Panasonic 2012 Plasmas: Are there sizes greater than 70" coming out?

I read something a few months ago that alluded to this, but it seems like the consumer targeted 2012 lineup will still only go to 65". I would be surprised if Panasonic ever offered anything over 65". As much as I like plasma, it's days are clearly numbered and I don't see anyone making big investments going forward. Panasonic will only be making incremental improvements on their existing lines. Just my opinion.

Panasonic might announce a 70" or larger model late spring or summer.

It certainly won't ship before then.

A Panasonic insider on another site alluded that is wasn't looking good for a 70" this year, but nothing definitive yet.

I don't think Panasonic would want LG's engineers - they already have the best engineers (Panasonic as well as former Pioneer) so why take on a group that continually designs the worst plasmas currently on the market? And Samsung's engineers aren't engineers, they're patent thieves

If Samsung and LG exited the PDP business, Panasonic will immediately start selling more Plasmas. They already have the biggest PDP market share and they always sell every unit they make, and they have the plant capacity to increase production if necessary.

Panasonic is heavily invested in PDP and i don't see it going anywhere anytime soon, unless of course OLED becomes financially and technologically viable enough to replace it.

Panasonic bought Pioneer PDP IPs years ago.


Define "near future" as there is already a PDP exit plan at Panasonic.

My guess is this: since Panasonic is using a new design this year, it will be the last one they do for plasma. I am thinking 3-4 years before they exit.

The speculation about when Panasonic is exiting plasma is really pointless. First of all, even if OLED takes over the universe, that's a multi-year transition. Within 3 years, someone like Samsung will be fortunate if even a small, small portion of their TVs are OLED -- and they are already working on transitioning. Panasonic is not; a test line that doesn't yet exist and no prototypes do not constitute "working on a transition".

As for Panasonic leaving behind plasma for LCD, they, again, lack sufficient internal fab capacity to make their own panels in enough quantity. No one has made any profit in TV selling other people's panels unless you count the tiny profits of someone like Vizio, which are based on minuscule profit times very large volumes of low-end displays.

Will Panasonic someday stop making plasmas? Yes. Will that day come soon? Doubtful.

Plasma is dead and burried by 2016.

You can't keep making non energystar compliant TVs against the ever increasing energystar compliant oled and LCD.

Its pointless to stick your head in the sand and not see the writing on the wall. Where Samsung and LG go, so goes every other TV manufacturer.

Panasonic isn't building a test oled line for fun. They are building it for a ramp up to full production.

also, Panasonic will outsource as many LCDs as they need in the future.

Lol thanks for the chuckle this morning.


I needed a laugh.

We'll see about that in less than 4 years, according to you.

As has been noted many times, a 50-something-inch plasma can run in the 200+ watt range calibrated. That's certainly worse than an 80-watt LCD. It's certainly completely irrelevant for the next 2-3 years against OLEDs that cost literally thousands of dollars more. Only an abject moron would replace a perfectly working TV to save $20/year on his electric bill.

Ah, yes, back to the differences in power. If you burn .2 kW/hr more for ever hour of TV you watch vs. the LCD and you watch 5 hours of TV every day, that's 365 kW/hr per year or $20-40 annually depending on your region of the country.

Now, given that there are people who whom buying a more fuel efficient car is actually worth it -- i.e. they are better off trading in their existing car now to get more MPG -- but they don't because there are up-front costs, the notion that people are going to care about this is quite frankly funny.

One of the major political parties is actually trying to undo a law that involves slowly phasing out incandescent light bulbs because, well, dammit we should be able to waste all the power we want. I suspect the GOP might actually start a pro-plasma TV campaign since they use more energy. And, yes, I'm serious.

Um, ok. Almost all of their current success is tied up in the strong yen and relatively ordinary valuation of the won. But please, go ahead and attribute it to some sort of great leadership. The two of them are churning out a lot of product, especially Samsung. But neither the quality nor the performance is very special.

That said, the Japanese are being killed by currency and -- at least in the case of Sony -- perpetual cluelessness.

My sense is that Huawei, Hisense, etc. will be churning out cheap LCDs by the containerload in a few years and your precious LG and Samsung will be wondering what to do about that.

But they aren't. That costs billions, none of which they've committed.

Oh, good, more losses.

What the hell does energy star compliance have to do with anything?

Next thing you know we'll see someone claiming that there is no market for super hot women because they are EXPENSIVE to maintain....

If you all don't mind, I'm going to watch my giant plasma with my superhot girlfriend while we relax in the back of my huge SUV and drink expensive wine. And we're going to do all of this by the light of an incandescent bulb, thank you very much.

Nothing. And I say this as a "green". It's not like a 200-250 watt TV is horribly egregious. When the TVs were 600 watts, they were egregious.

Incidentally, I'm 100% for Energy Star. You make the standard, you get the sticker, you don't, you don't. People can still vote with their wallets and buy the "watt guzzling" plasmas. I probably will. My refrigerator, washer and dishwasher, however, all were replaced in the last 5 years with Energy Star units and all use a lot less power than the old ones. We also pay a total of about $100 for electricity as we generate power here and sell our excess in primetime (buying back off-peak power when the sun goes down).

Well, some of them are too expensive to maintain. But I'd find a way to keep Jessica Alba happy, you know?

Fair enough. Do me a favor though. When you replace the SUV or the light bulb, at least check out the alternatives. There are some SUVs that get 20-30% more mileage, plenty of good new bulbs. I'm not going to tell you not to buy a Suburban, I'm just asking you to contribute your tiny share to using less. Or at least think about it.

The point about TVs is that, yes, there is a difference. It's just that it's really small. I mean our TV isn't even on 2000 hours per year and we watch our share of TV. There is some savings to be gotten from it. In my home, the difference between the LCD and the plasma might be about 3-4% of our total electricity consumption. But, again, I could also replace all my lightbulbs and do better.

In the same way Gremmy is going to enjoy his SUV, I'm going to enjoy my plasma. That's my vice of choice. More generally, the notion that Americans -- who flat out are selfish on the topic of energy use/consumption and generally just don't get it when it comes to collective action -- are going to drop plasmas because of lack of an Energy Star sticker is comical. (Oh, and most plasmas will have the sticker, by the way.)

im guessing by your comment you do calibrations yourself if not or even if you did y bash somebodys else work that actually suppose to be used as a reference y should he waste his time giving ppl like you any help at all show some respect

You have never seen one of my calibrations so I suggest you stfu.


White per rec709 and SMPTE-C is defined as x.0312 y.3290. The color temp selection on a given display is irrelevant when it comes to calibration. x.0312 y.3290 can be achieved with Cool, Normal or Warm (which are Panasonic standard color temp labels).

Well, some of them are too expensive to maintain. But I'd find a way to keep Jessica Alba happy, you know?


So what is the return on investment in that "electricity generator thingy" you have? I haven't seen anything solar or wind that will have a reasonable payback where I live in Michigan.

Sure, let me tell you my system just had its 6th birthday. Solar is significantly cheaper now. We got state rebates that no longer exist, but the federal tax credit that does exist for consumers is superior and -- more importantly -- panel prices (which comprise the bulk of system costs) are actually something like 1/2 of what we paid.

OK, with those caveats in mind, we paid around $16000 for a system that (a) saves us $1200 per year and (b) would apparently add about more than what we paid to the value of our house. The latter is based on a set of figures from groups like the National Association of Realtors and others who have studied the value per watt of having solar. A system in place is highly prized by homeowners because there is still a lot of mystery around getting it done and people feel like they don't understand it. But when it's there, they just get the benefit of it.

So basically, our system is like a 7.5% after tax return on our investment. I doubt many investments have outdone that over the past 6 years. Better still, it's (a) guaranteed since the sun will shine very approximately the same amount year after year and (b) it's an increasing return over time because electric rates are guaranteed to go only one direction over time, while my cost of making that power is fixed by the original investment. (Note: There is some chance we'll need to replace the inverter at a cost of about $2000 at some point in the future. It might not last "forever". The panels, on the other hand, are expected to last at least another 25 years -- if not longer.)

It should be apparent than in markets where the incentives and/or the sunshine allow it to make sense (e.g. yes: New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, California, Florida, et al.; no: Washington, Alaska, et al.), the reasons to do this can be purely economic. It's nice to do it for the environment too. Sometime in year two, our panels "paid back" their initial energy cost of manufacturing. It's been gravy since.

Also, we sell back almost all of our "peak power", 12-6, M-F, May-October, when the grid needs it most. People like us help the grid stay stable when demand is at its highest.

I can't speak to Michigan, per se. In the more northern climates, your summer days are even longer than ours, which actually is nice because overall, the summer is when the bulk of power is generated. But that's especially true here because our rain is seasonal, with most falling in winter and therefore knocking out only our short, low-sun days. Wind tends to make sense only in certain markets and with certain kinds of terrain.

Here, solar is the kind of thing that almost every homeowner should actually have. Lack of knowledge or inability to cover the upfront costs are the only reasons why it's not more ubiquitous. But there are things about California that make that especially true (the seasonal rain, the relatively high electricity costs with the tiered-rates in particular, and so forth). In other places, it might make sense someday. And in some places, it will never make sense, which is fine -- we don't need or want a world where we use only one type of energy.

Sorry to ramble off topic but people have asked before and I figured I'd answer since this thread is a bit slow moving until several months go by and we get some more info from Panasonic.

Thanks for the interesting read rogo.

I should clarify. My last post was in jest -- an attempt to mock the idea that a significant portion of the buying public cares whether their plasma is energy star compliant. I'd guess most don't even know whether their TV is energy star compliant and haven't the foggiest how much electricity it draws.

I actually drive a little four cylinder car that gets excellent gas mileage (not an SUV) and while Jessica Alba is made of butter, I certainly could not afford her. LOL.

I also would love to get my house off the grid someday. I would be in favor of a federal law that would make it illegal for HOAs to outlaw solar panels (similar to the Ham radio tower laws).

I gotcha Gremmy. And I'm sure you're correct. When buying a major appliance like a fridge, I think some people notice the Energy Star/Energy Guide stuff. I doubt many do on a TV. In part, this is because I doubt many people are running TVs that are overly piggy. In part, it's because there is no consciousness around the TV being a big power draw. In part, it's because the TV isn't a big power draw in the grand scheme these days. (To be specific: If you bought an LCD in the last year or three, it's probably not sucking down too much power, no matter who made it.)

She did marry a guy named Cash. 'Nuff said.

I'm surprised there isn't one. I used to have to fight with an HOA over a satellite dish. When we put our solar in 6 years ago, I thought solar shingles would dominate by now and this would have disappeared as an issue, but the economies of scale on traditional panels just flat out went insane and so nearly all home installs are still done that way. There's a local roofer out here that basically is saying, "Get a new roof and your solar is free". I'm sure it's "fake pricing", but interesting nevertheless.

If you want greater than 70" plasma, Panasonic does make an 85", 103" and 152" plasmas, if you are willing to pay out the dough. Check the Panasonic Pro Plasma site.

Nice Whitney reference. That show cracks me up.

This is the only thing that could cause Panasonic to get out of the Plasma game.

They finally got it right in 2011/2012 model years with excellent performance across the board....getting out would only make sense if a new technology made Plasma displays old hat.

But while there still is a market....bailing would leave alot of people walking the plank.

Really? WOW! When is the last year? Any chance that we will get to see an extreme concept panasonic plasma before they exit? I know they are teaming up with Sharp to do OLED, but what about SED? Any chance Panasonic will jump into that?

Can anyone provide a link to the story about Panasonics PDP exit strategy?

This thread is what Google shows.

You will not find a link. There is no such publicly announced plan.

Not this year for Panny.