JackBurton
Lifer
- Jul 18, 2000
- 15,993
- 14
- 81
You have to take into account the price of these displays.
My 151 was upwards of 8k asking price, I think I ended up paying about 4.5-5k for it (back when I had money). A year later I scraped up a a remaining 600m for about 3K. compare that to what displays cost now for comparable quality. My brother got a 65" vt series for under 3K
The 151FD had an MSRP of $6.5K and the 141FD had an MSRP of $7K without the stand (the stand was an additional $500). I bought my 141FD in October of '08 as soon as it hit the store for a little over $7K (including the stand). Later on I went on to buy a 111FD. Compare that to the top of the line Panasonic series 65" V10 which sold for $4K (MSRP) at the same time. You could almost buy 2 65" V10's for the price of a 141FD. In the end, the Pioneer proved to be the better deal though, even at almost twice the price. If I bought the V10 back in the day, I would have felt like I wasted $4K rather than saved $3K.
Fast forward to today. Imagine if Pioneer was still in business and instead of comparing the latest Panasonic (VT50) to a 2008 model Pioneer, you'd be comparing a Panasonic 65VT50 to a 65" Pioneer plasma with infinite blacks with the same price difference, $4K for the Panasonic vs $6K-$7K for the Pioneer. For me, I'd take the Pioneer all day long at $6K.
And that's my point, we should be WELL past what's being offered today. It's just not part of Samsung and Panasonic's business model, and quite honestly, I can't say I blame them. Why bust your @ss and spend countless dollars on R&D to bring a state of the art display to market, when the average Joe Blow just wants a big crappy display at WalMart prices so he can brag to his friends, "hey, I got a big screen TV." Whoop-da-dee-do!
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