Vizio drops plasma TVs

Vizio turned the HDTV market on its head with its low-priced sets, and now the company will concentrate all of its TV efforts on LCD.

Vizio says goodbye to plasma.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The California-based flat-panel maker will no longer produce plasma TVs, according to a report in The New York Times Wednesday. It was the third-largest plasma TV maker in North America as of the end of the third quarter of 2008, with 13 percent of all shipments, according to DisplaySearch.

Vizio co-founder Laynie Newsome told the Times the reasons for the move away from plasma TVs were that they didn't sell as well in big-box stores due to the harsh lighting and Vizio would rather use its established retail presence to push LCD TVs instead. Vizio is also the third-largest LCD TV maker in North America, with 8.4 percent of shipments.

Manufacturers can charge more for LCD TVs, which generally bring in higher revenue than TVs based on plasma technology. Plasma TVs are also regarded by some as less environmentally friendly for the amount of energy they consume.

As a result, the plasma ranks are getting thin. Just last week a report surfaced that Pioneer, currently the fifth-largest plasma TV vendor, would also cease production of its plasma sets. Pioneer isn't yet confirming the report, but says it is still evaluating the business's long-term viability. In other words, it doesn't look good.

Without Vizio and Pioneer, that would leave only Panasonic, Samsung, and LG Electronics as the major vendors of plasma.

[Michichael]

They make a very quality product - I picked up one at Walmart - 42" 1080p for only 700 bucks. Haven't had any issues with it at all so far!

Sucks that they're going away from Plasma though - good potential in that market if it'd just get developed.

And uh.. what's with the change to the comment system? I have to allow scripts from FACEBOOK to run in order to be logged in now? I don't trust that haven of malware and emo for a reason...

[terminalblue]

"they didn't sell as well in big-box stores due to the harsh lighting" thats not the technologies fault, it is the uninformed consumers.

[neowolfwitch]

This is pretty disappointing. While LCDs have improved a great deal over the past few years, plasma still has considerably better contrast ratios and color reproduction. They also generally can provide a much brighter, more vibrant picture, at a much wider viewing angle. And- they have black levels that are extremely difficult (and expensive) for LCDs to reproduce.

They do have some disadvantages- a Plasma set can weigh 2-3 times a similarly sized LCD set. They are also prone to burn-in, although that is primarily limited to excessive amounts of video game or other displays (I've heard HSN and similar networks are huge culprits) with static images. They also do, as the article points out, use a LOT of electricity and can put out a lot of heat. The interesting thing about the electricity use is it varies wildly depending on the content, since only the lighted portions of the screen are using power. If you plug it into a power meter (or in my case- a UPS with a power meter) it can be entertaining watching it spike on bright explosions, and drop to almost nothing in dark scenes or when the screen goes black. This is something alien to LCD and CRT screens. It also means the "rated" power is really much-much higher than the average it will use (unless you look at a bright white screen all the time), so it is a bit of a misnomer.

(Not thrilled about the Facebook integration either, CNET...)

[MrMurder]

This sucks. I've been eyeing that Vizio VF505XVT plasma for a long time. Although I checked Vizio's website and they still sell plasmas. I think this was a big mistake Vizio made.

[ken_wilsonii]

Hate the LCD models, vizio should continue the Plasma line and make a 37 inch one at minimum

[GGVLEE]

I'm wondering if I should still scoop up one of the Vizio plasma TV. It is such a good value for the quality. Although generally not a wise choice to purchase technology no longer in production.

[MrMurder]

Vizio should still keep making plasmas. I saw the Vizio VP322 at Walmart, played with the picture controls and I really liked the 32" they made and was planning on buying it, but it probably won't be in any Walmart by the time it's October 19, 2009 (my next birthday). I saw this really nice 32" 480p LG plasma (LG 32PC5DVC) on sale at Amazon.com but it's even more expensive than the 32" Vizio plasma and only has a contrast ratio of 1800:1 (which is really weak for a plasma). That would go the same for that TV by October 19, 2009. Anyway, I was turning to Panasonic, Samsung, or LG to make a 2009 plasma model. But they already introduced TVs at screen sizes 42" and higher. Anyways, I think I'll buy one of those Vizio 1080 22" LCDs. Really, this is surely the dumbest (let's hope only) mistake Vizio has made.