Panasonic says its 1080p plasma displays will last at least 42 years

How long long do you plan on keeping your next TV? Panasonic says that its 1080p plasma displays are good for a viewing time for about 42 years - that is, of course, if the rest has not fallen apart by 2049.

We picked up a somewhat interesting piece of news up today from Panasonic, which tries to make a point how durable its plasma TV displays are. The company says that it will take 100,000 hours of viewing time to degrade the brightness of the display to less than 50% of its original performance and to make the picture look washed out.

100,000 hours of viewing time translates to about 42 years, if we consider the average viewing time in a U.S. household of 6.5 hours per day; if you never turn the TV off and let it run 24 hours a day, it is guaranteed to last almost 11.5 years. If your TV watching habits are similar to those of this writer, which is less than 2 hours per day, then you will be able to hand down the TV to your children and most likely even one or two generations further (a total of 136 years) – assumed there is still a way to watch plain two-dimensional 1080p content through HDMI interfaces in 2143.

The 100,000 hour rating only applies to Panasonic's 1080p TVs. The 720p models are rated for 60,000 hours to half brightness or 25 years at 6.5 hours viewing per day.

Panasonic's 1080p plasma HDTV's are available in 42", 50", 58" and 65" (mainstream sizes).