stevedster said:
60,000 hours.
or about 20 years at 8 hours per day !
in other words, its not even worth thinking about.
That's the spec from Panasonic as well. Remember, the 60,000 hours spec is till the emission from the gas plasma display reaches half brightness level. Even after this point the set will still work. It just won't be as bright.
However, we've seen several PDP's with displays that are very "lack lustre" after only a few years use. Mainly Philips sets, but some NEC, Daewoo, Pioneer, and Fujitsu as well. These were some of the 2nd and 3rd generation sets, and things have moved on considerably since then.
Best advice really is to reduce the contrast and brightness SLIGHTLY from the default (factory) settings, as these are intentionally high so the set always looks good when it's on display in a showroom.
If you can get used to running the set with the contrast and brightness reduced slightly, you'll definately postpone that "somewhat lacking" picture considerably.