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For the average person, even a regular television set is something of a technological marvel that becomes almost unbelievable when considering today's latest and greatest advances, including the plasma TV. Take a brief look at the history of the technology that we now take for granted.

As early as the 1950s, people were beginning to have television sets in their homes, though the practice of a home television set wouldn't become widespread until the 1960s. Suddenly, the average person could be a bystander for historic events, catch the latest news and spend hours being entertained.

In those early days of television, an analog signal transmitted the audio and video that would become a picture on the home television set. The early home sets used a tube technology - it took ages to warm up sufficiently to produce a picture. The analog signal was prone to fuzzy pictures that could fade out completely with various conditions. A home typically had an antenna, either on top of the television set itself or standing outside the house. Adjusting that antenna could help the reception of the picture.

Many things have changed since those early days of television. Analog signals are still used, though high definition digital signals are becoming more common.

Remarkably, there have always been experiments and advances in the works, many appearing on the drawing boards long before they're introduced to the public. In the case of plasma TVs, the idea has been around almost as long as the video technology. The first plasma screen was actually constructed by a college professor and his student as early as 1964. The idea was sound, but the high-end television set simply wasn't practical for the signal technology of the day. After all, there was little need for a screen that could produce a better picture than the television stations could send!

The reason for that early development wasn't aimed at the television industry, but was to be used for displaying information in an educational setting. When the television industry started looking at newer, better technology for the tube-type television sets commonly being used in the 1960s, plasma was actually considered, though only briefly. In the end, the more practical idea became the liquid display screen television screens and it would be many more years before the plasma TV option was again considered.