WEBVTT - What's difference between LCD and plasma television? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.320 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. This podcast 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.160 is brought to you by Audible dot com, the internet 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.880 leading provider of spoken word entertainment. For a free audio 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.320 book of your choice, go to Audible podcast dot com 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:28.800 slash tech Stuff. Hi there, everybody, Welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:30.840 My name is Chris Polette. I'm an editor at how 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.440 Stuff Works. Sitting next to me, as usual, is senior 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.120 writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, it's good to see you all, 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.519 except we can't see you and you can't see us. 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.320 But you know, there's always that other medium on which 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.760 we're not. But I think the public is familiar with 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.640 the This is as smooth as it. I'm just tripping. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.800 All Okay, you know what, I'm gonna just take over 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.840 from here. Okay, all right, So we're gonna talk about 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.840 television's HDTV S fly panels. Specifically, we're gonna talk about 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.399 l C D s versus plasma displays. And if if 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.160 you're like me, you know, if you've ever gone into 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.600 an electronics store and you see that huge wall of televisions. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:13.240 You may wonder, like, all right, well, I see there's 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.040 some of them are plasma, some of them are l 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:19.160 c D. What's the difference, doesn't doesn't make a difference, Um, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.600 And what's the best choice for me? And which one 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.000 can I afford and can have installed in my house 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.280 later this afternoon. Which one's gonna allow me to have 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.399 the largest possible TV for the least amount of money. 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.560 That's usually the way I go. That's I don't think, no, no, 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.440 I think that's pretty common. But of course there are 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.720 other things to take into consideration, like bigger is not 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:42.760 always better. For one thing, you want to make sure 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.720 you have the best picture quality and you want to 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.000 you know, there it also depends on what kind of 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.400 stuff you like to watch on television, because some displays 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.960 are better at showing certain kinds of action than others. Well, um, 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.640 I guess then it comes down to what kind of 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.240 technology will do that for you. And you know, most 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.760 of us grew up with crt s, the cathode ray tube. Um, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.359 those are the bigger TVs that certainly not flat panel, 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:11.240 but you know they had a pretty good picture because 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.480 they were using an electron gun to illuminate phosphors in 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.720 the back of the TV screen and that produced a 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.840 really clear picture. And and in fact, there's some techno 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.520 files who would argue that they still provide the best picture, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.720 that the picture from one of those sets, like an 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.200 HD TV set that's uses that that technology is actually 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.880 superior to plasma or l c D, but they don't 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.120 really make a whole lot of HD cathode ray tube sets, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.840 and that they're giants there. Yeah, there's a lot of 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.960 space exactly, And and that's that's part of the issue here, 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.560 is that once people started seeing these flat panel displays, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.720 you know, they're really sexy and sleek, and you know, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.960 you can just imagine having this really kind of high 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.519 tech looking entertainment center with this as the centerpiece. Um 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.000 that's got a very you know, enticing appeal to it. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.480 And yeah, you might be able to get a better 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.840 picture on a larger machine, but you know you kind 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.280 of balance it all out, like, well, what's more important 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.080 to me? Is it more important to have the really 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.440 sleek machine that still looks amazing or to have the 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.840 absolute best, uh, visual performance. And I think a lot 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.000 of people, you know, they you know, they tend to 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:20.919 go to the flat panel for one, thing has been 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.359 marketed as like the top of the line in uh 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.560 in displays. So now it's part of that has to 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.040 do with marketing, But I mean you can't underestimate the 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.760 the appeal of that that thin wall mounted you know display. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.040 That's true, that's true. Well, Um, there have been a 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.240 lot of different technologies that people have used to create 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:46.120 the thinner or even flat panel displays. I mean they're um, 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.800 you know, oh LED's the organic light emitting diodes. There 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.640 are you know, the DLP l c os, you know, 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.040 a bunch of stuff. But it really comes down to, well, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:01.160 at least for the most part, plasma versus c D Right. Yeah, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.720 I think oh LEDs will probably be something we'll see 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.400 more of in the future, but right now, um, the 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.040 technology is still pretty new. So the sets that are 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.080 out there are very small, like around eleven inches pretty 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.400 much it, and they're very very expensive. Um, but they're 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:22.760 also wafer thin, and they're super do wafer thin, and 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.880 there are beautiful latin I tell you, and um, you 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.880 can even you can even make them so that they're flexible. Yeah, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:30.960 you could bend them around things if you I mean 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.280 granted you have to build that into it. It's not 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.520 like every set's gonna bend around everything. But um, it's 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.280 really cool technology, but it's still brand new, comparatively speaking, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.520 and so it's uh for most of us, prohibitively expensive. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.040 So l C D S and plasma, let's get down 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.480 to the brass tacks, as it were. So let's talk 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.080 a little bit about the technologies behind these. Um, I'm 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.360 just gonna do kind of a quick high level thing here, uh, 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.240 hime in whenever you like. Alright, So, liquid crystal displays 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.920 uses this stuff called liquid crystals. It's it acts kind 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.359 of like a liquid, kind of like a solid um, 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.400 and it's a it's essentially two glass plates with a 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.920 layer of these liquid crystals in between. And by applying 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.760 electricity to this layer, that's what you allow light through, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.520 uh to create the pictures. And so these televisions are 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.359 back lit. There's a light source behind this layer of 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.080 liquid crystals that provides all the light you see on 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.920 the television. Plasma displays use an ionized gas. That's what 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.360 plasma is. It's a gas that can conduct electricity and 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.239 it lights up only when there are when there's something 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.000 to show. On the screens. There's no backlight there. It's 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.920 just uh, electricity activating this gas to create light, So 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.279 you don't you don't have a constant backlight like like 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.120 you do with l c ds, And that becomes important 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.400 in a minute. Yeah. The neat thing about the plasma 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:59.480 is that when you introduce some free um atomic particles 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:04.520 into the plasma uh atoms, they basically excite the different 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:08.080 atoms by replacing electrons and it makes them bounce around 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.640 and when they do that, they give off light um. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.040 So it's, uh, it's sort of an atomic reaction. You're 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.160 talking about actually subatomic really, because you're talking about electrons 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.400 and photons here. This is quantum stuff. You're watching quantum TV. 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.200 It's pretty awesome. I I really want to make a 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.320 quantum leap joke, but okay, well I'm not gonna Yeah, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.360 I think that's a been dated anyway. So anyway, so 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:33.400 we mentioned the back light for l c D s. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.080 Now that that's one of the big differences between the 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.120 l c D displays and the plasma displays. This can 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.680 affect something that is called contrast ratio. If you ever 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.880 start shopping for TVs, especially flat panels and h d 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.560 t V s, you'll you'll likely run into a lot 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.720 of talk about contrast ratios, and well, what is a 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:56.160 contrast ratio? It's the difference between the essentially the whitest 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.120 whites and the blackest blacks that that display can show. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.320 So the bigger that number, like say say you say 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.800 it's one thousand to one, the bigger that number is, 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.440 the more colors that can show, the better the blacks 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.400 are going to be, the better the contrast is. So 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.920 a fifty thousand to one is a much better contrast ratio. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.360 And in general, plasma screens show blacks better than l 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.600 c ds. And that's because, like we said, there's no 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.160 backlight on a plasma. So if you want to watch 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.080 a lot of movies, for example, a lot of really 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.720 like kind of you know, dark, grim movie type things. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:31.880 They say, you want to watch The Dark Night, there 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.360 are a lot of blacks in that movie. You know, 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.360 you get like the black of the night, you get 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.520 the black of the Batman costume, you get the black 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.480 of the car, all of these things, um degrees of 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.880 black exactly. Yeah, it goes from you're going to see 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:51.840 the difference between them the pastel black from Yeah, for 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.200 your spinal tap fans out there's a paste black. But 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.040 they the if you have a screen that can show 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.840 a very good contrast ratio, a very wide contrast ratio, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:02.760 you'll be able to see all that clearly. They're not 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.240 going to blend into one another. It's not gonna look 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:09.000 blocky or anything like that. Um So, plasma screens are 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.680 really good at that. L c D s are are 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.440 getting better, but traditionally they were seen as not being 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.080 very good as far as the contrast ratio goes. But 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.120 that's changing. Yeah, that's changing. There. There are a lot 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.520 of improvements in that field right there, and and there 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.040 are other change things that traditionally were different between plasma 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:33.080 and l c D that are increasingly becoming non factors 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.320 because the improvements in the technology have reached a point 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.840 where it's it's getting hard and hard to tell the difference. Now, 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.400 if you look at a lot of people's top you know, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.120 top television lists, I think you'll probably see more plasmas 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:52.080 than l c D s even now, because that's the 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.719 general consistent consensus is that they show more vibrant colors 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.480 and the contrast is better. You can have larger sets, 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:03.000 larger sets they don't. There's there's not really a problem 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.640 with blurring with fast action. Some of the older l 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:07.880 c d s had a problem with that where if 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.880 something was moving across the screen very very quickly, you 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.040 can get a blurring effect. So if you were watching 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:14.960 something that had a lot of fast action in it, 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.240 like you know, most sports, then you would get this 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.520 kind of blurring effect, especially at high definitions. UM plasma 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.120 didn't have that problem. But now again with l c 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:26.640 d s, they know, you're just starting to see l 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.360 c d s with like incredible refresh rates, which is 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.320 how many times uh the television refreshes the picture that's 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.680 on your screen. Um, you know they're a hundred twenty 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.200 hurts is not unheard of, and that's that means it's 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.520 refreshing at a rate about like a hundred twenty times 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.000 a second. It's really really fast. And there are even 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.559 faster ones coming out that I saw at c S, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.640 which were two hurts, so four times a second. Then yeah, 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.720 so when well two hundred forty times a second, yeah, 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.320 not four times a second, you're thinking you're you're dividing 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:02.360 by minutes um two of a second. So that's so fast. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.520 I mean we can kind of detect around like like 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.760 film I think is what like twenty four frames per 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.319 second something like that, So this is ten times that. Um. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.640 The idea here being that that it makes smoother transitions. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.720 You don't see the blurring effect with with really fast motions. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.600 But still plasma kind of holds the advantage there, but 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.840 it's not a not a really discernible one unless you're 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.440 paying incredibly close attention. And then there's the power consumption issue. Yes, 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.160 because l c D s are traditionally considered to be 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.520 the more energy efficient technology. Yes, in general they are, 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.559 but not as much anymore, not as much anymore, um. 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.000 I mean even I remember a few years ago that, uh, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.760 some communities were starting to ban the sale of new 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.839 plasma televisions because they used so much energy, right, And 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:53.960 I can talk a little bit about why that is. 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.080 The main reason is that, uh, you're having to essentially 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.680 shoot electricity to excite these these atoms, you know, to 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.120 in order to give off light. Well, even when you 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.920 turn that television off, the electricity is still is still draining, 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.040 you know. Vampire power is what a lot of people 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.520 call it, um, because it has to stay ready, you know, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.600 for the next time you turn it on. People don't 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.520 want to wait for it to warm up there and 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.920 sucks down electricity and and so you get a lot 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.760 more draining uh when the even when the device is 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:28.360 turned off than you would with an l c D 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.480 screen screen and l c D s also have to 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:32.360 warm up. They just don't have as long a warm 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.200 up time as plasma. And we're talking when we're talking 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.440 about long warm up times, we're talking about a matter 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.320 of seconds. But we've become so impatient as consumers that 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.320 we expect when we put hit that power button, we 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:47.160 expect that screen to come on pretty darn quick. So um, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.280 but your I can give you one example of a 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.040 time when a plasma screen will pull less electricity than 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.720 an l c D. If you're watching something that's perfectly black, 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.000 because the l c D has a backlight and it 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.839 will always be lit. Good point. If you watch nothing 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.040 but the black, are sorry. If you watch nothing but 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:09.960 the dark, Knight or spinal tap, yeah, something like that, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.080 then yeah, you're gonna you're gonna pull less power with 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.360 your plasma display. But in general, yes, it's gonna it's 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.200 gonna consume more power. Now, a lot of companies have 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.600 developed UM power saving techniques to reduce that. In fact, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.560 it's become more and more important. I saw a lot 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.240 of that C yes as well. They had a lot 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:31.319 of different companies hooking up televisions too, UM electronic meters 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.960 telling you how much energy it was pulling at any 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.600 particular time, and they would line up previous models like 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.720 here's the set we released in two thousand five and 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:42.600 two thousand six, you know, all the way up to 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.400 two thousand nine, and then maybe even like prototype models 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.400 for for future ones. And you could see that the 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.959 energy consumption peaked sometime around two thousand seven or so 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.800 and then dramatically began to drop because that's when everyone 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.720 started getting more environmentally conscious and also just an idea 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.400 of serving power to save money. Right, So yeah, so 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.600 that is also changing. UM. So it seems like the 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.480 battle between plasma and l c D is almost becoming 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.720 a moot point. It's sort of a pick the set 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.800 that's best for you, because in general, they're all going 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.400 to be about the same level of energy efficient, they're 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.800 all going to show pretty much the same colors. Of course, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.480 it's always good to have a professional calibrate the TV 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.600 because looking at it in the showroom. Well, it may 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.440 or may not be the kind of thing it's it's 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:33.839 not going to look the same in your house when 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.400 you actually get at home. It's been calibrated specifically for 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.160 that store exactly. Yeah, so it's important to calibrated either 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:41.640 by a professional or if you know what you're doing, 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:43.880 you can do it yourself. Yeah, there's some televisions that 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:48.640 actually have calibrations software installed, so that uses UH uses 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.840 light sensors to detect how much light is in your room, 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.640 and then we'll calibrate the contrast and brightness and everything 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.600 on its own, so that way you get the what 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.280 presumably would be the best picture for your such a oation. 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.440 I can talk about a couple of other minor things. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:09.760 UM plasma screens. They tend to have a glassy UH display, 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.200 so there's very reflective. So in general it's better to 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.400 use a plasma display in a room that has, you know, 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.040 low lighting. So if you have a lot of bright lights. 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.680 UH plasmas tend to be really reflective, you may not 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.520 be able to see what's on the screen very well. 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:26.720 UM l c D might be better in that case, 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.160 because most of those have a non reflective or Matt 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:33.720 style finish on their on the front display. So better 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.080 for your man cave is plasma, right, which is exactly 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.200 what I have. I mean, I turn all the lights off. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:40.960 I got the I mean I don't have a plasma 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.560 display that I've got a man cave. Um. Yeah, I 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:46.440 turn off all the lights when I when I watch. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.480 I've actually got a rear projection TV, so I've got 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.920 one of those monsters. Um. But uh, the yeah that 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.080 if you're if you're gonna watch in a dark room, 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.720 plasma is a good choice. I mean you're going to 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.360 get a great picture. Uh and uh and actually the 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.960 funny thing is plasma is still a little less expensive 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.960 than a comparable l c D. If you're looking at 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.280 the the big, big screens, you know, the on the 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.200 smaller end price is pretty much negligible. But if I'm 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.600 talking about like, if you're looking at sixty three inches 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.760 like a monster TV, plasma tends to be a little 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.960 less expensive than l c D. Right, And also they 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:30.040 do get bigger. You can get the really big monster 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.480 TVs in in plasma. Actually, I don't even know if 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.160 you can find an l c D in sixty three 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.320 in you might have to drop down to fifty five. 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.400 But well, uh, you know, if you're done talking about 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.080 plasma and l c D. Wow, I do have a 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.440 trump card, Yes, hit me with it. I want to 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.640 uh remind you of your pet favorite TV. Are you 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.480 talking about the Mitsubishi Laser View, Yes, I am, and 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.440 you know that the manufacturer says that it takes one 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.560 third the power of a plasma TV and has twice 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.000 the color. So uh, but it does it with lasers, 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.280 which means doesn't tell you that it just has twice 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.080 the yellow, twice the yellow. That's just a joke. That's 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.720 only only twice one color exactly. Yeah, yeah, we have 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.560 half the blues, but three times the yeah, I'm just kidding. However, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.000 it's also eight times more expensive, you know, because it's 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 brand new technology uses lasers instead of vel C D 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.840 S or plasma or and it's it's gorgeous and it 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.280 also is three D ready Yeah, but you've actually seen, yes, 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.000 I have, and it's it's pretty capful. It's you know, 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.040 when I first read about I thought I wanted one, 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:38.840 and then I saw one and I knew I wanted one, 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.640 So I still want one. I'm not gonna buy one 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.880 any type soon don't don't have seven grand laying around 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.040 to spend on it, but it does. It is very, 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.560 very impressive television. It's not a flat panel um so 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.640 it's not gonna you're not gonna mount that on your 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.600 wall unless you have a you know, a real load 0:16:55.600 --> 0:17:01.200 bearing wall right there. But it's it's definitely an impressive television. Yeah, well, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.199 I guess that I don't have any more TV. The 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.320 only thing I could talk about is burning, but that's 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:11.399 not even an issue anymore. So, Yeah, there used to 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.920 be a big issue used to if you had let's 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:15.879 say that's your video gamer, and you would put a 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.960 game on pause for eight hours where you go sleep 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.240 and then you come back and play some more with 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.320 with plasma, if those colors were we're sitting there on 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.360 the screen for that long, you would see like when 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:28.879 you'd start the game, you'd see that there was a 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.479 ghost image of whatever it was that was paused for 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.720 those eight hours, and sometimes the ghost imaged wouldn't go away, 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.080 it was burnt into the screen for pretty much ever 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.719 and ever, um LCD didn't really have that problem as 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:46.600 much as almost almost uh didn't exist. But that's pretty 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:48.560 much been solved too. That so you don't get too 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.520 many issues with plasma burning unless unless you're just being 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.800 really extreme, like you pause your video game and then 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:56.880 you go on vacation for a couple of weeks, then 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.440 you might have a problem. But you know that's that's again, 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.359 that's an extra beream case, and that would be a 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.800 certainly not a good way to conserve electricity. No, that 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.280 would not be very eco conscious of you. I mean 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.000 I would never do that, but Poulette wouldn't put it 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.360 past him. So anyway, well, you know what, I've got 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.160 something else we can talk about, but before we get 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.200 to it, I think we need to thank your sponsors. Yes, 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.480 audible dot com. If you go to www dot audible 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.920 podcast dot com slash tech stuff and sign up, you'll 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.560 get a free download. And they've got fifty thousand books 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.680 on audio as well as podcasts and and other other 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.199 products as well. And if you're like me and you 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.639 listen to lots of stuff on the train, it's a great, 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.679 great resource. And we have a couple of picks that 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.520 we'd like to talk to talk about something that we 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.480 could recommend as potentially your first free download. My choice 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.719 would be stuck in the box of life in local 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:55.240 TV news. Um, if you're like me or a TV junkie. Um, 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.240 and I mean a TV news junkie. I you know, 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.760 actually did an internship in a TV news room when 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.160 I were in college. And this is by Donna McNeely, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.720 who is a former anchor, reporter, producer, and writer. She 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.080 even narrates it herself, and it's gotten. It's got an 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.960 excellent reviews. Um, you know, only only one five star 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.960 review on Audible, but I looked up the book just 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:16.880 to see how everybody else feels about it, and it's 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:21.600 got excellent reviews everywhere. So I would definitely check that out. Wonderful. Yeah. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:26.240 My uh suggestion also comes from something that I had 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.159 a huge passion end when I was a kid and 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.880 I was watching TV. Um, actually one of my heroes, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.480 I would say, uh, and the book is It's Not 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.840 Easy Being Green and other Things to Consider by Jim Henson, 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.040 The Muppets and Friends, And uh, yeah, I was a 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.920 huge Jim Henson fan as a kid. Um, you're still 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.080 still I am a Joe huge Jim Henson fan. Also 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.040 come from a family of storytellers and puppeteers, so that 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.960 kind of helps too. But anyway, this book is is 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:53.960 about the man Jim Henson. It's kind of about his 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.600 philosophy and his views and um, and I recommend that 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.560 one that's a that would be a and I mean 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.320 I want it. Either of those or any of fifty 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.320 thousand others could be your first free download if you 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.840 sign up at www dot audible podcast dot com slash 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:18.119 tech stuff. Okay, so let's get back to my favorite segment. 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:24.600 I'm sure it's yours as well. Listener mail. Oh that's loud. Yeah, well, 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.480 you know it's we have to alert them. It's really 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.240 so it's early yet. This is true. So this listener 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:35.160 mail comes from our listener, Jamie McCarty. Jamie actually has 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.920 a correction for us, which we appreciate. Jamie was very 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:42.159 polite and um and was also praising us quite a 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.159 bit in this email. But I'm gonna skip right to 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.240 the the correction. This is about our our podcast where 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.679 we talked about games with GPS receivers. UM. GPS receivers 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.639 do not transmit any information back to the satellites. The 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.159 power required to transmit back to the satellites would be 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.240 way too much for such small devices. Actually, the device 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:02.960 is simply receiving and coded time stamps and up to 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.000 date satellite constellation coordinates that provide enough information for the 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.960 receiver to calculate its position. While it's possible to send 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:13.560 out positional information, it requires a cellular radio waves or 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.760 satellite modems and I guess now WiFi, which is which 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.879 only the most sophisticated devices have. Thanks Jamie. That actually, 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.040