Panasonic plasmas loosing too much of their black levels over time?

The topic here tonight is simple: Is Panasonic manufacturing faulty, prematurely aging plasma TV’s whose black levels are decreasing too quickly over time?

You see, like all good things in live, black levels in TV’s — especially plasmas — come to an end at some point. The only problem with this instance anyway is that people are paying pretty large sums of money for Panasonic’s highly revered TV’s because of their downright amazing black levels. Having said levels decrease as the TV’s age is common to all plasma TV brands across the spectrum.

For Panasonic anyway, mounting user problems in AVS Forum could spell trouble later on down the road if it turns out that they were being less than truthful.

Anyone with a Panasonic plasma purchased in the last couple of years seeing any reduced black level performance? In the spirit of friendliness, let’s not single anyone out. I’m extending this question to any plasma owners. Are your plasmas still dark as dark can be?

Cnet

Philips and the “LED Pro” TV

Being a tech guru isn’t for the faint of heart. Many will call us lazy, good for nothing, society sapping individuals because all we care about is personal gratification. To some extent, they’re true. But we lovers of the gadget are so much deeper than that. I mean, we’re not dumb by any stretch. A perfect example is captured in all of the cryptic phrases and labels manufacturers conjur up. Things such as 1080p, WUXGA, HDMI, etc. mean absolutely nothing to the normal human. But as technology progresses these terms and analogies will only grow. The latest on the list of things to write a mental sticky-note for comes by way of Phillips and their “LED Pro” TVs.

LED Pro 9704 TV sets to be exact. The reason for lustful thoughts for these bad boys centers around the whole idea of independent lighting of the LED’s thanks to 224 individual LED segments. Those 224 segments allow the 9704′s to get all contrasty — up to 5,000,000 : 1. Pretty damn good for an LCD don’t you think? Of course, with the LCD/LED duo, power consumption is down 50% over traditional LCD’s without the LED goodness. Rounding out the feature set is the 200Hz “Clear LCD Technology”, Ambilight Spectra 3, 1ms response time, and two 15W audio channels split across 4 speakers.

Pricing isn’t too bad with the 40″ and 46″ sets going for $1,799 and $2,499 respectively. Anyone looking to splurge on their Christmas gift a little early…?

Pocket-Lint