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Expensive plasma panel TV sets—on sale for around
$10,000—have broad and flat screens, but have limited contrast
between dark black and bright white (WO 01/56003). This, says consumer
electronics giant Thomson of France, is because the many tiny gas discharge
cells in the screen are primed with an excitation voltage before the picture
pulses switch them on. This priming process makes all the cells glow slightly,
so they never look really black. Thomson’s new display driver system intercepts
the picture pulses before they reach the screen and primes only those cells that
are going to be lit up. So dark areas of the picture are not primed and look
completely black.