Plasma died - What now? (1 Viewer)

[Mark A K]

I have always been a fan of Plasma TV's. Especially given their reaction time on sports and the color and black levels at night when watching a movie. That said I have not looked at a TV since buying my 42" Panasonic in 2010 and 64" Samsung in 2011. Now the 64" will not turn on. I clicks and the red light flickers and if I press power a second time the red light goes off. A third time and the red light comes back on ( which means it is off ). Do I repair this unit or is that a waste of money. Is there better out there without dropping $2,500 on an OLED TV? OR has LED come so far that getting a new $800 65" LED will be just fine compared to my 64" Plasma.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Worth]

I think you need to look at OLED or the higher-end LCDs to find something that will equal or surpass plasma. I tried to replace a 42" plasma with a Sony X800E, which was promptly returned due to its lousy black level. I ended up buying a second-hand plasma, as any of the better options were only available in significantly larger sizes. Buying used is also something you might consider.

 

[Keith Cobby]

My Panny plasma, bought in 2010, is still working well. Having just had some work done on the house, I recently bought a larger Panny OLED, and can confirm it is the successor to the plasma. My two criteria by which I judge TVs are motion and the colour of grass. The World Cup looked very good indeed, particularly as the BBC transmitted their matches in UHD. The Wimbledon tennis championships also looked fantastic in UHD (BBC again).

 

[Robert_Zohn]

I'd suggest LG's 65" C8 OLED for $3k. I know it's expensive, but once you are spoiled by PDP's emissive picture quality only an OLED display will be enjoyable.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

No way is a plasma fan ever going to be happy with an LED TV! I have three Pioneer plasmas, and I’m hoping they’ll hold out until OLED gets affordable. If you don’t want to drop $2-3k on a OLED, I’d second Worth’s advice to get a used one. That’s what I plan to do if any of my Pioneers fail before OLED gets below $1k.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Yee-Ming]

Concur. My old Pioneer 434 (second TV, used in the bedroom) recently gave up the ghost after 13 years, and to my eye only an OLED would do; but they don't come in sizes smaller than 55", and up till then my main TV in the living room was a 50" Kuro. So I moved the Kuro into the bedroom, and got a 65C8 for the living room. After a problem with the initial set (horribly non-uniform), the replacement is fine and I'm perfectly happy with it; I must admit at this point I still prefer the look of my Kuro, but on the other hand I have not done any adjustments to the C8 at all (save for selecting a pre-set picture mode), and out of the box the picture, once I changed the mode away from the default one, is pretty damned good already.

(On a separate issue, the audio from the Kuro is far superior to the C8, but whatcha gonna do...)

 

[DaveF]

That's another part of why I'm holding off on 4K: My 50" Kuro is doing well.

Doing the household UHD upgrade will be spendy, needing a suitable Kuro replacement and also an adequate projector.

Good luck shopping for a new set. Those Kuro's did pretty well, but all good things...

 

[DaveF]

That said, if you're near Sacramento, a fellow HTF member has a Pioneer Plasma for sale for $200 in the classified section. If you're set on HD plasma for a bit longer, you can occasionally find them cheap in the used listings.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Sony now has true 4K projection down to $2,500 if you want to consider looking into one of there projectors. You should be able to find a very good 4K display that once calibrated correctly should display images that you are very happy with.

 

[Sam Posten]

Look, if in 2018 you are stuck on the fact that Plasmas have measured blacks that still beat OLED there is no amount of forest that is going to get you to stop looking at the trees. OLED 4K HDR destroys Plasma in every other metric except maybe price, historically speaking. You can pooh-pooh LED all you too, want but FALD screens like the Sony 940, Z9 and even 900 are great values for dollars and performance.

The number of hang ups that people consider their "hill they are willing to die on" in this hobby is one of the biggest frustrations I have. We are living in the literal golden age of this hobby and people want to go back to 20 years ago, crazy.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Look, if in 2018 you are stuck on the fact that Plasmas have measured blacks that still beat OLED there is no amount of forest that is going to get you to stop looking at the trees. OLED 4K HDR destroys Plasma in every other metric except maybe price, historically speaking. You can pooh-pooh LED all you too, want but FALD screens like the Sony 940, Z9 and even 900 are great values for dollars and performance.

The number of hang ups that people consider their "hill they are willing to die on" in this hobby is one of the biggest frustrations I have. We are living in the literal golden age of this hobby and people want to go back to 20 years ago, crazy.

Yes we are. I love my Panny plasma but the Panny 4k OLED is something very special. I have just bought a Panny 4k camcorder to take on holiday.

 

[Brian L]

Yes we are. I love my Panny plasma but the Panny 4k OLED is something very special. I have just bought a Panny 4k camcorder to take on holiday.

Unfortunately, those of us in the colonies are not deemed worthy of Panny OLEDs.

 

[Worth]

Unfortunately, those of us in the colonies are not deemed worthy of Panny OLEDs.

They're available in Canada.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys-

I seem to have a similar problem that just happened. I have a Panasonic Plasma VT30 65" which I've been very happy with. It seems too young to go bad.

A few days ago I tried to turn it on and it would not power on. The red LED stand by light is not even on either. No blinking, nothing. In doing a quick internet search, it sounds like it could be the power supply, a fuse inside, or the main PC board. I don't know if its related, the last time it worked was last Saturday. Then last Sunday, late in the day, I heard a loud sound and I did not know what it was. It sounded like something hit my roof. Then later I wondered if something in the TV just blew.

I hate to retire such a good set so soon. Seems like newer electronics just don't last as long as they used to. I paid $3000 for the set new, I'd hope it last longer. I read about ways to do a hard reset. I unplugged it for several minutes. That didn't work. I tried pressing the power button for 20 secs as was suggested by a repair site. Nothing worked and I have a feeling I have to call a TV repair man. Do they even still exist? I bought it at Best Buy, I could check with them.

I've had my eye on the new OLEDs too. I'm leaning towards Sony. I'd hoped I could wait a bit longer for the tech to continue to improve and the prices to drop too. It would be great to finally experience 4K at home. But if I got a new OLED, I'd want to go bigger. And bigger is more expensive!

I figure I might have to consider a new set. But hope to find a way to reset that would fix it. One thought is to go ahead and upgrade to a new OLED set. Once that is going, hopefully for a few hundred bucks, the Panasonic can be repaired and I can use it in another room.

I'd be curious if any of you Panasonic owners have experienced a set that won't start and if you were able to get it going again. Thanks!

 

[DaveF]

^ bummer!