As most of you know, Plasma televisions are becoming scarce. The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times. What is happening to them? Are they being discontinued? I was thinking of buying a new Plasma television. Should I consider buying an LCD or LED television instead? Thanks!

As most of you know, Plasma televisions are becoming scarce. The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times. What is happening to them? Are they being discontinued? I was thinking of buying a new Plasma television. Should I consider buying an LCD or LED television instead? Thanks!

No, they are still being made and will still be the best for yrs to come.

Doesn't matter if we have a sole manufacturer making them, as long as the PQ is top teir. It hurts the market to have pioneer out of the game, but panny makes a good panel as well. If you are in the market for a flat panel, forget the LCDs and buy the best while you still can (pioneer)

Just for your reference. panels advertised as 'LED' are just an LCD panel with LED backlighting vs the traditional CCFL backlighting

No, they are still being made and will still be the best for yrs to come.

Doesn't matter if we have a sole manufacturer making them, as long as the PQ is top teir. It hurts the market to have pioneer out of the game, but panny makes a good panel as well. If you are in the market for a flat panel, forget the LCDs and buy the best while you still can (pioneer)

Just for your reference. panels advertised as 'LED' are just an LCD panel with LED backlighting vs the traditional CCFL backlighting

All true. The LED/LCD thing is yet another marketing gimmick in LCDs favor. Plasma has been, is now, and will always be better than LCD. But, like so often in the world of products the better product loses out. The torch mode sucked them in like moths to the streetlights as someone once said.

I get sick thinking about what I would replace my current Pio KURO with if I had to anytime soon. What a miserable situation that would be. :mad:

Someone once told me that the FAA is banning them. I laughed at him!

There is talk in California of Banning Plasma. What a joke. It'll have almost ZERO effect. It just sounds like the thing to do when really Plasma's don't use much more power then a LCD of the same size. Add the fact that LCD's out number Plasma's by 10 to 1, 20 to 1, who knows. It's dumb. What really is NEEDED is to start building Nuclear Power Plants once again. Not play these silly games.

There is talk in California of Banning Plasma. What a joke. It'll have almost ZERO effect. It just sounds like the thing to do when really Plasma's don't use much more power then a LCD of the same size. Add the fact that LCD's out number Plasma's by 10 to 1, 20 to 1, who knows. It's dumb. What really is NEEDED is to start building Nuclear Power Plants once again. Not play these silly games.

That's just crazy talk! You're thinking logically, rather than being a puppet of special interests...you obviously have no future as a "leader" in this country. :)

As most of you know, Plasma televisions are becoming scarce. The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times. What is happening to them? Are they being discontinued? I was thinking of buying a new Plasma television. Should I consider buying an LCD or LED television instead? Thanks!

First off, I think the future of plasma television shouldn't impact your buying decision today. Afterall, you want the best set for your money no? The only thing I can think of that would impact your buying decision is the availability of parts if plasma televisions were discontinued, but there should still be parts within the standard warranty periods. If you bought an extended warranty, you end up getting a new TV if they can't fix it.

Second of all, ONLY? Panasonic, Samsung and LG... those three companies control over 50% of the market for TVs pretty much everywhere. LG plasmas have like a 50% of the Korean market and 40% in places like the Middle East and Africa. You're talking as if there are other TV manufacturing companies whose combined market share is bigger than those three combined.

PANNY would have gotten out, if they thought PLASMA was finished. Why spend all that money to aquire PIONEER patents etc.

Plasma FTMFW!!!!!!

If Plasma televisions aren't being discontinued, then why did so many companies stop manufacturing them?

There are so many variables and/or flaws in that logic...

I'm not going to explore them, well at least not right now

If Plasma televisions aren't being discontinued, then why did so many companies stop manufacturing them?

Because moths are attracted to the showroom bright glow of LCD.

Plasma's don't use much more power then a LCD of the same size.

Panasonic TC-P46G10: 531 watts
Sony Bravia 46" XBR10: 228 watts

Seems like plasma uses more than twice the power of a CCFL LCD. I couldn't find the power consumption of an LED LCD, oddly Samsung and Toshiba don't publish those number in their specs. They claim it's less than CCFL.

The flip side of this though is the plasmas cost half as much or less than the LED LCD's. I saw a news report last night where they said it costs about $200 a year to power a plasma under normal use. An LED LCD would cost $100 a year in electricity. But in order to save $100 a year one has to spend $1000 more on the LED LCD. The break even point then becomes 10 years, where you'd probably want to get a new television anyway, seeing that almost every television I've owned has stopped working in the 9th or 10th year.

As most of you know, Plasma televisions are becoming scarce. The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times. What is happening to them? Are they being discontinued? I was thinking of buying a new Plasma television. Should I consider buying an LCD or LED television instead? Thanks!Ive seen this question a number of times on avs forum I just never understand it. If I said I will give you the best quality picture with the lowest repaire rate in the industry at about half the cost of the other technolgy available would you be interested? But what if I tell you in a few years this technology will no longer be used, your gonna say no? By the way I dont know how long it will be but I bet within 5-7 years or shorter lcds will be extinct. With knowledge doubling every 3 and half years tech is going to move even faster.

If Plasma televisions aren't being discontinued, then why did so many companies stop manufacturing them?

More $ to manufacture IMO

If Plasma televisions aren't being discontinued, then why did so many companies stop manufacturing them?
I agree with Roman that the main reason is that it costs more to make them. (I think it is still the case that most LCD panels are made by only one or two manufactures. For example I think Samsung and Sony use the same plant to manufacture their LCD panels. I do not think this is the case with plasma panels)

But it is also because of questions like "Are plasma's being discontinued" which have popping up for years.

The rumor mill has wreaked havoc on the Plasma industry. Between the original "Plasmas will leak all of their gas" to IR and burn in being greatly exaggerated and all of the other rumor's and hearsay, it is no wonder that Plasma sales have struggled. Not to mention sales people themselves have pushed people to lcds for some reason, plus the horrible showroom experience where the brightest tv looks the best to most people.

If Plasma televisions aren't being discontinued, then why did so many companies stop manufacturing them?

Shadowz - There were never that many manufacturers making plasma screens to begin with. Vizio was made by one of the Korean companies. Best Buy's house brand was a rebadged LG.

Pioneer and Vizio were the two manufacturers that bowed out of the Plasma market in 2009. Pioneer made one of the best televisions ever, but there was never enough market at the Pioneer price level. Pioneer had other business problems which hurried their exit. Vizio sold lots of plasma TV's but found they could market LCD's easier with a higher ROI. Vizio appears to cater to the folks who sell their sets (Wal-Mart/CostCo/Sears) and are furnishing what the mass market retailers want to sell you.

I have not heard anything concerning LG, Samsung or Panasonic intending to leave the plasma market. In Asia especially, plasma is still a big seller and in many more screen sizes (smaller) than we see in the US.

The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times.




Its been proven time and time again that for the most part... form factor(size, ease of use...etc) dictates the market over quality/functionality. In this case that means Plasma will be phased out well before LCD and its already happening. LCD has the form factor advantage…its smaller and lighter.

The biggest reason CRTs went away was because of their weight and size, not quality

Laser disc never took off because of the size(if Laser dics were the size of regular cds it would have been a hit), DVD did take off because of the form factor(small size).

CDs replaced cassette because of form factor(thin size and ability to skip songs…..not quality). SACDs never took off because it offered no form factor advantage over CD. Ipod did take off because of the form factor(ability to carry 10,000 songs in your pocket) even though the quality went down.

It’s the same reason why Blu-ray will never take off. It offers no form factor advantage and will be eliminated by on demand/interent/Hard drive based media. There are a ton of people with HDTVs now…..not many of them own blu-ray players.


Everything eventually goes away…so don’t let that deter you from buying plasma now.

Its been proven time and time again that for the most part... form factor(size, ease of use...etc) dictates the market over quality/functionality. In this case that means Plasma will be phased out well before LCD and its already happening. LCD has the form factor advantage…its smaller and lighter.

The biggest reason CRTs went away was because of their weight and size, not quality

Laser disc never took off because of the size(if Laser dics were the size of regular cds it would have been a hit), DVD did take off because of the form factor(small size).

CDs replaced cassette because of form factor(thin size and ability to skip songs…..not quality). SACDs never took off because it offered no form factor advantage over CD. Ipod did take off because of the form factor(ability to carry 10,000 songs in your pocket) even though the quality went down.

It’s the same reason why Blu-ray will never take off. It offers no form factor advantage and will be eliminated by on demand/interent/Hard drive based media. There are a ton of people with HDTVs now…..not many of them own blu-ray players.


Everything eventually goes away…so don’t let that deter you from buying plasma now.

OK you had me until that point.

There is talk in California of Banning Plasma. What a joke. It'll have almost ZERO effect. It just sounds like the thing to do when really Plasma's don't use much more power then a LCD of the same size. Add the fact that LCD's out number Plasma's by 10 to 1, 20 to 1, who knows. It's dumb. What really is NEEDED is to start building Nuclear Power Plants once again. Not play these silly games.

Actually CA wants to ban all TVs that draw over a certain wattage. Many Plasmas are under that wattage now, though some older models were definitely over it. So, they will probably pass a law that basically bans selling 4 year old new TVs. ;)

OK you had me until that point.


Bluray will never really take off. Seriously think about your family and friends(general public...non A/V people) ..how many really own Blu-ray discs? It will never be like DVDs or VHS.

With the amount of content appearing with on demand and via the internet Blu-ray is dead in the water. Just like CDs.....HD content will all be in more compressed format(non disc)

Bluray will never really take off. Seriously think about your family and friends(general public...non A/V people) ..how many really own Blu-ray discs? It will never be like DVDs or VHS.

With the amount of content appearing with on demand and via the internet Blu-ray is dead in the water. Just like CDs.....HD content will all be in more compressed format(non disc)

Your basing that assumption on the contingency that broadband becomes available everywhere to accommodate the bandwidth. I do agree that DD is the future and at some point will take over but I believe physical media will be around for awhile.

Shadowz - There were never that many manufacturers making plasma screens to begin with. Vizio was made by one of the Korean companies. Best Buy's house brand was a rebadged LG.

Pioneer and Vizio were the two manufacturers that bowed out of the Plasma market in 2009. Pioneer made one of the best televisions ever, but there was never enough market at the Pioneer price level. Pioneer had other business problems which hurried their exit. Vizio sold lots of plasma TV's but found they could market LCD's easier with a higher ROI. Vizio appears to cater to the folks who sell their sets (Wal-Mart/CostCo/Sears) and are furnishing what the mass market retailers want to sell you.

I have not heard anything concerning LG, Samsung or Panasonic intending to leave the plasma market. In Asia especially, plasma is still a big seller and in many more screen sizes (smaller) than we see in the US.

One thing I thought I would add is that Sony never made plasmas. As far as I know, they only use LCD, and always have with HDTVs. Their Rear Projection SXRD is a form of LCD, and their front projectors are all LCD (SXRD). The other major players made them and Vizio is the only one that sells a very large amount of flat panels. Pioneer was the best, but out of reach because of price for the majority of the world.

I JUST bought a plasma (Panasonic TC-P50S1) and I am absolutely blown away. I have an LCD (37LG50) in the bedroom with very low settings (for better blacks) and it isn't even close. My 4 year old DLP might as well have been in another category as it can't touch either above.

I do my best to inform friends and family that plasma is the way to go. My father bought a Panny Plasma a few months ago and is astonished by the PQ. His 3 year old Samsung LCD is just not up to par.

To get in the same league as a plasma you need to spend 2-3 times the amount. There are very good reasons to choose an LCD over a Plasma (mostly extremely bright rooms), or you just like a very very bright picture. I would never go off of the displays in a store as that is the worst condition for any real picture judging.

Lcd does offer a cleaner picture with zero image retention. Some say samsungs don't have false contouring issues any more but i doubt it. They for sure still have image retention problems as with lg. 2009 Lg plasmas still have false contouring problems along with image retention. I'm sure samsung is the same. Dithering is still a problem with every plasma make especially if you sit close to a display. From a distance you might not notice it but it's still there. Still, plasma produces the best PQ even with it's flaws. The kuro is by far the best flat panel tv in the world right now.

One thing I thought I would add is that Sony never made plasmas


Sony did make plasmas. I heard they opted out of plasmas due to the false contouring, dithering issues. And probably more profit margin.

Bluray will never really take off. Seriously think about your family and friends(general public...non A/V people) ..how many really own Blu-ray discs? It will never be like DVDs or VHS.

With the amount of content appearing with on demand and via the internet Blu-ray is dead in the water. Just like CDs.....HD content will all be in more compressed format(non disc)

We are YEARS away from NO physical format. DVD was out for 4 years before anyone ever heard of it. It took the launch of the PS2 to get DVD into the average persons house with its $299 price tag. Players were much higher than that, and advertising was minimal. Media was very expensive. Once players came down in price they sold more and when people saw the PQ increase over VHS, plus the added benefit of chapters it picked up steam.

Blu-Ray is going through this same process as we speak. It is catching on faster than DVD. Have you been to a Blockbuster recently? Mine has gone from a few sections to an entire 100' isle in the last year. They have a tremendous amount of Blu-Ray and every time I go in the section gets larger. Blu-Ray advertising is ALL over the place. Every new release is HIGHLY touting 1080p and 7.1 HD sound. The trade magazines I get have completely dropped DVD reviews (did a while ago too) in favor of Blu-Ray.

People who have watched a movie at my house are blown away with Blu-Ray. It is the only way to watch HD as everything else is not even close in PQ.

When my wife would rather go to Blockbuster to rent a movie over a Fios On-Demand rental, she sees a difference. She could care less about anything in this hobby, but this tells me something about what she sees. She won't admit anything though! ;)

When Pioneer bailed on the projector market I got my FPJ1 for a MAJOR discount. Should have bought two, or three, or....
I was hoping they would blow out the plasma's as well.
The only one making these available for any discount I've seen (about 30%) was Best Buy.
Where are the deals ?

Show Me The Money !

We are YEARS away from NO physical format. DVD was out for 4 years before anyone ever heard of it. It took the launch of the PS2 to get DVD into the average persons house with its $299 price tag. Players were much higher than that, and advertising was minimal. Media was very expensive. Once players came down in price they sold more and when people saw the PQ increase over VHS, plus the added benefit of chapters it picked up steam.

Blu-Ray is going through this same process as we speak. It is catching on faster than DVD. Have you been to a Blockbuster recently? Mine has gone from a few sections to an entire 100' isle in the last year. They have a tremendous amount of Blu-Ray and every time I go in the section gets larger. Blu-Ray advertising is ALL over the place. Every new release is HIGHLY touting 1080p and 7.1 HD sound. The trade magazines I get have completely dropped DVD reviews (did a while ago too) in favor of Blu-Ray.

People who have watched a movie at my house are blown away with Blu-Ray. It is the only way to watch HD as everything else is not even close in PQ.

When my wife would rather go to Blockbuster to rent a movie over a Fios On-Demand rental, she sees a difference. She could care less about anything in this hobby, but this tells me something about what she sees. She won't admit anything though! ;)


This don't change the fact most households don't own a bluray player. The cost of the media is too high for most. Considering dvd's can still look great with a great upconverter. Sure blu ray is better. But it's not the jump like vhs to dvd was. HD sound is overated from what i hear also.

This don't change the fact most households don't own a bluray player. The cost of the media is too high for most. Considering dvd's can still look great with a great upconverter. Sure blu ray is better. But it's not the jump like vhs to dvd was. HD sound is overated from what i hear also.

Its gotten to the point that I cannot watch a DVD on the FPJ1 without concentrating on the picture quality, or lack thereof.
Its pretty much "a jump" to these old eyes.

I'm still upset Blockbuster upped the rental price of Bluerays.

Your basing that assumption on the contingency that broadband becomes available everywhere to accommodate the bandwidth. I do agree that DD is the future and at some point will take over but I believe physical media will be around for awhile.

In one way or another it is growing all the time. Whether its Comcast's project calavery, or new Fios installs or even expanding 3g cell phone coverage....everything is growing.

I didn't mean their wasnt going to be no physical media at all... but I assure you Blu-ray does not have a long future based on its competition. Theres just much easier ways for people to get content than for them to physically buy a Blu-ray

Its gotten to the point that I cannot watch a DVD on the FPJ1 without concentrating on the picture quality, or lack thereof.
Its pretty much "a jump" to these old eyes.

I'm still upset Blockbuster upped the rental price of Bluerays.


I hear ya. But the majority of people don't own front projectors. With flat panel tv's dvd's can look excellent. Bluray is still a improvement, but not enough for the masses.

DVDs look like crap, upscaled or not compared to Blu-Ray. Having used several different up/s players I have a very hard time watching DVDs now. If you don't mind that is cool I guess, I can tell though.

With another X-mas coming more Blu-Ray players will be in homes and more will be buying movies (which lowers the price of players/movies). Blu-Ray is still 1 year younger than DVD when the PS2 launched. Everyone complained then about the same thing you are (pricing!). It is AHEAD of DVD. Blu-Ray player pricing at launch was ridiculously cheap. Usually new tech is multiple thousands of dollars. HD-DVD was even cheaper. If Blu-Ray launched alone it would be much more dominant at this point. The format war slowed things down a lot.

You are very confused about the audio differences Zues (and I am sure MANY others). DVD audio is 448 kbit/sec or 384 kbit/sec. Blu-Ray using standard Dolby Digital, is at 1.5 mbit/sec. The audio using your SAME AVR will be improved 3 to 4 times. HD Audio can be up to 18 mbps. Many argue that they cannot hear a difference between 1.5 mbps and higher. There is a HUGE difference going from DVD to Blu-ray with the same AVR. I hope that helps some people who don't think they will improve audio along with video.

You are very confused about the audio differences Zues (and I am sure MANY others). DVD audio is 448 kbit/sec or 384 kbit/sec. Blu-Ray using standard Dolby Digital, is at 1.5 mbit/sec. The audio using your SAME AVR will be improved 3 to 4 times. HD Audio can be up to 18 mbps. Many argue that they cannot hear a difference between 1.5 mbps and higher. There is a HUGE difference going from DVD to Blu-ray with the same AVR.


Just going by what i heard. I know in 2 channel audio many claim there is no audible difference between sacd and redbook cd..

DVDs look like crap, upscaled or not compared to Blu-Ray


I would say that's harsh. Dvd's can look near HD with a great upscaler. O'fcourse blu is still better but to say dvd's look like crap on a flat panel tv is a little much. I have too many movies on dvd also just to watch bluray. Nowhwere near enough titles on bluray to not watch dvds.

We are YEARS away from NO physical format.

I agree. CDs are also still around even though its pretty much dead in the water.


DVD was out for 4 years before anyone ever heard of it. It took the launch of the PS2 to get DVD into the average persons house with its $299 price tag. Players were much higher than that, and advertising was minimal. Media was very expensive. Once players came down in price they sold more and when people saw the PQ increase over VHS, plus the added benefit of chapters it picked up steam.

Blu-Ray is going through this same process as we speak.

That is correct, Blu-Ray has also gotten cheaper since its release. Not sure what that really means. I think we could find this to be the case with anything.

It is catching on faster than DVD.


Yes that would be great except the fact that dvd rentals have been closing up and everything with video and movies has been moving away from the physical medium to the streaming/download medium

Have you been to a Blockbuster recently?

No I haven't. A ton of them closed up. Another sign that the physical format is going away.........



People who have watched a movie at my house are blown away with Blu-Ray. It is the only way to watch HD as everything else is not even close in PQ.

lol what does this have to do with anything? Who is disputing Blu-ray isn't superior in PD and Sound?

Im sure we can find an audiophile somewhere hugging his vinyl collection insisting its still the only way to listen to music


When my wife would rather go to Blockbuster to rent a movie over a Fios On-Demand rental, she sees a difference.

Well enjoy it now if you haven't notice the retail rental business has been going down the drain for a bit now.


She could care less about anything in this hobby, but this tells me something about what she sees.

Exactly....a hobby. The general public does not have this hobby.

Panasonic TC-P46G10: 531 watts
Sony Bravia 46" XBR10: 228 watts

Seems like plasma uses more than twice the power of a CCFL LCD. I couldn't find the power consumption of an LED LCD, oddly Samsung and Toshiba don't publish those number in their specs. They claim it's less than CCFL.

The flip side of this though is the plasmas cost half as much or less than the LED LCD's. I saw a news report last night where they said it costs about $200 a year to power a plasma under normal use. An LED LCD would cost $100 a year in electricity. But in order to save $100 a year one has to spend $1000 more on the LED LCD. The break even point then becomes 10 years, where you'd probably want to get a new television anyway, seeing that almost every television I've owned has stopped working in the 9th or 10th year.

Those numbers are not correct.
The difference in yearly numbers betweeen the average pdp and the average lcd are minimal at most.(~$30-$50 more per year)

Side note....Re: no physical media.....anyone thinking we, the higher ned users, are not going to be negatively affected by this they are crazy. We are YEARS away from getting anywhere near BR quality to everyone who is willing to pay for it. [U]nlike physical media where your x amount of dollars guarentees a certain level or performance, which is much higher than average streaming.

This don't change the fact most households don't own a bluray player. The cost of the media is too high for most. Considering dvd's can still look great with a great upconverter. Sure blu ray is better. But it's not the jump like vhs to dvd was. HD sound is overated from what i hear also.




bingo.....its no where near the jump from VHS. Not even close. Im not even talking picture quality wise...the fact that DVDs you could skip anywhere on the disc and didn't have to rewind.




There is no form factor advantage to blu-ray which = fail. Its essentially the same thing as DVD expect higher quality. Where did SACDs go again? Why did Ipods become popular despite lower sound quality?

Is everyone saying that BR isn't much of a jump watching on 40" 720p displays or something?
Poor vision?
Unless you all have $1K+ video scalers you are way off base in my opinion.

Is everyone saying that BR isn't much of a jump watching on 40" 720p displays or something?
Poor vision?
Unless you all have $1K+ video scalers you are way off base in my opinion.


No, we are saying Blu-ray isn't enough of a jump for the mass public.

Infact im saying picture quality is one of the last things that determines what the mass public buys which is why MP3s and Ipods(Terrible sound quality) have completely taken over the music industry. People only care about form factor/convenience. If it doesnt have meet that criteria is generally fails. And right now digital movies meet that criteria

Panasonic TC-P46G10: 531 watts
Sony Bravia 46" XBR10: 228 watts

Seems like plasma uses more than twice the power of a CCFL LCD. I couldn't find the power consumption of an LED LCD, oddly Samsung and Toshiba don't publish those number in their specs. They claim it's less than CCFL.

The flip side of this though is the plasmas cost half as much or less than the LED LCD's. I saw a news report last night where they said it costs about $200 a year to power a plasma under normal use. An LED LCD would cost $100 a year in electricity. But in order to save $100 a year one has to spend $1000 more on the LED LCD. The break even point then becomes 10 years, where you'd probably want to get a new television anyway, seeing that almost every television I've owned has stopped working in the 9th or 10th year.

Those are the MAX Power Usage!!! With most LCD's that power usage is constant, with a PLASMA, it's Variable depending on what is shown on the screen at that time. Max power is displaying a completely WHITE screen, where as LOW power usage is a completely BLACK screen which doesn't use any power to display that. So unless all you watch is programs in the SNOW, maybe 'Ice Road Truckers' all the time, the real world power usage is far less. Most of the content I watch is darker colors. I've hooked up a power usage gage to my Plasma and I can see it in action. My 50" Panasonic Plasma is averaging under 300 watts.

Well worth it for what I see as a better looking picture. Faster Response time which is a huge plus watching Sports and Gaming, and the much better viewing angles. I'm off way to the side of my display and it's as clear as if I was right in front of it. Far, far better then my last HDTV. Yes the Plasma is a little more to run, but not as much as a lot of people think. It's mostly another Plasma Myth.

Blu ray's are becoming more and more affordable, i just ordered some new releases off of amazon for about $20 a pop, about the same cost as a new release dvd at your local walmart or best buy. They even have some older titles for $12-$15. Couple that with the cost of a decent blu ray player about $150 and it's becoming alot more affordable hobby than it was a year ago and i'm sure prices will go down some in the upcoming monthes or year.

Everything is outdated. Give me all your technology since you no longer need it. Seriously though, last I heard plasmas were increasing in market share for those still in the market. People are becoming increasingly DIY because of the recession and more people are actually doing research before blindly buying a TV since money no longer grows on trees. A lot of those people are coming over to plasma. Also, gamers are starting to move to it since IR/BI have greatly improved and aren't as big issues as they used to be. And of course critical viewers of TV/movies.

Until they have single-pixel LED arrays, even that tech is unlikely to come up to plasma in the near future. Plasma is getting increasingly fine-tuned while LCD tech is still bouncing all over the place trying to find workable solutions to balance issues they've always suffered from.

There is no form factor advantage to blu-ray which = fail. Its essentially the same thing as DVD expect higher quality. Where did SACDs go again? Why did Ipods become popular despite lower sound quality?
If that argument was 100% true then the minidisc would have taken off because of the smaller form factor.

SACD's never really took off because the music industry never embraced them. When you walk into Bestbuy how many SACD's have you ever found even when they first came out? When you walk into Bestbuy how many Blurays do you find?

I would say that's harsh. Dvd's can look near HD with a great upscaler. O'fcourse blu is still better but to say dvd's look like crap on a flat panel tv is a little much. I have too many movies on dvd also just to watch bluray. Nowhwere near enough titles on bluray to not watch dvds.


That was another reason I read about the lack of the switch to Blu-ray....the fact was the majority of of dvd owners are already satisfied with their dvds. I know tons of people with HDTVs but barely anyone i know has Blu-ray titles or players.

Also people are bombarded with options of getting their content these days and it will continue to increase in the future. Somebody with cable will now see an increase in the amount of HD channels they receive. So now Joe blow has 80 HD channels, On Demand and to top it off a DVR which allows him to record any movie he happens to see on the channel guide. Too much content ...not enough time for Joe Blow.

Lcd does offer a cleaner picture with zero image retention. Some say samsungs don't have false contouring issues any more but i doubt it. They for sure still have image retention problems as with lg. 2009 Lg plasmas still have false contouring problems along with image retention. I'm sure samsung is the same. Dithering is still a problem with every plasma make especially if you sit close to a display. From a distance you might not notice it but it's still there. Still, plasma produces the best PQ even with it's flaws. The kuro is by far the best flat panel tv in the world right now.
Excuse my ignorance, but what do all of these terms mean: image retention? false contouring problems? PQ? Are there any other "terms" that I should take into consideration when in the market for a Plasma television? Thanks!

Is plasma dead ? Samsung, Panasonic & LG answer.


http://hdguru.com/is-plasma-dead-samsung-panasonic-and-lg-answer/422/

March 2009 -

http://www.popsci.com/node/32903

Panasonic TC-P46G10: 531 watts
Sony Bravia 46" XBR10: 228 watts

Seems like plasma uses more than twice the power of a CCFL LCD.

Those are the MAX Power Usage!!! With most LCD's that power usage is constant, with a PLASMA, it's Variable depending on what is shown on the screen at that time.

Max power is displaying a completely WHITE screen, where as LOW power usage is a completely BLACK screen which doesn't use any power to display that.

My 50" Panasonic Plasma is averaging under 300 watts.
AFAIK, all LCDs have a fixed power output, but I might be wrong. Regardless, with plasmas, the max. rating is only relevant for possible momentary power draw on one's electrical circuit. That number is indeed for a white screen, also with the picture settings at max. settings. In reality, I doubt anyone ever has it set that way, as even 'vivid mode' doesn't use all max. settings on plasmas I have seen.

The relevant number is indeed average power usage; Crutchfield and others test this. This avg. number will indeed be much less than the max. number for the general population, (and even lower with AVS users, I would guess, but that isn't relevant to power regulators, of course :)). Unfortunately, CA is only looking at max. power numbers for it's regulations.

Panasonic TC-P46G10: 531 watts
Sony Bravia 46" XBR10: 228 watts

Seems like plasma uses more than twice the power of a CCFL LCD. I couldn't find the power consumption of an LED LCD, oddly Samsung and Toshiba don't publish those number in their specs. They claim it's less than CCFL.

The flip side of this though is the plasmas cost half as much or less than the LED LCD's. I saw a news report last night where they said it costs about $200 a year to power a plasma under normal use. An LED LCD would cost $100 a year in electricity. But in order to save $100 a year one has to spend $1000 more on the LED LCD. The break even point then becomes 10 years, where you'd probably want to get a new television anyway, seeing that almost every television I've owned has stopped working in the 9th or 10th year.

Your numbers are way off. Here's a chart of some of the popular sets and their yearly power consumption. As you can see the best 46" LCD is less than $15.00 a year difference which works out to a little over $1.00 per month.

http://reviews.cnet.com/green-tech/tv-consumption-chart/

Its gotten to the point that I cannot watch a DVD on the FPJ1 without concentrating on the picture quality, or lack thereof.
Its pretty much "a jump" to these old eyes.

I'm still upset Blockbuster upped the rental price of Bluerays.

But the prices of blu rays for sale have come down considerably. There are always sales going on. My BD library has grown to over 20 titles in the last couple of months, and will grow again over the Christmas holidays.;) I only buy movies that have a high replay value to me, and there are a lot out there.

No I haven't. A ton of them closed up. Another sign that the physical format is going away.........


This is not a sign that physical formats are going away it is a sign that Blockbuster has priced themselves out of the market. Who is going to rent movies for $5 a pop when you can buy them for that much? I stopped going to Blockbuster about 2 years ago when I acquired this large collection of Laserdiscs. That filled the gap in the meantime used DVDs at the local FYEs have plummeted to dirt cheap. I was buying used horror box sets for $10 during their Halloween sale. I don't care if I never watch the movie again but if its the same cost as rental why the heck would I rent over buying it? The have to be competitive with the retailer too. Buying a used movie for $5 is no different than renting a used copy other than the fact that its yours to keep, no return to the store, no hassle.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do all of these terms mean: image retention? false contouring problems? PQ? Are there any other "terms" that I should take into consideration when in the market for a Plasma television? Thanks!
Anyone?

This is not a sign that physical formats are going away it is a sign that Blockbuster has priced themselves out of the market. Who is going to rent movies for $5 a pop when you can buy them for that much? I stopped going to Blockbuster about 2 years ago when I acquired this large collection of Laserdiscs. That filled the gap in the meantime used DVDs at the local FYEs have plummeted to dirt cheap. I was buying used horror box sets for $10 during their Halloween sale. I don't care if I never watch the movie again but if its the same cost as rental why the heck would I rent over buying it? The have to be competitive with the retailer too. Buying a used movie for $5 is no different than renting a used copy other than the fact that its yours to keep, no return to the store, no hassle.

I was just talking about that the other day in regards to rental prices. At $5 a pop for an in store rental at Blockbuster and now with sale prices hitting the $20.00 range that's only 4 rentals worth. I still use Blockbuster but only their online service and free exchanges in store. At about $12/month for one out at a time and 5 in store rental exhanges per billing period I figure I typically get about 10-12 rentals per month which figures out to be $1.20 per rental.

Sony did make plasmas. I heard they opted out of plasmas due to the false contouring, dithering issues. And probably more profit margin.

Sony sold plasmas with their brand. The sets were made by Samsung to Sony specs. Sony quit due to quality control issues.

Shadowz, image retention refers to an actual image on-screen (displaying on-screen menus for extended amounts of time can cause this to occur) being retained and visible in the screen even after the content has changed. Ornery image retention is called burn-in. PQ = picture quality.

Shadowz, image retention refers to an actual image on-screen (displaying on-screen menus for extended amounts of time can cause this to occur) being retained and visible in the screen even after the content has changed. Ornery image retention is called burn-in. PQ = picture quality.
Ahh, I understand now. Thanks!

As most of you know, Plasma televisions are becoming scarce. The only major companies that manufacture Plasma televisions anymore are Panasonic, Samsung, and LG. Despite this, Plasma televisions are still known to have the best black levels and response times. What is happening to them? Are they being discontinued? I was thinking of buying a new Plasma television. Should I consider buying an LCD or LED television instead? Thanks!


Your first mistake is saying that plasma displays are "becoming scarce". What you actually mean is that plasma only has 10% of the TV market compared to 90% for LCD.

If plasma TVs were scarce, you would have a hard time finding one, but that is hardly the case.

Reports of the death of plasma are seriously premature.

Not to say that plasma won't eventually disappear, but they are going to be around for at least several more years.

That number, while it may or may not be accurate, is misleading, in that plasma does not compete in the entire FP market, just 42" and up TVs (with rare exceptions).

You should look at what manufacturers are going to next year. Plasma is going to need more than typical year-to-year improvement to get normal people excited about pdps.

We are YEARS away from NO physical format. DVD was out for 4 years before anyone ever heard of it. It took the launch of the PS2 to get DVD into the average persons house with its $299 price tag. Players were much higher than that, and advertising was minimal. Media was very expensive. Once players came down in price they sold more and when people saw the PQ increase over VHS, plus the added benefit of chapters it picked up steam.

Blu-Ray is going through this same process as we speak. It is catching on faster than DVD. Have you been to a Blockbuster recently? Mine has gone from a few sections to an entire 100' isle in the last year. They have a tremendous amount of Blu-Ray and every time I go in the section gets larger. Blu-Ray advertising is ALL over the place. Every new release is HIGHLY touting 1080p and 7.1 HD sound. The trade magazines I get have completely dropped DVD reviews (did a while ago too) in favor of Blu-Ray.

People who have watched a movie at my house are blown away with Blu-Ray. It is the only way to watch HD as everything else is not even close in PQ.

When my wife would rather go to Blockbuster to rent a movie over a Fios On-Demand rental, she sees a difference. She could care less about anything in this hobby, but this tells me something about what she sees. She won't admit anything though! ;)

you are lucky you have a Blockbuster still open. The two BBs in my town both closed recently. I guess I will have to look into Netflix.

And they are. What do you think 3-D tech is all about that Panasonic keep pushing? It's to give people a compelling reason to buy a (Panasonic) plasma over an LCD.

Everyone is doing 3D next year, Panasonic's implementation is one of the best.

Sharp....why/how did the ultra expensive xbr line of crt's do so well for a chunk of years?
Picture quality.....people who want it tend to be able to carry a tech for long enough to get them to the next best tech.(oled now)

I bet Sony used the manufacturing plant also for low cost CRTs. You can't survive today just by selling high end tvs.

Sony sold plasmas with their brand. The sets were made by Samsung to Sony specs. Sony quit due to quality control issues.

NEC manuf. panels for Sony.
Sony ended production because they couldn't make money at it and with a bit of irony, set the stage for Pioneers downfall as they (Pioneer) had only just acquired NEC's panel production when Sony pulled the plug.

.

If that argument was 100% true then the minidisc would have taken off because of the smaller form factor.



Its not like Minidisc was this giant leap. Carrying around 10,000 songs in your pocket is a giant leap. Expecting people to dump their existing CD collection to jump to a new format for a little size advantage doesn't fly. Theres a lot of reason Minidisc didn't take off. Im not saying everything that had had an advantage with form factor succeeded but there is strong evidence that the things that did succeed had some kind of form factor advantage.

SACD's never really took off because the music industry never embraced them. When you walk into Bestbuy how many SACD's have you ever found even when they first came out? When you walk into Bestbuy how many Blurays do you find?

I never counted but I noticed a bunch of Blu-rays.....at the same time most people don't own Blurays and have no real intention of buying them.

The thing is if this were 10 years ago Blu-ray would do well and be the successor of DVD because it would be a natural transition since Bluray is backwards compatible. Kind of like the transition from CRTs to flat panels....black and white tv to color tv

But two things happened. For starters the HD DVD - Blu-ray war hurt the initial push. The biggest thing is just the general movement from physical media to digital

This is not a sign that physical formats are going away it is a sign that Blockbuster has priced themselves out of the market. Who is going to rent movies for $5 a pop when you can buy them for that much? I stopped going to Blockbuster about 2 years ago when I acquired this large collection of Laserdiscs. That filled the gap in the meantime used DVDs at the local FYEs have plummeted to dirt cheap. I was buying used horror box sets for $10 during their Halloween sale. I don't care if I never watch the movie again but if its the same cost as rental why the heck would I rent over buying it? The have to be competitive with the retailer too. Buying a used movie for $5 is no different than renting a used copy other than the fact that its yours to keep, no return to the store, no hassle.

Its not just Blockbuster....its the retail rental industry in general. I noticed Hollywood videos and mom and pop rental stores closing up in the last few years. My home town had a mom and pop video rental store open up in the 80's....did amazing business throughout the 90's, even causing a blockbuster to open up across the street since the rental industry was a cash cow, and the Blockbuster closed up in 2005 and the mom and pop store closed up last year.....even with virtually no compeition and offering insane rental deals that same mom and pop store couldn't cut it with netflix and on demand.

Right now Netflix really killed the retail rental industry but even mail order methods of DVD renting will go away... Thats why Netflix offers digital means of getting content. There not that stupid and know they have to change their business model to survive in the future.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P58723.asp

Hell this article from 2003 predicts the downfall of video rental chains