Why does it matter?
If a TV is made using components sourced from a wide variety of third party companies, it’s inevitable that those components won’t ‘gel together’ as well as those in a TV made completely from components developed by the same, single manufacturer.
TVs that combine multiple out-sourced components are also prone to suffer the ‘weakest link’ effect, where weaknesses in a single component can let everything else down.
Myth
Plasma and LCD TVs alike are built using bits and pieces sourced from a variety of different manufacturers.
Fact
Generally, Plasma TVs tend to be developed and built completely ‘in-house’.
In the early days of plasma TV, most manufacturers tended to develop their own plasma research and technology, leading to a situation where many companies now have plasma production as an integrated business model. This means that from the panels to processing, plasma screens are generally made entirely within each particular company, giving them total control over the quality of their products.
LCD TVs, on the other hand, are generally built by using a variety of third-party components, with all the quality assurance issues that entails. And even more confusingly, LCD TVs are traditionally ‘OEM’d’ –some companies buy them from another manufacturer and simply put their own brand logo on them. So with LCD, the name on the front of the TV screen you buy may not necessarily be the name of the company that built the main part of the product.
Example
LCD screens are manufactured predominantly by ‘third parties’ and then sold separately on to different brands for use them in their own LCD TVs. This method can be helpful in keeping production costs low, but buying the core screen component from a third party also reduces the opportunities for individual brands to improve, develop and apply their own quality controls to the final products they release.
This situation also compromises competition in the LCD arena, as LCD TVs from two well-known rival brands might actually have the same core LCD panel inside, reducing the potential for each brand to develop a quality difference.
When you purchase a plasma screen you can almost always be sure that the technology has been developed specifically by the brand on the front to give you the best viewing experience, without compromise.
