Official Panasonic 65" 1080p Plasma, Info, Pictures, Etc. Thread!

[hoodlum]

Well it looks like all of the major Plasma manufacturers will have 1080p TVs by the end of next year. Panasonic will be the first to market with their 65". My guess is that this new 65" model will be the first new Onyx Model.

http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/n...ead.php?id=627

"Top three Japanese frontrunners, Matsushita, Hitachi and Pioneer, are poised to launch a set of full HD PDP TVs from the second half of this year. Matsushita aims to introduce its 65-inch products within this year, with Hitachi and Pioneer planning to commercialize their 50-inch and over products in the second half of 2006 and in time for the 2006 Germany World Cup, respectively."

[R Harkness]

Drool.

I'm there!

[rogo]

n.b. : The Hitachi and Pioneer references to 50-inch and over products.

Like some of us have said for years, plasma can push 1920 x 1080 down to at least that size. Some mfrs. believe 42 inch is also quite doable.

[afiggatt]

I would assume that if Panasonic rolls out a 65" 1080p plasma by the end of this year, that then they would work to releasing a 1080p 50" in the fall of 2006. Ay a premium price of course but since they are in intense competition with the 1080p RP and LCD TVs, the price may not be much of a premium compared to current prices. So by late 2007 could we see a 50" 1080p Panny commercial model for under $3K? Hmm, that might work for me...

So when we will see the first 65" Panansonic plasma vs 65" Sharp Aquos vs 65" size range 1080p DLP RP vs Sony 70" SXRD shootout? Someone must already be thinking about how to do this.

[hoodlum]

Here is a little more info on LG's entry.

http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/n...ead.php?id=606

[assJack1]

Outta my way. I'm gettin one from the first shipment.

[assJack1]

I'm so excited, I'm still cleaning the crap off the floor. Lets hope its priced lower than $15K.

[thebishman]

This is incredible news.
Now: does one choose the Pioneer 61" IF the blacks are better with the 1080p model, and with Pioneer's already excellent colour 'pop', OR the extra real estate of the Panny? That at least will be a nice decision to have to make!
Bish

[assJack1]

Good question. That real estate is a big driver for me. But, we really have to wait for three (3) things to play out:

-Cost
-Specs
-Ship date


With Panny's first 65" it took about four (4) months for it to break below the $10k mark after being initially priced at $15k (info from nextag.com)

[jrock65]

Some more info.

http://www.best-plasma-television.in.../date/2005/07/

[rogo]

The LG item sure says LG has a 1920 x 1080. The Panasonic items linked to just about say no such thing. The Financial Mirror one is gibberish and wrong.

I believe Panasonic has a 1920 x 1080 65 inch and I believe it's coming soon, but I would read little into those linked articles.

[Ken Ross]

Fujitsu....hello......Fujitsu......are you there?

[hoodlum]

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

Fujitsu....hello......Fujitsu......are you there?

Fujitsu will take just use a panel from one of the manufacturers mentioned. They do have an 80" 1080p planned for the fall.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=542389

NEC will probably also take the Pioneer panel and do the same.

[R Harkness]

An 80" 1080p plasma, if it had blacks as deep enough as the Panasonic, would be essentially my perfect dream display. Unfortunately I'm assuming the Fujitsu will be outrageously expensive for the near future, and I have doubts about the black levels given Fujitsu's previous home-grown panels.

[hoodlum]

Originally Posted by R Harkness

An 80" 1080p plasma, if it had blacks as deep enough as the Panasonic, would be essentially my perfect dream display. Unfortunately I'm assuming the Fujitsu will be outrageously expensive for the near future, and I have doubts about the black levels given Fujitsu's previous home-grown panels.

According to the article the panel is from Samsung.

[RichB]

Originally Posted by R Harkness

An 80" 1080p plasma, if it had blacks as deep enough as the Panasonic, would be essentially my perfect dream display. Unfortunately I'm assuming the Fujitsu will be outrageously expensive for the near future, and I have doubts about the black levels given Fujitsu's previous home-grown panels.

Rich,

I am very pleased with my 65. I think there is only one area that has proved problematic. The panel is very sensitive to noise in the darker areas at about 5%. I can reproduce this using Judder Test by selecting different RGB levels. With a clean signal, it is fine. Add analog or digital noise and it shows up.

Pioneers have been a bit cleaner and it will be interesting to see how well they do with the gen 6 panels. I suspect they will have to put a much greater effort into producing smooth grays scales when they are mapping them onto a 1080p Panel.

I was toying with a "Show me your gray scales" thread. What do you think?

-- Rich

[hoodlum]

Originally Posted by RichB

Pioneers have been a bit cleaner and it will be interesting to see how well they do with the gen 6 panels. I suspect they will have to put a much greater effort into producing smooth grays scales when they are mapping them onto a 1080p Panel.
-- Rich

In the past Pioneer avoided the worst noise by not producing the dark grey levels that the Panasonic did. It will be interesting to see how they compare if they are producing the same deep blacks/greys.

[markrubin]

Originally Posted by RichB

Rich,


I was toying with a "Show me your gray scales" thread. What do you think?

-- Rich

Great idea

Gray scale is probably the least understood and hardest to set aspect of calibrating a display: yet it is the first and most important step to a proper calibration

Please do it!

[R Harkness]

Originally Posted by RichB

Rich,

I am very pleased with my 65. I think there is only one area that has proved problematic. The panel is very sensitive to noise in the darker areas at about 5%. I can reproduce this using Judder Test by selecting different RGB levels. With a clean signal, it is fine. Add analog or digital noise and it shows up.

Pioneers have been a bit cleaner and it will be interesting to see how well they do with the gen 6 panels. I suspect they will have to put a much greater effort into producing smooth grays scales when they are mapping them onto a 1080p Panel.

I was toying with a "Show me your gray scales" thread. What do you think?

-- Rich

Yes, my experience essentially agrees with yours. The Pioneers I think do have some better handling of noise in the lower areas of their gray scale (although of course they never went as deep). I'm betting the new 6gen Pioneers will have a pretty nice handling of the (even lower) gray scale/noise too.

As I said I'm quite excited by the announcement of the new 65" 1080p Panny plasma. But what worries me is this: Will they (likely) drop the current lower-res version of the 65" which has been steadily heading south towards affordability to me, and replace it with the 1080p model? And will the 1080p model command a premium price, rocketing it back up into "premium, rich-guy-only" territory. That would be a bummer, and would put a dent in my "big plasma" dream for a while.

[hoodlum]

I wonder if we'll ever see a Commercial 1080p plasma or will the 720p be "good enough" for the business user.

[RichB]

Originally Posted by hoodlum

I wonder if we'll ever see a Commercial 1080p plasma or will the 720p be "good enough" for the business user.

I sure hope so. I prefer the commercial version for Home Theater. Greater flexibiltiy. The screen is Plenty big so the added resolution is extremely useful.

-- Rich

[R Harkness]

Originally Posted by hoodlum

I wonder if we'll ever see a Commercial 1080p plasma or will the 720p be "good enough" for the business user.

I would think they'd produce the 1080p commercially as well, just like they have all their other panels. The industrial uses are in general considered even more demanding (notice how there is easier access to fine-tuning picture controls on the industrial models vs what is offered in the consumer models?).

Panasonic markets their plasmas to the film/tv production market as well. Plasmas are being adopted more and more in film/tv post production. My pal's post production facility just bought a plasma for clients to view their work on, necessitating the highest quality. Likewise, my post production facility will be installing a plasma for use in one of the smaller mix theaters. As well, HDTV productions are using plasmas. For instance the team who produces the Grammys in Hi-Def used Panasonic plasmas for their HD monitors. Therefore, I would expect the industrial market to be just as rich a market for selling a panel that "shows you everything in your source material" as a home market (if not even more so).

Just my thoughts.

[jrock65]

Kind of a general question.

Will 1080i almost definitely look better than 720p on these 1080p panels?

[RichB]

Originally Posted by jrock65

Kind of a general question.

Will 1080i almost definitely look better than 720p on these 1080p panels?

If they use a decent scaler in the Plasma, 1080i should look noticably better on a 1080P panel. 480i looks very good on a 480P panel.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by jrock65

Will 1080i almost definitely look better than 720p on these 1080p panels?

Movies: Almost definately. Video: Depends very much on the quality of the deinterlacer.

[hoodlum]

Originally Posted by RichB

If they use a decent scaler in the Plasma, 1080i should look noticably better on a 1080P panel. 480i looks very good on a 480P panel.

Yes, but will 720p look worse since these signals need to be upconverted?

[RichB]

Originally Posted by hoodlum

Yes, but will 720p look worse since these signals need to be upconverted?

Again it depends on the scaler, but I doubt it. 720P (1280x720) currently requires some scaling to 1366x768 but since it is already progressive it is not that difficult.

-- Rich

[assJack1]

Did anyone catch which gen this panel is?

[jrock65]

So, that begs the question, if and when most flat panels (and TVs) become 1920x1080, will ABC and ESPN switch to 1080i?

[RichB]

Probably not, since fast motion should do better with progressive broadcasts.
They also have a big investment in equipment.

-- Rich