Pioneer plasma televisions going the way of the ghost

Pioneer has confirmed that they are leaving the television business, shipping their last televisions in March 2010 and focusing on car electronics and home audio-video lines. This is sad news: they make some of the best plasma HDTVs on the market, and with Vizio also dropping out of the game, plasmas are getting rarer and rarer. That’s a shame: while plasma will eventually be made obsolete by OLED displays, we’re still a few years away from that… and in the mean time, LCD blacks just aren’t quite there yet. A quality player leaving the market is something to be mourned.

Pioneer exits TV business as losses mount [Twice]

1. [Anonymous]

   Plasma panels are our generation’s Betamax – beaten by cheaper, cruddier technology.

2. [technogeek]

   I’ve seen burn-in on a plasma screen (admittedly one that was going 24/7 on a relatively static image); that was enough to put me off plasma pretty much permanantly. If I’m gonna pay that much for a screen, I want it to be more robust than that.

   OLED would be great, but meanwhile I’m far more interested in LCD.

   YMMV. Void where required.

3. [Doomstalk]

   The burn-in issue has been mitigated. Newer screens are less prone to burn-in, and a lot of manufacturers include anti-burn-in countermeasures– essentially they shift the pixels ever so slightly to make sure no phosphor is burning the exact same color for too long.

   I just got my first plasma screen about a month ago (replacing a cheap 42″ Westinghouse LCD), and I must say I love it. The blacks are much deeper and the colors and brightness are more even. It’s well worth any extra precautions I have to take.