Panasonic Viera TH-42PX60U

Summary: I have been looking at Panasonic TVs for a solid year. Waiting & hoping that the price would go down on the PHD8UK or the PX50U or PX500U. They didn't.

I thought about the pros & cons of what I needed. The 50" sets resolve 720p with a resolution of 1366x768 plus they have a PC adapter if you want to connect your PC to it. Also they have PiP, but I had TVs in the past with PiP and it is more of a novelty than something I really used.

Is that worth an extra $500 to you? If so, get the 50" set.

For me, I just wanted one of the best TVs to watch digital cable & movies at a reasonable price.

I have read CNET and other sites and everyone lauds the Panasonic models. Are they perfect? No. I don't think anything in the $2,000 range is going to be PERFECTION. But this TV far exceeded my expectations.

It resolves to 1024x768, but let me tell you - it is an absolutely gorgeous picture. My jaw dropped, hit the floor and rolled around this morning while I watched an HD channel on Digital Cable. Beautiful, crisp colors, watching in 1080i (which, as you know is a higher resolution) - it was great.

I don't have surround sound speakers. Yes, I know - some of you out there pull your hair out at the thought of buying a TV like this without a surround sound speaker system, and maybe in the future I will get one. But the speaker volume and sounds are just fine for what I need. This was another reason why I bought this TV over the industrial model - I wanted speakers and I wanted a stand. Yes, you can save money getting the industrial model, but if you throw in the stand & speakers it costs nearly the same as this TV.

I bought my TV through Circuit City. Now, there are some sites on the web that may be cheaper (and have a tendancy to operate out of Brooklyn). To me, with such a pricey purchase I went with Circuit City because the price was very good & it's a name I can trust. I did buy a 3 year warranty for the same reasons - sure, I may forgo a warranty on a digital camera, but not on a plasma. Plus, they were able to deliver Sunday which was good for someone like me who works long hours during the work week. Circuit city *was* 3 hours late, but this was due to a truck failure. The delivery crew set up the TV on my behalf and were very professional.

So, lets recap. You getting a plama? Get this TV. In life you get what you pay for. You want to get a $1400 plama? Sure, it will be cheaper but it won't be as good as this TV. You want to spend $5000 on the best 42" plasma ever - hey, more power to you. For me, i'll save the other $2500 for a trip to Vegas or something.

Stop waiting. Every prime time TV show is in HD now.

Oh, last point. I have Tivo (2nd Generation), which does crimp my HDTV watching. It works with the plama, but the picture is certainly smaller & compressed. So if you are a huge Tivo buff, you may need to wait until Tivo releases a HD version (for us digital cable users who don't have the satellite Tivo).