Sony and Sharp Backing LCD TVs Over Plasma?

LostCluster writes "Several reports out of Toyko are indicating that Sony intends on dropping out of the plasma TV business and ramping up productions of LCD TVs instead. Meanwhile rumors have it that Sharp is planning on investing US$1.9 billion on an LCD production plant."

Will this bring prices down?

[jmcmunn]

I have been looking at LCD Tv's for my home for the past few months. Unfortunately up until this point the plasmas have been slightly more in my price range for the size I am looking for. Will this shift to LCD technology cause the plasmas to come down in price, because they are "outdated" technology, or will we see the LCD prices come down because there is more production?

Also, any Slashdotters have recommendations on going with a plasma vs an lcd? Power usage, heat, image quality, overall life of product?

Not profitable?

[FiReaNGeL]

Jeez... if it's not profitable at the insane price plasma TV sells, I guess it won't be profitable anytime soon...

Early adopters might get burned on this one... we don't even know how long they last yet. How can a plasma screen fail? LCDs get annoying stuck pixels, CRT just pass out... what about plasma? Do we have an estimated life expectancy on those?

well...

[selderrr]

... reports ... indicating ... intends ... rumors ... planning ...

let's wait for real info shall we ?
Plasma is in a stadium now where LCD was a few years back : cool technology but stuck in the circle of expensive->low sales->expensive->...

Give it some time.

Seems to make sense

[ocelotbob]

Plasma TVs always had the appearance of being a niche item to me; only useful for when the cost and logistics of making a big LCD got overly prohibitive. I've got a feeling other makers are going to follow suit as well as LCD technology allows for larger, better screens than before. It just seems more beneficial to have one line that scales than two very separate technologies that require you to diverge your resources.

Re:Will this bring prices down?

[CountBrass]

I wouldn't touch a plasma screen with a barge pole: after only two years of use the brightness will be down to less than half of what it was when you bought it.

If I didn't already have a 54" back projection TV I'd be in the market for a decent LCD screen.

That said: LCD displays rely on (non-user replacable) fluorescent(?) tubes and they can blow or dim as well: but from what I've seen LCDs are much cheaper than plasma screens.

Re:Not profitable?

[DrSkwid]

how on earth does anyone know that a plasma TV will last 15 years ?

A wise decision

[Kosi]

These plasma screens are inferior in so many ways:

- less lifetime
- more power consumption / heat
- less resolution
- deteriorating display quality

Is there even only one discipline where the point goes to plasma?

Plasma is overrated

[TheRealFixer]

Makes sense. Plasma TVs are not really worth it, money-wise. Beautiful picture, yes, but they have a fairly limited lifespan as the gas starts to lose its charge. I couldn't justify thousands of dollars that I'd have to end up spending again in a few years as the picture fades.

Good News

[twalls]

This is good news considering one of my Sony plasmas refused to turn on after only a year (instead flashing an error code). After months of fighting Sony for support, they finally shipped a refurbished replacement from one end of the US to the other. This unit was purchased from Sound Advice as a consumer product and yet was treated as an "industrial" product, from both companies, when the need for support came along.

Brightness and noise

[gilesjuk]

Will LCD avoid the need for cooling fans or will the required brightness for a larger screen mean brighter backlights and therefore more heat?

DLP

[Anonymous Coward]

With all these comments about Plasma Vs LCD I'm surprised no-one has weighed in with an opinion about DLP.

Sure, you can't hang a rear projection unit on the wall... but with DLP having better resolution, contrast, and brightness than Plasma... and without the burn-in issues of Plasma (or the convergance issues of older projection units) it seems an outstanding choice for screen sizes over 40"

We went with LCDs

[Therlin]

We were looking at installing some displays around the offices to show news, PR, etc (you know, that "modern look" you see everywhere).

After some reasearch we chose LCDs due to the aging and burn-in issues of Plasma TVs. An LCD would be more expensive, but give us a much better life.

Other offices went with Plasma TVs instead. Fast forward a few years, now they are complaining about brightness issues, logo burn-ins, etc and they are budgeting to replace them. Our LCDs are happily chugging along.

So these news, true or not, do not come as a surprise to me.

Re:Will this bring prices down?

[caswelmo]

I love (but am not "in love with") circuit city employees (not managers). I've had great luck with their people knowing about the products and telling me stuff that would probably be considered bad for their managers to know about. That's why I drive a little bit extra to go there instead of Best Buy or similar stores.

One time I had a Circuit City guy tell me all about home theater options. He told me the Sony stuff pretty much sucked for the price. He then offered me alternatives. I left and thought about my choices some. It was nice to get the real scoop on the products.

When I came back the next day the salesperson that helped me was actually a manager. He started pushing Sony so I told him what the person had said the day before. He got all indignant and wanted to know who that salesperson was. He said that Sony could punish the store for that sort of thing. When I asked him if they were forced to lie about all of their products & weren't actually interested in helping the customer get the best item, I was met by 10 seconds of silence. When he started into backtrack mode I politely informed him that since he was an asshole I would just go purchase my product online. That started an array of managers and owners trying to "help" me. It was awesome.

The regular employees are great though.

Re:Kibbee

[plague3106]

Ok, i actually own a Sony WEGA 36", and its NOT 250lbs. Its still heavy, weighing in at 100lbs, but lets not over exaggerate here.

Re:Makes sense!

[MtViewGuy]

I think what will relagate plasma displays to the dustbin of history will be a combination of cheaper rear-projection TV's using DLP, HD-ILA or LCD projection technology and the arrival of long-life Organic LED diplays over the next 24 months.

Anyone who's seen the current Samsung HL-5063W DLP projection TV knows they've finally mastered the problems that plagued earlier DLP sets; for picture quality the current Samsung DLP sets are hard to beat. =)

Whatever happened to Sony's GLV?

[jmichaelg]

A year before the dot com bust, Sony bought the display rights to Silicon Light's [siliconlight.com] GLV technology. GLV is a reflective grid that can dynamically steer laser light onto a wall. They were talking about 1080p x 1920 real resolution [siliconlight.com] back then. Native 1080i x 1920 alone is still rare and as far as I know, no display technology available today is delivering 1080p.

The GLV itself isn't tough to build so I'm curious what the hang up was in getting GLV displays to market. Do lasers die young or did Sony just buy it to kill a competing technology?

Re:LCD over Plasma? No brainer...

[ad0gg]

You can get 3 chips DLP sets out there. Usually 10% more than 1 chip ones. I really couldn't tell the difference though and went with the 1 chip DLP.