I check out this section of the forum periodically and see that there's a lot of misinformation being circulated about plasma.
The most important attribute with plasma is its ability to reproduce a linear, smooth grayscale without false contours, or abrupt transitions between brightness levels. Not pixel resolution.
There are several standards for resolution. In the 42" size, Matsushita (Panasonic), Fujitsu, Samsung, LG, and Hitachi have all made panels with 852x480 pixel resolution.
Fujitsu panels have also been sold by Philips, Sanyo, and Sony.
32" and 37" panels have been made in the 16x9 ratio by Samsung, Hitachi, and Panasonic. These are also 852x480 pixel designs.
Hitachi makes a 37" 1024x768 4x3 panel.
NEC manufactures 42" glass with 853x480 pixels. They have also OEM'ed to Runco, Sanyo, JVC, Marantz, RCA, and DreamVision.
NEC is currently the largest manufacturer of PDPs in Japan.
The 42" 1024x1024 panel made by Fujitsu was designed because it allowed them to manufacture an "HD" panel on the same fabrication line as their Wide VGA (852x480) glass, rather than start up a new 50" line.
The true resolution of this panel is 1024x1024 non-square pixels, but an interlaced scan is used (Alternate Lighting of Surfaces, or ALIS) to illuminate 1024x512 pixels per frame. This applies with both interlaced video and progressive-scan video/RGB signal sources.
In the 50" size, Pioneer makes panels with 1280x768 pixels. They are also the only company to use a true pixel structure for their plasma, as opposed to the traditional crossed-rib structure seen on other plasmas.
NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, and LG all manufacture 50" glass with either 1365x768 pixels or 1366x768 pixels.
The Fujitsu PDS-5002 uses Panasonic's 1366x768 pixel PDP and marries it to Fujitsu's all-new driving electronics.
The Pioneer PDP-503 is substantially the same product as the PRO-1000HD, with a few minor (and I mean minor) exceptions. It has virtually the same performamce; slightly better black levels in video mode, and the same menu features.
Sony does not manufacture any plasma panels. They had a partnership with Fujitsu/Hitachi (who co-own a PDP manufacturing facility in Japan), but have pulled their money out of that partnership.
Sony needs to get a 50" plasma to market fast. Likely OEM source? NEC or Pioneer. Sony will not build this panel themselves.
There are no 1080 (1920x1080 pixel) plasma panels in existence. Panasonic showed a prototype of one many years back at NAB, but it never came into production.
For more info on plasma and in-depth reviews, go to
www.projectorexpert.com and you can find out all you need to know. Other articles and reviews on plasma are in the archives.
Pete