25 to 35 days when treated properly, up to 10 years when frozen with "anti-freeze" additive. See your local Red Cross for details.
I have a 50" plasma, and it's been trouble free. As a backup, one of my televisions is the rarest of things--a high-def TUBE television. Sure, it's only 1080i, but the picture is still amazing. I bought it for $100 off of Craigslist five years ago. http://www.amazon.com/RCA-F38310-38-Built-Receivers/dp/B00005BIB8
http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-misconceptions.html Misconception #3: Plasma TVs are like shooting stars— brilliant but short-lived. With a current rating of 100,000 hours to half life on some of the top tier plasma brands, it this really an issue any more? If you watch the plasma television for 4 hours a day on a medium contrast setting, that's over 68 years of use. One important tip to remember when you first hook up your plasma TV is to turn the contrast down from that peak setting. The darker the average room light, the lower you can afford to set the contrast ratio setting (sometimes called the Picture settting). Running your plasma television on the peak contrast setting will significantly reduce the life of the product as well as cause the plasma to dim much faster. This is not a huge concern with the current hours of longevity of the product, but my contention is that you will actually enjoy the viewing experience more when you reduce the contrast to a calibrated level.
Here is a great comparison with LCD TV's. I have a DLP, LCD, and LED LCD TV. I have never owned a Plasma, and have no personal experience with one, but the LED Television I do own far out shines the others.
I've had a 50" 720P plasma for a little over three years. No problems with it so far. *Knocking on wood* Go Blazers
I bought a 42" 720p Samsung Plasma 2 years ago. Within the first 2 weeks of having it, two pixels died. One slowly came back on and it's never really an issue unless you're looking for it. Other than that, it's a great TV.
