Panasonic TH-42PX75U 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV
See it at Amazon.com for $719.00Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (5 out of 5)See the tv before you buy it....
When my old tv died, I wanted to get a 32 inch HDTV. So, I checked on Amazon first for hd's with customer reviews in the 4 to 5 star range. The early frontrunner was the Samsung LNT 4065, beautiful with 15,000:1 dynaminc contrast, a little above my range.
The best sellers are Samsung, Sharp and Sony. I confined my search to those, and then hit the stores, with my Amazon notes to check out the tv's live before buying. Strangely, my first choice was not available.
I am impressed by how competitively priced Amazon is. Of the products I saw Amazon is consistently below Best Buy, and BB won't compete with online prices. I did ask. Also Amazon has free shipping on some models, and no sales tax.
I did side by side checks, and the Sharp Aquos series, Sony Bravia, and Samsung LNS and LNT are very competitive, and similar in quality. When I was strolling through Best Buy, a large 42 inch Panasonic plasma caught my eye. A rare beauty. 10 inch larger screen than the others and only $300 extra. Should I go bigger or cheaper?
10,000 to one dynamic range, almost like looking at a movie screen with incredible detail. I went to Sears, who, to my surprise were much more competitive than BB. This particular model was reduced by $300. I could not resist.
Set up was pretty easy, and the inbuilt HDTV tuner gives an improved reception to local channels. I put in the John Wayne classic The Searchers. The awesome views of Monument Valley as a panoramic backdrop was a joy to behold.
Amazon's price on this model is still still lower than bricks and mortar price I paid, so if you have the patience to wait, and go with Amazon
This black beauty is a joy to behold and to own.
If you were to find this review helpful, please click yes.
(4 out of 5)Very Good TV With Minor Drawbacks
First off, I'm a semi-videophile, tech-saavy person who spent about a year researching, comparing and pricing flat panels. I chose this model based on almost unanimously positive reviews of its predecessor, the TH-42PX60U, head to head comparisons in big box stores, and because of its reasonable price compared to Sony, Samsung, Pioneer and other major manufacturers. This TV seemed to offer the best cost/benefit package.
What I've learned is that having a flat panel is a fundamentally different experience, both in terms of aesthetics and content, from a CRT TV. There are drawbacks and huge advantages, and it helps to know a bit about what you're getting into because there is a trade off involved in giving up your old CRT monitor; these things are very expensive and you want to be sure of your choice...
Bought this TV to replace my 27" sony wega CRT, which until flat panel craze was one of the best TV's around, so I used it as a benchmark for the performance of this TV.
-General Picture Quality: This is what you're buying this for, no? Very clear, sharp, lifelike, beautiful picture when receiving HD feed. Great for HD movies, sports and all the usual things they market HD TV's for. Resolution is great, though sometimes you can see digital compression evident in, say, cloud shots or dark corners of a frame. This is no doubt a limitation of compressed media and not the TV's fault.
-Color: I actually don't find color to be as accurate as my old CRT. Even with the adjustments Panasonic lets you make, there seems to be a sort of pastel-like quality to skin tones. It's not bad, mind you, but if you're a videophile you'll notice that it doesn't seem as true to life and rich and nuanced as it should.
-Lattitude: Though this has one of the better contrast ratios among flat panels, it lacks the subtle gradiations of color that one is used to, and also whites get blown out and darks fade to inky nothingness sooner than on a high quality CRT ie Sony Wega. Again, like color, among plasma/lcd's, this is one of the best.
-SD: let's not kid, SD broadcasts look absolutely terrible, though it could just be the incredibly inept monopoly known as Time Warner Cable at work here. The distorted "just" setting, which crops, distorts and zooms to try to split the difference of 4:2 and 16:9, makes things slightly more tollerable, but after watching Sd channels, one wants only to watch HD channels. Although you do sort of get used to it, it's not good.
-DVD's: Didn't try HD or Blu Ray. Standard def DVD's look fair to excellent through component connection and an upconvirting 720p Samsung player. One interesting thing about this TV is that you can REALLY tell a good DVD transfer vs. a bad one. To take two eye candy films: Kubrick's 2001 DVD, first made into a DVD in the late 90's when transferring wasn't as developed a science, looks tons worse than any of the Star Wars films, which were meticulously transfered and mastered only a couple years ago. You wouldn't notice the difference nearly as much on an SD tv. Still, overall, most DVD's I've viewed, from classics to foriegn to modern hollywood, look very good. Not quite HD but definitely high-enough resolution to get you immersed in the film in a way you never could with your old tube tv.
Content: There are only about 20 channels available in HD in New York City, so it's pretty limited at this point. All the SD channels work, they just look crappy.
Sound: Surprisingly rich sound from invisible speakers mounted, I guess, under the unit. I had no need to hook it up to my stereo sytem. If you don't need 5.1, this thing is great: clear rich bass, sparkling highs, well balanced, and there are bass/treble eq's in the menu too.
Asthetics: this thing is huge and black, so will fundamentally change your living room. It looks cool though glossy black is a bit... cheesy? Matte would have been better, less frat boy. But that's a matter of taste. remote is labled well, easy to use. Overall when it's on you can't take your eyes off it. When it's off it's a bit like the monolith in 2001 ;)
Fortunately, I use the thing mostly for films on DVD and occasional baseball games, so it suits my needs by and large.
Buying this makes one realize that for all its amazing qualities, Plasma/LCD HD is still in its infancy. Colors not as true to life, limited content available, still no truly good upconversion from SD broadcasts (which constitutes well over 90% of all content). Am I happy I bought it? Yes. Do I wish there were more HD channels, better SD upconversion etc? Yes.
Bottom line: if you can wait another couple of years for more channels, slight refinements in the panels themselves, the price of HD DVD's to drop, wait. If you can't wiat, this is the one to buy. At $1260 all inclusive, this is a great deal and you won't regret it.
(5 out of 5)Amazing TV especially for the price
I recently purchased this TV from BB and I must say that its the closest to the Pioneer in picture quality. I had a hard time deciding between the samsung 4254 and this, but when I actually saw the TVs in the store, the decision was a lot easier to make.
Pros:
*Picture quality(PQ) is amazing. Panasonic is well known for their high contrast and deep blacks and this TV is no different
*Black bezel looks so much better than the silver one. Something I learned: a black bezel actually makes the picture stick out since it provides a good contrast difference.
*Remembers adjustment settings for each input
*Reflection (lack of) is actually better than my old tube tv. I was worried about this, since plasma's are typically very reflective, but the reflection on this TV did not bother me at all. YMMV.
Cons:
*settings are very limited. There are the standard adjustments for picture brightness tint sharpness etc, but its missing the the fine tuning adjustments that most new tv's have.
*I am not a big fan of the zoom function since it makes the picture slightly pixelated.
*720p(1024x768 rectangular) only. I initially wanted a 1080p LCD but at this size I guess it really doesnt matter. Not to mention the PQ is light years ahead of an LCD in this price range.
*No VGA input. This is a bummer, but i picked up a DVI-HMDI cable from monoprice for a couple of bucks.
*Slight Image retention(IR) (burn in). If a still image is left on the TV for more a couple of minutes, the image can still be seen on a white screen. The good thing is if you watch widescreen TV(without the side bars) for an hour or so, this completely goes away. This is more of a plasma issue, and I feel this TV does a much better job at clearing up IR than what I have read about previous generation plasmas.
I am pretty satisfied with my purchase, and I hope this review helps someone in making their investment!
(5 out of 5)Amazing Plasma TV + Panasonic Peace of Mind = PERFECT!!
I have to say, this might just be the best purchase ive ever made.
I did research on Plasma TV's, and found that there really are two ways to go... If you have less than $2,000, go with a Panasonic. If you have more, go with a Pioneer.
Panasonic swears that their new 2007 models (This is an 07' model that replaces the th-42px700) do not have any issue with permanent IMAGE RETENTION/BURN-IN. I did alot of time reading up on the product, along with other tv sets, just to see if this is true. I can atest (I made the mistake of leaving my TV on overnight with the ESPN ticker there, which left a glare of the ticker and the ESPN2HD logo whenever i was on a black screen, but, to my suprise and utter hope, the image was washed out with just a few hours of normal TV viewing) that these TV's are truly resistant to BURN-IN. Panasonic has done their reasearch, and through that they were able to widely improve their phosphors technology, which basically, wont permanently hold any image.
Also, ive learned that 720p Plasma looks MUCH BETTER than 1080p LCD. Also, watching HD movies/HD sports looks better in 720p Plasma than 1080p Plasma, which, to me, leaves no room for anything but the 720p Plasma.
At the end of it, the price of this system is UNBEATABLE for the quality and assurance you get from Panasonic. The warranty is not half bad, they also claim 60,000 hours before the TV's brightness reaches its half life. (Waching TV for 6 hours a day, it would take 27 years for that to happen;good luck!) The TV is 1000x more sleek than their past models, which really rounds my review home to a solid 10/10.
For your money, for your peace of mind, for your total and complete satisfaction, and for the pure quality of image, go with this TV.
Eric M.
(5 out of 5)Unbeatable!
I agree with everyone here that this TV will blow you away. I work for an A/V equipment manufacturer and all of our technicians recommend Panasonic plasmas. (Pioneer if you have the money, Panasonic if you're an average Joe like me)
The picture is stunning and the number of connections is nice. I also bought a Toshiba A2 HDDVD player and WOW! Now I'm waiting for FiOS to deliver my new HD box. The SD signal from FiOS on this TV is fantastic, I can't wait to see HD!
1 thing to note is that this TV DOES support HDCP. I haven't been able to find that in print anywhere, including the manual.
Why I chose it:
1. Price
2. Quality - I saw this side by side with MANY other brands.
3. Contrast ratio 10000:1
The 1080p version of this TV was about $1000 more and only has a
5000:1 contrast ratio.