Plasma - The Cindrella of the Television World
This is not another LCD Plasma debate.It is my small attempt to appreciate the much ignored Plasma TVs. Even now there is no TV in this world is able to produce Ultimate black and almost Infinite contrast ratio produced by Pioneers kuros which are still claimed to be the worlds best HDTV since 2008.They say panasonic is nearing the pinnacle but not yet.
The still-unsurpassed black-level performance of Pioneer's Kuro plasmas are attributed to two technologies : MgO coating on phosphor layer( a protective layer in PDP ) and spatial discharge( used for
luminous efficacy). But it is not yet known that panasonic is using these or not ( because it acquired Pioneer and most of its engineers ) , or it may reserved those for forthcoming VT models , who knows !.
What Panasonic has been trying hard is to improve
luminous efficacy of its panel which is the key to produce brighter ,low power consumption and low cost panels with higher grayscale gradations.
The reasons why plasmas lost ground to LCD are plenty like cheaper and brighter LCD panels,image retention, smaller screen size of LCD. Despite all the odds,Plasma has inherent advantages like motion performance, higher contrast ratio, deeper blacks, and low cost at larger sizes.
When plasmas lost ground to LCD TVs and Pioneers net loss of around 750 millions (during 2009) ,it not only gave up Plasma but also its LCD production !.
These are some of relevant ,old but good urls for reference:
Pioneer plasmas promise deepest black levels yet
Panasonic plasma black-level loss measured in long-term test
Pioneers Kuro Killing: A Tipping Point in the Plasma Era
Panasonic TC-P54V10 Reviewed: Worthy Successor to Pioneer Kuro
Teaching plasma to follow LCD's lead
The Future Still Looks Bright for Plasma TVs