Panasonic gives you 100,000 reasons to pick its 1080p plasmas
By Steven Kim 
posted Aug 16th 2008 10:40PM
posted Aug 16th 2008 10:40PM
[Image courtesy HappyEntertainment]
posted Aug 16th 2008 10:40PM
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The percentage of electronics at the end of their lives which were recycled.
The EPA found that the percentage remained consistent from 1999-2005. Even as recycling rates went up, the amount of electronics reaching end of life outpaced the increase, leaving the figure static. (source: EPA, July 2008)
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Excellent! I got one!!
I think I will buy one too. I hear the 2008 models are close to Kuro blackness levels and and in some ways superior to Kuro.
100,000 hours till half brightness. In other words. If I see an average of 12 hours a day. I see a little more then 3500 hours a year. Meaning I got a great flat screen for the next 30 years. Am sure with the next 10 years they will come up with the next latest and greatest format.
I wonder if there will be much difference between the Pioneer & Panasonic Plasmas since they are both now produced by Matsushita(sp?). I guess they will have different production lines since the Kuro's have some enhancements. Anyone have any inside info on this?
People say that it will take a while to get the Panasonic prod line Pioneer Kuro up to the levels of the Pioneer production line Kuro. but CNET was saying as I said in my last statement that the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U is pretty close to the Pioneer Kuro Plasma. I would love to hear more opinions too!
this is the CNET article:
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-viera-th-50pz800u/4505-6482_7-32886472.html
Thanks Matt!
I got last year's 700U... love it.
No way it's going 100,000 hours to half brightness, well, not unless you only ever show black on it the whole time. Knowing how stats are measured and advertised on flat panel TVs, that's probably exactly how Panasonic measures it.
Even if it's not 11 years until half brightness... a properly calibrated set shouldn't be set at full brightness anyways... so when they do get dimmer, you can turn it up. With technology advancing as it is... who's keeping their tvs for 11 years and not expecting it to be outdated?
A set today will last until enough new features pile up and you are forced to upgrade. How many people are "up"grading perfectly fine AVRs solely to get HDMI?
How many of you keep displays long enough to get 50% of the rated hours out of them? If you turned the thing on and left it to run for 100,000 hours it'll be going for 11.4 years. And while i do use, say, my 65" RPTV in its 7.5 years, its been retired to strict Xbox-display use for the past 2 years.
Personally, I am not sure that the current pro-electronics demographics are showing a need for displays to last this long, and who on earth would expect them to last anywhere near this long when the manufacturer warranties are but a token of this?
I'd say cowsumers should be demanding these companies put their warranty where their mouth is and warranty them for at least half the rated hours. If regulation forced this one would see those marketing values drop like current house values.
i still dont want a tv that degrades as i watch it. If it lasted 11 years then was at half the brightness all of a sudden, i wouldnt mind. But the tv is going down over time. so in 5 years, my tv is gonna be at 75% the brigntess. WTF?.
I own an lcd, had it for a year now. dont plan to buy a new tv until quad hd is the standard and the new media format is out supporting it, which im sure will be at least 10 years from now, if not more. so yes I DO expect to keep my tv longer then 10 years. I kept my CRT for 20 years, until hd finally was out and affordable (last year when i bought one)
"i still dont want a tv that degrades as i watch it. If it lasted 11 years then was at half the brightness all of a sudden, i wouldnt mind. But the tv is going down over time. so in 5 years, my tv is gonna be at 75% the brigntess. WTF?."
You know LCDs are mostly backlit with flourescents, right? They decline in brightness at about the same rate as modern plasmas. As do CRTs. As do incandescent bulbs, etc.
Half life of the lighting isn't a valid differential anymore.
There are other things to differentiate, but they are getting to be fewer and fewer these days. I'm voting plasma for the smoother motion (yes, even with 120hz LCDs), wider viewing angles, and lower input lag for gaming (Panasonics are some of the best at this). Others might go LCD for image retention avoidance (which isn't even a big deal on modern plasmas).
There are valid reasons on both sides, but the "LCDs will stay bright longer" is bogus today.
Addressing the gaming comment. There still is the burn in screen issue with Plasma TVs.
But to be honest I can;t tell the difference anymore. I got a 52 inch Samsung LCD and a 50 inch Panasonica Plasma and both are great.
I guess buy what you can afford. You won;t go wrong either way.
LCD looses brightness faster than plasma does.... Do some research!
"Half Life" of brightness is only half the story. "Burn In", that being *slight* variations in screen brighteness in some pattern, occurs LONG before the half-life of brightness is reached. At therein lies the problem with plasma. To the best of my knowledge, not one manufacturer recoognizes burn-in as a manufacturers defect, and therefore, burn-in is not covered under warranty. It is considered "normal" for plasmas.
For people who still insist on plasma, you can do the following to reduce the effects of burn-in:
(1) Crop and/or distort your screen image to always fit to a full 16:9
(2) Avoid banners (like CNN), and logos (like Discovery, History Channel, National Geographic channel, etc)
(3) Don't play video games that have score boards, borders, or fixed content like a HUD or a dashboard
(4) Don't freeze-frame for any significant length of time
Remember, plasma has been less expensive than LCD for a looooooong time (based on identical size), and yet, plasma has lost market share big-time in favor of LCD. It seems a lot of the buying public is aware of the burn-in and dimming issue, and that it is inherent in plasma.. And they are willing to pay more to buy an LCD, in order to avoid these issues.
I owned a 72" Toshiba DLP, and absolutely loved it. I moved, and now a "big box" DLP is not feasible, so I am holding out for "affordable" 72-inch LCD flat panels. I'm avoiding plasma for the same reasons that the masses are.
Modern, broken-in plasmas don't "burn in" nearly as easily as they used to. Permanent burn in is pretty much non-existant.
On the other hand, they will get temporary "Image Retention" if you leave it on a still image or leave bars on the screen too long. IR goes away on its own with normal full screen viewing. Some models (Pannys for instance) include basically a screen eraser if you have IR and don't want to wait for it to go away if you happen to get IR. It basically moves white light around on the screen for a period of time to even things back out I believe.
From what I've read, Pioneers are even harder to get IR on than other brands.
The only people who still think plasmas burn in are the same people who keep everything in stretch-o-vision to avoid that.
Thanks for confirming the burn in. I really don't get why people still buy plasma. Yeah, it looks great, but every plasma screen I've seen, it becomes uneven and burned in. Especially with friends that use it for video games or other multimedia uses. I ended up getting a large LCD screen myself to avoid burn in.
hey B, do you see dead people? (ie ghosting?) I can't stand LCD for sports.
I would argue that LCDs sell more than plasmas because a lot of the public can tell a LCD set to standard or vivid looks better than a plasma when there's the ceiling is full of giant florescent lamps.
Also a lot of people buy LCDs between 32in and 42in, and in that range LCDs are cheaper.
Too bad when they go home and watch football the grass is radioactive... but that's HD.
The burn-in concern is near non-existant for me. I use my Plasma for a variety of stuff (HD, movies, gaming, etc) and while I may notice a tiny bit of the image burn in, most newer plasma only have that for a little time before it disappears. I find the picture on my plasma to be crisper and much more vibrant than on an LCD and would never give it up in an instance. And with the 100,000 hr life (I have a Panasonic), I'm quite content my Plasma will last me well beyond when screens double its size becomes cost affordable.
You do know that the brighter picture of an LCD makes them have a more "vibrant" picture than a plasma. I'm not trying to get into an LCD/Plasma fight, just pointing that out.
Well I just have one question. If Burn-in is almost "non-existant" with the newer plasma TV's, how come the short 1 year warranty doesn't even cover that???
because if you do have burn-in it's from negligence. Burn in is not an issue with this gen of panny and samsung plasmas when used for regular tv watching or movies. Don't even get started with what's covered and not covered in manufacturer warrantees. Does ur Sammy or whatever brand LCD have concierge service? =)
well I think burn in on plasmas today is BS. We are on the 10th generation this year don't you think that this problem is gone by now. This is the number one FUD about plasma. I own a lcd and when I purchase my next tv it is going to be plasma.
I have enjoyed feeding my new 800Z plasma a steady diet of 1080i content over the past 10 days of the olympics. A bit like filling up a good car with premium fuel. I was in the postion where I bought a Samsumg Series 6 LCD and took it back. For all of the pluses of LCD - the picture quality isn't anywhere near as good. My brother plays nothing but PS2/3 car racing games on his Panasonic plasma (last years 50" 1080p). He get some image rentension but if it doesn't go away after 10 minutes he just flicks on the white snow analogue signal and its gorne superquick.