| So you are thinking about buying a plasma TV. Are | | | | Having recently moved from North Pole, Alaska to |
| you concerned about the price? Do not be. In the | | | | Reno, Nevada, we sold all our appliances before we |
| mid-90s, you could not even touch one for less than | | | | moved. Which means when we arrived in Reno, NV |
| 10,000 dollars. Now you can get one for around 1,000 | | | | we had to buy a new TV. My wife and I were quite |
| dollars. Why is this? There are a couple of reasons for | | | | surprised at the reduction in cost. Therefore, we did a |
| this reduction in price. | | | | number of internet searches for the best one and at a |
| 1. First, supply and demand. As production process has | | | | cheap cost. We settled on a 50" plasma HDTV for |
| improved, the number of plasma televisions produced | | | | less than 1250 dollars. |
| has greatly improved. Therefore, as supply increases, | | | | One thing I had to learn is what the term 1080p means. |
| greater than demand, prices come down. | | | | 1080 is the number of vertical lines or the number of |
| 2. A second reason is that the production process has | | | | horizontal lines on the screen. The "p" stands for |
| improved. In the 90's the defect rate at time of | | | | progressive scan, meaning the lines are not interlaced. |
| production was close to 50%, now the defect rate is | | | | Interlaced is old technology used on cathode ray tubes |
| around 1%, a great improvement. This also feeds into | | | | (vacuum tubes). |
| point one by allowing the supply to increase. | | | | |