Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic TH-42PZ80B - 42" Widescreen Viera 1080P Full HD Plasma TV - With Freeview

Excellent TV, recommended buying but not Panasonic TH42PZ80B from Amazon....buy Panasonic TH42PZ82B from Comet or Laskys. Why? Read on.

My first dilemma was what to buy LCD or Plasma?

I was under the impression that LCD is better technology and Plasma is on its way out. I went into the showrooms to have a look at the televisions and I realized plasma's deliver a better picture when compared to LCD's.I did a lot of research on both the technologies and realised problems with first generation plasma's like "burn in screen" or "image retention", higher energy consumption, low panel life which made people choose LCD are no longer an issue with new generation plasma's.

New generation Plasma's compete with LCD televisions in all categories and win in all the important categories like resolution,response time, colour reproduction, viewing angle, noise reduction in picture etc.
The plasma's have similar panel life to those of LCD's.
Plasma's beat LCD's by miles when it comes to delivering fast moving pictures like football or motor racing.As LCD's have higher response time the pictures appear fuzzy when they deliver fast moving images.
LCD's have a slight edge when it comes to power consumption and weight.

I had to choose between plasma's which deliver great picture and consume a little more energy or LCD's which consume less energy and deliver an OK picture. I was faced with a moral dilemma as I consider my self to be a green person and cycle to work, recycle stuff etc. In the end I decided to choose plasma over LCD as the differences are not so high and the power consumption of plasma's varies with the kind of picture on the screen. If you are watching a movie like Dark Knight which has plenty of dark scenes in it then the plasmas will consume the same or less amount of energy as LCD's.

Next was which brand?

Again more research showed that Panasonic and pioneer are the best plasma TV manufacturers, Panasonic with Viera range and Pioneer with Kuro Range. Panasonic is the largest manufacturer and invested heavily in a new plant to manufacture plasma screens. Panasonic believes plasma technology will be the choice of people who do a bit of research before buying a TV.

Panasonic PZ range has a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 and dynamic contrast ratio is 1,00,000:1.Pioneer's Kuro range has similar specifications.

The differences in picture quality between Panasonic's PZ range and Pioneer's Kuro range are very very few and far between.
Kuro range costs almost twice as the Panasonics PZ range.

This made me choose Panasonic PZ range.

Panasonic TH42PZ80's technical specifications (can be found in the other Amazon reviews),product reviews(not in Amazon but written by proper telly geeks like HDTV org, AV forums etc based on their testing) prompted me to choose this model.It has also won quite a few awards from independent reviewers.

When I walked into Curry's the picture looked great but the telly had a hideous silver bezel and looked cheap when it was switched off.It was by serendipity that I found there is another version in UK which is made exclusively for Comet and Laskys called Panasonic TH42PZ82B.This version is the same as Panasonic TH42PZ80B but had a black bezel instead of the silver bezel.
{Check links in the comments of this review for current price,availability and specifications}

I went into Comet to check out Panasonic TH42PZ82B version and there it was all black and shiny and much better looking than Th42PZ80B.

I got the telly even though it was £20 more and i had to pay another £15 for the same day delivery.*At the time of writing this review*

You might need an extra pair of hands if you are unable to handle heavy objects for fixing the base stand.

The setup is breeze once you have switched on the telly.

Remember to reduce the brightness and contrast to half during the first 200 hours.

Turn off the "over scan" feature which comes as factory setting to get the full picture.

Buy Panasonic TH42PZ82B from Comet but word of advice to any one who buys from Comet, DON'T buy their monster cable's and monster power surge kits.Instead buy THOR HDMI cable's from B&Q which are around £20 for 3 metres and Belkin power surge kit from Comet or other electrical stores. I *personally* believe extended warranty Electrical stores offer is like snake oil, as if some thing can wrong with electronics it will go wrong in under 6-8 months and you are covered by the manufacturer warranty for that period any way.

Hope this review helps.

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If you haven't read all the other reviews, suffice to say this TV is doing very well in the reviewer stakes. However, it does actually perform as well as described.
Compared to equivalently priced LCD's, the picture quality is superior; it is of similar sharpness, but colours, particularly blacks and dark details, are far superior to LCD, and equivalent to CRT.

Ergonomically, the remote and menus are easy to use.
Sound is adequate for normal programmes; anyone serious about home cinema will have (or need) a surround setup.
Switched off, it looks unpreprossessing (as much as 42+ inches of black rectangle can do), unlike e.g. the LG models with holes in them.

Switched on, it is quiet - the cooling fans are just discernable if you put your ears right next to the top of the TV, but not from a normal viewing distance.

Earlier serial #'s had problems with an obvious electrical humming; any good retailer should swap those out. Models supplied now should not have this issue.

Negatives:
- there's no PiP - would be a 'nice to have'
- the gloss finish shows the dust up

I have to say from the off im a big panasonic fan . I have owned their tv`s for the last 10 years or more and have never once been dissapointed. That said this is my first trip into plasma displays so i was a little worried that the standard would drop considerably from my old 36" c.r.t tv which was excellent. One of the main reasons i bought the display was for hd souces eg Xbox 360 Playstation3/Blueray and Hd-dvd so it was with those particular sources i started with all where excellent with the games showing really improved frame rates over lcd tv`s. The big test for me was the comparison to my old tv which this tv outshines in every way apart from sound. The picture is excellent, vibrant, detailed and clear. Overall i could`nt be more pleased with this display it stands up very well if not on par with the pioneer kuro line which by the way is far more expencive. Buy with confidence!

What a great product - bought it with DVD home cinema system

Picture quality is amazing - upscaling a regular dvd to 1080p makes me wonder what all the fuss about blu-ray is!

Excellent picture quality on standard def broadcasts attached my SKY+ by optical cable to home cinema system - sound and picture fantastic.

Easy install, menus clear and usefull

Very Happy

Hey,

I myself just ordered this tv, Read anywhere on the internet it gets glowing reviews. But amazon dont seem to put much about it (they'd sell sooooo many more if they did!)

So i'd thought I'd share with you all the full Tech Specs for this item.


Specifications & Features
Picture/Display
42 " Diagonal Screen Size (Inch)
106 cm Visible Diagonal Screen Size
16:9 Aspect Ratio
30000:1 Contrast Ratio
100 Hz Picture Processing
2,073,600 Panel Resolution (Pixels)
NTSC, PAL, SECAM Compatible
SVGA/XGA/SXGA Compatible
0.001 (ms) Screen Response Rate
1920x1080 pixels
1080p resolution
1000000:1 Dynamic Contrast
3d combfilter
24P (Frames Per Second) Playback
Manufacturers Technology Features
HD Ready
VIERA LINK
Convenience
Digital TV Ready
Freeview
Parental Lock/Parental Control
Teletext
On Screen Display
Sleep Timer
Online Electronic Program Guide
Sound & Power Output
Nicam Digital Stereo
20 W (RMS) Output Power

Speaker Specification
Full-Range (160 x 42 mm) x 2 (L,R) full range drive unit
Connections
3 x HDMI Connection/s
1 x S-Video Connection/s
1 x Component Video Connection/s
1 x Composite Video Connection/s
1 x SD/Multimedia Card Slot/s
1 x Headphone Socket
2 x Standard Scart Connection/s
1 x PC D-Sub Connection/s
1 X CI Slot
RCA Phono
Accessories Supplied
Pedestal stand
Remote Control
User Manual
Mains Cable
Batteries
Quick Start Guide
Warranty Card
Power,Weight & Dimensions
30(TV Only) 34(With stand) Kg Unit Weight (Approx)
1048x679x99.7(TV Only) 1048x727x327(With Stand) mm (W/H/D) Dimensions
AC 220 - 240 V, 50/60Hz Mains Power
0°C - 35°C Ambient Temperature
385(Rated) 324(Assumptive Actual Use) W Power Consumption
0.4 W Standby Power Consumption