Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
81 of 83 people found the following review helpful.
What anyone considering buying this product NEEDS to know
By Cecilia Chen
Things I wish I knew about this before I purchased it through the Amazon site:1) The cheapest secondary vendor Amazon contracts this item through is Tiger Direct (I purchased it at $1,699 for the new nonfurbished model in the summer of '05). When I originally ordered this, shipping calculated out to be $200! OK, I thought... expensive, but maybe that's just how Tiger Direct gets you, and the overall price is still killer for any 42" plasma. WRONG. It is Amazon that is taking the cut as the middleman (or at the least miscalculating). I ended up going through Tiger Direct directly, and for the same exact product, they charged me the same great price, and $135 on shipping. Long story short, I had to go through a lot of hassle to turn around the Amazon order mid-shipment, get a refund on that, but the TV I got from TD is here and looks amazing.2) Know that this is an INDUSTRIAL grade TV, and that is why they are able to price it the way they are. That means:a) No coaxial connection in the back. That meant I had to run down to RadioShack and buy expensive component connections for inputs through the cable box and DVD player, ended up costing me $110.b) No internal speakers. Had to run down to Circuit City to buy a $250 soundsystem (which IMHO was still worth it and something I would have wanted anyway). Had trouble with the sound, so had to pay the tech guy $50 extra to rewire it (turned out to be a simple mistake on my part).c) Comes with no stand or mount!!! What you are buying is pretty much a standalone screen which would ideally be wall-mounted. Right now it is leaning against the corner wall a little more precariously than I would like to see it. I will be purchasing a used pedastal off eBay, which is nice because it is only $20 (same model retails for over $200 new by my research). I did have to call the Panasonic 800 line to confirm that it would fit this model (and then had to be transfered to a special line that handles industrial TV's). Stands and mounts that support a model of this size are more expensive than I would have guessed (stands avg $150-300 retail, wall mounts that support 42" $200-400+).Just wanted to make people aware of these issues before they bought. Even given all the extra costs and hassle to me, I would still say it was a financially worthwhile purchase, considering that other 42" plasmas of comparable quality retail for at least a thousand more (and I got a greater soundsystem for my dollar). That's why I still gave it 4 stars. But just know that if you are trying for a simple plug-and-go TV, this is not it... but if you are willing to go the extra mile to get an incredible plasma screen TV at a rock bottom price, it's not a bad purchase (through TD, not Amz).
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
This is the best EDTV around !
By RAMBO FIRE
It is almost 2 weeks since I have had this TV & I love it every bit.PerformanceAs claimed by the manufacturer, this TV truly brings to life, all imaginable colors. Many times, I just want to freeze the frame to enjoy the picture postcard like scenes.This unit is exceptionally quiet. Contrast is awesome & so is the brightness. It is more than you need. In fact, I had to reduce the brightness to below default value. While watching Wide Screen DVDs, it is guaranteed to give you a Cinema like experience.Watching conventional channels (analog & digital), this TV offers the best value for your money. While I do not subscribe to HDTV programming, I have watched HDTV on a similar Panasonic EDTV TV at a friend's place & I may I add - the clarity was breath taking. Features such as "Side bar Adjust" allow you to watch non-wide screen programs in "Normal" view without worrying about the over-sensitized "burn-in" issue by constantly refreshing the side bands.Bottomline - Is it worth paying an extra $1000 for a HDTV unit when this EDTV can come so close. Answer - Not unless you want to piss your $$$ away.DesignSimple & sleek is how many of my envious pals described this TV. I spent an extra $600 to buy an Italian design Bello PVS-4260 stand which matches perfectly with this design. Hence, I did not have to deal with cumbersome wall mounts or other ugly TV stands that take away appeal of the Plasma.ConnectionsI have an Onkyo home theatre receiver, a DVD player, Replay TV, Analog cable, Satellite Dish receiver & an Xbox. I feed my analog cable & satellite to my Replay TV. The combined output from Replay TV is fed as one of the component video (RYB) inputs to Onkyo. I connect my DVD player to Onkyo through the other component video input. Now, the component output from Onkyo is fed to the Plasma display's Video 1. I had to buy 3 BNC connectors & as many component video cables from RadioShack to make this connection. Finally, my Xbox uses S-Video of Video 2 of the Plasma. Across the board, for audio, I used Red-White cables from my audio sources to Onkyo.Finally, since this model lacks a built-in TV tuner, I was wondering about how to hook up my analog cable (over the wall). I even contemplated buying an external TV tuner. Luckily, I did not have to do that as realized that my Replay TV was capable of tuninganalog channels.Drawbacks* Analog cable signal might not have the best clarity. Recommend you to get a cable box or a satellite receiver to enjoy this Plasma.* Very few input ports to connect display. Problem solved if you have a good home theatre receiver already.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Best TV for Home Theater!
By S. Hanna
Pros: Sharp, precise picture; excellent contrast and colour; sleek, no-frills lookCons: ED only; burn-in concernsI've been researching HD-compatible TVs for more than six months now - plasma, LCD, DLP, LCD projection, LCoS, and of course CRT. This TV came out the clear winner for several reasons:1. Contrast: there's nothing that I hate more than greyish blacks in dark scenes. This TV is a superstar when it comes to black level performance. You get CRT-deep blacks with this TV.2. Resolution: ironically, the fact that this is an EDTV (vs. HDTV) makes DVDs look *a lot better*. There's no video rescaling done on the images coming from the DVD, so what you get is a pristine picture. With an HDTV, the image has to get scaled up to HDTV resolutions (or even non-16:9 resolutions like 1024x678 with rectangular pixels), and so image quality is lost. With this Panasonic baby, however, there's none of that.3. None of the stuff I don't need: the lack of tuners and inputs isn't a bad thing...you can completely customize the TV with the set of inputs that you need based on the video sources that you have. Need HDMI? OK. DVI with HDCP instead? No problem! Complete input flexibility!Of course, nothing is perfect. Here are the issues that I see with this TV:1 Burn-in concerns: This is a not a problem that is specific to this TV, but rather to plasma TVs in general. I'm worried about burn-in due to "Anamorphic Widescreen" DVDs. Most widescreen movies are not 16:9, but rather 2.xx:1 (I can't remember the exact ratio). This means that even with a 16:9 TV like this, you'll see black bars at the top and the bottom of the image. There's nothing you can do to get around that, because these black bars are embedded in the 16:9 video that DVD players output. So if you want to avoid burn-in, you'll have to zoom in the image from your DVD player (image gets stretched and cropped, so it becomes less sharp), or one of the TV zooming functions (aspect ratio goes out of whack, such that people's faces become thinner). Again, this is not a problem with this particular TV only, but with all plasmas.2. EDTV: I'm still kinda bummed out that I can't see the finest of fine details in HD broadcasts (though the image still looks absolutely spectacular). Honestly, this one isn't that big of a concern. Most people can't tell anyway.In short: go buy this thing now!! If you're looking for a plasma TV, stop researching...this is it!
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