In a new twist to HDTV marketing, Pioneer Electronics has decided to boost the sales of its Pro-FHD1 ($8000 retail) 50″ 1080p plasma monitor by throwing in “free” its latest 1365 x768p 50″ HDTV Plasma TV (PDP-5016) with every 1080p panel purchased. While I wonder how many people come in to aan electronics retailer to buy plasma HDTV and want to take home two, a dealer I spoke with says his customers are responding with 3x increase in sales.
Here are the details as posted on the Pioneer website.
Consumer Plasma Panel Promotion
This is a limited time promotion starting January 8, 2007 until supplies last
or March 31, 2007, whichever occurs first.
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., in conjunction with Participating Authorized Elite Dealers, is pleased to announce a unique Consumer Plasma Panel Promotion.
For a limited time only, purchase a Pioneer® Elite® Model PRO-FHD1 from a participating authorized Elite Dealer in the 50 United States and receive a 50†High Definition Plasma from that same dealer, model Pioneer PDP-5016HD, for FREE. This is for consumer purchases only.
Both models must be delivered to Consumer by Dealer from Dealer’s inventory.
Not all Pioneer authorized Elite Dealers may be participating in this promotion. Pioneer will not be fulfilling any free PDP-5016HD units directly to the Consumer.
Pioneer Elite Dealer’s are NOT authorized to sell Elite products via Internet.
Copyright 2007 hdguru.com (sm) all rights reserved
It is too bad people can’t read. Pioneer is eventually going to discontinue production of plasma panels. That does not mean they will discontinue the production of plasma televisions. They will simply procure panels from another manufacturer who will build them to Pioneer’s specs. This is not unusual. Very few tv manufacturers make their own panels, whether it be plasma or lcd. In fact Sony buys many panels from Sharp and are working an agreement with Samsung. Either way, Pioneer has been a leader in black levels on tvs and that trend is unlikely to change regardless where the panels come from, since their next generation prototypes blew everyone away at CES in January.
Now it is official. Pioneer will cease production of plasma panels. Pioneer will team up with Sharp and introduce LCD televisions. They also want to carry the “Kuro” brand forward by sharing their proprietary information with Sharp and introduce “Kuro” LCD televisions.
Read the company press release in pdf format here:
http://pioneer.jp/press/pdf/ir/080307_restructuring-e.pdf
Restate: To be clear,Pioneer may continue selling panels,but it won’t be their own.They will outsource from Panasonic possibly,and be aware that Panasonic is now leveraging into LCD.
Yet one more Plasma defection.
While it is not “official” official,Pioneer has announced that it will discontinue manufacturing plasma televisions altogether. Earlier,it had been reported they would discontinue the 42 inch set. This is a real disappointment,especially after all the cool goodness shown at CES in January. Hard to believe the Kuro will be gone.
Now the only big gun for Plasma is Panasonic. If people stop buying,you can’t make a profit and you can’t operate at a loss. It is no surprise to me. I have stated in this forum why people like LCD better and have predicted this to happen. Not to worry,OLED will soon be out from Sony,medium and large panels as early as 2010.
Read the CNBC link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/23454069/for/cnbc
Well I did not get the freebie because I just purchased the pioneer 5070, the poor man’s pioneer ….All I can say is if you are looking at plasma’s, look at this tv. Do your homework on the top three and buy what you like…But the pioneer’s are great and if you look online at pioneer authorized dealer’s you can get one delivered for about 100.00 less than the panny 600u. I love mine and so do my friend’s with the panny’s….And the tv’s all look better in your house, Good Luck and happy shopping !!!!!
In response to Eric above, one of the “disadvantages” so far of going the cable card route is there is no DVR functionality if I recall correctly. Now, if they could make a unit that used a cable card AND had a built in DVR that could store at least 50 hours of HD programming then sign me up.
January 20,2007 Long time plasma suporter, Fujitsu to enter the LCD market with an advanced 37 inch model it was announced today.
Someday, they will not be able to give it away….
Question!
I have a fixed resolution display of 1366 by 768p, and my upscaling dvd player only outputs 720p or 1080I. What resolution should I choose?
Is it better to let the display upscale or downscale?
It depends on the TV and DVD player. In either mode,u the HDTV set will either up or down convert and deinterlacing will have to be done either in the player or the TV. Try it both ways with the same disc and see which looks better, there is no set rule.
The HD GuruÂÂ
Would you kindly explain to us what is the sense of buying a cable card ready TV, such as the Panasonic TH-42PX600U (which is more expensive) than its counter part TH-42XP60U which is not cable card ready. I subscribe to Dishnetwork and their customer service informed me that they do not provide the smart card for TH-42PX600U, I would have to lease the HD receiver. Do all the other cable companies operate this way?
Sure. First Dish is a satellite provider not a cable company so you must use their box.
With a cable provider, the CableCARD puts the cable signal directly into the HDTVs circuitry. According to my tests you get better standard defintion images. It also allows the TVs circuits to up or down convert the HD signal to the set’s native resolution, which in turn should provide a better HD image. To sum up, better image quality , more convienient to use (one remote control) and CableCARD rental cost less than a box. Its a win-win.
The HD GuruÂÂ
Just confirms my conviction that plasmas are on there way out.