Yesterday, Panasonic provided a press demonstration of its new 2012 plasmas and LCDs. The big news: a dark room, side by side comparison of the new VT50 against the 2011 VT30 plasma; other new plasma tech demos and a new white 32-inch LCD. News out of Korea claims a May debut date and a price on LG’s upcoming 55-Inch OLED, our industry insider says the information is wrong. Details after the break.
Panasonic
The TC-P55VT50 is due to ship next month. Panasonic now has officially posted the retail price of this model and other models . For the list go here.
Panasonic explained how the 2012 plasmas can reproduce many more shades of grey (see photo) as well as why the new plasmas have deeper blacks (photo above).
The biggest news: in a side by side comparison of last year’s VT30 and the new VT50 showed far deeper blacks (top photo). We measured .004 ft. lamberts on our TC-P55VT30 after 200 hours of break-in. The demo VT50 model’s blacks were deeper, we estimate about one-third the brightness of the VT30 which would put the blacks below .002 ft lamberts and at last, equal or beat the best Pioneer Kuro level. SpectraCal was demonstrating its latest ISF CCC auto calibration software, and you can see the sensor probe dangling in the middle of the screen and its software display in the lower left of the photo.
Panasonic on increased the number of equivalent gradient steps of black to white from 6144 in 2011 to 24,576 on its 2012 GT and VT series models resulting in better dark detail. For more on Panasonic’s 2012 plasma technologies go here. 
The latest Panasonic LCD is a 32-Inch model for designed for kitchens (photo above) and finished in white.
LG OLED News
According to Maeil Business News out of Korea is the LG 55EM9600 55-Inch OLED (link) will make its retail sale announcement at the Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27) at a price $7928.91 (at the current won exchange rate). This article conflicts with our latest information.
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A well placed industry source told the HD Guru the 55EM9600 OLED will make a later debut, sometime in Q3 at a price that has not yet been determined . We will keep tracking OLED developments as LG and Samsung race to win the honors of first large screen OLED to market.
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