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(More customer reviews)In this review I may sound somewhat critical of the TV, because it is not perfect. But understand that it is probably the best you can do for the money, the thin profile, picture quality and a few other criteria I had. I give it a full score with the thinking that if you take into account these parameters you will automatically exclude other offerings that may give you a better picture. And rankings are supposed to be relative to what you would get given your constraints. So scoring at less than full score would imply I could buy a better TV within the constraints I had, which is simply not the case as far as I could research.
After looking at too many models of both LCD and plasma, I settled on a narrow choice of either the new generation (V-shaped bottom bezel) Samsung LCDs, Sharp Aquos LCD, Sony LCD or Pioneer or Panasonic plasma. LCDs are definitely more focused/sharp than plasma, so this I count as a plus. Also they are higher resolution even in the 32" - 45" sizes where the 42" plasmas are only 1024/768 (in most cases).
I was pushed to buy a new TV because my old one is almost unwatchable at times and requires vigorous tapping to steady the picture increasingly often. Had this not been the case, I'd have probably waited a year or so to see where the truly HD resolution displays are going (e.g. the ones capable of displaying 1080 progressive signal natively, without re-scaling, as opposed to just 1080 interlaced or lower resolutions as most of today's screens do). But may be a while before such displays become affordable enough to justify the wait anyway...
I looked at Enhanced Definition TVs as well since when watching from over 8 feet they are very hard to distinguish from a High Definition sibling of the same make, while being up to 30% cheaper. But at the end, critical viewing at around 8 feet or closer is something that happens in my home, so I decided that I would be unsatisfied being able to see pixels on the screen on the ED models. If you are not very critical or your vision is not perfect, an ED TV may be all you need.
I got the Panasonic TH-42PX50U 42" TV only a few days back based on the following strengths this TV offers (more details on each point follow in the review):
- Picture was closest to "natural" looking among comparably priced plasma sets
- Good black level detail
- Built-in over the air HDTV tuner (NOTE: Amazon's description says "HD-Ready Plasma TV" when in fact this is an integrated HD TV with a built-in tuner)
- 42" is probably the optimal size for my room
- "Rumors" that Panasonic has good reliability
- Price was competitive with other plasma and better than similarly sized LCD
Here are some more details. I simply got a very good deal, so for what I paid this is unquestionably the best TV out there. I got an open box from Circuit City for about a $1,000 less than MSRP and a couple of hundred less than ANY online retailer I've seen. Plus interest free 24 month financing and the peace of mind I can return with no penalty or loss of any kind within 30 days.
If you have to pay close to the MSRP, and especially if you do not use the built-in over the air HDTV tuner then the choice is not that clear - I would seriously look at the new Samsung LCD and Sony and Sharp offerings (in that order) as an alternative or some of the Pioneer plasma.
If you need features like memory card slots, picture in picture, channel guide etc., then look for the xxx500 version of the same TV for a premium of $500 or more. As for me, these are not especially useful so I'm glad that Panasonic sells a model without them for a lower cost.
The picture is indeed pretty well calibrated out of the box compared to most other sets I've seen. There are three preset modes and the Standard is closest to my liking (Vivid is too artificially bright and sharp, Movie is too dark, but may be used in a totally dark room). I've played with the user adjustments a bit and did not have to change much off the Standard preset. I got to the Service Menu too and played with some of the settings there, but again did not need to do major adjustments.
I've settled on the "Standard" picture preset with just a slight (-2 points) adjustment of the tint control in the user menu after a small -5 points adjustment of the tint control in the service menu. I would not call the picture completely "natural", but it is close. If anything, it is a bit film-like in terms of being slightly warmer than life on skin tones. It is very watchable, so no big complaints there. Especially if you take this in prospective of what you get from other sets, I think this is one of the better pictures out there for the up to $5K price range, bar a very few CRT behemots, which do not even come in this screen size anyway, or a few non-integrated plasma or LCD TVs that may have some aspects of a better picture.
One of four minor flaws I've found so far is the very light greenish tone on some yellow objects and a slight red emphasis that emerges if you eliminate the green through the tint adjustment. So I'm not sure if this is a green or a red push, but it takes away some of the naturalness of skin tones. In the US market slight red push is the norm anyway so most folks won't notice it. And if you compare to other brands, it is not that bad at all. Of course, you will never get the perfection of the latest Sony XBR tube sets in terms of natural colors and black level detail, but you gain a thin profile and settle for a very decent picture.
The second flaw is the lack of true deep black resolution. The blacks are quite close to a good black and this TV has one of the deepest blacks I've seen on a plasma TV. It is close to a tube TV for over the air HDTV. Where it falls short of the "ideal" is in its ability to resolve details in dark areas. Basically a black suit sometimes may appear as a black spot, rather than showing all crevices and fabrics details. What you see is still quite better than what you can see on almost any LCD and most plasmas, so I do not think you can do much better than this unless you go to a tube TV. It is just something that you need to be aware of and to not expect perfect black AND shadow detail at the same time. Increasing brightness and backlight levels can increase the details in dark scenes, you can gain shadow detail, but you loose deep blacks. I considered getting a cheaper flat TV but the inability to display decent dark level information in most of them (as well as in most expensive LCDs) plus the quite un-natural skin tones in almost anything sub $2,000 were the primary decision points for me to go with the Panasonic plasma set. In a brightly lit room the lack of deep black (e.g. the presence of gray background instead of black) may be OK, but I find it very distracting in a dark room. So the trade-off that Panasonic did by displaying fairly deep blacks and losing some of the very deep shadow detail is in my opinion a better choice given the constraints of the technology.
The third flaw is that this TV is not totally silent. I do not hear any fan noise from the back of the TV. But there is electronic hum (not from the speakers but from high-voltage components) that is audible if you are in a totally quiet room and you mute the speakers. This is more audible if the picture is brighter, so it seems to be related to the "strain" the TV components exhibit which is related to how bright the picture needs to be. Again, this is not much worse compared to the annoying high-pitched noise coming off ALL tube TVs. And it is not really audible if you have even a little sound coming off your speakers during normal viewing. You certainly can't hear it over the background noise in a store or in most normal TV viewing.
The fourth flaw is that the sound system on the TV is nothing special. While it is better than what you would find in most sub $1,000 TVs and is usable for casual TV watching, it is not a high-res system and certainly worse than most other $3K+ HDTVs out there. Low and low-mid frequency is OK for a TV speaker but the most important mid-range and highs are not well defined and the sound is muffled and unintelligible at times. A $300 home theater in a box will give you better sound and may be worth the investment, especially as the TV has an optical audio out. In my opinion most home theaters in a box under $2,000 are garbage in terms of decent sound quality, but you draw your own conclusions. As far as I'm concerned, if you have almost any sound system, even a decent boom box or a shelf system, it will be better than the built-in speakers.
The remote is mostly fine with me - it is large, comfortable, intuitive and fully back-lit at a push of the glow in the dark back-light button. Access to most features is easy, but some dedicated buttons are missing - I would like to be able to switch inputs or set the picture defaults through the remote rather than through a menu on screen (although the menu is intuitive and quick enough if you do not do it more than a couple of times a day).
The over the air tuner seems to be good - it gets all analog stations that my 10 year old Panasonic gets, plus about 10 digital stations in the Washington DC area with only an old non-amplified rabbit ear antenna. The digital channels come in perfect, and standard analog channels (SD) seem comparable to the tube TV it replaces (e.g., quite bad). The only drawback is that the size of this TV is double compared to a 20" tube TV it replaces so that you see more of the garbage in analog signals. But if you get farther away it is comparable if not better looking. So SD is handled quite well as far as I'm concerned.
A PDF manual is available off the Panasonic web site, so you can check the specs and read more about the functions. The manual does not explain why would you want to do many of the things it covers, but is otherwise detailed enough to tell you how to do them.
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Panasonic TH-42PX50U 42 Inch Flat-Panel Plasma HDTVProduct Description: Panasonic's 42-inch TH-42PX50U takes TV viewing to new heights--and big-screen cabinet sizes to ever-smaller proportion. The 1,024 x 768-pixel gas-plasma TV offers a 16:9 widescreen dimension to match the aspect ratio of your favorite feature films and an HDMI input for direct-digital connection with high-definition sources. Not that you necessarily need them--the set's built-in ATSC (DTV) tuner pulls HD signals (480p/720p/1080i) right from the airwaves, and its QAM tuner is fully compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception. A standard analog NTSC tuner receives standard-definition (SD) programming.
The set's authorized CableCARD port means the set will also receive digital cable television systems services directly from a compatible cable operator without requiring a bulky, external cable box. You'll enjoy plug-and-play convenience wherever you are.
A plasma screen renders vivid colors like you've never seen before (as in, up to 8.85
billion in this case), extremely wide viewing angles (wider, even, than those of most LCD screens), and easy placement due to a plasma monitor's slim profile--the TH-42PX50U is a mere 3.8 inches deep, one of the slimmest plasmas around--perfect for desk or wall mounting. Brightness tends to be extremely uniform across plasma screens, which are also impervious to the picture distortion and negative color balances that afflict CRT monitors when placed near lighting or sound systems. The TH-42PX50U's contrast ratio is rated at an extraordinarily lifelike 3,000:1.
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) offers uncompressed digital data transmission between compatible devices, as between the TH-42PX50U and a DTV satellite receiver. Other connections include dual HD component-video inputs, 2 each composite- and S-video inputs, and a set of composite-video-based AV outputs simplifies hookup with an external AV receiver and speaker system.
The TV's internal stereo speakers are powered by 8 watts per channel. Special surround processing creates spacious 3D effects from stereo speakers and a selectable audio leveler automatically adjusts the volume level on your TV to prevent wide variations in sound between different TV stations and types of programming.
Other features include V-Chip Program lockout, on/off sleep timers, a remote control, and closed-caption decoding.
What's in the Box TV, remote control, remote batteries (2 AA), a pedestal base, an AC power cord, F-type coaxial antenna adapters, ferrite cores, 2 clampers, a warranty card, a customer card, and a service-center list.
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