I seriously doubt that I'll still be watching the same Plasma panel in
> 50 years time,
I'd bet my house it won't still be working anyway.
and not because it's burnt out, but rather because it's
> been replaced or I'm dead!
Or more commonly the power supply has failed and you choose to replace the TV rather than the power supply when you find out the cost! Not that LCD's are much better in that regard though. Plenty of both have been thrown away while many older CRT sets keep on going. (and even plenty of working CRT's thrown away when they are replaced with big flat screens)
MrT.