Samsung Announces End To Plasma Displays

Tornado Red

Not sure if this has been discussed here yet or not. Following suit with Panasonic, making LG the only game player left...and one could surmise they won't last long...though they appear to have cornered the market

Apparently, after Panasonic made their announcement, the price of VT and ZT displays went up. Anyone thinking they might like to grab a Samsung F8500 probably should move quickly. Sad news, really. Here is a quote from AVS:

"According to Reuters UK, Samsung SDI Corp. is exiting the plasma business. It's a very short article that lists November 30th as the target date for the shutdown. In the Reuters piece, a statement from Samsung blames the decision on a decline in demand for plasma displays. Last year, Samsung's own UNxxF8500 plasma line was often cited as one of the best-performing TVs ever made, whereas the curved screen LED-edgelit LCD UHDTVs taking its place are an unknown quantity."

...further reading here:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/01/us-samsung-sdi-plasma-idUKKBN0F62W620140701

Tornado Red

Further to this....just me thinking out loud, but one could assume that LG does not make everything "in house" for their plasma displays, buying various parts from 3rd parties, perhaps even Panasonic/Samsung themselves. To this end, as the parts dry up with the demise of the other 2 makers, I would think that may put the last nail in plasma's coffin forcing LG to withdraw from this line of displays as well. Damn.

Conradicles

Sucks

F1nut

It's hard to believe that the general public prefers the vastly inferior picture of an LCD/LED TV set.

FTGV

Sad development but not surprising.I hope my Panny lasts a few years.I would hate to have to replace it with one of those retina burners.

BlueFox

I seem to remember reading recently that Panasonic has new LED TVs that equal their, now discontinued, plasmas. I don't remember if these were prototypes, or production models.

pglbook

I am glad that my older 42" TV died last year and I replaced it with a new 60" Panasonic plasma 7 months ago. I was not happy at the time that my other TV died after only 4-5 years but I am now glad it did because I guess I just made it in time to buy the last of the plasmas.

I love my Panasonic plasma. It has incredible picture quality, vastly superior to any LED TV.

My wife and I went over to a friend's house last week and watched a movie on his huge 70" LG LED TV. When we got home, my wife, who never comments on audio or video quality, made the remark that our plasma TV has so much of a better picture than his LED TV. That spoke volumes.

Hermitism

BlueFox wrote: »

I seem to remember reading recently that Panasonic has new LED TVs that equal their, now discontinued, plasmas.

Were they referring to being equal in quality or price? I know the prices have dropped substantially. I paid $1600 for my Sony TV six years ago and now you could buy an equivalent Sony for probably $500. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it.

Hermitism

nbrowser wrote: »

I'll give the nod to plasma TVs having stunning picture quality, but I chose against plasma when I bought my 55 inch LED backlit TV for one compelling reason, heat.

Same here. Mine was going in a small spare bedroom and I had more than one salesperson tell me that the plasmas will heat up a small room and some have fans that are annoyingly loud. The newer plasmas are supposed to be much better than the ones six years ago.

BlueFox

Hermitism wrote: »

Were they referring to being equal in quality or price? I know the prices have dropped substantially. I paid $1600 for my Sony TV six years ago and now you could buy an equivalent Sony for probably $500. It make me sick to my stomach thinking about it.

This was in regard to picture quality. I don't remember the prices. I think it is in one of the magazines I subscribe to, and I will see if I can find it this weekend.

F1nut

What heat? What fan noise?

My Panny barely gets warm and if it has fans, I've never heard them. You see, that's the problem with sales people that have no clue and you can thank those morons for the lack of plasma sales.

F1nut

BlueFox wrote: »

I seem to remember reading recently that Panasonic has new LED TVs that equal their, now discontinued, plasmas. I don't remember if these were prototypes, or production models.

I believe you are referring to OLED, which has enough problems that to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any on the market.

Toolfan66

Plasma for the win, humm wonder if I should pick one up..

Emlyn

My Panasonic plasma TV from several years ago does put out a lot of heat and does have fans that run to keep it cool. It also weighs a lot. Newer plasma TV's corrected those flaws somewhat. They are still around 40-60 percent more energy demanding than similarly sized LED TVs though. But, that's only a few dollars per year on the energy bill and does equal slightly more of a warming factor a room because of the higher energy consumption.

I think it's a pretty simple decision for the companies to abandon plasma TVs if they aren't selling well in the mass market in comparison to what the manufacturers want to push, which is 4K resolution TVs. As far as I know plasma TVs can't get to that resolution.

LG does still have a couple of OLED TVs on the market but they have been deeply discounted and are still very expensive. And, they don't do 4K resolution.

Tornado Red

My son picked up a Samsung 60" LCD/LED edge lit within the last year (he's already had 2 screen replacements under warranty). The first time I saw it at his house, I told him he should think about getting it calibrated. He said already he did. Oops. I have a 60" Panny (only the ST model) and when he comes over now he says he wished he had gotten a plasma. I like the colours better, but the big winner over LCD/LED is the blacks on plasma.....ohhh how great anything black looks!

mantis

F1nut wrote: »

What heat? What fan noise?

My Panny barely gets warm and if it has fans, I've never heard them. You see, that's the problem with sales people that have no clue and you can thank those morons for the lack of plasma sales.

You can add power consumption to that list. These are the strong points salesman are teaching their customers. Plasma sales have been dropping due to it over the years. Plasma is basically dead now. No one except a very small percent of people actually want one.
It's sad that the common person who goes out to buy a TV gets steered into the LED direction.

tonyb

Power consumption shouldn't be an issue. With everything else the average consumer has plugged in these days ? Power consumption....then your going to plug in amps and a cast of other stereo gear ?

Salesmen look for any minute possibility to stroke a consumer.

How about if they decided class A/B amps are too power consuming and your only choice would be ice amps ?

tophatjohnny

Yes, I appreciate my Plasma, but too, appreciate my LED sets as well. The best picture in my house in my new Samsung UN55F9000 UHD set by a mile. One thing people miss (and where this technology may not work for all) your internet speed will need to maintain at least 16MB while up scaling) so if your service is there, no Plasma can get in the ring with it. Close yes, but no cigar. Then when comparing movies that were mastered in 4K to anything else, well...you just can't. As as for the curve.....I just sat through a demo on the same size as I have and and now know I will get one in a few years when they come down in price,,and they will!

Conradicles

I just got finished with an in home demo of a Samsung plasma. It was this model:
http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/PN60F5300BFXZA

All I can say is that for the retail price of $799 for a 60" this TV is a steal (As long as your room is not too bright).

My in home demo included several TV's (thanks Best Buy for being patient with me) one of them being a very highly rated LED (will not name names to be polite). None of these TV's could beat me Pioneer Kuro. It was an eye opening experience.

This new 64" Samsung plasma is very well reviewed and should have similar performance to the unit I tested in home:
http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/PN64H5000AFXZA

Years ago I told myself I would never buy a Samsung TV due to the bad experience I had. These budget plasma's made me rethink that stance. I would not hesitate to pick up the 64" model and buy the extended warranty.

EndersShadow

F1nut wrote: »

What heat? What fan noise?

My Panny barely gets warm and if it has fans, I've never heard them. You see, that's the problem with sales people that have no clue and you can thank those morons for the lack of plasma sales.

Yup. I have a 60" Panasonic Plasma. The ONLY thing I hate is that I couldnt afford the GT model so I have a ST. The colors get fairly washed out in bright light and due to having 3 windows on one side of the room, we unfortunatly get some glare.

I am debating looking into having someone come and calibrate it professionaly at some point.

However when watching a movie at night, its impossible to beat how nice it looks.

I also HATE HATE HATE HATE playing Xbox 360 on a LCD. Almost all of them have some sort of un-natural look to them where I am done moving the joystick, but the TV keeps moving an extra second or two throwing my aim off.

Even my wife commented that she hates my parents LCD TV as it just makes everything look "wrong". I believe its due to the fact that every LCD TV is now hyped for its 240hz refresh rate or whatever, which is inherently adding frames via software.

I may have to look at picking up a Plasma now so I have another one for when this one goes out.

Fongolio

I've had plasma since I first ditched CRT years ago. I will miss it until an even better picture technology comes along for the masses. My computer monitors have been lcd/led for years though.

gce

Yeah, this sucks. before I got a flat panel I did a lot of research and to me it was a no brainer. Plasma was the only way to go. I've never had an LCD or any other. When my sister comes over see always tells me how good my TV looks, see has an LCD.

Just don't understand why more people didn't buy plasmas over LCD's. I guess it's like women and sound systems, they just don't care for a better picture.

jhw59

I love both my panny plasmas but one is several years old and really needs an upgrade (well, that is one opinion in our house). I guess I'd better think about opening this up for debate again. After all, we spent big bucks on our new kitchen so maybe I have some ammunition.

badchad

The problem I experienced when moving to LED was a lack of head-to-head comparison.

None of the stores I went to (even the local mom and pop home theater store) had comparably calibrated sets to allow a direct comparison of plasma to LED. I was told that all sets appeared as they do "out of the box."

So in my experience, despite all the advantages of plasma, I just didn't see all the benefits and I went with the slightly increased size LED offers.

JerryR1verz

I have a one year old Panny plasma - I'm glad I bought it, like it a lot. When you hear the news about plasma going away, for those who own a plasma, are you glad you have one before they are gone? or will it be hard to find service/ parts and becomes a problem? Do you think they will appreciate in value or become something that no one wants?

pitdogg2

F1nut wrote: »

What heat? What fan noise?

My Panny barely gets warm and if it has fans, I've never heard them. You see, that's the problem with sales people that have no clue and you can thank those morons for the lack of plasma sales.

My Panny will heat up a room no doubt. Mine has no fan either. Well one day in BB i was just looking and was approached by a salesperson. Long story short talked about TV's told him I love my Panasonic plasma when asked how old it was I said 6yrs THEN I was told that in 2 more yrs I'd need to have the gas exchanged and the cost was much more than a new TV so I should start looking NOW...God I thought they where going to call the wambalance as I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath...When i got my air back I took it to the mgmt. sadly they too told me that the gas does degrade....I was done!! that is why the public is so misinformed...

tophatjohnny

pitdogg2 wrote: »

My Panny will heat up a room no doubt. Mine has no fan either. Well one day in BB i was just looking and was approached by a salesperson. Long story short talked about TV's told him I love my Panasonic plasma when asked how old it was I said 6yrs THEN I was told that in 2 more yrs I'd need to have the gas exchanged and the cost was much more than a new TV so I should start looking NOW...God I thought they where going to call the wambalance as I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath...When i got my air back I took it to the mgmt. sadly they too told me that the gas does degrade....I was done!! that is why the public is so misinformed...

That is one funny right there. OMgoodness!

Msabot1

The gas does degrade...however something else is likely to go wrong before you notice any difference....

pitdogg2

Msabot1 wrote: »

The gas does degrade...however something else is likely to go wrong before you notice any difference....

all true but as you said the "gas" will be fine but everything else will be toast...


" Panasonic states that PDPs will consume only half the power of their previous series of plasma sets to achieve the same overall brightness for a given display size. The lifetime of the latest generation of plasma displays is estimated at 100,000 hours of actual display time, or 27 years at 10 hours per day. This is the estimated time over which maximum picture brightness degrades to half the original value"

tonyb

My Pioneer Kuro plasma is still going strong without a hiccup. Salesmen....they'll sell their own mother down the river to make a sale, some anyway. I haven't bought any electronics from BB in probably a decade because of the lack of knowledge there and their return policies.

Mikey081057

I just ordered a Samsung 64" plasma to replace my sony 55" led... the one thing I notice about LED especially the bigger ones is that the blacks kinda suck and they are slow.... figured I might as well get one before they are gone....I missed out on the Panny's...