Who killed plasma TV's?!!

[Drazzil]

I was taking a walk down the TV section of my local Costco. I like to look at the TV's. Mostly to sneer. Too bright, too dark, colors too off, too much glare. Oh look I can see my reflection in this one.

Nothing beats my Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80U 42-Inch plasma set. To the point that I took it with me when I went to Oregon. It was heavy and bulky but nothing I see beats it. If it dies I'll get a new tv but till then you will have to pry it out of my cold dead hands.

That if something goes wrong with this one I'll have to scrap the poor thing makes me mad.

[Jeff V]

I think plasma killed itself for being rather sucky? IIRC, it suffered from burn-in issues and the picture quality would fade over time. Plus it was a more expensive technology. You might as well be railing against the demise of 78's and 8-track tapes.

[Daehawk]

In 2010 we went to buy a plasma tv but they were out so we got a bigger LCD one. All I recall on plasma was burn in and they got really hot.

[Drazzil]

I think plasma killed itself for being rather sucky? IIRC, it suffered from burn-in issues and the picture quality would fade over time. Plus it was a more expensive technology. You might as well be railing against the demise of 78's and 8-track tapes.

No picture fade or burn in issues on mine.

[Jeff V]

When I worked for a hospital, we bought a plasma for an informational display in the physician's lounge. The info being displayed was a Powerpoint where all of the slides had the same framing. That framing burned-in within a week....this was a $6000 TV. Back then I had a wide-screen CRT TV, but after witnessing what happened with this plasma, I vowed never to invest in it. I replaced the CRT TV with an LCD that is still going strong.

[Drazzil]

When I worked for a hospital, we bought a plasma for an informational display in the physician's lounge. The info being displayed was a Powerpoint where all of the slides had the same framing. That framing burned-in within a week....this was a $6000 TV. Back then I had a wide-screen CRT TV, but after witnessing what happened with this plasma, I vowed never to invest in it. I replaced the CT TV with an LCD that is still going strong.

Ouch! Well I do notice images tend to retain on my tv but I never let things stay on my screen longer then a few hours. When I turn it off it clears.

[Smoove_B]

7 reasons for the death of plasma TVs. I think you've covered most of them already.

[Alefroth]

If I had to go out on a limb, I'd say better, cheaper TVs killed them.

[McNutt]

I have a 50" Panasonic plasma TV. It's great. Deep blacks, no picture fade, wide viewing angle. Compared to today's LED TVs, no comparison. The LEDs beat it in every way.

That's the way it goes.

[Kraken]

The Betamax of televisions? Plasma vs LED was a conundrum when we last bought a TV 15 years ago...IIRC, we rejected plasma because of the heat/power problem, because they were more expensive, and because it looked like a dead-end technology. The marketplace was already moving on that long ago, when projection TV diehards were still dying hard.

[Drazzil]

The Betamax of televisions?

LED's still don't do as well with colors or refresh rates do they?

[Torfish]

I have a 40 (maybe it's a 42 inch) Panasonic Viera. I bought and installed it on a wall mount in our living room around 2007. It's our main TV that we have watched every day since. There is a minor glitch that started about three years ago. About a half inch area on the screen is off-color (greenish), but you can only see when the TV is displaying something bright. Barely noticeable.

I remember the first year we watched a lot of cartoon network and the cartoon network symbol burned in a little. It didn't last long, but I do remember it happening.

I hope it lasts another three years. The kids will be out of the house, so planning to downsize. I don't want to mess with buying another TV and drag it to another house. It works perfectly and other than the barely noticeable 1/2 inch area the picture looks great, so no reason to replace it.

[pr0ner]

The Betamax of televisions?

LED's still don't do as well with colors or refresh rates do they?

OLEDs are better than plasmas.

The high end non-OLEDs are capable of showing far more colors than a plasma, too. HDR is a wonderful thing.

Plasma has been left in the dust.

[FishPants]

I won a TCL TV (Series 6) at a charity golf tournament this year which I used to replace a really old LCD -- but I used to have a Panasonic Viera plasma as well that finally died a few years ago. Anyways I'm blown away at how good the picture is on the TCL panel, for a 'discount' name I'd wager it's leaps and bounds better than the Samsung LCD that cost 4 times as much as the TCL does (granted it's about 4 years old -- but it's HDR too).

[Lassr]

I won a TCL TV (Series 6) at a charity golf tournament this year which I used to replace a really old LCD -- but I used to have a Panasonic Viera plasma as well that finally died a few years ago. Anyways I'm blown away at how good the picture is on the TCL panel, for a 'discount' name I'd wager it's leaps and bounds better than the Samsung LCD that cost 4 times as much as the TCL does (granted it's about 4 years old -- but it's HDR too).

Yep, we bought a 55" TCL from Costco with built in Roku and it has been fantastic with a great picture. Had it a year now with no problems.

[El Guapo]

It was Ms. Scarlet with the LCDs in the Marketplace.

[Daehawk]

Just remember smart tvs are watching everything you do.

[stessier]

Just remember smart tvs are watching everything you do.

So is your ISP and web browser.

[gameoverman]

Plasma tvs were great in my opinion. They do have downsides which I think made them less attractive to the average consumer. By 'average consumer' I mean people who are happy with something that is 'good enough'. The plasma tvs I've seen have fans to keep cool, these fans can make a low but definitely audible noise. Plasma tvs are also affected by glare a lot more than leds. You have to be careful where you place them or the picture can get wiped out by light falling across the screen. Also, plasma tvs were thicker and heavier. The average consumer will like the thin and light led screen much more.

The upside of the plasma, a better quality image in terms of color accuracy and performance in dark scenes, is lost on people who just want 'good enough'.

[ImLawBoy]

Plasma tvs were great in my opinion. They do have downsides which I think made them less attractive to the average consumer. By 'average consumer' I mean people who are happy with something that is 'good enough'. The plasma tvs I've seen have fans to keep cool, these fans can make a low but definitely audible noise. Plasma tvs are also affected by glare a lot more than leds. You have to be careful where you place them or the picture can get wiped out by light falling across the screen. Also, plasma tvs were thicker and heavier. The average consumer will like the thin and light led screen much more.

The upside of the plasma, a better quality image in terms of color accuracy and performance in dark scenes, is lost on people who just want 'good enough'.

It's funny, but you list a number of flaws of the plasma TV, and then seem to denigrate those who want better than those flaws as settling for "good enough".

[gameoverman]

Plasma tvs were great in my opinion. They do have downsides which I think made them less attractive to the average consumer. By 'average consumer' I mean people who are happy with something that is 'good enough'. The plasma tvs I've seen have fans to keep cool, these fans can make a low but definitely audible noise. Plasma tvs are also affected by glare a lot more than leds. You have to be careful where you place them or the picture can get wiped out by light falling across the screen. Also, plasma tvs were thicker and heavier. The average consumer will like the thin and light led screen much more.

The upside of the plasma, a better quality image in terms of color accuracy and performance in dark scenes, is lost on people who just want 'good enough'.

It's funny, but you list a number of flaws of the plasma TV, and then seem to denigrate those who want better than those flaws as settling for "good enough".

I probably should have been clearer. The flaws in the plasma aren't in image quality vs led. Image quality is what I was referring to with 'good enough'. If what the plasma offers you is better image quality, but you don't care because you're happy as long as the image quality is good enough, then you won't buy a plasma tv. It turns out that lighter, thinner, cooler tvs are what most people seemed to prioritize. That's what I think killed plasma tv. If I'm buying a display, I prioritize image quality, within my budget of course, but not everyone does or did.

[Blackhawk]

I like to look at the TV's. Mostly to sneer. Too bright, too dark, colors too off, too much glare. ]

Most of that isn't flaws in the TV. The manufacturer knows that they'll be on a wall with dozens of others under bright lighting, and they want theirs to stand out. So, they crank every color an brightness setting as much as they can to wow the person (which is most of them) who buys based on what they see on the wall rather than researching what's good in their living room. It's why any TV purchase requires some time to be spent calibrating them once you get them home. I always cringe when I go into someone's house and they have their TV with the showroom floor preset. Not as much as I cringe when the horizontally stretch the picture so there are no side bars on old shows, but still.

[hitbyambulance]

Not as much as I cringe when the horizontally stretch the picture so there are no side bars on old shows

i have never understood this. for these people, 'using up the whole screen' is better than not having horizontally distended images.

[gameoverman]

Non calibrated display? Stretched picture? Watching tv and getting your audio from the tv's built in speakers? Those are the 'good enough' people I wrote about. The out of the box picture quality has to be truly terrible for them to want to adjust it. Even then they'll adjust it so their favorite show looks they want it to look. This means everything else will be way off. They want everything stretched because it means the image is as large as possible. Non stretched means the characters and their faces, etc, will be smaller with a lot of wasted space on the screen. Audio quality from the tv speakers is good enough to get the job done so they use that. It's tough to sell a certain type of tv to someone like that just because the image quality is better.