Matsushita to Launch New PDPs with "Power Consumption E

[erdega79]

Equivalent to LCDs"
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english...050407/103531/

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. has unveiled its new PDP and LCD TVs. The new PDP TVs save the annual power consumption by about 25-35% compared to the conventional product, and the new LCD TVs offer quicker motion response. These TVs, coming in 9 models as a new line of "VIERA", Matsushita's PDP and LCD TV series, will be available on the market from May 1, 2005.

At the release exhibition, Matsushita strongly claimed that PDP TVs are superior to LCD TVs if the screen size is the same, considering the consumption power of newer PDP TVs becomes equivalent to or even less than, depending on pictures displayed, that of LCD TVs and that the TV viewing environment in the living-room at home are changing. The annual consumption power of the new PDP TVs are 250 kWh/year (about 35% less than the conventional product) by the 37-inch model, 331 kWh/year (about 30% less) by the 42-inch model and 449 kWh/year (about 25% less) by the 50-inch model. These figures are calculated based on the measuring method used in the "Law concerning the Rational Use of Energy (Energy Saving Law)" to measure the CRT TV consumption power.

The PDP TV consumes less power when it displays dark scenes since it reduces the number of times it lights the pixels to adjust the brightness, while its consumption power increases when the PDP TV displays bright scenes. Meanwhile, the LCD TV illuminates the entire screen from behind by the backlight and thereby the brightness of the backlight is constant, theoretically, and thus it makes little difference of the consumption power between dark and bright scenes. The new PDP TVs consume less power when pictures largely occupying dark scenes such as a movie are displayed.

The new line of "VIERA" series

[Blu-Wave]

... but OLED, SED, etc., also only light up each pixel of the image as required, and so potentially will use less than half the power of LCD - and as for ambient-light-based reflective displays ... 8)

So if I were you I wouldn't rush to upgrade my display just yet ...