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Panasonic, which made a big splash at the Consumer Electronics Show last month by demonstrating a $21,000, dual-lens 3D camcorder alongside consumer 3D HD sets, announced Thursday (Feb. 11) that it is now ready to take orders. Starting Thursday, interested buyers can place a non-refundable $1,000 deposit with Panasonic Broadcast to reserve one of the AG-3DA1 units, which begin shipping in September. The camera weighs less than 6.6 pounds and records the left- and right-eye images necessary for 3D on separate SDHC/SD solid-state memory cards using AVCHD compression. It also features dual HD-SDI uncompressed outputs, suitable for feeding into...

A class action lawsuit against Panasonic was filed February 12, claiming an increase in the brightness of black levels, as well as a corresponding decrease in contrast ratio that is detrimental to picture quality. The suit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that "the television is no longer producing the same image quality that [Panasonic] represented it would produce." We first learned of the suit when we contacted a Panasonic representative while seeking comment regarding our most recent test results on black-level performance. That test did find worse performance in two aged 2009 Panasonic plasma TVs. The company...

SECAUCUS, NJ -- 05/07/09 -- Panasonic, a leader in High Definition technology, announced today that the critically-acclaimed, 103-inch Plasma Full High Definition 1080p Display -- the world's largest Plasma commercially available -- will now be priced at $50,000. When it debuted in December 2006, the made-to-order HD Display was priced at $69,999.95. With widespread acclaim for its size and picture quality, Panasonic's 103-inch Plasma has become the industry's leading high-impact, large-format display for a wide range of commercial and home theater applications -- from digital signage and entertainment, to high-end home theater, command and control and higher education. Since its...

Panasonic said on Wednesday that it was shedding 15,000 jobs, the second significant layoff in Japan’s electronics industry in less than a week. It was the latest example of how Japanese companies, exporters in particular, were scrambling to cut costs as demand evaporates. Panasonic, along with Mitsubishi Motors and Mazda, also joined the rapidly lengthening list of companies to sharply revise their full-year outlooks Wednesday, with Panasonic now projecting a net loss of 380 billion yen or $4.2 billion for the year ending March 31, rather than the 30 billion yen profit it forecast on Nov. 27. Mitsubishi expects a...

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will drop the name of its charismatic founder and become Panasonic Corp. to strengthen its global image. Matsushita President Fumio Ohtsubo acknowledged it was a tough decision to give up the Matsushita and other brand names the company has built with consumers and employees for 90 years. But he said the value of the Panasonic brand had suffered because the company had stuck with the old name. "We must create more than what we are giving up," he said, speaking from Osaka headquarters to reporters in the...

LAS VEGAS - A 150-inch high-definiton plasma TV unveiled by Panasonic is the world's largest to date, the Japanese consumer electronics company claimed Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show. The plasma panel features an 8.84 million pixel image resolution. Its screen is the equivalent of nine 50-inch sets, with an effective viewing area of 11 feet, the company said. It's a step up from Panasonic's 103-inch version, which cost $70,000 when it launched. The company did not say in a news release how much the 150-inch panel will cost. Panasonic's other prototypes introduced at CES include a 42-inch panel...

June 4, 2006 -- The pink Energizer Bunny better watch its back. Electronics giant Panasonic, looking to crack the $4 billion disposable-battery market here, is taking aim at the fluffy-tailed advertising icon. In an effort to promote its year-old Oxyride Extreme Power batteries - aimed at use in MP3 players and cameras and are supposed to last longer than the alkaline batteries hawked by the bunny - Panasonic launched an "educational" campaign called "Neuter Your Bunny."

Nothing Follows

I have seen this ad twice on Fox News Channel in the last day or so. It purports to show a pitch-man having some very rough-looking guys standing in a prison hallway, testing out the "new Panasonic shaver."At one point, one man runs his hand suggestively long another's face and says something like "oh, so smooth!"The second man then begins choking the first, and all the prisoners begin rolling on the floor slugging each other.The prison guards turn on the hoses and begin blasting the mass of prisoners (which allows the pitch-man to show how easy the shaver cleans in...