Panasonic opens the doors on its biggest plasma plant yet

Despite worries / FUD from some corners that plasma HDTVs may be going away, Panasonic's latest giant investment in the technology should keep its high quality televisions coming our way for quite some time. Just a few days ago it opened its biggest plant ever in Amagasaki, which should eventually contribute to a total production capacity of over one million screens per month. Check out the pics and a video on AV Watch of robotic arms pulling 150-inch glass panels into place -- those of us hosting events on a smaller scale than the Winter Olympics are more likely to see these cut into 42-, 46- or 50-inch varieties -- before they become the 3D or even 4K televisions of the future. Still a die hard LCD fan? At least be warmed by the news of increased efficiency and reduced emissions, lower prices and cleaner air are something we can all appreciate.

[barkingghos Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:01PM]

Great, now if they can do some additional research to eliminate the plasma's pre-charge process to attain a lower black level we can all be happy. BTW, I own two plasmas, and one of them is a Panasonic.

[TheLoveDr Posted Dec 29th 2009 3:08PM]

@(Unverified)
If Panasonic would "borrow" Pioneer's KURO technology, they could blow away what people currently accept as the standard black level in plasma TVs.

[glennS Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:15PM]

Yay. I'm happy with my Panny plasma, and would hate to see plasma televisions disappear. LCDs still don't compare well it similar price points.

[EM1 Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:27PM]

42" V10 in America please! :)

[reallynotnick Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:48PM]

My only real complaint is I wish the 58in Plasmas were lighter (physically), they can be dog to move with 2 people. But I suppose you don't normally move your TV around like we had to back when I worked in Home Theater. *shrugs*

[MadMike Posted Dec 28th 2009 3:31PM]

This is good news. Plasmas are superior in image quality and motion resolutions. A 120HZ LCD can only handle 600 lines of resolution at full motion. A plasma can handle 880 - 900 and the newer PDP's can do close to 1080.

Sure LCD's use less power and can be greener, but I don't care about weight, power usage or the fscking environment. Damn Hippies.

[DarthCardo Posted Dec 29th 2009 1:35AM]

that's good news...plasma is still alive and kicking ass to any other current TV tech out there...too sad they could not make it on time to sell their glasses from that factory to Pioneer :( really a shame but hey, maybe Panny can now pull out some even more incredible screens the next years to come..Panny FIX THE PWM NOISE ISSUE PLEASE! :)

[engage Posted Dec 30th 2009 9:54AM]

Those Avatar ads specifically crediting their plasmas for bringing the film to life can't hurt either. I envision 3D tech hitting PS3s and other devices near the release of the film on Blu-ray and cross-promoted again with Panasonic's 3-D PDPs in 3Q 2010.

On another topic, when Avatar is released on Blu-ray, that and the LOTR trilogy could be the catalyst for Spielberg and Lucas to finally bring their heavy hitters to Blu-ray. It's amazing how four directors can affect an entire industry with their films.