Paff

Wow. I had no idea. I went to Best Buy today to get a Panasonic Plasma (completely unaware), and they pretty much had none in stock or the warehouse, save for the VT60. While that was more than I wanted to spend, I got it anyway. Now I'm super glad I got one before they're fully extinct. Hell, I'm dreading a call from Best Buy that tells me they made a mistake and they're all gone.

GreenMonkey

I wish I had the spare cash & space for a 65" VT60 before they disappear. I've got a 50" GT25 which has been awesome for a few years now.

bleorg

Got my TC-P65VT60 today. It was frustrating when it was delivered at 11:00 AM and I had to wait until around 7:00 PM to hook it up because there is no way one person could even put the pedestal on it alone.

JimRochester

congrats though. It's worth it now.

Spiky

What if that person was really large?

bleorg

Well I suppose if a braver man than I with $2400 to waste if the set becomes damaged in the process is willing...

mattysemo247

FYI, TC-P65VT60 just dropped almost $300 on Amazon. Down to $1,999.98. I am sooooo tempted to pull the trigger, but we just had some flooding issues recently in our basement, so the TV would have to sit in storage until we get everything replaced.

PhantomStranger

I think for a healthy adult male of sufficient size, it's possible to assemble a 55" plasma by one's self. I know, because I've done it in the past. I will say it requires very delicate handling and it's not easy. I don't think it's possible for a larger size, the dimensions make it very difficult unless you have the arms of a monkey.

bleorg

Sold by Amazon? I still see it at $2294.99 which is what I paid a few weeks ago.

Lowest price I see for it on Amazon is $2044.84 Used sold by Amazon Warehouse Deals.

BTW, I just finished 100 hours of break in slides on mine and then calibrated the set. Pretty remarkable picture on it afterwards.

mattysemo247

It already went back up in price. It was live for a couple hours.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/1117...-of-3d-glasses

bleorg

Ahhh! Right you are.

I was getting ready to attempt to see if Amazon would be so kind as to refund me $300 seeing as I've only had the TV a week.

Since it jumped back up I doubt I'd have much luck.

hanshotfirst1138

Why are Panasonic bailing out? Do they want to concentrate on the coming 4K stuff, is the small niche audience of plasma buyers not enough to sustain them?

mattysemo247

Probably not. Plasma TVs are expensive to build and a niche market supports them. I think in the earlier days of burn in and glare issues, plasma was never able to shake that image even though most of those issues are no longer a concern. But yeah, LCD and LED can be used in any type of environment and are more cost effective and offered in more varieties of sizes and options. I wouldn't be surprised if LG or Samsung stops manufacturing them next.

hanshotfirst1138

I'm sure there'll be something that supersedes plasma as the the big bad best, maybe they're simply planning on putting more effort into that to supplant it.

Spiky

Well, so far they haven't supported LCoS at all. And they don't seem to be really paying attention to OLED, although they have had announcements just like all the major players. OLED has really been slow to develop.

But their LCDs are great.

chente

Damn, I had no idea they were phasing these out. I went to Best Buy to buy another one today and they were completely out of stock. Can't find one locally anywhere. So bummed.

ANDREMIKE

I can't believe this... IfI had known I would of bought another one. I have a 50" that I have had since 2002 and last year I bought a 60".. I had wanted to buy a 55 with the new antiglare screen...

So what do we do now? Buy a LG or a Samsung? or time to move to LED?

soundman2

I am glad I bought my Plasma S60 last year.

I was talking with the Magnolia sales rep yesterday - who mentioned that someguy came in last week and asked for Panny Plasmas when he was told that all they had was demo units - The guy said 'give me all of them' and bought every single one of the demo units. !!

The prices on Amazon are crazy - I guess one could have bought a couple of extra ones and sold them for a nice profit

Deftones

Yeah, I got a new one in summer of 2012. I wish I'd spent a bit more money to get a nicer model, since it will be my last. OLED better get here quickly, because I fucking hate LCD TVs with a passion. They look like shit to me.

hanshotfirst1138

Judging by what I see on sale at Best Buy and such, LEDs seem to have become more commonplace than LCDs. If OLED are newcomers, I imagine that at least out of the gate, the asking price will be high. I was sort of hoping that when the next thing came along, it'd drop the price of Panasonic plasmas for me, but alas, apparently not .

Superman07

I think an interim solution to OLED could be the new top 2 tiers of Vizio. Crazy, I know, but they have introduced local dimming, 4K and dropped 3D. The top tier also supports a new reference panel. Will have to see how the reviews turn out.

We're into year 3 on our GT 30, and it's still great. I'd consider the Vizios if reviews are good since we'd like something larger than 50", but I won't go backwards on PQ. If not, I'll have to wait it out for 60" 4K OLED, which probably means 3-4 years for something in the price range of $2-3k.

DVD Polizei

Which is why I'm holding on with my 50" Panny Plasma as long as I can.

kahuna

I've had my 50" Panny Plasma for a 31 months. It's usually on about 17 hrs a day. I hope I get another 3-4 years of usage out of it.

PhantomStranger

It's not quite the end of the line for quality plasmas if Samsung hangs around in the market. In fact, Samsung in some ways had matched Panny's quality in their most recent high-end line.

rw2516

I've had a Samsung plasma for about 6 months. Only use it to watch theatrical films, about 3 per week. Gets 7 hours use per week max. How long should it last?