Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

[tom66]

A sad day for plasma. Panasonic pulled out this March, Samsung announces they are stopping production at the end of November.

Samsung didn't mention they were continuing with OLED, either. They are having major production problems with OLED TVs. The only large manufacturer of OLED TVs (the only type of display that could possibly compete with plasma) is LG, who will naturally increase the price due to lack of competition.

So the mass market crappy technology wins out, a sad day.

[ddscentral]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28143408

If I understand correctly, the main reason is that they currently can't make affordable 4K UHD plasmas.
Panasonic said the same thing:
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4k-pl...1311133417.htm

[stj]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

not that it matters,
unless you live in mainland japan, there is no 4k content!

[tom66]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

Panasonic demoed a 58" 4K plasma, but the energy usage and manufacturing cost were too high to make it practical. Sad; I'd love to see the tech behind that!

[withalligators]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

Dude, you just got a Kuro. You're good for plasma til they figure out OLED. I got a 2011 PN59D7000 working, and it's my new keeper. pretty disappointing black levels, but better than LCDs. I was hoping for inky, inky stuff.

Mass market stuff always wins out. I still want my FED or SED display. Non-curved, thanks.

[tom66]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

Eh... Samsung actually hit really good technology in their F8500 (2 years older than your set), and from what I've seen of the build quality I wouldn't hesitate to keep one of them myself. Unlike Pioneer, they actually use conventional drive technology (set up ramps and such) so most of the magic is in the panel. Same for Panasonic's ZT65 which has been called a "Kuro killer" because of its dark black levels (allegedly darker than a 9.5G Kuro) although brightness is slightly lower so overall contrast is poorer. F8500 is only slightly lighter than a Kuro but still a damn good panel.

Pioneer had to "baby" their Kuro panels to get deep blacks with 5 adjustments on the Y drive and 2 on the X drive -- that's half the reason the red tint occurs after some time (although that can be fixed.)

You can still see the black level on my tweaked Kuro in a dark room, but on virtually all content it's so dark it blends in with the TV's bezel.

Reason I'm upset about the death of plasma is it'll make it harder to sell them on the used market -- and I'm familiar with the technology and prefer fixing them over LCDs.

[withalligators]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

How are the cheap LG sets? They are at a price point where I imagine they will continue production until 4k is omnipresent. Their quality can't be all that ba as I've never found one in the ewaste bin.

[tom66]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

Build quality is OK for LG plasmas, although they do have some issues with the "Razor Thin" sets damaging the panel ribbons. The newer 720p ones are pretty cheaply made. Black level is barely better than an LCD, and brightness is poor except on the high end 1080p models.

[Mr.Orange]

Re: Samsung kills off plasma in favour of 4K LED-LCD, Curved UHDTV

LG, who will naturally increase the price due to lack of competition.

So the mass market crappy technology wins out, a sad day.

Yeah they were already caught with the others setting the price, EU ruling had to reduce prices, but I wouldn't think increasing plasma prices now would benefit them, if anything cutting the prices to increase output as sole supplier, ie produce to little not cost-effective nor cost-effective to over produce.

.. ahhh Betamax.