Panasonic Corp, a leading maker of consumer electronics and the world’s largest producer of plasma televisions, demonstrated its new plasma TV that has extreme size and resolution that exceeds industry-standard full-HD specification. While the TV will hardly become mass produced and available shortly, its announcement shows that CE makers are interested in advancing TV technologies at a rapid pace.

The 150” plasma display panel (PDP) delivers an 8.84 million pixel resolution, or 4096x2160, more than four times higher compared to the so-called full-HD standard (2.07 million pixels, 1920x1080). The prototype has a screen size equivalent to nine 50” PDPs with an effective viewing area of 11ft (3.31m) (W) x 6.25ft (1.87m) (H).

With the enhanced PDP technologies Panasonic accumulated in the development of its 103” PDP, the 150” PDP provides stable and uniform images across the vast expanse of the screen and the same brightness as the 103” PDP, said Panasonic.

Unfortunately, there is currently no content that is recorded in 4096x2160 resolution, therefore, the only markets for the new plasma panel several years from now will be commercial and public facilities, not end-users demanding large high-quality screens for entertainment. Nowadays full-HD movies are recorded onto 30GB HD DVD or 50GB Blu-ray discs, hence, a movie recorded in 4096x2160 resolution will require 120GB – 200GB medias that are not yet available.

Pricing of Panasonic’s 150” PDP is unclear, just like availability timeframe. The 103” plasma display from Panasonic unveiled at Consumer Electronics Show 2006 became commercially available in a little less than a year after demonstration.