Large LCD panel TVs to compete with plasmas
When we went shopping for our 42" plasma a year or two back we found that the largest LCD flat screen TV was only 30" at the Sony Style store in San Francisco. The Sony plasmas were new and improved and didn't have the burn-in problem of earlier plasma TVs where the pixels representing a stationary image would leave a permanent mark behind called ghosting. Supposedly the newer, better quality plasma TVs address this problem by moving the stationary pixels just enough to not have the burn in problem according to this PC World story.
Since then larger LCD TVs have arrived in stores in more variety and sizes. And we recently bought a smaller LCD flat panel TV for a second room. (Although we can't seem to get the colors to work on the HD selection. Seems to work fine when we switch to normal TV.) LCD TVs are especially great if you're connecting your PC to it as well and viewing text and graphics besides video -- the image can be brighter, crisper.
And according to the same PC World story, LCDs last longer than plasmas -- 50,000 hours vs 30,000 for today's plasma. So if you watch TV for five hours each day (or at least leave it on that long with CNN in the background, for example), then your plasma TV may last only for 6000 days or 16-1/2 years. OK, so that's not really an issue here! :) And supposedly LCDs look better during the day while plasmas look better at night.
This new $2B venture between Samsung and Sony should give larger size (42" and above) LCD TVs a big boost! According to a Wall Street Journal story today (subscription required):
Caught behind in flat-screen TV technology, Sony last October turned to Samsung for help, agreeing to pay half the cost of a $2 billion factory Samsung was already building near the small town of Asan, about 60 miles south of Seoul. The companies formed a 50-50 joint venture, dubbed S-LCD Corp., that will share the factory's output of 40- and 46-inch liquid crystal display, or LCD, panels for use in flat-screen TVs....Indeed, the venture could play an important role in the future of both Samsung and Sony as TV manufacturing undergoes a historic transition. LCD-TVs [and plasma?] are likely to become the most popular among a new breed of TV sets that are slimmer and better-looking than today's bulky tube models. LCD-TVs account for just under 5% of annual world-wide TV sales today, but that's expected to triple by 2008. In developed countries, they may constitute the majority of TV sales within a decade.