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Sony and Sharp Backing LCD TVs Over Plasma?
LostCluster writes "Several reports out of Toyko are indicating that Sony intends on dropping out of the plasma TV business and ramping up productions of LCD TVs instead. Meanwhile rumors have it that Sharp is planning on investing US$1.9 billion on an LCD production plant."
BBC News: Sony denies plasma TV withdrawal
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
I have been looking at LCD Tv's for my home for the past few months. Unfortunately up until this point the plasmas have been slightly more in my price range for the size I am looking for. Will this shift to LCD technology cause the plasmas to come down in price, because they are "outdated" technology, or will we see the LCD prices come down because there is more production?
Also, any Slashdotters have recommendations on going with a plasma vs an lcd? Power usage, heat, image quality, overall life of product?
Jeez... if it's not profitable at the insane price plasma TV sells, I guess it won't be profitable anytime soon...
Early adopters might get burned on this one... we don't even know how long they last yet. How can a plasma screen fail? LCDs get annoying stuck pixels, CRT just pass out... what about plasma? Do we have an estimated life expectancy on those?
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
Auntie Beeb claims that Sony are denying reports: it sounds as though industry analysts may be describing what Sony should do, rather than reporting what Sony is doing.
This is where the serious fun begins.
... reports ... indicating ... intends ... rumors ... planning ...
let's wait for real info shall we ?
Plasma is in a stadium now where LCD was a few years back : cool technology but stuck in the circle of expensive->low sales->expensive->...
Give it some time.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Plasma TVs always had the appearance of being a niche item to me; only useful for when the cost and logistics of making a big LCD got overly prohibitive. I've got a feeling other makers are going to follow suit as well as LCD technology allows for larger, better screens than before. It just seems more beneficial to have one line that scales than two very separate technologies that require you to diverge your resources.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Plasmas are nice for moving images, although the resolutions don't typically match HDTV resolutions at the moment, and low-end plasmas basically suck for resolution (480P). LCD TV displays are often made now in HDTV compatible resolutions (1280x720, 1920x1080) which automatically makes them a better choice, until plasma displays also come with decent resolution at a comparable price. I'm not saying that there aren't cheap plasmas that have HDTV native resolutions of course, just that the majority of cheap 42" plasmas have 480 lines of resolution *still*.
The sensible person, of course, will wait 3 years and then pick up whatever is the best techology then, for a much nicer price. Of course, I did promise myself my next TV would be at least 40" on the diagonal, and plasmas are much better at these sizes than LCD TVs which generally top out at 30" for a lot of money.
Over not-that-long a period of time (like 2 years of "normal" use, IIRC), the brightness of a Plasma TV is reduced by HALF.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
In other words, making CRTs is a cast-iron bitch.
They're cheap because of economies of scale and engineering experience.
Plasmas and LCDs, on the other hand, have (IIRC) direct connections to the pixels to light them up. No steering of a beam involved - just switching electronics, which we've gotten really good at in the last few decades.
Now we're just waiting for economies of scale to knock down the prices, and engineering experience to make manufacturing more efficient.
Twenty or thirty years from now, I'd bet a flat-screen TV can be had for the equivalent of a few hundred bucks.
I still think that CRTs offer the best picture out there, at least for the price. Sure they may take up a little extra space. But they are much better. Most CRTs I've seen last 10 years + with being on for many hours per day. You don't have to worry so much about burn in, and they look good from just about any angle. I don't think i'm going to buy anything other than a CRT for quite some time.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
And what about DLP? High resolution, no burn in issues, high contrast, vibrant color, light wieght and small footprint, although not small enough to hang on your wall. What more could you want? (Oh, and a $300 bulb every few years under average use, can't forget the negatives).
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
The curent plasmas have pushed that time closer to nine years. Even though the 'two-year dimming plague' affected only plasmas that were made more than two or three years ago, the stigma lives on.
DLP does have another drawback.
The one-chip DLP method of displaying of an image basically paints the red, green and blue color parts of the image at different times rather than at the same time like most other display techs. This bothers some people, it is noticible to a lot of people if they move your eyes much when there are bright objects on a dark background. Some people feel nauseous because of this effect. It has been improved with faster color wheels but a lot of displays still use 2x speed color wheels.
how on earth does anyone know that a plasma TV will last 15 years?
Well, it's an estimate, but an educated one. At the manufacturing plants we do life testing where we burn in the test units for a specified amount of time (usually three months or more) often under some extreme environment. This is the routine life testing and doesn't even consider the tests which the original design models go through. Anyway, from what we learn from the life tests, we can estimate how long the sets will last in the consumer's homes. 15 years might be a bit optimistic, but it's not a bad estimate. In all honestly, I would put it closer to 10-12 years.
And yes, I make plasma TVs.
Will LCD avoid the need for cooling fans or will the required brightness for a larger screen mean brighter backlights and therefore more heat?
My friends have one. They got it last Christmas and you can already tell that it is not as bright as it used to be. Their problem is they got the TV without discussing with the sales people what their viewing habits were. They have a tendancy to leave their TV on all the time.
Plasmas are good money makers because the bigger ones are not really that more expensive to make. Getting under 42" actually costs more. LCDs are the opposite.
I have the old fashioned project 5-CRT based HDTV widescreen and have looked at LCD based solution. My opinion, unless you just have to have it NOW wait till later in the year as the prices have been dropping a lot lately and can only get better.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Possible withdrawal from plasma market by Sony
"It was discovered on the 20th that Sony is considering reducing the scale of its plasma TV manufacturing and sales business. There is also the possibility that it will withdraw entirely from the market next year. Currently Sony manufactures and sells plasma, LCD and rear-projection types of slim TVs, but with the continued increase in size of LCD screens, it is looking at concentrating its business resources on LCD and rear-projection units, thereby increasing its competitiveness in the market.
Slim TVs had, until recently, been divided along clear lines, with LCDs being used for medium and smaller screens, plasma for larger screens, and rear-projection used for the largest sizes. However, advances in LCD technology now allow mass production of screens of up to 40 inches in size.
In addition, with a Sony/Samsung LCD factory coming on line next year, it appears that Sony have decided it is more profitable to produce their own LCD screens rather than obtain plasma screens from other manufacturers.
Sony's main plasma screen factory in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, will reduce its production of plasma screens over time, and increase production of LCD and rear-projection screens."
We were looking at installing some displays around the offices to show news, PR, etc (you know, that "modern look" you see everywhere).
After some reasearch we chose LCDs due to the aging and burn-in issues of Plasma TVs. An LCD would be more expensive, but give us a much better life.
Other offices went with Plasma TVs instead. Fast forward a few years, now they are complaining about brightness issues, logo burn-ins, etc and they are budgeting to replace them. Our LCDs are happily chugging along.
So these news, true or not, do not come as a surprise to me.
Plasma Myths
LCD's also have lousy contrast ratios and poor refresh rates compared to Plasma. However, in the market, one technology doesn't automatically trump another. You gotta shop SMART. Currently there are some good LCD screens that outperform some poor Plasma screens. So just buying Plasma doesn't guarantee you a better picture over LCD. It really depends on how much money you're willing to spend.
Eventually LCD's are going to catch up and surpass Plasmas but that's not the case now or in the near future (next year or so).
I myself have a demo Panasonic 42PX20 that has about 6000+ hours on it and I've not noticed any brightness changes at all. My only complaint is that the picture isn't as good as a CRT. But that's true of all flat panels I've observed.
Important shopping tip kids: Contrast is the key, watch dark scenes. Most of the flat panel screens (LCD, Plasma and RPTV LCD screens) will crunch black. So as soon as you get to a dark scene, you don't see shades of gray, everything just goes to black. (Some TVs will auto-adjust their contrast/brightness to counter this but then you end up with brightntess shifts between bright and dark scenes).
Caveat Emptor!
Beautiful picture, yes, but they have a fairly limited lifespan as the gas starts to lose its charge.
Nice guess. The real killer is the plasma. Plasma is made of excited high speed atoms. (speed equates to heat at these geometries) If only a photon hit the phosphor then things would be fine, but the plasma (hot gas) hits the phosphor and sputters it away (much like a sputter dep tool or etcher in the manufacture of semiconductors). The display is a plasma etcher sputtering away the phosphors that produce the pretty colors.
In newer sets they are trying to reduce this erosion of the phosphors. I'm not sure how they are doing this, but a hot plasma near a soft phosphor still equates to some sputtering.
At least in an LCD TV, the lamp is replaceable for less than $50 in parts. (cold cathode tube) This is not the case in a plasma set.
The truth shall set you free!