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9 out of 11 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Fanless? I don't think so..."
Pros: Picture quality, price, quiet
Cons: Limited input bay, yes it does have a fan, cheesy remote
Summary: Just bought this one new after returning my W4200HD "bug zapper" due to a clearly audible buzzing sound emanating from the power supply while the set was displaying mostly whites. Settled on the TH-42PH8UK because every review lauded the picture and the quiet operation. One of the reviews even stated "could not hear the unit running at all. Not even from a foot away. Easily the best in the market."
Baloney!
For starters, the picture is not that much better than the W4200HD, at least not to my terribly discerning eyes. If anything, the "dynamic" setting that the TV comes with out of the box produces a pronounced reddish hue on the S-video port. I am still waiting for my BNC-RCA adapaters, so the component input may look better. My take is that most brand-name plasmas are like $40-50 bottles of wine. Heluva lot better than two-buck-Chuck, but unless you stick your nose in glasses for a living, you will like most any bottle in that price range.
Second, when the sound is muted there is a clear electronic buzz originating in the exact same area as the W4200HD. If I had to take a guess, I would say that this is a HV transformer. You can also hear it when the sound is on, though it is definitely not as pronounced as on the W4200HD. It is not annoying, but I can DEFINITELY hear the buzz from 8 feet away unless the sound is jacked up.
Third, this thing ain't fanless. When you first turn on the TV, you can CLEARLY hear the fan spinning up, very much like the sound you hear when you first turn on a desktop PC. If you stand by the TV you can also feel the cool breeze in the intake area of the back grill (next to the power inlet), as well as the hot air being forced out on the top. It may not be a real fan, allowing Panasonic to claim "fanless", but it sure sounds like one. I have emailed Panasonic to ask about this, gave them my serial number to check into it, will post an update once I hear from them.
Fourth, the remote is CHEESY. I mean REALLY cheesy. It is desitned for the garbage bin as soon as I teach my universal remote the few functions it does not have.
Finally, the aspect ratio control leaves something to be desired. "Normal" is fine, but it it shows 4:3 programming with white bars at the edges, which I do not like. Zoom cus out too much of the picture, but this is not specific to the panasonic. Full is an interesting beast. It dispalys 4:3 full screen, but true HDTV programming has black bars on top and bottom of the screen. Just has a similar effect, I like the idea, except that it messes up true HDTV with the black bars. "Panasonic Auto" works great with HDTV signals, but displays 4:3 with black bars on the side. In an ideal world, Panasonic Auto would be displaying 4:3 programs as JUST, and HDTV in native format.
Bottom line is, don't believe all the hype. I like the set because it is reasonably priced and does not make me pay for worthless additions, such as speakers and cable / over-the-air HDTV tuners. I wish they would take the PIP part out and throw in a second component video input, instead of making their customers pay $100 for it. Who the heck needs PIP with digital cable? Like anyone in their right mind would pay $15 for a 2nd cable box, just so they could get PIP. Oh, I forgot, this set is supposed to be "professional"
Updated
Finally heard back from Panasonic tech support. They bounced me around a bit, but finally a service engineer was able to confirm that only the ED plasmas are fan-free. The higher power consumption of the HD sets requires not one but two fans, but the sets use "noise reduction" technology. Therefore the claim about "Fanless quiet operation" at the URL below is an official lie, I wonder if I can get a class action lawsuit out of this
http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=94538&catGroupId=14624&modelNo=TH-42PHD8UK&surfModel=TH-42PHD8UK
I would like to retract my previous comment about poor aspect ratio control. When using the S-Video input, one has to set the 4:3 normalization setting correctly, and everything works just fine.
After using the TV for a while, i would give it a slightly higher grade, probably 8. Now only if I did not have to spend $200 on cables and feedthroughs to hang it on my wall...
- 4 replies to this review
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A friend, an engineer who works for a company that does research development of improvements to plasma and other flat-panel displays, read the comment (posted earlier) about a "Break-in" period. His response was that, while all those cautious methods would, technically, yield the best picture for the longest time, nonetheless, if you ignored all that advice and used the brightest and most color-saturated "dynamic" setting right from day 1, you'd only notice a slight decline in picture quality after -- at the soonest -- about 10 years of everyday heavy usage.
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I forgot to add in my original comment that this unit does have two component inputs as shipped. The first is the BNC component inputs (which are a PITA, but whatever). The second is an RGB input which looks like a multi-pin computer input. You need to find a component-RGB cable, plug the component cables into your, um, component, and the RGB into the plasma. Set that inputs settings from "RGB" to "Component" on the plasma's preferences, and you're good to go. The picture should be exactly as good as the regular component input.
I also got the DVI input board (aka "blade"), because that board on this unit supposedly increases the grey levels from 2,048 to 4,096. Oddly, the current HDMI board doesn't apparently support the 4,096 levels, and the new board (which does) isn't available in the US yet (as of 10/17/05). -
I recently got this model myself and BoyOhBoy's a little wrong on the display issue. First, I can't really comment on his fan criticism. I haven't noticed any fan noise, and there is certainly no buzzing sound. But, I must say that my TiVo unit has a loud fan that may drown out any noise from the plasma.
What I can say is that this unit does display "true HD" (whatever that is) full screen. There are no black bars top and bottom. Keep in mind that some high def signals are 4:3 format, and will be displayed with black/gray bars on the side. That is because Pioneer doesn't allow stretching of high def signals, for whatever reason. If your cable/sat box sends a 4:3 image in 1080i or 720p (high def), then the display will show exactly that.
Now, I'm sure that BoyOhBoy saw exactly what he/she says they saw, but that's not high-definition. By definition (no pun intended), an S-Video signal is not hi-def. It can't transmit it. So the image BoyOhBoy is seeing is a standard definition image (480i) scaled up to the plasma's display resolution. When he/she connect the hi-def source to the plasma via component, dvi, or hdmi cables, then the image will be "True HD", at least as far as this diplay can be true HD. But that's another topic entirely.
So far, my only complaint is a noticeable shifting in black levels as images change on the screen. Other than that, this plasma is very highly recommended. Excellent picture. Even the internal sound is fine, when hooked up to external speakers. -
If you're hearing that much noise, something's wrong. At eight feet, in a dead silent room, fully concentrating on the set, I can hear a VERY faint sound from the set that is utterly inaudible the second our sound system is on at any volume. Similarly, I feel no air circulation near the plug, although if i put my ear directly on the back of the set, I can hear a faint hum. Can't say if it's fanlike or not.
The remote is simple to say the least, but then it does everything that I need because, like you, I use a universal. You're right on the money with the hookups. If you haven't got an HDMI board, BUY IT. Who fools with S video and component anymore with DVI and HDMI available. I'll bet money the next model has HDMI. And by the way, THERE IS A BREAK-IN Period for these sets--500 hours. I visited with the Panasonic techs and they advise NOT to use the dynamic setting early in the life of the TV. Also, I set my timer to turn on the white scroll bar every morning for twenty minutes. They recommend this to "even out" pixel light when the set is new and burning brightest. Also, make sure the wobble setting is ON and if you're really interested in babying the new set, turn the peak limit on as well. All in all, we're enjoying the new set immensely--not perfect, but I've yet to buy anything in that category. Maybe someday!!
