New Models From ....

Originally Posted by ikeb

A friend of mine at one of the major mfgs of plasmas told me last weekend to not buy a plasma until this coming summer. He told me that his company is making a major announcement at CES 2007 and the new models will be ready in the summer of 2007. I asked him about these new models as compared to SED from Toshiba and he told me that they are not worried at all about SED - their plasma speces will be right there with SED and as good a picture. The company he works for begins with a P.

Originally Posted by ikeb

A friend of mine at one of the major mfgs of plasmas told me last weekend to not buy a plasma until this coming summer. He told me that his company is making a major announcement at CES 2007 and the new models will be ready in the summer of 2007. I asked him about these new models as compared to SED from Toshiba and he told me that they are not worried at all about SED - their plasma speces will be right there with SED and as good a picture. The company he works for begins with a P.

Originally Posted by ikeb

A friend of mine at one of the major mfgs of plasmas told me last weekend to not buy a plasma until this coming summer. He told me that his company is making a major announcement at CES 2007 and the new models will be ready in the summer of 2007. I asked him about these new models as compared to SED from Toshiba and he told me that they are not worried at all about SED - their plasma speces will be right there with SED and as good a picture. The company he works for begins with a P.

Originally Posted by ikeb

A friend of mine at one of the major mfgs of plasmas told me last weekend to not buy a plasma until this coming summer. He told me that his company is making a major announcement at CES 2007 and the new models will be ready in the summer of 2007. I asked him about these new models as compared to SED from Toshiba and he told me that they are not worried at all about SED - their plasma speces will be right there with SED and as good a picture. The company he works for begins with a P.

Originally Posted by conan48

I think the jump from the 2006 to 2007 plasma from Panny will be alot better then people anticipate. Year to year we have seen progression in small increments, about 10% from year to year. The 2007 plasmas are gonna be a huge leap. 20 000:1 contrast, 1080p, HDMI 1.3, 120hz. I talked to a Panny rep (35 years with Panasonic) and while she wouldn't tell me exactly what the specs are. I threw out some numbers like 20 000:1 contrast and she basically nodded. The only thing she confirmed verbally was that there will be an entire line up of 1080p plasma with HDMI 1.3. Also there are lots of rumours going around that Panny and Pio are teaming up and they are going to share their patents! I wouldn't be surprised if Pannasonic buys Pioneer dying plasma operation. Pio has confirmed and demoed a Plasma with 20 000:1 contrast and home theatre mag stated that it was the equal to SED. Bottom line: 2007 is going to be a huge jump from 2006. Better to have waited.

Originally Posted by omeletpants

Panasonic should work on their crappy silver bezel before they try stuff like improving picture quality

20,000:1 contrast, 1080p, HDMI 1.3, 120hz.

Originally Posted by dsmith901

"P" plasma companies would include Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, and Polaroid.

Originally Posted by dsmith901

"P" plasma companies would include Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, and Polaroid.

Originally Posted by eonibm

If you want to wait to buy until P ships their new better units, then obviously you can't or don't want to afford to enjoy the best available now. Pity.

A friend of mine waited most of his adult life for 'something better'. He died of a heart attack at 39 a month ago....

Originally Posted by ikeb

hey - i'm just repeating what i was told by a senior vp of "P". He also told me that the models are all1080P and have "leap frog" technology that will put the compitition to shame. also told me that they were going to have a special promotion on the "old" plasmas. He also said that they, unfortunatley, expect plasma prices to fall dramatically by the end of 1007 with numerious new plants coming on line.

next time i'll keep the infor to myself.

Originally Posted by WLSINWI

Not reallly any real info there to use. Of course there will be better sets in Plasma and LCD by next year and the year after that.. If you can get a great deal now on a plasma then do it and don't worry about what will be available next year.

Originally Posted by dsmith901

Deciding to wait a relatively short period (6 months?) for a large improvement in PQ is not an unreasonable thing to do, especially if current options are either unavailable in your area (Fujitsu, NEC) or overpriced (Fujitsu, Pioneer).

BTW, sorry about your friend.

Originally Posted by hoodlum

The 20000:1 contrast ratio that keeps floating around doesn't mean a whole lot if this is achieved by increasing brightness and any increase in the black level will not be noticed on a convention floor. Also I suspect the new 1080p plasmas may still have higher black levels than the new 720p plasmas. I think it is more realistic to expect the new 1080p models to have comparable black levels to the existing 720p plasmas.

Originally Posted by CruelInventions

The only announcements I could foresee being important or big enough for me to consider holding off purchasing until the summer, it would have to be one of the following..

A) There will be a large scale ushering in of 1080p panels, and as a result, dramatic price drops for 720p/768p panels, similar to what we've already seen in the previous 6-9 months. I'm talking at minimum another 20% drop in price by summertime.

B) Implementation of the highly anticipated 20,000:1 contrast ratio for this coming model year AND this improvement not adding a great deal of expense (even in the short term) AND this benefit actually living up to the expectations people have for it.


Those are the only things that might give me pause. As I am in the market for a 50", 1080p panels priced at todays current 720p levels, or even a bit less, in and of itself wouldn't matter a whole lot given it's very limited benefit for my viewing circumstances. And HDMI 1.3 implementation for this coming panel crop would mean even less to me, as in practically nil. The way I see it, 1.3 won't do *most* people any significant good for at least a couple years, and maybe even much longer.