What is the difference between Plasma and LCD TV's?

What I have heard, the Plasma Technology is loosely based on the fluorescent light bulb. There are 2 sheets of glass, with a gap filled with neon-xenon gas, which was injected and sealed in the process of making the screen. Electricity is being ejected into the gas in order to make blue, green, and red phosphors. Theses are the three colors needed to project the image on the screen. How ever the downside of Plasma TVs is that when the phosphors burn out on a part of the screen, the screen seems to be darker on one part than the other, which is bad for users that uses TVs in long term periods.

The more obvious thing to say is that LCD uses different technology. LCD TVs are made of two layers of transparent material(not mentioning they are polarized), and are glued together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is passed through these individual crystals, allowing the crystals to pass or block light to create images. These LCD crystals don't produce their own light, so an external light source, such as florescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become noticeable to the user. Since there's no phosphors there is less power used and less heat. Another good pointer about LCD TVs it doesn't emit radiation.

1. Larger screen size availability.
2. Better contrast ratio and ability to render deeper blacks.
3. Better color accuracy and saturation.
4. Better motion tracking (little or no motion lag in fast moving images).

1. Plasma TVs are more susceptible to burn-in of static images.
2. Plasma TVs generate more heat than LCDs, due to the need to light of phosphors to create the images.
3. Does not perform as well at higher altitudes.
4. Shorter display life span (about 30,000 hours or 8 hrs of viewing a day for 9 years) than LCD. However, screen life span is improving to as high as 60,000 hours due to technology improvements.

1. No burn-in of static images.
2. Cooler running temperature.
3. No high altitude use issues.
4. Increased image brightness over Plasma.
5. Longer display life (about 60,000 hours - at which time all you may need to do is replace the light source, not the entire set). This can vary according other environmental and use factors.
6. Lighter weight (when comparing same screen sizes) than Plasma counterparts.

1. Lower contrast ratio, not as good rendering deep blacks.
2. Not as good at tracking motion (fast moving objects may exhibit lag artifacts) - However, this is improving with the recent implementation of 120Hz screen refresh rates in higher-end LCD sets.
3.Not as common in large screen sizes above 42-inches as Plasma. However, the number is growing fast, with 46 and 47-inch screen sizes becoming more common, and some LCD sets having a screen size as large as 65-inches now available to the general public.
4. Although LCD televisions do not suffer from burn-in susceptibility, it is possible that individual pixels on an LCD televisions can burn out, causing small, visible, black or white dots to appear on the screen. Individual pixels cannot be repaired, the whole screen would need to be replaced at that point, if the individual pixel burnout becomes annoying to you.
5. LCD televisions are typically more expensive than equivalent-sized Plasma televisions (although this is changing), especially when comparing EDTV Plasmas to HDTV-LCD Televisions.