Nov 02, 2009 12:04 PM
6846 Views
This is my first review on mouthshut.com and hope you people like it well.
I bought this set some 2months ago from shop in Pune. Not panasonic brand shop, some local shop, bcoz he agreed to give me another 1k discount on price. Bought it finally at price of 63k. And I say its terrific deal for high end 42" TV.
Design and overall appearance: I must say the product is very good looking but not best looking
. Material used all around is very tough plastic and in black gloss finish. So even if style isnt to drool over, you wont dislike it and the feel is solid one. Stand to complements panel's style and is very much sturdy.The approx weight is arnd 30kg. The panel is made of glass as in most of plasmas and is very very tough. I already seen many demonstrations by panasonic in many shows displaying some people trying to hit glass with 4inch diameter full iron sphere ball. So dont u worry abt glass at forth and its fragile.
Main buttons are on right side and with main connectors on left had side, with one HDMI on side. Speakers are down firing and hidden. Overall style is very good and nothing to dislike, still away from amazing. especially against the newly launched LED tvs from samsung and sony.
Features:
Now let me explain only those features those are useful in true sense and only in India. Bcoz this set is different in every region. Its different in US, or UK or Singapore or India. The US version got THX certification and has THX mode in it, UK one doesnt have THX neither gamma control and singapore and Indian models are same with no THX mode and no internect connnections like VieraCast as in US.
Mainly this is mid-high range plasma FULL HD set. featuring full 1920*1080 resoultion . It supports 24p playback for true cinema but of course with BD players. 24p playback is at rate of 24 frames/ sec, but as you see it in cinema halls. It got some tech like 600Hz Subfield drive. great contrast ratio of 40000:1(static). Long life panel as panasonic claims, more than normal LCD life of 60000 hrs. and the foremost feature is its NEOPDP panel, which is new tech from panasonic. You can read in details of NeoPDP tech somewhere else.
In short this plasma contains all the bells and whistles of high end LCD and LED TVs and some even more.
Performance:
The performance of this can be explained just in one word: AMAZING!
Its got highest of all TVs contrast ratio. The picture look very much real and natural. Colours are very much saturated and inky as I say. Green is a bit saturated though and there is no control for green color, only for Red and blue color decoding,
Regarding blacks, its got the deepest blacks than any other Indian TV. It can show very dark blacks and hence very dark colors too. Contrast ratio can be matched by no other TV worldwide( except Pioneer Kuro as reviews tell).
Now many has questions that plasmas are dimmer than LCDs and hence disliked. But this new NeoPDP panel is very much bright and comparable to LCDs. Its viewable even in daytime with of course curtains at back.
Plasmas generally show reflections and which are quite distracting. But this set now incorporates antiglare coating and this problem is totally eliminated.
About sound quality, sound isnt so good, or rather I say its good but not great to say about. Sony TVs got a bit better sound. A small 2.1 speaker set will complement this TV, may be costing around 1.5k.
You need to calibrate you TV first . You may get some tips on net here or may use some disk from DVE, HQV, or monster. The calibrated display look a bit dim and dark and yellowish too. But thats the way it is meant to look. So when you calibrate plasmas against LCDs you can see much darker shades and great contrast against pale LCD colors.
Now the main part, most users visit this review bcoz they are in dilemma whether to buy plasma or LCD and assume LCDs look much better.
Here I will state my experinces in buying HDTV. I am totally newbie in this area but wanted good TV for me. Already got 22" Dell LCD monitor in my home and it too is teriffic value. So I know well how LCDs look and plasmas look.
LCDs Vs G10 plasma:
Most of shopkeepers will definitely urge you that plasma is outdated and wont be sold anymore. But they only intend to sell more LCDs which have brightness turned up too high nad thus appeal more than plasmas. This problem in shops is mainly due to fact that many electronic firms are withdrawing their plasma production and focus manily on LCD TVs which have better margin than plasmas. And also the only main sheet manufacturer in plasma panel is PANASONIC. Whichever company wants to produce plasma has to borrow panel from panasonic itself. Many companied denied this kind of Dadagiri and thus decided to shut off production of plasma TVs. Expecially Pioneer, Sony, Vizio in US etc. Samsung, LG and pansonic still continue to sell and produce plasmas now onwards. Thats why the reason is plasmas from panasonic costs less than any other.
Power Consumption: plasmas surely consume more, but much less more. As for direct indication of how much it counsume, I got increment of Rs 50 to 100 in monthly electricity bills. But I am sure your bills wont stay increased by 100, instead it will increase by arnd Rs200, as I can assure you that your viewing time will increase two folds due to its superb picture quality. The drawbacks of plasmas are bit exaggerated in shops and majorly in this regard.
All other drawbacks like, burn-in/ image retention, short life span, screen resolution are taken care of.
*Contrast and Black Levels:
LCDs are progressing at more speed than plasma TVs, I agree. But still to catch up with plasmas. Contrast is way better on this plasma than any TV in price range upto 2 lacs! Black levels are best too. Now somebody will wonder whats the use of these black levels as most of times we dont watch night scnes? The reason is obviuos, with better black levels the dark colors can be displayed correctly. And the shading in objects and 3Dness of objects is displayed correctly. So you can see some 3D quality in plasmas than 2Diiish images on LCD. Of course you need to spend some time infront of plasmas to understand it. What I mean by black levels is no black color. You may feel that black on LCDs are blacker than black color on plasma. but to notice it u first have to calibrate your panel and then see the difference.
I got much more to say about but no time. Hope you like my review.
All those who still have doubts and still think LCDs look better, you can post or ask me later down here. And also I will suggest some settings for HTPC connection through HDMI.
