I was at Costco the other day, and it looks like they are getting out of the RPTV business. They had one of the 70" JVCs on clearance ($2k) and that's it. The Sony, Mits, and Samsung sets were gone. So sad. :( I really don't understand why RPTV is not more popular given the price advantage compared to LCD and Plasma. Is "thin" really so important? Not to me.

Well, not only do people not want RP's, plasma and lcd is getting cheaper and cheaper. This is cutting into a major advantage of large RP's (price).

Combine the two and you have the end of rp looming in the not-to-distant future....

;) Unless Mitsu has a technical breakthough with their new laser models, the days of RP TV's are probably numbered.

costco.com is still selling Mitsubishi DLPs

http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|2341&N=4001386&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=4848&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&topnav=

Well, not only do people not want RP's, plasma and lcd is getting cheaper and cheaper. This is cutting into a major advantage of large RP's (price).

Combine the two and you have the end of rp looming in the not-to-distant future....

Quality LCDs and plasmas are NOT getting that much cheaper, wake up and smell the coffee, they are twice the price of RPs. Quality RPs are still a WAY better value than flat panels. Do some research.

Quality LCDs and plasmas are NOT getting that much cheaper, wake up and smell the coffee, they are twice the price of RPs. Quality RPs are still a WAY better value than flat panels. Do some research.

What killed the RPTVs first and foremost is this sentence: "I am not going to have this ugly ...(fill in your own phrase)... in MY living room" repeated million times by our wives. And we folded because we knew they were right. We also knew what our wives did not: that these dinosaurs are temperamental and unpredictable beasts with expensive tastes for wheels, bulbs and other morsels. So accept the verdict, be grateful and go shopping for something else.

Quality LCDs and plasmas are NOT getting that much cheaper, wake up and smell the coffee, they are twice the price of RPs. Quality RPs are still a WAY better value than flat panels. Do some research.

Let's see here..... My 50A3000, when it was first launched, had an MSRP of $3000. I bought it from Sony direct for $1100 shipped. This was in January of 2008. So, in 6 months, these sets are now selling for less than half. There is a reason for that - more money is to be made on lcd's. Sony couldn't compete selling the 50" SXRD, no matter how great is is, at $3k.

And, yes, I have done my research. Quality lcd's and plasmas ARE getting cheaper. You can fanboi in this rp section of AVS all you want, but reality is a 46-50" lcd is NO WHERE near as expensive as it was this time last year.

Go do your research.... They are "twice the price" right now, but that is ONLY because rp's have dropped in price tremendously.

So does that mean that once rear pro's are gone the prices of LCD's and Plasma's will go back up or stay the same for a while?.

Quality LCDs and plasmas are NOT getting that much cheaper, wake up and smell the coffee, they are twice the price of RPs. Quality RPs are still a WAY better value than flat panels. Do some research.

You can get a 50" Plasma for under $1500.

My local stores both said "no new models" are coming. They're going FLAT.

Mike

I was at Costco the other day, and it looks like they are getting out of the RPTV business. They had one of the 70" JVCs on clearance ($2k) and that's it. The Sony, Mits, and Samsung sets were gone. So sad. :( I really don't understand why RPTV is not more popular given the price advantage compared to LCD and Plasma. Is "thin" really so important? Not to me.

You can get a 50" Plasma for under $1500.

And what about 70"?

Beware of 50" plasmas for under $1500 many of them say they are 720p models when in fact their native resolution is 1024x768 and therfore they can an only display 1024 of the 1280 pixels in each row the rest have to be discarded.
Also Hitachi is offering a "1080i" model whose native resolutin is 1024x1080 so almost have of the 1920 pixels in each row have to be discared.
These rectangular pixel plasmas also are very difficutlt to work with if you want to also used them as PC moniotors since all real PC monitors and graphics card assume displays witrh square pixels.

Let's see here..... My 50A3000, when it was first launched, had an MSRP of $3000. I bought it from Sony direct for $1100 shipped. This was in January of 2008. So, in 6 months, these sets are now selling for less than half. There is a reason for that - more money is to be made on lcd's. Sony couldn't compete selling the 50" SXRD, no matter how great is is, at $3k.

And, yes, I have done my research. Quality lcd's and plasmas ARE getting cheaper. You can fanboi in this rp section of AVS all you want, but reality is a 46-50" lcd is NO WHERE near as expensive as it was this time last year.

Go do your research.... They are "twice the price" right now, but that is ONLY because rp's have dropped in price tremendously.

You need to let Samsung (http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&searchType=user&keyword=LN52A650&searchSection=All&go.x=0&go.y=0) know, I think they must have missed that memo (http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&searchType=user&keyword=LN46A650&searchSection=All&go.x=0&go.y=0). Worst part is those are their mid-range models. The 750 and the inevitable 850/950 will cost far more. Every single one of the Sony's will probably average a few hundred more than the comparable Samsungs. He wasn't completely off the mark with that statement, quality flat panels are still ridiculously expensive depending on your definition of quality

What killed the RPTVs first and foremost is this sentence: "I am not going to have this ugly ...(fill in your own phrase)... in MY living room" repeated million times by our wives. And we folded because we knew they were right. We also knew what our wives did not: that these dinosaurs are temperamental and unpredictable beasts with expensive tastes for wheels, bulbs and other morsels. So accept the verdict, be grateful and go shopping for something else.

Yes, yes, that's what I've been saying on this and other boards: women killed RPTVs! And at least a bulb can be user-changed. At least a lens can be user-cleaned. At least there are people with twenty-plus years of experience fixing CRT RPTVs. What of that expensive plasma or LCD? They have problems like any other set, and have you seen the repair costs on *those*?

You can get a 50" Plasma for under $1500.

True, you can get a POS 720p 50" plasma for under $1500.

The current king-of-the-hill Pioneer Kuro 50" 1080p plasma is $4000 on sale. The 60" is $5800.

The 52" Sony Bravia LCD is $4200. The Samsung 52" LCD is more reasonable at $3000.

*kisses* his Tosh 65HM167.. DONT TOUCH IT!!!

"I am not going to have this ugly ...(fill in your own phrase)... in MY living room" repeated million times by our wives.Not in MY household. Too many wimps here. :eek:

They aren't "ugly",

Might as well repost what I posted here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13523695#post13523695):
I'm disappointed that the RP TV is dying. Some of this apparently is consumers who want FP for the option of hanging their TV on the wall, even if they never will, something I personally don't get, but there it is. Some of it is the big box stores that crank up the brightness on the LCD and plasma to get consumers' attention. Some of it is clearly the reliability of the product, not sure if it's fair to blame the manufacturers, there are aspects of the design such as the mirror that are just more vulnerable to failure. Still Samsung does seem to have screwed the DLP pooch.

I guess one of the things that set me off was admonitions to people to widen out their 4:3 to 16:9 to avoid the bands. I am just thinking of the cinematography of Gregg Toland or James Wong Howe distorted like that. I understand that LCD is great for gaming, and plasma is great for modern high-spectacle movies. I am disappointed that the technology is increasingly focused on only those kinds of entertainment.

Frankly I don't like the look of LCD for movies, and I have several misgivings about plasma (including its energy consumption). For both LCD and Plasma, I don't like the fact that once the screen fails, it's a boat anchor, start again. But clearly they are the future of television sets.

Today I pressed the button on an A3000.