Every Body Loves Plasma Page 4

Plasma displays are generally excellent at handling computer signals, which can be modified at the source (for example, the PC's video card) to match the panel's pixel count. DVDs look great even on lower-priced widescreen plasma TVs because the native resolution of such panels - 852 x 480 pixels - exactly matches the specification for widescreen DVD. But panels with higher resolution and good scalers can make both DVDs and other video sources look even better.

The other flat-panel technology - LCD, or liquid-crystal display - would seem to provide the same benefits as plasma. But LCD screens tend to run smaller than their gas-powered brethren since large-screen LCDs are even more expensive to produce than plasma displays.

What Price Plasma? A couple of factors contribute to the high price of plasma. The first is the difficulty of making the glass - including those millions of tiny cells - for plasma panels, which is done by only a handful of companies, including Panasonic, Pioneer, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC. In fact, the process is so tricky that today's manufacturing plants recycle 20% to 50% of their finished panels because the delicate glass is flawed in some way, according to Matt Dever, vice president of product planning for Pioneer.

The second has to do with economies of scale. The specialized components needed to make plasma TVs are expensive because relatively few are made. This leads the set manufacturers to charge high prices to recoup their costs, which means relatively few people can afford to buy plasma sets. Low sales numbers give the component makers little incentive to ramp up production to make more components available at lower prices.

Both of these problems have begun to disappear as consumer demand and manufacturing know-how have grown, but the top manufacturers agree that traditional picture tubes will continue to dominate the TV market for at least the next few years. "Everybody who's ever said something like this has been proven wrong, but I'll say it anyway: plasma TV is never going to be inexpensive," says Sam Runco, CEO of high-end manufacturer Runco.


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