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All Plasma HDTV Reviews

• Hitachi P50T501 Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Hitachi P60X901 Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• LG 50PY3D Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• LG 60PG60 Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Panasonic TH-42PZ700U HDTV Plasma Reviewed
• Panasonic TH-50PZ800U Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Panasonic TH-50PZ850U Plasma HDTV Reviewed
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• Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-141FD Plasma HD Monitor Reviewed
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• Pioneer KURO PDP-4280HD Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Plasma HDTV Reveiws & "Wiki" Information
• Runco PlasmaWall XP-103DHD 103-Inch Plasma Reviewed
• Runco PlasmaWall XP-65DHD 65-Inch Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Samsung PN50A550 Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Vizio JV50P "Jive" Plasma HDTV Reviewed
• Vizio VP322 32-inch Plasma HDTV Reviewed

Plasma HDTV Wiki

1.0 The Cultural and Economic Impact of Plasma HDTVs
2.0 The Basics of How a Plasma Works
3.0 Which is HDTV Better: Plasma or LCD?
4.0 Installing a Plasma HDTV

1.0 The Cultural and Economic Impact of Plasma HDTVs
Flat HDTVs (and even EDTVs - which were mostly non-HD plasmas), led by plasma technology, changed the way the world looked at the all-important component known as a television. Gone was the hulking rear-projection set that took up volumes of increasingly valuable living room real estate and in was a wafer-thin HDTV measuring a mere four inches thick that could hang on the wall like a painting.

In the early days of plasma TVs in the marketplace, the sets were only for the rich, as a 50-inch plasma HDTV cost upwards of $20,000. However, as mainstream consumers bought more and more of the TVs, the price dropped precipitously. Today, nearly seven years since the commercial launch of plasma TVs, sets are affordable for nearly everyone and sold in easy to access stores like Costco and Wal-Mart for well under $1,000 for a sizable set.

Some AV industry analysts suggest that the rise in popularity and the ensuing fall in price of plasma HDTVs was the cause of death for many of the brick-and-mortar specialty audio dealers. These dealers loved how easy it was to sell the sexy new video technology, but once the prices dropped below a certain threshold (some say $4,000 per set), these dealers couldn't make money working on the lower margins at low volumes. Enter in Wal-Mart and Costco, along with Best Buy and Circuit City. With tremendous downward pressure on the price, the margins on flat HDTVs shrunk to less than three percent in some cases. Dealers who got away with selling 50 percent profit margin audio products could no longer make their businesses operate effectively on these new, lower margins, and many closed.

2.0 The Basics of How a Plasma Works
The way a plasma HDTV works is that "noble" gases (remember those from chemistry class?) interact with cells in between two relatively large pieces of glass. When electricity is introduced to the gas and cells, they turn into plasma that has phosphors that can emit light.

3.0 Which is HDTV Better: Plasma or LCD?
The term "plasma" has become the ubiquitous term for a flat HDTV, despite the fact that there are two major technologies driving the flat HDTV market today, with others being developed for future technologies such as OLED.

Plasma HDTVs are thought by video calibrators to have the best "blacks," as promoted by Plasma Supporter with their line of KURO sets (KURO means black in Japanese). In a darker room, the blacker blacks allow for more contrast, which creates a more three-dimensional-looking HDTV image.

LCD HDTVs are generally sold for premises that might have more ambient light in the room, as they tend to be able to make a brighter picture than other HDTV technologies.

To date, both formats have been honed to a point where they make fine HDTV images, so most people pick one of the best sets in the biggest size they can afford. If you pick a premium brand, get it professionally calibrated and hook up a Blu-ray player for a 1080p video source - you can't lose.

4.0 Installing a Plasma HDTV
Even though a plasma HDTV looks like a picture you can hang on the wall, it is a heavy, sensitive video display device that will be rendered useless if it is dropped, and therefore it requires firm mounting, wherever it is placed.

There are mounts for plasma HDTVs that can get the HDTV close to the wall. Other mounts allow the set to move on an arm to accommodate different seating positions and heights.

Some people build small niches in their drywall to accommodate the depth (including a little room to breathe) around their set.

In very high-end installations, some clients use a lift built into a cabinet that can stow the plasma under the bed and slowly swing the set up to a viewing spot right at the foot.