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How does Plasma TV work?
Plasma displays consist of a flat, lightweight surface covered with millions of tiny glass bubbles. Each bubble contains a gas-like substance (the plasma), and has a phosphor coating. Each bubble is one pixel. Now, think of each pixel-bubble as having three sub-pixels - one red, one green, one blue. When it is time to display an image signal (RGB or video), a digitally-controlled electric current flows through the flat screen, causing the plasma inside designated bubbles to give off ultraviolet rays. This invisible light in turn causes the phosphor coatings to glow the appropriate color, generating visible light that your eyes perceive as the picture. That’s plasma TV in a nutshell: Millions of RGB bubbles glowing and dimming to make a rich, vivid image.
Glossary of Terms
- Anamorphic
- Process that condenses the image in the source material to be expanded by the display device. With DVD, the anamorphic recording preserves a vertical detail that would otherwise be lost on a widescreen film that is cropped, or letterboxed, to fit the 4:3 reading image space.
- Ohm
- A measure of how much something resists (impedes) the flow of electricity. Larger numbers mean more resistance.
- Preamplifier
- A control and switching component that may include equalization functions. The preamp comes in the signal chain before the amplifiers.
- Spider
- The part of the loudspeaker that holds the diaphragm in place, and allows it to move when activated. Also called suspension.
- Woofer
- A speaker driver designed to reproduce low frequencies.
