Plasma's Market Departure?

[BarkingGhost]

I have owned CRT front and rear projection products, LCD front projection products, and LCD and plasma direct-view flat panels products. For their respective applications, the mainstream focus on flat-panels between LCD and plasma seems 'odd'.

While I openly embrace flat panel products over their former rear-projection opponents, I have to state I am bewildered at the seemingly end of sales channel offering of LCD vs. plasma. Plasma appears to be on its way out. Why?

I understand the fundamental technologies in flat panels. I understand their inherent weaknesses in the final product offerings of their technologies.

LCD has a problem in which backlight is ALWAYS shining and the LCD filament is limited in its ability to block said light when called for. Plasma has the inherent weakness in the plasma being able to switch itself on and off quickly enough leading to the pixels having to be precharged thus producing a minimum amount of light.

Both technologies offer the same negatives in terms of environmental impact in their respective manufacturing processes (Nitrogen Trifluoride), and for those Carbon Foot-printers plasma consumes more energy.

But, I am trying to figure out why plasma, a literal cathode ray analog with bright output and huge color gamut, is being removed from the market by what appears to be not consumer satisfaction but retailer and or manufacturer preference.

For the novice there are appropriate Wiki pages to read up on as simple primers. I encourage anyone to read them--Wiki is like the free Dummies Guide to everything.

And while for critical viewing i will always refer back to a controlled environment with front projection, for less critical environments there is nothing worse than sitting in a family room at night with all the lights off and the room lit with an all-black representation of these flat panels bleeding light into the room.

It would be nice to get some Physical Chemists and Engineers to focus on eliminating the precharge. That way the lowest light output is the actual panel itself and not a glow of the plasma gas.

But while I recognize my desires for plasma over LCD are 'for my reasons', I have to wonder if maybe I am missing some consumer point of view where plasma is simple considered less valued to LCD in flat panels.

[dobyblue]

Plasma sales have been up Q/Q and Y/Y for several years in a row now.

Not sure what you're basing the market departure analysis on, because it doesn't appear to be sales figures.

[lokir1]

In my opionion its our faults as consumers for 2 reasons
1 most are uneducated bewteen plasma and lcd strenghts and weakness's most people i talk to always seem to steer away from plasma because it got a bad rap for i/r and burn in when first introduced that to this haunts the tech people dont understand plasma has come leaps and bounds since then tese issues's are non existint in todays quality plasma manufacturers models there is no judder better colors deeper blacks smoother motion etc etc etc its only real downfall is direct and i say again DIRECT sunlight hitting the screen to that close the frikin curtains i say! Its what i do and voila!
2 allowing manufactures and sales reps to push higher priced lower quality lcd panels on us as consumers as better bvecause it has the latest led or edge lighting or 120/240hz amp motionflo etc crap that in order to get the best picture must usually be turned off anyway!Its like paying for a ferrari when u never plan to go faster than 45mph! its nice to show off all that tech but whats the point if u neva use it?
I have 1 plasma and 3 lcd's i dont mean to bash 1 over the other but seriously plasma is better and does it cheaper! they both do good jobs personsally imo lcd needs to disappear and the tech for plasma pushed and improved further! cuz oled is far far away from being practical lcd hampers the best viewing experience possible like the blu/hd dvd war slowed the obvious better from moving forward and confuses less educated consumers on what to look for when purchasing new sets

[that1guystudios]

I work at Best Buy. There is no way that Plasma is on it's way out. High-end Video files, and those looking for cheaper prices on low-end plasma sets are who benefit from Plasma the most. I would venture 1/3rd of all TV's sold at my Best Buy store are Plasma if not more. Panasonic knocked it out of the park this year. I personally don't recommend LCD's or LED's to most people.
The only thing that has changed about Plasma is that less manufacturers make it. Before this past year you had more companies making Plasma. Now there are fewer companies making them. However, if you choose a Plasma, it's good that Panasonic will still be around next year making them. Look for the 3-D plasma V Series to be announced at CES and released next summer.

[HiDefRev]

Yes, indeed ! AND - LG will be back with their new plasmas in 2010, which they claim are better than the Kuros !!!!

[lokir1]

Originally Posted by HiDefRev

Yes, indeed ! AND - LG will back with their new plasmas in 2010, which they claim are better than the Kuros !!!!

WOW! Plz post a link to claims of that! imo i think their biting waay to much than they can chew if ne thing panny is gonna give us what couldve been the 10g kuro's
just my opinion

[HiDefRev]

OK, here is LG's announcement on the subject * * http://www.hdtvinfo.eu/news/hdtv-art...lasma-tvs.html

[uniquetreatone]

I do most of my viewing on a plasma. My kids have lcds because the younger ones watch the noggin channel all day and the older ones play video games until their eyes fall out their sockets. When it's time to watch movies they all want to watch it on the elite. Whenever someone wants to buy a tv in our family they always call and ask me to go with them because they want a plasma for their family room. Most of them are not as a critic as we are here so they don't want to spend as much on a pioneer but thank goodness for panasonic and samsung because most of the have a very good price. I brought my mother a panasonic x1 because she does not know or recognize the difference between 720p or 1080p and she has not moved from the couch yet.

[HeavyHitter]

I'm glad to see plasmas doing well. You can get a better, larger plasma for a much cheaper price than LCD. I just hope some of these proposed ridiculous energy regulations by some of our "brilliant" politicians doesn't kill them off.

[lojack1976]

Originally Posted by HiDefRev

Yes, indeed ! AND - LG will be back with their new plasmas in 2010, which they claim are better than the Kuros !!!!

I read that a while back, and like you I'm skeptical. That's a very bold statement to make and with LG plasmas solid but clearly last in the black level department this year I seriously doubt it. They've only matched last year's Panny's this year. With both the KRP-500M and the 101FD measuring .0001fL which is absolute black I don't see how it can get better anyway.

At best this can be matched. Other than that you could possibly tighten up color accuracy, but even that would be so small an improvement I doubt anyone would notice since the KRP's and Kuro Elites are near flawless in that department too.

I do believe that they will make a substantial leap though. They've already put out one of the best LED LCD's this year...technically last year since the set was available in Korea over a year ago, but it shows that they are being aggressive in developing top notch TV's. They are arch rivals with Samsung in their homeland of South Korea, so I'm not surprised at this at all. From what I understand the competition between them is pretty heated over there.

[lokir1]

Well im now very interested to see how well these claims from LG hold up but just a thought didnt the kuros downfall begin with it being 7k to buy n hardly a market able to afford them? How much will better than kuro cost from LG?

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I'm glad to see plasmas doing well. You can get a better, larger plasma for a much cheaper price than LCD. I just hope some of these proposed ridiculous energy regulations by some of our "brilliant" politicians doesn't kill them off.

That's hardly possible, since most current plasmas sold meet the standards already.

It would take a really dumb politician to insist that an inefficient TV should stay on the market, sucking down power, when the power is thrown away as heat and not light.

[dobyblue]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=126927

[HeManster03]

OP, to answer your question, the reason sales people push lcd>plasma is simple...
1. Lcd costs more than plasma in most cases, so they figure if they can sell 1 tv and make $600 or more than selling another kind, then they will make more money.
2. alot of times, they don't look at the sheets that are available to them with profit margins listed on them. When I managed the HE dept at Circuit City, I got a sheet weekly with profit margins listed based on current pricing for all tvs. This sheet was supposed to be used to give us an idea of what to use as a substitution if we ran out of something, but I personally used it as a selling tool. 95% of the time, my first recommendation to a customer was plasma. I made 32% by selling the 50pz85 u at $1699.99...I made 24% by selling the 52 SonyW4100 and $1899.99.. Id rather take the more profitable tv and sell it with a stand/cables/warranty/install/blu ray/etc than sell the less profitable tv to a guest that may only have a $2000 budget. Retail people really don't think when they try to sell stuff sometimes. lol
3. As stated, more companies make LCD then they do Plasma, so MOST everyday people will think this means that LCD is the best and Plasma is on the way out. That's just how people see things.
4. Lcd is brighter, and people assume brighter=better. Their lack of education is the only reason that more plasmas are not sold, but sales numbers will still show you that many people can see through the smoke so to speak and are making a good choice in choosing plasma technology.

[steve1971]

Plasma isnt going no where. At least thats if Panasonic has anything to say about it. Plasma is still goin strong and I think its gonna continue that way for quite awhile.