I'm disappointed to see Pioneer exit the PDP market as well but partnering with Panasonic wouldn't have helped Panasonic much since they are able to hit a lower price point right now with product that is only a hair lesser in quality than the Pioneer according to most industry reviews.
LCD's have gotten much better and have probably already overcome much of the blurring/submarining that used to occur during sporting events with high motion scenes thanks to higher refresh rates via faster processors. Hopefully LCD's can one day match the plasma (PDP) in darkness of blacks since low light scenes can be difficult to watch on the LCD's that I've always seen. Correct me if this issue has been overcome by the LCD.
Looks like manufacturing costs are lower with LCD's and LCD quality is close enough to the PDP to render them obsolete,,,not lower in quality,,,just not profitable to make.
LCDs are definitely lower quality. Motion blur is still noticeable, blacks are still not black, color is still obviously less rich, and contrast is still about 1/10th of plasma. Through a myriad of tricks, LCDs can appear at first glance to similiar, but on closer inspection they're very inconsistent in their performance. Even Samsung 950 and Sony XBR8 are still clearly inferior when viewed side-by-side, especially with Pioneer Elite. You can go to any BB/Magnolia and watch browsing customers linger near the Pio's for reasons they do not know.
I hope that Panasonic can get their new thin & efficient plasma technology out the door as soon as possible, and have a high-end line that meets that same performance niche.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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I'm disappointed to see Pioneer exit the PDP market as well but partnering with Panasonic wouldn't have helped Panasonic much since they are able to hit a lower price point right now with product that is only a hair lesser in quality than the Pioneer according to most industry reviews.
LCD's have gotten much better and have probably already overcome much of the blurring/submarining that used to occur during sporting events with high motion scenes thanks to higher refresh rates via faster processors. Hopefully LCD's can one day match the plasma (PDP) in darkness of blacks since low light scenes can be difficult to watch on the LCD's that I've always seen. Correct me if this issue has been overcome by the LCD.
Looks like manufacturing costs are lower with LCD's and LCD quality is close enough to the PDP to render them obsolete,,,not lower in quality,,,just not profitable to make.
LCDs are definitely lower quality. Motion blur is still noticeable, blacks are still not black, color is still obviously less rich, and contrast is still about 1/10th of plasma. Through a myriad of tricks, LCDs can appear at first glance to similiar, but on closer inspection they're very inconsistent in their performance. Even Samsung 950 and Sony XBR8 are still clearly inferior when viewed side-by-side, especially with Pioneer Elite. You can go to any BB/Magnolia and watch browsing customers linger near the Pio's for reasons they do not know.
I hope that Panasonic can get their new thin & efficient plasma technology out the door as soon as possible, and have a high-end line that meets that same performance niche.