Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic TH-37PX80B - 37" Widescreen HD Ready Plasma TV - With Freeview and Pedestal Stand

Brought this TV after reading loads of reviews and visiting comets, currys etc. this TV won WHAT HIFI SOUND AND VISION MAGAZINE for best 37 inch TV. although not a full HD resolution, the processor on this TV deals with everthing you can throw at it , from DVD's to full HD DVD's, the picture is superb, far better than some of my frieds Full HD TV's. Freeview Picture, so often the bugbear for full HD tv's, shows no sign of smearing at all. all too often common on the full HD tv's. One thing i cant fathom out is that the TH37PX70 is more expensive than the newer TH37PX80 which is far superior in every way. when it first came out it was more expensive because it was the newer model but now on some sites it is cheaper than the previous model. DO NOT BUY THE PX70, it is an inferior model!! the TH37PX80 has a newer processor, 3 HDMI's, better speakers and is better looking. if you dont believe me, check out the Panasonic website. Save yourself hassle and Buy Plasma!! At this price it is a steal. see also the latest review in WHAT PLASMA magazine, this TV was given 5 gold stars
UPDATE 13.dec 2008
this set has just won the WHAT HI-FI 37 inch supertest for the SECOND YEAR running. cant get much more of a recommendation than that!!
Update 02.april.2009
After a year of owning this TV, i can only say what an excellent buy this was. It never ceases to amaze me with its vibrant colours and non smearing pictures and a year in i have had absolutely mo problem with it at all
i would like other people who have had this TV for a while to give me their views on what they have found, be it good or bad, so that people looking at this TV can have a good insight as to what to expect long term.
thanks..Square Eyes.

This television has an absolutely stunning picture! Although the screen isn't 1080p you'll think it is. Remember: if you're sitting more than 5 or 6 feet away it's not going to matter anyway. The colour is super and the sound although not Bose quality is perfectly acceptable. The quality of standard definition is much much better than a lot of TVs I've looked at over the last few weeks and bear in mind that it's going to be quite a while before 1080p is broadcast. Have no fear in purchasing this tv if you're like me and you change your tv every fews years or so anyway. This TV is an absolute steal!

It has taken me ages to choose a tv I started out at 32" but was so struck by the value for money of the 37" Panasonic Plasma that I researched the tv a little more. When I first saw the 37" PX80B I thought it was a rather plain looking set when compared with some of the fancier LCD screens around but the picture was good and the price was at a bargain level(sub £600); so in the end Panasonic's reputation and a host of good reviews in the press finally persauded me to take the plunge and buy the TV. I am delighted I did, I am not a big TV buff but having got the TV home I can say that the apparent plain Jane appearance in the store has gone and the TV looks quietly understated and very smart. The setting up was easy and the picture is good particularly on the freeview channels. Even the sound seems pretty good to me, at least compared to the old CRT TV it has replaced. All in all I am very happy with my purchase and the TV has more than lived up to my expectation.

As a new, very proud and extremely impressed owner of a TH37PX80, i thought i'd drop a couple of lines, because i feel you all need yet another mini review of this set!
Before i start, i got this set for around £560 delivered from Amazon, which frankly is a steal, everyone coming over my new place is always shocked that this set cost me so little, i think i'll convert some people over to plasma

I just bought a new place and i've been busy with furnishing it and decorating it (almost all done and in a record time of a week!) and finally decided after months and months of research, testing, head scratching, to settle for this set. I was initially looking to get a 42PZ80, but it would have looked a bit naff in my livingroom, just too big, so i was a bit worried that i wouldn't be happy with the fact that the PX80 isn't a Full HD model. The PZ80 just looks so sharp! But in the end i can safely say that given all the things that are so good about this set, the lower res just doesn't bother me at all, the set is still very sharp and gives such amazing pictures!

First thing that got my attention was the lack of options. It makes the TV feel like a slightly more advanced "old school" CRT, with very simple options. In the end i thought, do i need any more options than this, REALLY? and the answer is simple, not really, now i can just enjoy what i'm watching and not stress about white balance, gamma and all those things.
I don't have an aerial so can't comment on Freeview, Sky HD is on order. So i just plugged in my Macbook via HDMI and i found that setting the res to 1280x720 is the best for me, fits the screen perfectly without overscan or black bars anywhere.

Blacks and contrast was my main worry. And yes, the blacks are definitely not "bezel black" except under favourable lighting conditions (low to medium light, it is most definitely not "bezel black" in a totally dark room, but close enough), but they are still SO much better than any other TV (mainly LCD) i've seen that i don't know how i could complain really, at this price. On top of that, my other worry that the set wouldn't be as bright as LCDs, was instantly killed: the set can definitely go as bright as an LCD at maximum settings such as Dynamic, not that i'd ever leave it like that, it looks ridiculous. Leaving Contrast at 50 (there's no number but i call it 50 to say "the middle") or one or two taps above is more than bright enough in Cinema mode, and looks very natural.

Colours-wise, i can only say that the set produces some really vivid colours, more "natural" than LCD. As a new-to-plasma guy, after having owner a few LCDs, i always thought that "plasma people" always talked about plasma being more "natural" to hide the fact that it's just more dull than LCD, and boy was i wrong! Now i TOTALLY understand what the "plasma people" talk about. Not being "in your face" does not mean being dull, it means being as close to reality as it can get, being vivid when it needs to be, being subtle when it needs to be, as opposed to being an explosion of very bright, unnatural and inaccurate colours like on so many LCDs.
Of course i can never tell how exactly "accurate" the colours are, like some of the professional reviews, but honestly i don't see the point. Green is a vivid green, blue is blue, red is red. All the colours are so much better (i.e. more realistic) than on any LCD i've seen that i don't see how anyone can complain, at this price especially!

Motion... I could go into detail like so many other people do, but in a nutshell, things move like you'd expect them to and without all the silly issues that i've seen on LCD for years. There is no smudging, blurring, artifacts, hieroglyphs, STDs... things just move from here to there and "don't look weird doing it", unlike on so many LCDs, that's the only way to explain it really.

What amazed me the most is that i put through some TV shows i downloaded. Generally low-ish quality which on my old LCDs looked atrocious, even though they were small sets. On the Panny they looked so much better i could not believe my eyes and for a moment made me wonder if i really needed Sky HD which i'm waiting for! If downloaded episodes looked like that (soft but not a pixelly, compressed, youtube-looking mess) then DVDs would look scarily close to HD, and Bluray will melt my eyes, when i eventually take the plunge, probably at the boxing day sales!

Lots of people have been complaining about sound and of course it's not exactly spine tingling, it gets the job done for casual viewing. With a TV like this, everyone should invest in a surround sound system for movies, which to me is almost more important than the visual aspect, nothing can beat watching a movie with sound coming from all directions.

As you might have noticed by now, i'm a very happy camper. I never thought i'd be so happy with this, or any, TV. If you're still undecided and don't need to go up to 42", then please do yourself a favour and buy this TV!

This TV does exactly what it says on the tin!! - After doing literally months of research, reading review after review and Which etc etc., I finally took the plunge and went for this PLASMA over an LCD. The main reason being the freeview image, which is as good as you'll find on any flat screen telly - The tuner is also very good with poor quality signals (where I live).
Being only HD ready was a concern, but realistically as there are no planned dates for even producing programmes in Full HD - what is the point? - Unless you are a gamer or a blue ray fan.
I compared HD ready and Full HD in the various stores and to be honest at 6ft away you'll be hard pushed to notice the difference.
The black levels are good - it's only when you've had the telly for a week or so that you start to understand why all the reviews rave about black levels.
All in all excellent value for money, with a cracking picture.