Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Death of Plasma?

A week or so ago, Pioneer announced that it was leaving the plasma market. Vizio is out of the plasma market too and now there's word that LG may abandon plasma as well.

I wish that someone--maybe Santino?--would write a big reporting piece explaining what this all means. So far as I can tell, plasma is technically superior to LCD (though the gap has narrowed) and is competitive, maybe even better, price wise. So why is LCD outselling plasma 8-1?

On first blush, I wonder if this has something to do with computer displays: Maybe having a built-in manufacturing base for all of those LCD computer displays gives LCD a giant edge in production costs? Though that only matters for manufacturers, not consumers.

For my own part, I love my Pioneer plasma set and have no plans to replace it until I leapfrog into an OLED.

6 comments:

Shannon Last said...

Wait, what?

It's probably best I don't know what OLED is, right?

Anonymous said...

I think the early problems of plasma proved too difficult to overcome, perception-wise: people were terrified to get a TV that not only would burn out in three years but also, while you were using it, would burn IN an image on to the screen. Neither of those problems exist any longer, but customers were slow to realize it, I think.

That's just a guess, though.

Anonymous said...

Count me with the confused. I have a 4-year old Hitachi 42" plasma that I wouldn't trade for anything. I think my friends' LCDs look like they're always showing a cartoon.

Anonymous said...

I think it has to do with two main factors.

1) people scared of burn-in
2) People preferring anti glare screen

I know for me the second reason was the key. In a room with windows, the LCD is superior.

TK said...

Plasmas are: More expensive, more likely to suffer from burn-in (though it's not as bad as it once was), they use more electricity and run hot, and they're not as good for off-angle viewing.

That said, they do have a superior picture, but I think that marketing has stacked the deck against them.

Anonymous said...

plasmas actually do have superior viewing angles to LCDs, which is maybe their biggest advantage. they also have richer, brighter colors. burn-in and a short lifespan are worries of the past.

LCDs for their part do have a damn good picture, but if you have a large living room with lots of seating spread out, you would do best with a plasma set.