One of the biggest drawbacks of the big screen television is the space needed for the television set itself. The plasma TV technology has made it possible to incorporate a big screen television into a small room. To understand how this change came about, briefly consider the difference in technology between a traditional television set and a plasma TV.
For the majority of time that television sets have been used as part of the home entertainment system, the television picked up a analog signal sent out by a broadcaster. That signal was analyzed by the television set and cathode ray tubes lit up the screen of the television. Thousands of tiny pixels make up the screen of the TV set in three colors - red, blue and green. Combinations of colors gave different hues as seen in real life and the result was a movie that (as nearly as possible) duplicated what we see in the real world. Digital television systems have increased the quality of the picture though many signals are still in analog form.
The plasma TV uses a different kind of technology for producing the picture though the reception is the same. In the case of the plasma TV, the pixels are lit up using something very similar to a fluorescent light. One of the biggest advantages is that the plasma TV technology uses much less space than the cathode ray tubes. This means that the plasma TV is only a few inches thick as opposed to the tube televisions that were large, bulky pieces of furniture.
This means that a smaller room that might not have been suitable for a big screen television set before could now have sufficient room. Because the screens are flat, you are also not dealing with the distortion at the edges of the screen and don't really have to be directly in front of the plasma TV to get a good view.
Tom Ace is the founder of Plasma tv Resources a website providing information on plasma televisions.