Panasonic Planning to Exit TV Production - Page 2

I bought my Pioneer Elite PRO-151FD 60-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV three years ago off the wall – literally – at BestBuy before Pioneer sold the patents to Panasonic. It was the last one available. Period. I also bought replacement insurance and assumed if it ever came to that, I'd be given a Panasonic.

I've never regretted that purchase, especially after I replaced the factory power cord with one from SimplyPhysics to a dedicated circuit. All my other A/V equipment (Krell TAS, Krell HTS 7.1, Pioneer Elite BluRay, etc.) use those hand-made power cords along with the interconnects.

Amazing sound & vision! I don't understand complaints about this plasma of this quality, connected the way it should be.

Chrysler still makes cars. Same thing.

i think people here are resorting to panic. Saying that the article states that they will exit the tv biz is making a huge leap from what the article actually says.

U forgot green/pink blobs and annoying red light power indicator (can't believe it cannot be turned off).

Sad day for me, too. My TC-P65VT25 has been by far the best TV I've ever owned.

I took a very little bit of black electrical tape and covered that red light, works just fine at blocking the light. I am trying to figure out if you 2 are being sarcastic or serious? I don't believe the green blobs are a problem this year,btw. My gt50 has less buzzing than any plasma I have ever owned, and none of them have affected normal viewing distance. Fan noise..... don't know what to say there, I don't think mine even has any fans. Maybe the vt50 has them. Flicker? You aren't really using that 48hz mode are you? I don't usually lower myself to the the level of defending something of this nature, but the whole "good riddance" comment is kind of juvenile to me. But since we are being juvenile (and since it is now officially human nature to talk way more smack on the internet than we would ever have the balls to talk in real life! !lol)... Please let me know if you would like to borrow my electrical tape so you can cover up that pesky flashlight that keeps shining through the back of your led (or is it lcd...nevermind, same tech), just make sure you look for it standing right in front of it or you won't be able to see a damn thing. I will admit they have done a great job with lcd tech and motion blur by adding 120/240 etc hz, plus it has the added benefit of making some of my favorite cinematic films look like an episode of "The young and the restless", who doesn't love that...........

I am being sarcastic of course. I know that all tv tech has its pro's and cons, I just had to put my jab in there because it seems a little petty to kick us plasma backers while we are down with the whole "good riddance" comment, as if the existence of plasma in the market somehow is a nuissance to your everyday lives

I was being serious. I am in the small segment of the population that can see flicker ALL THE TIME on plasmas whenever there is any kind of bright scene, in 60Hz 1080p content, TV content, film content, ALL content. Ahh yes, forgot about the blobs. No flaslighting at all on my HX950 by the way. But I had to spend twice as much as a plasma for it, so plasma is still a value proposition. I admit the power LED comment was silly and an easy fix. The other issues I mentioned, not so much. Is it juvenile to say good riddance to old and obsolete power hungry tech? The future is OLED, CrystalLED, and 4K projectors.

i actually own a 2011 jeep grand cherokee, I don't regret buying American made Chrysler car. Not the not same as lg and its plasma line, but in a way it is..

I think it is definately jumping the gun to say "good riddance" when almost none of the new tech options you mentioned are even close to viable replacements right now. I will be the first in line to buy a 65"+ oled if it is everything we hear it is, but 1) We are nowhere near affordable for even the 55" oleds (hell, we still haven't even seen either sammy's or lg's hit stores yet) The price will eventually get affordable, but we are still 4+ yrs away from that imho. 2) We don't know all of the drawbacks of oled. The biggest one I have concern over is panel life. What about color accuracy etc?... Still too many questions to be kicking plasma out the door.

As for CrystalLED, I must admit I know very little about it, but what I do know tells me it is even further down the pipeline than oled.

As for 4k projectors, well, projectors in general are not for everyone. 4k is something that really won't benefit anyone until there is source material, but even then ,as has been stated many times, will not be fully appreciated in screen sizes under say 70" at anything close to the avg persons viewing distance (and I don't mean thx distance, I mean a normal person with a normal home and not the "I sit 5 ft from my 65" tv" people) I agree that 4k in projectors will be nice for those that have that ability, both financially and with regard to viewing enviroment.

I am sorry to read that plasma flicker bothers you. I imagine crt's drove you nuts!!! I believe you to be in the minority with regard to this as I believe most people do not notice plasma flicker outside of the aforementioned 48hz mode which I still don't know why Panasonic still includes in their sets. Its pretty much unwatchable to me.

Anyways, I just fear this will become a carefull what you wish for thing with this "good riddance" stuff. I can see the headlines in 2016 already "The remainng players in tv's: Samsung,lg ,vizio and (insert some random foreign brand that in 4 yrs will be viable...say tcl) decide to abandon oled and backlit leds, citing that most consumers don't care to pay extra over current edge lit models" I really don't want to replace my gt50 with a 70" edge lit lcd (I mean razor edge led.. sorry) 4k vizio to watch my still 1080i broadcasts and 1080p blu rays. At least it will only be a 1/4" thick and have a twitter app I don't mean to bag on vizio (some of there stuff is decent), but they seem to be the poster child for a new generation of cheap electronics with an emphasis on gimmicks and price versus quality. Sorry about my fiesty attitude, I am just bummed that we are even talking about the possible demise of panasonic in the tv industry, even if it is just premature ejacu... I mean speculation.

As a side note, does this cursor on the "new and improved" avs forum drive you nuts when trying to write a post? Its really starting to piss me off..lol.
Edited by chadsdsmith - 10/17/12 at 2:55pm

OK, I will admit, I was hasty. I used to love plasmas, but now, too many issues. LCD solidity ruined my eyes so now I see the super high speed plasma flicker where I did not see it with last decade's plasmas for some reason. I now also like to leave static images on my TV for hours at a time as a force of habit, so it just wasn't for me anymore. And yes, edge lit LEDs are an abomination. I would take any plasma any day over an edge lit LED, I will admit. I recently returned both a Sammy plasma and an edge lit before settling on the local dimming full array new Sony. As far as I'm concerned, only the new Sony or the Elite are of any value as an all around TV.

I agree. I appreciate the discussion.

A shame, I love my panasonic plasma

I truly hope they continue to make plasmas. Ive enjoyed my Panny plasmas ive had over the years including my current 55ST30.

he didn't completely deny it...he just said that it's speculation and contains some errors...which errors exactly?...why not just be direct and say that no we are not planning on exiting the LCD/plasma business anytime soon?

My brother in law is the same as you. He just cannot tolerate plasma sets, they make him a bit dizzy to watch. When he told me that I had thought it was just a misadjusted set, but after I went over and set things up for him, he still had the problem.

For me, OTOH, I love the plasma display and hopefully won't have to move off plasma anytime soon. None of the LCD or LED sets I've seen even come close to being as enjoyable to watch as my panny plasma.

Unacceptable having to use electrical tape (thanks for the offer but I prefer duct tape, it kinda matches the bezel at least the sides). I own a VT30 by the way and love it. The reason I point this out is that I also own a Samsung PND8000 and you are able to turn off the power light indicator. I previously owned LG LCD & Plasma and was able to disable it on both...Just saying and being a bit sarcastic...Better blacks than Samsung that's for sure. Hopefully Panny keeps improving their plasma technology, at the very least give us a Kuro quality set before moving onto newer technologies...
Edited by MrJai - 10/18/12 at 10:27am

Thank God! Love Panasonic!

Thanks goodness I would not want Panasonic to exit the TV business that would be bad.

Yeah, that all sounds great I suppose, but- crucially of course- when weighed against the "other" imperfect display technology (gee, what's that?) and it's drawbacks, they (plasma displays) routinely offer a better overall image at a smaller cost up and down the performance ladder.

So, enjoy your LCD and its dreadful off axis, motion handling (yep still band aids on a cancer for every set produced) generally poorer color saturation, inferior black levels on 99% of models, ghosting, flash-lighting, mura/clouding, etc.

See? I can make ridiculous lists too.

Plasmas offer superior all-around images at substantially less expensive price points, largely. As an owner of (2) LCDs and a single plasma I can simply state the truth.

But, sigh, PDP's days are unquestionably numbered, as is ANY display tech.

James

Your eyes can see 2500 hz flicker? Wow!

Except that its not 2500Hz, or even 600Hz. It looks to me more like 75Hz flicker from old CRTs. Not as bad as 60Hz flicker. But since I was running my CRTs and 100Hz back then, I know 75Hz-like flicker when I see it, and I see it on all plasmas, on bright solid colors especially. I wish I knew what causes it, but I can go to a BestBuy for example and immediately tell the difference between plasma and LCD just by looking at them. If I stare at the plasma a long time it tends to go away, until I look at an LCD and then look back again. I am NOT the only one who sees this, but I also know that almost no one saw 75Hz flicker on monitors, and some people didn't even see the 60Hz flicker, it just gave them headaches. I ended up buying a plasma anyway because I thought it was something weird about lights or BB setup at first, but nope.

Lmao ya right!