LG announces first 32-inch plasma TV: does anyone care?

Even if it's not the first as LG is claiming it is, the recently announced 32-inch 32PC5RV is the smallest plasma TV to get a decent production run. Launching in Brazil this month and then worldwide in November, the 32PC5RV intends to muscle in on the most popular LCD TV size. The television will come with a relatively low price tag to lure buyers in at between $1,000 and $1,100: probably not low enough to beat lesser brands selling 42-inch 1080p plasmas at around that mark, and definitely not high enough specification to beat equivalently branded 32-inch LCDs what with the 32PC5RV featuring an abysmal 852x480 resolution, 550 lumen brightness, and a 1,800:1 contrast ratio. LG, you're gonna have to do better than that.

[Via Newswire Korea]

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 21st 2007 8:46AM]

Nope. Not caring. 32 inch is small anways. They should announce the first 85 inch TV

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 21st 2007 10:34PM]

Also my nearest best buy is selling a 60 incher for aroung 1500 dollars.

[Kurian @ Oct 21st 2007 8:56AM]

All this HD is getting out of hand.
Its really bad for us when we have to con our parents into getting a HDTV.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 21st 2007 9:04AM]

My mom has an awesome HD setup, and I'm highly jealous.

She deserves it though.

So remind me why I want a plasma again?

[Willen @ Oct 21st 2007 9:10AM]

Er, at 480p this is not a HDTV.

Anyways, 32" plasma is so 5 years ago. But reading all the evangelizing of plasma over LCD at AVS and other home theater sites, I'm lead to believe that there is a market for this TV. But considering that Panasonic, the biggest proponent of plasma TVs (who tends to downplay the fact that they make LCD TVs), doesn't produce this size or the slightly larger 37" panel any more leads me to believe that the market is too small or the cost is too high to compete with LCD. Plus, who'd buy a 852x480 SDTV plasma when you could get a 1366x768 HDTV LCD at the same price or cheaper?

[Delvis343 @ Oct 21st 2007 9:07AM]

Who cares, for that price you could get a much bigger HD TV.

[Mike @ Oct 21st 2007 9:11AM]

I bought a Hitachi 32" Plasma a little over two years ago. I believe the model is 32HDT50. It has an external box to plug in all your components. It still works great and the picture looks better than the Samsung 1080p LCD Panel that I bought for the living room.

[landyjg @ Oct 21st 2007 9:18AM]

Close one eye, tilt your head to the side.

Now i can see the picture!

[Tangston @ Oct 21st 2007 9:48AM]

"The television will come with a relatively low price tag to lure buyers in at between $1,000 and $1,100: probably not low enough to beat lesser brands selling 42-inch 1080p plasmas at around that mark"


I didn't realize anyone made 42-inch plamas with 1080p. I thought they were all 720p.

[Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Oct 21st 2007 10:06AM]

Bought several 1080p 42-inch Westinghouse LCDs at Best Buy for under $1,000 each recently. Not a plasma, but I'm sure there are equivalent deals that are.

[crabshack @ Oct 21st 2007 1:59PM]

of course there is, my neighbor just bought one, cant remember the brand but it's the one that has that illuma-whatever lights on the back to light up the room. halo 3 looks great on it. it was a little more expensive i believe around 1600-1800.

[x20mar @ Oct 21st 2007 9:59AM]

someone obviously cared enough to blogg it

[Vincent @ Oct 21st 2007 10:11AM]

You care!!

[twist_serv @ Oct 21st 2007 10:12AM]

Excellent por playing Wii or viewing DVD's in native resolution.

[Nicky Smith @ Oct 21st 2007 10:49AM]

Why is EDTV resolution a bad thing?
I'm gonna pick up one of these just for my Wii.

[Grant @ Oct 21st 2007 2:52PM]

If your going to pay the price of plasma, you might as well get HD.
I don't really see the point of getting a 32" ED Tv since thats when the quality really starts to look like garbage.

And theres no point to buying a plasma tv if your only going to run things in 480p, besides richer color, there is no benefit, and you can get more TV for less if you only want 480p.

[Stefan Rotenberg @ Oct 21st 2007 10:53AM]

So rude of you... Of course someone cares. And I'm quite wowed to see my country will get something like this first. The high definition revolution here is still in its very early beginning; we do not have hd television, hd hd-dvds nor hd blu rays; every thing here is still at standard definition. And while the price isn't good for the US, it is probably the price it will retail in Brazil. And believe me, that IS cheap. As for a comparison, we have the most expensive iPod (http://tinyurl.com/3ye2hc),
and probably the most expensive wii (http://tinyurl.com/yxwptp). Due to taxes and other stuff, anything with wires is catastrophically expensive here. And since I'm at it, let me give a hint of TVs price: http://tinyurl.com/35km6p . This one linked is 3600 reais, which is about 1600~1800 USD.

This TV (in the post above) is obviously not US-oriented, but that doesn't mean anyone cares. It'd be similar to say the OLPC thing is useless. It is NOT. AND, Engadget do have Brazilian readers (^^). That could be great news to me, for example. I'm planning on buying a 32" Samsung widescreen CRT television, and this LG could be an alternative (tough probably won't since the Samsung has HDMI).

[Ricardo @ Oct 21st 2007 11:22AM]

Heh, who is gonna be stupid enough to buy that?

Even brazilians aren't stupid enough to buy that.

PS: I'm not being xenophobic, I live in Brazil...

[Piotr @ Oct 21st 2007 11:45AM]

@Ricardo

Você não deveria falar isso sobre brasileiros, nós já temos uma imagem pessima no exterior...

@Post

This isn't the best TV ever but at least is one of the first products to be released here BEFORE the rest of the world! [This is the only positive point about it... And it just for brazilians...]

[Thomas @ Oct 21st 2007 7:19PM]

@ Piotr

Nao e TAO ruim assim. Garantio que a primeira coisa que a maioria das persoas penasam quando pensa do Brasil e as praias e as mulheres gostosas. Bem melhor do que as persoas no exterior pensam da gente, os Americanos, um presidente facista e um populacao de gordos.

[Saturn @ Oct 21st 2007 9:24PM]

@Thomas:

It is not polite to say bad things about others in your mother language thinking nobody will understand because this is an ENGLISH blog.

[Mr. B @ Oct 21st 2007 11:59AM]

Hell I care... plasma black levels on a 'portable' size TV for only a couple hundred more than a decent LCD of the same size.

[Jon @ Oct 21st 2007 12:20PM]

Apparently Engadget cared enough to spent some time writing this abysmal post up...

So sad...

[malowz @ Oct 21st 2007 1:52PM]

this is not sad. WY do you think this kind of tv is launched in brazil????

THIS IS THE REALITY OF BRAZIL.

we basicaly have NO FULL HI-DEF TELEVISION. the larger resolution is 13xx:xxxx...

and this is on +42", cause 95% of plasma/lcd televisions here are 8XXx480, and similar to that...

digital television just WILL be launched shortly, but is STANDARD DEFINITION. no HDTV here folks.

so now, as you may see, this is important news to brazilian, and who does not know nothing about "brazilian reality"

[Stefan Rotenberg @ Oct 21st 2007 2:53PM]

More brazilian readers her than I initially thought. =)

*I'm one.

[Josh @ Oct 21st 2007 3:21PM]

Dude, my archos 605 has the same resolution as that thing.... thats freakin sad.

[ShadowGod @ Oct 21st 2007 3:52PM]

Very cool. Plasma picture quality is so much better than LCD I've been waiting for a small plasma to put in my bedroom.

[Saturn @ Oct 21st 2007 3:59PM]

Of course we read Engadget!

And thanks to eBay and Paypal I am able to purchase almost anything that is announced here.

[Thomas @ Oct 21st 2007 7:19PM]

And then pay what? A 200% import tax?

*Used to live in Brazil.

[Saturn @ Oct 21st 2007 8:46PM]

@Thomas:

Actually it is 60%.

I bought a 22" LCD monitor for US$420.00 (including shipping and tax) whereas here I would have paid more than US$900.

I know, it is not like the $250 someone would pay in US, but it was a bargain for me. And it was completely legal.

Different realities make different common senses.

[Jeff @ Oct 21st 2007 7:51PM]

Nobody sells 42" 1080p plasmas for $1,000. Nobody.

Engadget's a little confused.

LCD != plasma.

[robert @ Oct 30th 2007 12:08AM]

I bought one today $710 canadian, i got it for my bedroom I have a huge king size bed and no room for putting a tv except for lcd or plasma for the right circumstances it s a good buy especially for what i payed

[andros @ Nov 25th 2007 6:06PM]

A recent "Visions" electronics store ad in Canada says the LG 32 inch plasma tv has a 15,000:1 contrast ratio and includes Digital Interface Technology (2HDMI), ex-Cable Management and is 1080p possible.

The "Slippery Brick" website lists the tv as being marketed to complete against 32 inch lcds and states that the LG set has a 0.001 ms response time.

I recently watched it at a Future Shop store where it stood on a stand with larger Sony and Toshiba LCDs and the staff were impressed with the sharpness and rich colour images of the 32 inch LG model.

[Frank @ Nov 30th 2007 5:05PM]

I watched about half an hour of a football game last weekend in a store in front of both LG's 32 inch LCD and Plasma products. No questions left for moi. The Plasma image was soooooo much better, crisper, richer.

One week later, I'm completing my (very responsible!) consumer research (by visiting this site amongst all). I haven't read a serious comment yet that would distance me from getting the Plasma version. Especially at 749 CDN$ at Best Buy.

BTW, not everybody has a wall that allows for 60 incher! And we all know that size doen't matter... ;-)