4 ms·

Too much power, too much heat, not bright enough in showrooms to compete against LED TVs even though objectively, plasmas had better quality than LED tvs. I ha

Too much power, too much heat, not bright enough in showrooms to compete against LED TVs even though objectively, plasmas had better quality than LED tvs. I have a 720 Samsung plasma circa 2011 that looks better than cheap 1080p LED from a few years ago. I will likely replace it with a 4K OLED in the next year or two and will keep ut one for a other decade or so.

entropicgravity 4y ago
I just did replace my 2010 LG 720 plasma with a 4k OLED. The color of the plasma is still stunning for video content. Since I used a NUC to drive the plasma I did get some burn in from the onscreen menu, but, after making that menu disappear after use, the burn in pattern also disappeared after about four months. That surprised me, I thought burn in was forever, not necessarily it turns out. The most compelling reason for the upgrade was that when I use the TV in "computer screen mode" it just didn't have enough pixels for the 1080 pixel count that is standard these days in computer land. But I had to get the OLED tech to match the color quality of the twelve year old plasma.
tfigment 4y ago
I had a Panasonic from about 2008. It finally started having image burn-in problems and some yellowing from too much CNN on in the background. It had great speakers and rich colors until near the end. The Samsung I replaced it with is terrible in so many ways. Had to buy a sound bar to fix the audio. the color is not as rich. It has tearing issues with faster movements like when watching sports. I would get rid of it but not sure other options are better and hate contributing to e-waste.
- badpun 4y ago
  Also had 2008 plasma Panasonic. It felt great. The image quality, amazing sound, the menus, the consistency of interactions (latency on every operation was always the same), the beautiful form factor, the large and high quality remote. It felt like something from the past, when good TVs were expensive and made to look and feel like it.
starky 4y ago
I just replaced my E550 Samsung plasma from 2012 with a QD-OLED precisely because LCD tech just wasn't better. Even on the QD-OLED, the extra brightness and 120Hz is nice, but it isn't as massive of a leap as I expected it to be (though some of the inaccurate colour modes certainly give that impression) and it is far too complicated with the different modes for different content and some content looks terrible unless you disable the built in processing.
bergenty 4y ago
How can you have all those problems and still have better quality.
- bonestamp2 4y ago
  Low power consumption doesn't affect picture quality and brightness wasn't an issue in a typical home TV setting, which is usually a lot dimmer than a retail sales floor. Plasmas were amazing at most things that do benefit picture quality.
- porphyra 4y ago
  Deeper blacks leading to better contrast and saturation mostly, although OLEDs are again superior in that regard.
mxxx 4y ago
The heat that came off my Panasonic GT30 was _crazy_. Replaced it earlier this year with an LG OLED after it mysteriously wouldn't power up one day. Still, lasted the best part of a decade which isn't too bad.
ttyyzz 4y ago
I recently helped my sister-in-law move house. I smiled a little at her little TV. Looked like a small flat screen from one of the first generations. Of course, I also configured the Internet access. This also included testing that Netflix etc. was working smoothly. When the stream reached the highest quality level after a few seconds, I was extremely surprised by the sharpness of the image, the clarity and also the color rendering. It was of course an "old" plasma TV, which makes my panel in the TV at home look pretty bad.
Jaruzel 4y ago
I still have a 50" Panasonic Plasma as our bedroom TV. It's 1080p. I still think it has a better picture than a 1080p LCD. I'll be really sad when/if it dies.

entropicgravity 4y ago

I just did replace my 2010 LG 720 plasma with a 4k OLED. The color of the plasma is still stunning for video content. Since I used a NUC to drive the plasma I did get some burn in from the onscreen menu, but, after making that menu disappear after use, the burn in pattern also disappeared after about four months. That surprised me, I thought burn in was forever, not necessarily it turns out. The most compelling reason for the upgrade was that when I use the TV in "computer screen mode" it just didn't have enough pixels for the 1080 pixel count that is standard these days in computer land. But I had to get the OLED tech to match the color quality of the twelve year old plasma.

tfigment 4y ago

I had a Panasonic from about 2008. It finally started having image burn-in problems and some yellowing from too much CNN on in the background. It had great speakers and rich colors until near the end. The Samsung I replaced it with is terrible in so many ways. Had to buy a sound bar to fix the audio. the color is not as rich. It has tearing issues with faster movements like when watching sports. I would get rid of it but not sure other options are better and hate contributing to e-waste.

badpun 4y ago
Also had 2008 plasma Panasonic. It felt great. The image quality, amazing sound, the menus, the consistency of interactions (latency on every operation was always the same), the beautiful form factor, the large and high quality remote. It felt like something from the past, when good TVs were expensive and made to look and feel like it.

starky 4y ago

I just replaced my E550 Samsung plasma from 2012 with a QD-OLED precisely because LCD tech just wasn't better. Even on the QD-OLED, the extra brightness and 120Hz is nice, but it isn't as massive of a leap as I expected it to be (though some of the inaccurate colour modes certainly give that impression) and it is far too complicated with the different modes for different content and some content looks terrible unless you disable the built in processing.

bergenty 4y ago

How can you have all those problems and still have better quality.

bonestamp2 4y ago
Low power consumption doesn't affect picture quality and brightness wasn't an issue in a typical home TV setting, which is usually a lot dimmer than a retail sales floor. Plasmas were amazing at most things that do benefit picture quality.
porphyra 4y ago
Deeper blacks leading to better contrast and saturation mostly, although OLEDs are again superior in that regard.

mxxx 4y ago

The heat that came off my Panasonic GT30 was _crazy_. Replaced it earlier this year with an LG OLED after it mysteriously wouldn't power up one day. Still, lasted the best part of a decade which isn't too bad.

ttyyzz 4y ago

I recently helped my sister-in-law move house. I smiled a little at her little TV. Looked like a small flat screen from one of the first generations. Of course, I also configured the Internet access. This also included testing that Netflix etc. was working smoothly. When the stream reached the highest quality level after a few seconds, I was extremely surprised by the sharpness of the image, the clarity and also the color rendering. It was of course an "old" plasma TV, which makes my panel in the TV at home look pretty bad.

Jaruzel 4y ago

I still have a 50" Panasonic Plasma as our bedroom TV. It's 1080p. I still think it has a better picture than a 1080p LCD. I'll be really sad when/if it dies.