42-49 Inch Plasma TVs

A plasma display is an emissive flat panel display where light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. The gas discharge contains no mercury (contrary to the backlights of an AMLCD). more...

An inert mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon) is used instead.

History

The plasma display panel was invented at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Donald L. Bitzer and H. Gene Slottow in 1964 for the PLATO Computer System. The original monochrome (usually orange or green) panels enjoyed a surge of popularity in the early 1970s because the displays were rugged and needed neither memory nor circuitry to refresh the images. There followed a long period of sales decline in the late 1970s as semiconductor memory made CRT displays relatively cheaper than plasma displays. Nonetheless, plasma's relatively large screen size and thin profile made the displays attractive for high-profile placement such as lobbies and stock exchanges.

In 1983, IBM introduced a 19" orange on black monochrome display (model 3290 'information panel') which was able to show four simultaneous 3270 virtual machine (VM) terminal sessions. In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first 21-inch full color display. It was a hybrid based on the plasma display created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NHK STRL, achieving superior brightness. In 1997 Pioneer started selling the first plasma television to the public

Screen sizes have increased since the 21 inch display in 1992. The largest plasma display in the world was shown at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in 2006. It measured 103" and was made by Matsushita Electrical Industries (Panasonic).

Until quite recently the superior brightness and wider viewing angle of color plasma displays, when compared to LCD televisions, made them one of the most popular forms of display for HDTV. However since that time improvements in LCD technology have closed the gap dramatically. The lower weight, price and power consumption of LCDs have seen them make large inroads into the former plasma market.

Read more at Wikipedia.org