LCD and Plasma Displays Vs LEDs

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LCD and Plasma Displays Versus LEDs

There are pros and cons for both the Plasma/LCD and the LED displays. For certain applications where full color and video is required and the viewing distances are not great Plasma or LCDs can be better.

For most information display applications the LED displays are superior and for stock and commodity exchanges, especially those with open outcry floors we do not know any which would rely entirely on plasma or LCD displays, although the large LED displays are sometimes supplemented by a few smaller LCD or plasma displays to provide additional information for very short distance viewing.

The following points should be noted regarding the Plasma and LCD displays:

1. No memory. When there is a computer communication glitch, even if the interruption is very short, the LCD displays will lose all information and go blank. The LED displays have limited memory and if the computer supply failed temporarily, the last information supplied to the display remains on it until new data becomes available.

2. LCD panels usually have different horizontal and vertical viewing anglesViewing angle measures readability in typical conditions. Beyond the specified viewing angle, you lose readability.
Click link for more info. The horizontal is usually better as in most cases that is the requirement. If the application calls for the displays to be turned through 90° the viewer when he looks at it from the side is actually looking at the horizontal viewing angleViewing angle measures readability in typical conditions. Beyond the specified viewing angle, you lose readability.
Click link for more info. It may be found that this viewing angle does not reach the expected 170°.

3. When a larger display system is constructed from smaller plasma or LCD panels, due to the mullions, the display looks "patchy" and gives the appearance of a railway station. The display not only looks cheap but is also more difficult to read when the eye has to jump from one display to the other display in a horizontal direction. The eye has a tendency to jump and the information displayed for a particular item on Display 1 and Display 5 might be difficult to follow.

4. LCD and plasma displays are consumer products and change very often.
There is a very good possibility that in 2 years the same display that is being used today might not be available. Therefore, if anything goes wrong and the display has to be replaced it would be replaced by a similar but not identical display and would make the entire system look even more "patchy".

5. LCD and plasma displays generally offer rear maintenance only, while LEDs can be maintained from the front. Therefore the time required for doing any maintenance necessary, is shorter for LEDs.

6. Maintenance of LCDs and plasmas is also more expensive. If something goes wrong, an entire panel may have to be replaced, while on LED displays one can just change a module block or a power supply without replacing the entire board.

7. Because each LCD or plasma display has to be addressed separately, and because there is limited real estate offered by each of the panels, these displays offer less flexibility if and when the client decides to change the format of the information that is being displayed.

8. LCD panels are listed with a brightness of 450 cd/m2. However this is misleading as it is true for white only. For green for example the brightness is only 60%, i.e. 270 cd/m2. In fact when viewing text on LCDs they appear to be much less bright than LEDs and look like poor cousins. The reason is that viewability is related to contrast as much as brightness and contrast is an area where LCDs cannot hold a candel(a) to LEDs. (Pun intended).

9. LCDs and plasma are great for video but for text they lack the impact of LEDs. Traders who are used to seeing price data on large LED displays may be very disappointed if they had to get all their information from LCD panels stacked against each other. Such displays tend to look like a cheap makeshift solution. That is why, to our knowledge, there is no open outcry trading floor around the world that shows price data across LCD displays stacked together.