Not sure exactly how old it is but I got it off craigslist, PX-42VP1A is the model. Not in the best of shape, glare coating on the outside protective screen has some damage near the bottom (I'm tempted to take the whole thing off). Doesn't always sync out of the analog input board, you turn it on sometimes its green, sometimes its red, if you flip back and forth a few times it will catch (this is using the VGA input), connectors to the VGA are a little loose, which could have something to do with it, I'll try the BNC connectors once I find my cable. Was quite dusty inside. Build is not like your typical plasmas thats for sure, actively cools drawing air through the inside of the set over the X and Y boards (as opposed to the more typical a few up on top of the set like my Pioneer 5020fd), fan pulls air through the metal shroud around the power supply. The DVI side works fine but is on a different board, if you feed it a digital signal it works fine. I doubt this will be feasable in the garage unless I can find a DVD recorder with an HDMI out that has a tuner and I can feed the signal into the DVI side. Otherwise I'll just have to use it as is and flip it back and forth.

Picture otherwise is good for an EDTV resolution and is a lot brighter than I expected. Contrast ratio is pretty sad, more like a cheapy LCD (I think it was 400:1 according to some data I found). Yet the thing stays relatively cool, I had some football on (I am going to wall mount it in my garage primarily for that reason) didn't show much in the way of image retention.

All those Rubycon caps look a lot better than these modern Samsungs and LGs where are bulging running probably 1/4 of the hours this thing has seen. Course they're all 105 degree rated in here too.

It seems sturdy, but isn't much heavier than those of a few years ago, probably around 75lbs (but obviously it has no speakers).

If it were in better shape I'd keep it in the house, but its not really pretty, so it'll serve the remainder of its days playing football games in the fall while I'm outside working before winter comes.

Owner claims to have bought it for $4000 in 2001, whether or not that is when it was made I'm not sure. Amazing though, compared to my Pioneer, how far plasma technology came over tht period of time.

You and I seriously have got to get together one of these days :D

Just drop me a line one of these days we can figure something out.

This was just a whim of a purchase. I've been messing around with plasma TV repair because I find the technology fascinating. Got a Maxent sitting here waiting for a Y-Sustain board, so I figured this would be a project to work on while I waited for the part.

I figured this one would have involved actually needing real repair, but it turns out it is usable as is, I can do without the VGA side working properly until someone parts one out. I highly doubt there is much demand for parts for a TV of this era. Someone will eventually part one out, I still see these being used in professional applications from time to time, they'll eventually be decommisioned I'd guess. I'm just going to use the DVI side with an HDMI converter for the time being.

I'm not sure about the glare filter. I suppose it could be removed, peeled off or something. Right now it is still out of the field fo view but I don't know what damaged it. It looked like it peeled from behind the protective layer. I'll leave it for now, unless it gets worse.