Television and computer displays have long been subject to an irritating catch-22: the larger the screen, the heavier (and deeper) the monitor. Traditional CRT monitors (which include any old TV set) require heavy sealed glass tubes to produce their picture. This makes them bulky and (to me at least) unreasonably heavy.

The Plasma Display Revolution

Plasma displays work similarly to CRT displays in that they light up thousands of tiny fluorescent lights to form an overall picture. The difference (and hence the difference in size) between the two types of displays is that CRT tubes require tiny particles to literally be fired across an expanse of gas before they reach the fluorescent lights on the display surface. Plasma screens stimulate the individual pixels directly, so they don't need that giant expanse of gas (and hence the giant tube).

Generally speaking, the quality of a CRT picture is actually better than that of a plasma display picture. Many people, assuming that newer technology is always completely better, think the opposite. In reality, if you compare the best CRT television and the best plasma display side by side, the CRT will always win.

The reason plasma displays are such an attractive option is that they take up so much less space than CRT (and even rear projection) displays. They also weigh far less than their elder counterparts. The ability to hang your TV on the wall (clearing up tons of space in your room) makes the fractional trade off in picture quality really worth it.