The King is dead. Long live the King!

No one at Panasonic seemed to care that Pioneer left the plasma TV market. Then again, maybe they did. It would have been easy, perhaps expected, for Panasonic to put out a gussied-up version of their last generation plasma now that the direct picture quality competition has fled the market. But that's not how it played out.

The G10 is a significant step forward in picture quality for the company best known for value and consistency more than outright picture quality.

The Audience is Viewing

THX, as a company, has an interesting "job" so to speak: work with companies to help them design better performing products. Their work with audio is well known, but home video is a new realm for them, which you can read about in Seal of Approval.

Panasonic plasmas offer a great starting point. Rarely underwhelming, Panasonic's displays are usually aimed towards the mainstream market, with performance to match. That is to say, good, but rarely great. To say I was intrigued by the idea of these two companies working together would be putting it mildly.

Premiere Plasma

Looking to carve out a piece out of the high-end custom market for themselves, Panasonic launched the Premiere line, with 50 and a 65-inch models.

Sporting many custom features aimed at the custom market, does the Premiere have what it takes to compete with the KUROs of the world?

KURO MkII

How do you follow up on a winner? Last year's, first generation KURO plasmas were, quite simply, the best looking flat-panels available. Their black level and contrast ratio simply couldn't be approached by anything else on the market.

Here we are, a year later, and the second generation of KURO has hit the streets. So the question you have to ask yourself is, if you were Pioneer, and you were leading the industry in picture quality, even a year after your initial release, what would you do?

Plasma Sales Show Growth, Pointing To Bright Future

 Well, we don't want to say we told you so but... On Ocotber 2, 2010 we posted a story entitiled "Plasma: The Myths Are Still Alive". It addressed mistaken beliefs about plasma flat panel performance. And now, we find out the following:

Following the success of last years popular Cash for Clunker TV program, home theater retailer Diamond Case Designs, Inc. of Anaheim, CA., has organized another e-waste recycling event just in time for the holidays. This environmentally friendly program provides cash discounts toward the purchase of new eligible model Energystar TVs.

As flat panel TVs come down in price, Diamond Case has seen an increase in the number of customers replacing in their old analog TVs for new digital TVs. Rather than discarding the old TVs, which contain hazardous materials such as lead and phosphorus, into local landfills, Diamond Case has partnered with All Green Electronics Recycling to recycle and re-purpose the old TVs.  All Green guarantees that all items to be recycled will be done in accordance with their ZERO landfill policy. According to Arman Sadeghi, CEO of All Green, "All types of e-waste (electronic waste), including cell phones, laptops, computer monitors, and televisions can be recycled responsibly so their hazardous products do not end up in landfills.