Plasma screens are now a thing of the past. If you had a plasma screen in the early 2000’s, you had the latest technology of the time. Today, LCD and LED technology has replaced plasma screens. In this article, I’ll explore why that happened.
With LCD and LED televisions, we now have improved picture quality, energy efficiency, and thinner designed televisions. Comparing plasma televisions to their later counterparts shows that plasma televisions image quality, contrast ratio, and viewing angles are greatly improved with the advent of LCD and LED Technology.
Plasma screens struggled to support 4k and HDR standards. What’s more, there is also higher manufacturing cost associated with plasma screen televisions. As thinner, lighter, more energy efficient technologies took over, it left no room for the technology of the past. There was also the role of marketing influencing consumer choice. However, new developments in technology primarily led to the decline of plasma screen.
There were other factors as well. Burn in on plasma screen happened, especially with static images. This had an impact on consumer confidence and adoption. There were also concerns about the environmental impact of plasma TV’s, due to their having mercury content in particular.
As new technology emerges, so do old technologies that were once new, fall. Like so many technologies before in television specifically, plasma was replaced with something newer and better. This change in how televisions work is nothing new. From the earliest days of black and white TV to today’s modern age of internet and streaming, there is a consistent quest for creating new ways to do old things better.
This is true in all facets of technology. From phones changing from LAN lines and payphones on the street to car phones and the emergence of rudimentary cell phones, to the smart phone revolution of the 2010’s, to today’s artificial intelligence intermixed in all of our devices, the quest for what’s new and cutting edge in terms of specs and styles is an ongoing phenomenon.
In fact, according to a July 31st, 2023 article in the Hindustan Times (the link is here), Google has developed specific changes to the Android operating system to accommodate AI’s effect on tech. This is a huge deal because operating systems have a direct 1 for 1 impact on how we interact with the hardware devices we use every day.
Every day, there are new ways AI is built into the devices we already use or purchase. From PC’s, Macs, Chromebooks, Android tablets and phones, iOS devices, iPads and iPhones, every day we are closer to a world where interaction with AI chatbots is unavoidable. Whether we embrace the change or not, this new AI landscape is here to stay.
I say all this to say, if the evolution of television technology is any indication, tech in general is an ever evolving phenomenon. Updates to operating systems and software is essential to continuing this technological journey, but that’s really only the beginning in terms of what this enormous emergence of new tech entails. From creating new ways of interacting with each other, to tuning into the latest news, to watching sports, to creating artwork, music, and writing, we are constantly improving the ways we create, speak and communicate, among everything else we do in life.
As stated, not only has television evolved from plasma to new technology including LCD and LED, so has and so will all the technology around us. There is very little in life that has not changed due to developments in technology. As new tech emerges, old technologies are phased out over time. The innovation of humankind is truly astonishing. Old technologies evolve and re-emerge in different iterations.
One classic example of this exists in audio. While technology has long left vinyl records in the past in terms of what is the latest and greatest in audio recording, people still collectively have decided that there is something special about having vinyl records in our music collections. Whether it is a desire to own a physical copy of something someone created or just a nostalgia for the past, there is no disputing that people often hold onto long left behind technologies of the past.
VHS tapes hold a particular soft spot in my heart, for example. I miss the days of being able to rewind and fast forward through movies, tv shows, etc. Also, the ease of copying VHS tapes is something that simply doesn’t exist in today’s movie and TV show technology. Although I enjoy this memory, I don’t plan on breaking out a VCR player anytime soon.
This brings us back full circle to the technology we discussed at the beginning of this post, television screens, and how they’ve changed. While some things change, some things do not, and it’s on us as a global society in how we continue with the revolution of “things” we are currently living in. For good or bad, we have to live with the choices we make. As we have learned from the past, just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should. Oddly enough, there seems to be no limit to what we can do with technology, though.
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