Patent ID: 7053870

Claim:
A method for driving a plasma display panel in which one field is constituted by a plurality of subfields, comprising the steps of: impressing data pulses on data electrodes provided on individual display cells in one or more subfields of said plurality of subfields in association with a video signal to generate a write discharge for a gradation display on the plasma display panel; and assigning a sustain cycle number to at least one subfield of said plurality of subfields in accordance with luminance of the video signal, said sustain cycle number being equal to that assigned to the other subfield, and said at least one subfield having a weight lower than that for the other subfield, wherein said step of impressing the data pulses includes impressing the data pulses only on the data electrodes of predetermined display cells which is a part of all display cells without generating the write discharge in the remaining display cells in said at least one subfield of said plurality of subfields such that the sustain cycle number in said at least one subfield becomes virtually 1/N, the N being an integer equal to 2 or more.