Panasonic to cease TV screen production by October

Don't tell me going to go the way of Cuba, and folk refurbishing ...doing maintenance servicing on old plasmas with new parts.

 

They're not dropping out. They have lots of new models which are sold in many overseas markets. What is true is that they have been scaling back their US presence since around 2014. Early this year, the company sold off the last of its TV inventory for the U.S. market, but continues to sell TVs in Canada.

In Canada, Panasonic plans to offer a 4K LED LCD TV with 512 backlit-diming zones, HDR, and ability to deliver more than 1,000 nits of brightness over 100 percent of the screen 100 percent of the time. It's also considering OLED TVs for Canadian sales. Panasonic offers OLED TVs in other countries (Europe).

A Panasonic spokesman recently confirmed that the company is studying a US comeback.

 

I was a diehard Sony fan since forever. I heard they were in trouble so opted for a Samsung this last time around, a couple of years ago. Everything but the screen is pretty cheap, but after adjusting settings, like turning the motion smoothing off, and adding a sound bar (the internal speakers were terrible) I have to admit to really enjoying the quality of the picture. It's not a perfect outcome, but probably the best game in town at the moment.

 

My 70 kilo ( boxed ) Sony Wega was still going strong after 10 years, but the new plasma I got, made the TVs delivery guys take the Wega with them( no space). Sony great logo Japanese quality product also a movie placement product. Sadly most folk watch movies on a small iPad /iPhone these days.

 

Where 'ya been? That's been going on for years. Mid-July, 2015, a severe lightning strike knocked out my TV and cable box. Proceeded to my local Charter cable office, then to SAM'S CLUB, where I bought a replacement SAMSUNG led 42" set along with laundry detergent, cinnamon rolls, 2 gallons of milk, ground beef, eggs, and green peppers on the same receipt.

 

And didn't set you back 4K either, I bet.

 

Shame. My 50" Panasonic LCD was quite reasonably priced, and when I tried to calibrate it the results were basically the same as the default settings. In my house, Panasonic has a long-standing reputation for providing very good quality at a very competitive price.

 

I work for a large electronics company. We stopped production of TVs five years ago and simply have them built to our spec by a third-party and then put our name on them.

 

Sad that plasmas are now going for good. Our 58-inch Panasonic Viera is on its 5th year and it is just gorgeous (mostly film watching, of films shot on film.) Organic texture and colors, great black levels, absolutely no motion lag or any other artifacts. I have yet to see any technology that can match the plasma, and that includes the pro stuff I see at work.
C.

 

I got one of the last plasmas, which got blown up in a lightning storm a couple of weeks ago. So I did some shopping, and there is nothing out there now available at the price point I got my plasma for. You have to ante up for an LG oled or buy a used plasma. Fortunately I was able to fix mine by swapping in a used motherboard purchased on eBay.

 

The TV was $298. LED. Not cutting-edge, but good enough for us.......

 

Sometimes its the best bang for a buck.

 

The high-end Sony BVM-X300 ($35,000) is OLED, and it's generally accepted that this is the new format for mastering. I just mastered a movie about a month ago on this OLED, and I was very impressed by how good it looked. It's smaller than the plasmas I'm used to, but it's sharper and the blacks are better.

LG's recent G6 and B6 OLED consumer monitors are very good -- not as good as the pro monitors, but they can still be calibrated fairly well, and they're relatively affordable (between $2500 and $5000, depending on size and model). They're quickly becoming the go-to display as a "client" monitor for color mastering rooms in LA.

 

The cheapest OLEDs are last year's LG 1080p models, which I have seen as low as $1100 shipped for a 55 inch model. There are, of course, reasons for the price differential. Among other things, they are not 4K (not sure of the importance of that at 55 inches) and some of the other current acronyms are not on it. Still, it is a set the critics were rhapsodizing about a year ago at more than twice the price.

 

So what's the ranking.
1- OLED
2-4K
3- Panasonic plasma

Would that be accurate ?

 

You work for Vizio?

 

I bought the first generation Panasonic Plasma 42'' in 2002 I think. It was crazy expensive back then. I have it working in a bedroom to this day. I have a 65'' Panasonic plasma that has been fantastic since about 2008. I really like them and hate to see that this is the end of the line. If needed, I would buy another one without hesitation.

 

NOS anywhere ?

 

It depends! There are bad OLEDs out there, crappy 4K sets, and some low-end Panasonic plasmas that weren't that great. Many new OLED sets are 4K.

 

They come out with so many models so fast Sony alone just came out with a new line of 4k HDR sets ranging from 2000-6000 only a couple of months ago,these sets looked pretty good to me,and they were half the price
of the top OLEDS from LG,Now Sony has yet a newer line the Z line ,still LCD but with different back lighting ,these are nearly as expensive as the OLEDS The only review I saw of one of these thought it was overpriced ,and not as good as the top OLED's

all these sets looked better than Plasma to my eyes

 

Sony BVM-X300 is only 30inchs ?? The G6 doesn't make any sense ,you are paying a 1000 for their soundbar ,the E6(I think Thats the mode number) doesn't have it an is 1000 less

 

Do you have a link to that review?

From what I've read in the owners thread at AVS, the Z is an awesome set. Some who have/had oled's got a Z and say it's at least as good if not better in every area- except total black, which the Sony comes very close to- and viewing angle, in which lcd's will never be able to compete. But the LG oled's all have an issue at near black that is bothersome to videophiles. There are other reporetd issues w/ a lot of the LG panels- they give a great picture, but they're not perfect. The Z's have been deemed oled killers and while the 65" prices are similar, the 75" Z is much less than the 77" oled.

There's some really amazing tech w/ those sets, as you may know. It'll be interesting to see what all the reviews say once this set is fully released. I enjoy reading about state-of-the-art TV's, but I have to settle for bang-for-buck and just recently got a Vizio (had to replace my LED-DLP that died). I was hating having to go lcd, but am amazed at how far they've come- both overall and esp. a co. that I always saw as a low-end brand.

I hope Panasonic can return to the US, as one poster alluded to. The more choices the better. It's a shame they couldn't make a profit w/ their plasmas; they were a great value and had excellent performance.

 

I've got two 50-inch 1080P plasma TV's, a Pioneer Kuro & a Panasonic Viera. These things still look phenomenal almost 10 years after I got them. When they crap-out, I'll shed a tear & go out and buy a 4K at the local big-box. As long as the picture quality is up to snuff I could care less whose corporate logo is on it. Would I rather be buying a 4K Panny or Pioneer plasma TV? Of course I would. I would also like to be younger, taller & better looking.

 

You could replace Panasonic with Pioneer for me. I grabbed a Kuro Elite demo a few months after production ended.

 

Sorry I think It was Whats Hi Fi but couldn't find it anywhere now,they weren't happy with the price and other things ,they didn't bash it ,but they hardly called it OLED Killer