Jose Fermoso at the New York Times writes that Pioneer's killing-off of Kuro, its next-gen Plasma TV line, rings the technology's death knell.
It was a dramatic fall for a company that just one year ago had CES abuzz with its newest plasma TV, the so-called “Ultimate Black” Kuro. ... The Kuro’s tech was impressive because it reduced light emissions from black areas of the screen to such a degree that at its maximum brightness, the contrast ratio was “almost infinite.” The result was a plasma display with the most vibrant, colorful images yet.
But even at the hype’s peak, problems in the plasma industry were apparent.
If you bet on LCD surpassing Plasma hard and fast, you won.
Pioneer’s Kuro Killing: A Tipping Point in the Plasma Era [NYT]
Money. Money money money. Cost of running plasma is a large multiple of running LCD. I have a Philips LCD. It rocks.
I’ve just won 60 bucks.
I met an elderly lady last week who had a Plasma TV that was showing horrible image burn in. There was a black blurry spot in the bottom right corner where the networks put their logo. If you left it on a screen with static text for longer than 20 seconds and turn the channel you could see the text for almost a full minute. It was at least a 45″ inch screen and she said she paid $7,000 for it 6 years ago. Broke my heart to tell her it was dead.
i am intrigued by the contrast ratio was “almost infinite.â€
it sounds dangerous.
Can it be weaponized?
What, no love for DLP?
the contrast ratio was “almost infinite.â€
…it’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none, none more black.
Dunno about “death knell”… but I’ve always been ambivalent about plasma screens. Yes, they have the ability to produce a blacker black than LCDs, but LCDs have been improving and people have been starting to realize that, past a certain point, greater fidelity may not actually make a difference — especially if you’re mostly watching broadcasts which didn’t have that much dynamic range in the first place, and/or watching in a less than fully darkened room.
I know a video bigot who just replaced his single-DLP projector (which also has wide dynamic range) with a three-LCD projector. The color-wheel fringing artifacts of the DLP annoyed him more than a bit of light leakage does. What he really wants is a three-DLP projector, but tho$e $eem to $till be co$tly.
All I can say is I have a Panasonic plasma from 2002, and a Samsung LCD from 2006. The plasma has, by far, a much better picture. Deeper blacks, none of the banding the LCD has, much better angle of view, a much bigger “wow” factor on HD material.
I’ve had no burn-in issues, or any other problems, and the plasma is on 6 – 10 hours a day, for over 6 years now.
Whenever I hear or read about people claiming LCD is better, I wonder what planet they live on. I have one of each, and for me, the winner is easy to see.
i still have a 32″ and a couple of 14″ CRTs. say what you will but all of them have better colours than any LCDs i have seen in friends houses. granted most of LCDs i’ve seen are entry level,sub 500euro, but since i am not willing to spend more than that on a new tv i will stick to CRT, DVD and scart till they make something good enough for that price.
if it weren’t for space and eye strain i would have kept my desktop CRT monitor too. the colours were much better than my 19″lcd.
Ah, Samsung. I joyfully send their PR people emails every time I buy other firms’ electronics, because I simply won’t buy Samsung. They sold me that very skinny, very cool phone about 2 years ago (the x2000? can’t even remember).
It broke within a month, like a matchstick in my pocket, and they refused to replace it.
Ah Samsung, how many thousands of euros have whistled laughing into the pockets of Philips, Sony, Panasonic …
I like my Panasonic plasma, works great for me. Lcd’s have come a long way, but frankly the future will be 3 laser dlp setups.
That might be a few years off, but I think that’ll be the new hotness.
Yeah…my Panasonic plasma is great. It’s not even full HD and HD anything on it compared to most full HD tv’s I’ve seen don’t compare at all.
the contrast ratio was “almost infinite.â€
…it’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none, none more black.
I’m more concerned with the other side of the “almost infinite contrast” thing. Will watching “THX 1138” create the same effect as having a white dwarf star in my living room?
I echo other’s comments about Panasonic plasmas. I wouldn’t trade mine for any LCD tv out there. Plasma is still the visually superior technology. Hopefully Panasonic will continue making theirs.
Yes, yes, its all fun and games until… “almost infinite contrast.”
I have a Panasonic 50″ plasma that looks much better than LCDs I’ve seen, and its 720p to boot. I’m no expert, but plasma seems to have much richer depths more vibrant color.
Personally, I prefer the model with “almost finite contrast”.
I feel more in control somehow.
“It’s the wild colour scheme that freaks me,” said Zaphod whose love affair with this ship had lasted almost three minutes into the flight, “Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you’ve done it.”
The walls of the swaying cabin were also black, the ceiling was black, the seats – which were rudimentary since the only important trip this ship was designed for was supposed to be unmanned – were black, the control panel was black, the instruments were black, the little screws that held them in place were black, the thin tufted nylon floor covering was black, and when they had lifted up a corner of it they had discovered that the foam underlay also was black.
Then again, some scientists created nanotubes that are blacker than black.
Plasmas are cheaper these days. Even though they use more power, the power difference isn’t that much (the listed watt usage is the theoretical maximum) and it amounts to about $20-30 a year in extra electricity costs if you use it a couple hours a day, everyday.
Also, permanent burn-in is a thing of the past if you bought a plasma in the past few years. I’ve stupidly let me plasma display the same image for a few hours at one point, but the burn-in was only temporary and was gone the next day. ::shrug::
You can grab a 50″ Panny plasma for $900 these days, and while a 46″/52″ Sammy LCD will cost you at least $1400. I just think plasmas right now are still the best bang for the buck (for quality and size). If you got $2000-3000 to spend on a single TV, feel free to get an LCD TV.
I’ll join the Panasonic love-fest. My 42″ Viera is three years old, yet has a better picture than any of the LCDs I have seen since.
Cost me $1,900 at Costco, and gives me richer colour, faster response and a wider viewing angle. As for longevity, well, even if it does start to show burn-in in the next couple of years, by then its replacementwould only cost me ~$600. Win-win.
It too have the 42″ viera. Nice.
from another 42″ viera satisfied owner, one little thinking of mine: the commercial success of a product isn’t necessarily related to its quality as an object, as related to its use. (this sounded a little “engrish”, but i bet you get my point)
just remember video 2000 or compact discs…
nevertheless, it’s true there are very good lcd displays out there and very crappy plasmas too.
sorry to relativize again…
I predicted this years ago. Although I’m fairly sure that pretty much all my reasoning ended up being completely false.
46 viera owner as well, great tv. much nicer colours, blacks than my aquos 37 or any other lcd regardless of price. it seems in technology wars that VHS or equivelant of, always wins. It’s much easier to sell people on small meaningless, expensive upgrades if your product has glaring flaws that can easily be overcome. hopefully panasonic keeps pumping out the plasmas for ppl with an eye for quality over quantity.
I have two 50″ Pioneers, one of them a Kuro, and will hold onto them until the last day they work. Just flawless image quality, no blurring, no off-angle color shifting, and no burn-in (marathon PS3 / Wii / Xbox360 gaming bears this out). Not to mention the old myth of plasmas consuming more power than LCDs – LCDs’ rated power is what they suck up, whereas plasmas are quoted “peak” draw which is a pure white screen. When was the last time you just watched a pure white screen? I didn’t think so. In actual use, plasmas draw less power than LCDs. To the doubters, Google is your friend and look it up.
I just hope that Panasonic takes the mantle (since they already have access to some of Pio’s tech) and produces a new high-line, working towards 10 Lumen tech. I just can’t fathom buying anything other than plasma.
I was stunned how good an lcd screen looked in my local bar as I waited for a food order. When the waiter brought my food I asked him what brand of lcd that was since it looked so vibrant.. he said it was a plasma.
fell for that three times after that walkin into different electronic stores too.
now if only plasmas werent like paying for crystal glassware and getting disposable paper cups when it comes to longevity.
and if only I didnt see all the big box stores running bad cabled old school dvds on their LCD tvs lookin all pixelated and crappy.. only once did I see a walmart run a bluray on an lcd hdtv and I thought it was a plasma.. gr.
ya its all relative
“almost infinite contrast”
Let me see if I get this… I am looking at a greyscale chart on my desk. It is about 12 inches wide and is graduated in 12 steps from absolute black through to absolute white. Now, if it were to exhibit MORE contrast, I guess the chart would be much wider, perhaps going out the window, over the fence and into the guy on the other side of my neighbour’s house?
And if it were to exhibit ALMOST INFINITE contrast, I guess it would be unravelling itself past Jupiter on its way to Uranus by now. With the absolute white on my desk and absolute black heading north or south or wherever Uranus is.
Wait a minute, wait a minute — isn’t that an EXPANSION of tonal range whereas an INCREASE IN CONTRAST is a REDUCTION OF TONAL RANGE? Damn — my chart has suddenly furled itself back from Uranus and is now entering the sub-atomic zone (you shoulda heard the sonic boom as it re-entered the atmpsphere). I’m trying to track it with my electron microscope but the light meter isn’t giving any reliable readings.
There was a soap powder in the 60s that advertised “whiter than white”. There was a dutch band in the 60s that had a song called “Black Is Black”. I’m looking everywhere for an explanation — just bought a set of Ansell Adams’ books but he never ventures beyond the boring old Zone System. Think he died before Plasma was invented so only wrote about visible light.
Wait, let me get this straight. Pioneer, the 4th in market share for plasma TVs with only 4.2% share, exiting the market somehow spells the death knell for a technology which grew 26% for the entire year 2008 over 2007. Um, no. Panasonic has nearly 50% market share in plasmas and is making plenty of money. Reference:
http://www.cepro.com/article/study_plasma_shipments_fall_12_in_q4_2008/
stanjarin, very funny!
I believe they just mean black is basically zero and so you can’t reasonably express the white:black contrast as a ratio of n:1. I guess they could go into scientific notation; 6.02×10^23:1.
To add to this, I work in television post production. And every facility I work in will only buy Panasonic plasmas.