The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) a federal technology agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology.( www.nist.gov/ ) has entered the Plasma versus LCD battle by publishing its “Tips On Buying a New FPD” (flat panel display).

The attached PDF below or at http://www.fpdl.nist.gov/Tips.pdf, aids consumers with images and test patterns that will identify the performance differences of these competing technologies.
The PDF opens with a warning on page one that reads as follows:

“NOTE!!!

KNOWLEDGE OF THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING DISPLAY PERFORMACE WILL CAUSE YOU TO BECOME AWARE OF THE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES IN DISPLAYS SO THAT IDENTICAL IMAGES NO LONGER LOOK ALIKE IN DIFFERENT DISPLAYS. SOME PEOPLE HAVE FOUND THAT THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL HAS REDUCED THEIR ABILITY TO ENJOY THEIR FLAT PANEL TELEVISION.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!”

Here is the HD Guru’s key to the “guide” to assist your evauations.
Page 2
A=Plasma
B=LCD

Page 3 Top right image Plasma; Bottom right image LCD

Page 4,5,6 and 7 Inferior images tend to be characteristic of low quality Plasma panels and many LCD panels

Page 8,9 and 10 Applies to low quality Plasma and many LCD panels. Note take the panel you are evaluating out of the factory default Vivid or Dynamic mode and set to normal, cinema or standard before performing these evaluations, otherwise the results will be skewed.

Page 11 and 12 Applies to many LCD and poor quality PDP (plasma display panel)

Page 13 Applies to many PDPs

Page 14 Poor result could apply to either LCD or PDP

Page 15 All LCDs have an anti-reflective coating. Many PDPs also have one, though some PDP have better coatings that others.

Page 16 Teaches you how the contrast ratio specification is almost meaningless.

Page 17 Top images can results apply to both technologies, bottom applies to PDP though really not significant with normal content.

Page 18,19,20 and 21 Are full screen shots of page 17 content.

Page 22,23,24 and 25 Can apply to either technology though LCD has lower contrast and more brightness fall off when viewed off-axis, though the better LCD panels have lower rate of decline of image quality as one moves off-axis. LCDs also tend to have less uniformity of color, which will also affect the results using the computer generated faces pattern.

Page 26,27 and 28 Provides links for more test patterns.

All images (except the resolution gird patterns) can be evaluated by simply connecting the composite video output found on most desktop and laptop computers to a display’s composite video input. To test resolution you must interface the computer to display with and HD connection (component video, DVI or HDMI) many computers don’t have these typesoutput connections. If your computer does have one ,then you must set the computer’s output resolution to match display’s native rate (720p, 768p or 1080i/p) in order to accurately evaluate display resolution.

Here is the PDF tips-on-buying-a-new-flat-panel-tv.pdf

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