[The News Bot]

OK, Pioneer fans, you can breathe easy: contrary to rumours circulating earlier this week, Pioneer is NOT pulling out of the plasma market. It's just 'restructuring'. In an official announcement today, Pioneer stated that it's going to continue with production of its upcoming (9th) generation of plasma TVs as normal....

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[chelsea.tone]

[brad]

Great news.

When I get my Bedroom decorated I can still have a Pioneer plasma & not a pants LCD...........

[Dav1dF]

As I stated back then, just a badly worded piece of sensationalist 'news'.

I just wonder how many times we're going to have to explain to people that the rumour is completely false. Journalism like that could have a negative effect on Pioneer and the sales of their plasmas.

[qwerty1234]

looking forward to see a full hd 44" screen from them apparently.

This is brilliant news!

With Pioneer and Matsushita working together, plasma technology must surely go from strenght to strength.

[Joe Fernand]

Hello all

You guys are in dream land – 'Kuro' was Pioneers attempt at copying Panasonic's stepped discharge design.

No way is Panasonic (nor anyone else) going to change its PDP plant to include some Pioneer 'ideas' – look at the Press Release; Pioneer TV's will have someone else's PDP or LCD with Pioneer Speakers and Bezel wrapped around it.

Here in the UK Pioneer have hopped around behind the scenes trying to decide if it was a 'Pile it High' or a 'High End' Display Brand – in the end it didn't get it right; is it coincidence that a fair few of the folk who head up Panasonic's Euro Display business are all ex Pioneer GB!!!

The best hope for the relatively small number of folk who want a true 'High End' Display will be a decent bit of glass with Pixel mapping at 60Hz, 50Hz and 24p and a decent set of Integrator controls to allow proper integration of an external VP (that unit wont be a Pioneer Kuro)

Kuro will no doubt solder on for a while as a 'High End' designer lifestyle brand - if enough folk buy into it! Which I don't see happening in the UK/Europe any time soon. See - http://pioneer.jp/kuro-system/

Pioneer need to sell Systems (Inc. TV, DVD/AV Amp/Spks) and here in the UK that's not happening.

Joe

[MC Hammer]

Originally Posted by Joe Fernand

Hello all

The best hope for the relatively small number of folk who want a true 'High End' Display will be a decent bit of glass with Pixel mapping at 60Hz, 50Hz and 24p and a decent set of Integrator controls to allow proper integration of an external VP (that unit wont be a Pioneer Kuro)

Joe

Got anything in mind Joe either available now or in the near future ?

Have to sadly agree though & I have my doubts about Pioneer in the short to medium term let alone the long.

Whilst Phil & others may well say read their statement , which I have , it doesn't mean to say that I'm all that convinced by it.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by MC Hammer

Got anything in mind Joe either available now or in the near future ?

Have to sadly agree though & I have my doubts about Pioneer in the short to medium term let alone the long.

Whilst Phil & others may well say read their statement , which I have , it doesn't mean to say that I'm all that convinced by it.

The rebranding of NEC PDP to Pioneer didnt do enough to boost sales (recover massive losses!), Pioneer are Tiny compared to Matsushita who are tiny compared to Hitachi (OH yes as a group Hitachi are enormous) Pioneer dont have the cash to build new plants and redesign the tech they went down a different path like FHP and have reached the end. It isnt good for the market, Fujitsus exit was a huge blow to the high end market which now leaves Pioneer wide open, LCD production is being tied up as well which doesnt help as it means the quality displays wont get built, lots of cheap and not very good ones will. With legislation and euro policies to come into play the day of the quality flat display may well be numbered.......

It is a real shame as when there was a fight on there was something at stake now there is very little, OLED etc will only cloud the market, the displays of the future will Ipoded they will be low power, low quality but come in nice colours.........at least you will be able to watch HD on the bus easily (streamed over a mobile phone network and compressed to hell

[MC Hammer]

Originally Posted by hornydragon

The rebranding of NEC
It is a real shame as when there was a fight on there was something at stake now there is very little, OLED etc will only cloud the market, the displays of the future will Ipoded they will be low power, low quality but come in nice colours.........at least you will be able to watch HD on the bus easily (streamed over a mobile phone network and compressed to hell

Sadly I make you right.

Fortunately I've no intention of getting a mobile capable of getting such a thing.Really at a loss to know why anyone would but obviously likely to ne a large market for it.

Quite honestly I'm at a loss why anyone would want a LCD 40 or above but there you go - looks like it might be eventually back to a CRT in the long run.

In the meantime I'm looking to get the best available but want to move up from a 50 to a 58 or 60 - with or without a VP - assume budget is not a major issue & don't want a projector. Unfortunately 65 is slightly too large in terms of space/set up. SD & HD viewing would be about 50/50 - any practical suggestions as to best available now or in near future?

[Joe Fernand]

Hello MC Hammer

One Manufacturer does have something in mind - no idea if it will come to market or not though!!!

Keep in mind Pioneer are relatively 'new' to the Display market - they were always going to struggle against the companies with a long history in TV manufacturing; see http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/content/...y/history.html

Joe

[Dav1dF]

Originally Posted by Joe Fernand

Keep in mind Pioneer are relatively 'new' to the Display market - they were always going to struggle against the companies with a long history in TV manufacturing; see [url]

This may be true, but they've been there with plasma pretty much from day one, as well as being in the back projection and CRT market. Just because a manufacturer has a longer history in TV, doesn't mean this knowledge will automatically be transferred to the likes of HD plasma and LCD. Many of those that have been around longer are producing garbage at this point in time.

[Joe Fernand]

Hello Dav1dF

I've owned and supplied Pioneer RP Cubes, we were in on day one with Pioneer PDP (May 1998 we ordered 32 x PDP-V4100e - order value 197K) - for a while everything was fine then Pioneer GB Consumer Division get its head up its @£$%" about the Internet and Distance selling.

From 2004/5 its been a mad game of 'The Works' protectionist nonsense which combined with bad product planning (no HDCP support on the 'expandable' MXE range for far too long) resulted in Panasonic GB having an easy time.

Pioneers lack of experience/penetration in the TV market has made it a difficult brand to get into the mass market - how many Shop@Pioneer outlets across the UK vs. Shop@Panasonic!

The majority of Folk want a Flat low cost TV - spotting the good amongst the bad is going to be the fun part for the CI market over the next few years!!

Joe