Pix was right - Plasma is.....

[Woochifer]

All plasma will soon be gone except maybe boutique stuff:

Plasma has:

• Burn in issues - not bad anymore, but still present.
• Problems above 6,000 foot altitude - Voltage too high with arc over problems.
• Finite life.
• A picture that dims a little every year.
• A problem with the best colors due to limited supply of rare earth phosphors.
• Excessive power consumption - Some states are considering banning the technology outright.
• Will never be cheap or light, too much glass.

I still love my LED DLP, best colors of all, bright, dirt cheap ($989 includes shipping for 56" Samsung on line). It has no moving parts, no fan. I don't think 120Hz sets are out yet, but screen draw time is so fast, 120Hz or faster refresh is a non issue.

You're passing off quite a bit of old info here. The newer plasma sets are rated for 100,000 hours, which is nearly double what they were rated for just two years ago. And the three-year failure rate on plasma sets are now down to 1% to 5%, depending on the brand, which IIRC is a lot lower than the range for RPTVs and the plasma sets made just a few years ago.

I don't know where you talk about never being "cheap or light" given that plasma has maintained a consistent price advantage over LCD. And with regard to energy consumption, the latest Panasonic sets that were introduced at CES lower the energy consumption by 33% to more than 50%, while doubling the maximum light output on their high end model. Other models from Samsung and LG are expected to follow suit as everybody introduces thinner plasma panels.

Talking about something being "gone," I would expect that DLP RPTVs' demise will occur first, considering that it's basically Samsung and Mitsubishi carrying the entire market now. Unlike plasma, which had year-to-year growth rate of about 30% last quarter, the DLP RPTV market has been shrinking rather rapidly.

The Plasma sets dimming varies, one older model lost almost 50% of light output in 5 years. I think the new ones are probably better, but the effect is due to trace elements left in an imperfect vacuum coating the inside of the plasma glass screen with a brownish haze. It is impossible to reduce the effect to zero.

How long ago was this plasma model that you're referring to introduced? Anything from more than five years ago is a far cry from what the more recent plasma sets are doing. My parents' set is four years old, and I haven't even had to change any of the calibration settings, which means that any loss of light output is beyond the range of the calibration disc I use.