Panasonic's 103-incher, up close and personal

What's about 7 and a half-feet long, 4-feet tall, has about 30 square feet of viewing space, a 3001:1 contrast ratio, pushes over 2 million pixels progressively, and requires Howie Mandel to demo it? That'd be Panasonic's behemoth 103-inch plasma at CES this year, which we got in close enough to get some sweet shots of. The color was rich, the blacks were natural, but namely the device was big. Really freaking big. Even though it literally only inched 'em out, did it seem a whole lot bigger than Samsung's 102-inch or LG's 102-inch sets from last year? Bet your ass it did.

[Beu @ Jan 9th 2006 4:58PM]

One Sentence.... I WANT IT!!!!

[elliot Hosch @ Jan 9th 2006 5:09PM]

thats a big ass tv! wow and i thought 42 inches was huge

[Adam Rosner @ Jan 9th 2006 5:10PM]

Looks absolutely stunning. Two specifications I'd like to see: weight and likely price when it makes it to market.



I'd bet they're both several orders of magnitude greater than my Panasonic projector, for the same image size.

[XGM @ Jan 9th 2006 5:13PM]

HUGE and freekin nice. But is size worth it to have in your home, when u can just sit closer to some 50 incher tv anyways. It still looks the same so i dont need that big.

[Scott @ Jan 9th 2006 5:17PM]

What I really want to know is how many of these are single panes of glass and how many are 4 plasmas/LCDs "stitched" together. I know the 82" LCD Samsung was showing off is stitched. You can actually see the lines, albeit faint, that separate the 4 LCDs. Once you see the stitch lines, you never not see them again.



When reporting on this stuff, can you guys try and let us know? I mean 100"+ isn't very impressive if its stitched. Its insanely impressive if its a single pane though.

[SuperChuck @ Jan 9th 2006 5:22PM]

Is that girl poking herself in the eye with a cherry? She seems to be enjoying it, though...

[Crazyglues @ Jan 9th 2006 5:45PM]

I just want to know how long is it going to be before we start seeing these on MTV Cribs, in the homes of the rich and famous...



Because you know if anyone can afford these it would have to be them, us regular humans will never see this in the living room for playing XBOX360 on, now will we. Wow I can just see PGR3, MotoGP 2006, and H3 -(halo 3) on it now...



I mean if they can drop the price to about $2500 by the year 2009 then yeah i will defiantly get one.. lol



but until then I guess i'll just wait to see them on MTV Cribs...

[Walter @ Jan 9th 2006 6:10PM]

Maybe you could have got someone standing beside it to give it some scale? Jeez.

[flash @ Jan 9th 2006 7:39PM]

Yeah, where's Howie Mandel when you need him?

[benhc911 @ Dec 19th 2008 10:05AM]

you dont need a person, just think about the number. 103 inches means 8 ft 7 inches. in meters thats around 2.6m (done in my head so sorry for inaccuracy). This is absurdly large. Especially since you are supposed to sit what, 3 times the diagonal size of the screen away? That is 25 feet 9 inches. I dont know about you, but although i could manage that, whats the point? just get a 40-60 inch and sit a lot closer.

[Grant @ Jan 10th 2006 1:39PM]

Come on now. This plasma isn't designed for sale -- it's designed for the "wow" factor. Panasonic has been stewing about Samsung's 102" model for the past year, and this is their way of thumbing their nose at them. Why else would they build it 1" larger?



If they'd put that kind of effort into making supply meet demand, they'd have made a couple billion dollars more in 2005.

[John @ Jan 10th 2006 4:05PM]

Nice... Larger than 4 50 inch plasmas put together.



I agree with #4. I can sit twice as close to my current 50 inch plasma, or 4 times as close to my old 26 inch TV.

[Ben @ Jan 18th 2006 4:54PM]

"Nice... Larger than 4 50 inch plasmas put together."

Are you on drugs??

4 x 50 = 200. Panasonic's ***103***-incher.

[Ry @ Jan 19th 2006 2:15PM]

"Are you on drugs??

4 x 50 = 200. Panasonic's ***103***-incher."

you are an idiot...