Way up on the list of reader questions we field on a regular basis is, “Which is better, plasma or LCD?” Compared with more affordable tube-type TVs, both technologies are relatively new. But their flat form factor, combined with an ultra-bright picture that looks good from any position on your couch, gives many folks a spasm of techno-lust. As a country, America may be divided into “red” and “blue” states, but we all agree that flat TVs are cool. Still, the question remains: which type is better?

To find out, we put a plasma and an LCD set in the ring and let 'em duke it out. Samsung's HP-P3761 ($4,000) represented plasma, and in the LCD corner was Sharp's Aquos LC-37GD6U ($6,000), both 37-inch widescreen HDTVs. We set them up to optimize their pictures, the same as we do for all the TVs we review. After placing black matte material around each screen to hide the brand names, S&V executive editor Brian Fenton played numerous HDTV and DVD clips for me, contributing technical editor David Katzmaier (DK), and technical editor David Ranada (DR). We each brought some of our own reference DVDs and D-VHS tapes to check out, and as a final torture test, we watched a few minutes of analog cable TV.

Our regular arsenal of TV performance tests includes these difficult scenes from the DVDs of Chicago (left) and The Fellowship of the Ring (middle) and from the high-definition D-VHS tape version of Digital Video Essentials. Each contains very bright areas — the light board behind the dancers, the snow drifts, and the shuttle exhaust and clouds — that the plasma and LCD displays handled differently.

On some levels, pitting two TV display technologies against each other is comparing apples and oranges. So it's probably best to begin by laying out the key differences between the Samsung and the Sharp. Although both can display HDTV, they have different native resolutions, or the number of pixels (picture elements) that make up images, counted horizontally and vertically. The Samsung's resolution is 1,024 (horizontal) x 1,024 (vertical) pixels, and the Sharp's is 1,366 x 768 pixels.

Plasma and LCD sets also generate pictures in very different ways. In a plasma TV, the pixels consist of gas-filled cells coated with phosphorescent material. When an electrical current charges the gas in a cell, it makes the coating glow. In an LCD TV, the pixels are liquid-crystal cells over a fluorescent backlight. The opacity of the cells varies in response to an electrical signal, passing or blocking the light.

Regardless of the unique technical details behind plasma and LCD, both types can deliver great-looking high-def pictures. But our goal was to carefully compare their image qualities, so we created scorecards with a number of evaluation points grouped into five general categories. The first of these, Contrast, describes the range of tonal steps between the deepest shadows and brightest highlights. Col or covers the set's ability to accurately display a full range of colors at various brightness levels. Picture Detail and Picture Uniformity gauge overall sharpness and consistency of the image across the screen, respectively. Picture Uniformity also covers image quality at off-angle viewing positions. And Daylight Viewing ranks picture performance in a room that's filled with light.

Each reviewer jotted down detailed comments on his scorecard as he watched test clips, and these formed the basis for a composite score ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). While our scores don't apply to all plasma and LCD TVs — even two plasma or two LCD TVs from the same brand can perform differently — you can take them as a measure of what to expect from current popular models. Hopefully, they'll help you with your buying decision when you finally decide to go flat.

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