for a much brighter screen. As the technology developed further, pixel count increased, allowing for a sharper and brighter image - one miles above the previous generations of CRTs. A market leader in the LCD technology was Samsung LCD TVs. Competitively priced and of high quality, Samsung led the pack in bringing this technology into the mainstream.

Plasma Struggles to Compete

Plasma TVs use small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, which are plasmas. Plasma TVs had some mass market appeal as they were cheaper than LCDs for larger screens, but for many, the big Samsung LCD TV stayed mounted firmly in place. Plasma screens did not provide the same brightness as LCD TVs and were much more fragile. They were also subject to burn in and motion blur. However, the screens are anti-elective, have great ratio and contrast. Plasma screens generally range from 42”-65”, quite large, but bigger and better were yet to come.

OLED - The Best and Brightest to Date

Samsung Ultra Hd Led Lcd Tv 3D, Smart, Curved 65 - Betta Home Living Knox City

The latest technology to enter the television market is the OLED. OLED takes the LED (light emitting diodes) technology one step further - using an organic substance as the semiconductor material in light emitting diodes. This rather new development has produced the best and brightest TVs to date with 4K resolution, 4mm in depth, a brilliant display, vivid colours, infinite contrast, smooth and blur free. OLED TVs are available with curved screens in full HD. Screens range from 55”-95” at this current time. Given this is relatively new technology, OLED TVs are still much more expensive than LCD TVs and the number of models is significantly limited in comparison.

A TV Market Mainstay

In a comparison of OLED vs LCD vs CRT vs Plasma, LCD remains at this time the most popular TV technology on the market with sharp, bright displays available in HD and 3D, and screen sizes from very small to very large. Prices of LCD TVs are within the budgets of most consumers. OLED TVs are seeing an increase in popularity and do pose a potential threat to the LCD market, but this technology will need to further develop to make it more widely available, provide a greater number of offerings, and make the still very high prices more competitive.