Panasonic to quit making plasma TVs?

FWIW I ordered a 55" VT60 back in early Jan. and it turned out that all the panels received by the seller were defective in this last batch. I ended up having to change my order to the Samsung 8500 series- at least they gave me an additional discount and free upgraded shipping...

 

Yeah, I replaced my 6-year-old plasma solely because Panny wasn't gonna make them anymore - the set itself still works great!

Hopefully I'll get lots of years of use out of the new one...

 

I got my VT60 back in January when I saw the supplies dwindling FAST. Its mind boggling how detailed the picture is on this thing.

 

I've been a proud owner of a 60" VT60 since it was first released (a year in April) and I'm still so very impressed with the performance.

 

Just got IR on my 23 month ST50 Panny.What i noticed when i was watching a DVD, i could see the TV logo top left.Thought it was IR, but i changed the tv Channel to a encrypted one ie not connected, just the blurb in the middle of the screen " this is encrypted" when i went went to watch the DVD film again' the earlier top left tv logo had gone.

 

The recent World Series left a faint Fox logo on my screen for a couple of weeks in most viewing.

 

Run the screen wipe for a few hours.

Those logos are the worst.

 

See - ^^this - is why I could not ever consider a plasma TV. The hoops that have to be jumped through, JUST because you watched the World Series or are interested in watching a news channel, or want to watch some 4:3 or 2.35:1 content, you have to run some sort of purifier program. It's as thought watching TV "contaminates" the set and it has to be cleaned. Televisions should be enjoyed - not worried about. (I personally haven't ever been dazzled by a plasma and prefer the sharpness of LCD/LED - even with some of the trade-offs.)

I *get* that many love the black levels and supposedly reference level pictures that these sets are supposed to produce, and that there are many who swear up and down that image retention is not currently a problem - yet here we are, almost to 2015 and people are still talking about it. Imagine the ridiculous scenario of buying a radio and having it retain sounds of a persistent drum beat. Or having to run a white noise generator to rid the radio of that after-sound.

No, I think that Image Retention was the single biggest factor that may have ended up killing the technology. It's sad that fans will no longer have a choice, but that's the way of the world. Everyone said "Beta" was better than VHS, but it died from its original fatal flaw too (not long enough recording time).

Harry

 

Not really. What killed the plasma was the difficulty in shrinking the plasma cells (pixels) to the levels that would be required to produce UHD resolutions (4k). As 4k will be the defacto standard soon (the trend is well on the way), the manufacturers decided to cut their losses and focus on new tech, which is 4k and OLED.

The retention issue had nothing to do with it.

 

I don't agree that it's a big hassle. And I've also found that all sets -- CRT, LCD, plasma, and even DLP projectors -- will develop burn-in issues if you leave up a bright image surrounded by blackness all the time. I'm honestly not sure how OLED screens are affected, but I know everything else is. It takes a few minutes to run the routine to wipe the screen... not a big deal at all. I don't think plasmas are any more or less prone to this problem than anything. But I also run my plasma monitors at a fairly low contrast level (30fL), far lower than the usual "torch" setting they have right out of the box.

Naaa, I think it was all about De Money. The LCD sets were cheaper and easier to build, and they made more profit with them. It's a very simple formula.

 

I''d agree mostly, however, some technologies are more susceptible to the issue than others. LCD screens not so much compared to plasmas. Certainly the last gen of plasmas were much, much better then their earlier predecessors. As for OLED, too early to tell. I've read that it's not and issue but also that it may be an issue, so a bit ambiguous at the moment.

De Money probably is an issue, but since plasmas were held in such high esteem and seen as a halo product, I don't think everyone would have ditched them virtually at the same time. Don't dismiss the technical problems of going 4k (What Killed Panasonic Plasma TV? 4K Ultra HD)

 

What drives me crazy are the new large bright white horizontal blocks that stations like CNN and MSNBC use for info banners. These things are terrible trouble for IR on any set. Don't they think about these things ?

 

Five LCD sets in, and never, ever a sign of IR. It's not something I even think about.

 

I think the ignorance about IR did hurt sales. When I talk to people, it's the first reason they give for not having bought a plasma, whether they actually had ever seen the problem or not. It was just rampant among consumers.

My niece's husband did own a plasma, but when he bought his next set he said he went w/ LCD because he saw IR on his plasma. However, I'm sure he never properly adjusted the picture.

I saw a bit of IR for a few seconds at a time on my first set, but on my ST60, I think I might have seen it for a second or two. It's probably because I use the proper settings. For the few seconds I saw IR on either set, it was never a real issue.

 

IR (Image Retention) is a totally different animal than Burn-In. IR is temporary, and goes away after a short amount of time. Burn-In is permanent, and nothing can be done to remove it completely.

IR happens with Plasma, but it's just not a big deal - as Vidiot has said, IR can also happen to LCD, so it's not immune. Burn-In is the devil, but it's very rare if some easy steps are taken (don't watch in "torch mode", run the display in fullscreen mode for the first couple weeks, don't leave stations on for hours that have tickers for the first couple weeks, don't play video games with static stat screens for hours the first couple weeks, etc.).

My Panny Plasma exhibits IR from time to time. It goes away after watching different material for a little while, and I rarely notice it.

I think some here beating on plasmas are confusing IR with Burn-In.

 

Yeah fox usually leaves crap.

 

Burn-in is a real problem on plasmas if you play videogames at peak settings. Image retention is mostly annoying.

 

They used to make some great films, back in the day though, Mazzy

 

I was actually being snarky and referring to their news division with our being political.

 

LOL, how can you talk about their 'news' division with being political?!

 

Yeah, CNN and MSNBC plus the networks. Now, that's the "real" news! LOL.

The plasma deniers simply aren't interested in picture quality. Ya can't abuse ANY panel or there will be at least minor consequences.

Additionally, there is nothing "supposed" about reference quality when it comes to VT/ZT60, ST60 or VT50. If you love movies and have even the slightest inclination to experience the visual aspect of a film close to what was intended, then find someone with one of those which has been professionally calibrated. The experience is special.

 

I quit watching TV, mostly, on my 60" plasma because it wants to imprint any scroll, logo, or side news board it's exposed to. I very seldom play anything other than videodiscs.

 

Haven't had any shows or logos burn in on my 60 inch panny 10 months so far.

 

I've seen a couple of LCD sets with burn in so it can definitely happen with that tech too if you're not careful.
I had pretty severe IR on my plasma from MSNBC banner a few years ago. Finally went away after many many months. If you weren't looking for it you wouldn't see it but it would show up on blue sky shots.