I'm not sure about the year, but it was when I was working for TV World in Chatsworth, CA. I worked there from 1991-95 full time, and as a sub fill-in until 2000.

It could have been as late as '97, but that would have made the set virtually new. It might have been some sort of a limited-run (not mass-produced) set. ITT-Gilfillan produced a live plasma display as early as 1983, but that was a monochrome display.

Wiki is OK, but I've found many errors there. I'm not calling them wrong in this case, but 1997 sounds a little off to me. They gather their information mainly from users, as far as I understand.

Charles

The Hantarex/Sambers company of Italy was one of the very first plasma display manufacturer, they claim to have started making them in 1996.

I have a 2001 Model Pioneer pdp-50CMX. It lacks the contrast of todays plasma's of course, but I have tweaked it to produce the best possible picture. This of course after a power supply fail and logic board ribbon cable issues. I have found a big -5 on the fun-o-meter when it comes to diagnosing those plasma power supplys.

Definitely not an accurate claim, but not surprised. After all, Sarnoff "invented" TV and radio, and Gore invented the internet...

ITT-Gilfillan had a working plasma display a decade earlier. I was on a tour of their plant in Van Nuys, CA in the mid 80s, and saw the demonstration. That one was for military purposes, and as I mentioned, was monochrome.

Charles

...

I have a 50" Pioneer PDP-V501X 50" Plasma. Them manufacture date on it is 1998 (I don't remember the month). The original price was supposedly $22,000. I paid $150 for it. It was a commercial display, so the bezel is a little beat up, but it has no burn-in. I use my pc on it all the time, and it never retains an image. The picture is not as good as a more modern set, obviously, but I dig it.

Pioneer plasmas seem to not have image retention issues that say samsung buil phillis have. Wierd.

that agrees with my experiance.iirc it was the thompson arc that had a big 4:3 plasma they claimed was a prototype.showed it at the indy hamfest.1995.bought a ton of rca/thompson surplus parts from them over the years.

Sure?

IBM PS/2 portable were MCA bus and used plasma, 386 in two speeds (16, 20MHz) and other 486 version. The ones that was luggable is 8088 with mono CRT. I do not know if there was a 286 portable made by IBM.

PS: Generic lunchbox boxens are terrible. I had LCD version the LCD controller card will not work with faster mainboards. I also tried Plasma version (same chassis as first) and were fuzzy for a plasma. :( Both is gone.

Cheers, Wizard

If I recall correcty Compaq was the pioneer in monochrome plasma displays. I have worked on many from 80286 – 80386. Most were well burned by the time they were two years old. Most applications of the time had dedicated menu bars at the bottom of the screen. Really bad investment. However; if you wish to pursue these as an investment. You can see the burn when the screen is off. You see a burn don’t buy it. Doogie

Funny I read this thread again, I just aquires a Philips branded Fujitsu plasma from 1998. Ancient and I dont have the "E-BOX" that it connects to. Useless to me. Anyone want it. lol

What's the model number? It seems like I had a few of those external boxes laying around at my shop (I know I saw a Sharp one, but I know at one time we had some Philips ones).

The model of the TV is a philips 42PW9962/17
The e-box i need is FTR9964 or a 65 will work. I also need that whacky cable too. it has 7 or so very large pins and some small ones. The cable looks like a DB25 printer cable but has extremely large pins too on the top row.

I do have a FTR9964 on my shelf with the remote, no cables though. For looks, it's about a 7/10, a little scratched up. I can't really test it other than it powers up and responds to the remote.

It has a monitor out connection, I connected a monitor to it, but it won't sync to the signal (must be proprietary). Every time I hit the channel button my monitor trys to sync, so it is doing something.

If you want it, shoot me an offer. If it was mine, I'd just sell it outright cheap, but since it belongs to my employer, I'd have to run it by the boss. No hard feelings if you don't want it.

Sounds cool nut I'm still missing a cable and possibly a power supply for this thing that seems unobtanable. Not too sure if it's worth it. It looks as if it's missing still a crucial part. I yanked it apart and sure enough the power supply is external.