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"stunning performance w/ just the right selection of options" on by mgaskins
Pros: bright customizable display, easy to select options to tune for your needs
Cons: would like visual input selector
Summary: Intro
This HP plasma’s stunning contrast ratio, attractive price-point, and ease of integration into a quality home theater make me thrilled w/ my purchase. Though it does have speakers, it does not have any of the high $ options like cable card, hard drive, or memory stick access. However, since my installation requires none of these, it has delivered an outstanding experience.
Design
The simple HP matte-black plastic bezel is accented by a few industry-standard stickers near the bottom. Basic control buttons are on the left side of the unit, so they don’t distract from the sleek design. With the great and simple to use remote, why would you want to use those buttons anyway? The dimensions w/ stand are speakers are 28.9” x 53.5” x12.3”. However, recognize that if you don’t use the stand or speakers, you have much smaller footprint. That’s what allowed me to fit it into my current entertainment center (a huge savings as compared to buying or having built another entertainment center!).
The unit comes w/ a simple black stand pre-installed. The optional speakers seem to easily screw on and when installed, are seamless into the system (i.e. you can’t easily tell they’re separate units).
I sat down and went through the manual regarding the remote control options today. I was happy to find easy to use functions to adjust the picture, sound, and cc levels to my liking. There are an impressive number of adjustments to tweak the system to perform just as you desire for your specific architecture.
Features
The unit has a native resolution of 1,024x768. It easily handles all my inputs, such as HDMI, component, and rf. I look forward to the day when HP designs its plasma tv as it does the micro-display unit; I would have loved to be able to slide the cables under and plug them into a covered front area. For now, lifting the relatively light unit to make cable adjustments was no big deal. I also look forward to the day the micro-displays ability to select input options visually comes to the plasma units.
I used the integrated over the air tuner to sample some local digital and HD channels. I was thrilled to see the stunning picture quality examples, but wound up giving up on OTA and scheduling TWC to come out and set up a digital cable DVR for me.
I was pleased w/ the units out of the box 14:9 aspect ratio. I was surprised that the 4:3 shows I watched didn’t appear stretched when I watched them. It appeared to match whatever the channel’s native properties and adjust them to look great in 14:9. When I flicked through the aspect ratio controls, I was pleased to find two zoom levels and options to fit every taste.
The picture adjustments include both those that are easy to understand and select for the amateur user as well as more specific settings that can be made by more experienced users.
The fact that the unit only has one HDMI input concerned me until I realized that the best experience is reached when you use your HDMI receiver to make input selections and use the TV only as a monitor. For now, I only have on HDMI anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t spend the high $ to get add’l HDMI inputs I wouldn’t use.
Performance
The 10,000 contrast ratio and the vivid pictures I saw on local retailers were enough to convince me to purchase the HP. Once installed, I was rewarded w/ all the reasons to buy plasma – great price points as compared to LCD, small form factor, and excellent range of brightness you can tune to your needs.
Perhaps I will spend the $ on getting the picture tuned at a later date. For now, I’m thrilled w/ making the simple tweaks to make it a beautiful picture in my home theater. -
"Best 42" Plasma TV value" on by justme97
Pros: Detachable speakers, low price, clean/classy design, great picture, vga input, looks great viewed at angles
Cons: One hdmi input only
Summary: I decided to buy this tv because it seemed like the perfect blend of consumer features (good menus, included stand, good inputs) with some of the features of industrial models (detachable speakers, clean design), combined with a great price tag that seemed lower than almost every other name brand model.
The fact that the speakers can be removed was very important to me and as far as I know of this is the only consumer plasma to offer removable speakers so this was a big selling point. I mean, I already have 5 home theater speakers all over so why should I have the tv appear larger with additional unused intergrated speakers staring at me? For me the whole point of getting a plasma was a clean look and this tv looks very clean...they even put most buttons on the side so only the power button is easily visible.
I also like that the tv doesn't have the trendy styling of other tvs...I mean, a simple black cabinet never goes out of style and who knows how long you might keep the tv?
Also, this is more of a plasma benefit but this tv really looks great when viewed at an angle, so much better than the 42" hd crt projection tv it is replacing.
In fact over all this tv's picture looks incredible to me...the picture is so much better than the hd crt projection tv that I feel like I never really knew how good hd was supposed to look! All of my non-techie friends and family comment on how great the picture is.
The menus are very attractive and easy to use and I like the wizard that starts when you first power on the tv.
The one short-sighted thing about this tv is that it only has one hdmi input while it has two inputs for svideo and componenet. My hd cable box/dvr uses hdmi and my hd upconverting dvd player uses hdmi and my reciever doesn't have hdmi switching so right of the box this tv can't handle my system unless I purchase an hdmi switcher for an extra $80 from radio shack...I'm not too happy about that but even with that extra cost this tv is still a fantasic value! -
"Dont get burned like I did." on by couderaykelly
Pros: This is a nice Plasma until the warranty runs out. Good sound, nice picture,
Cons: Count on this plasma blowing its boards after 2 years. A very costly defect which HP has yet to own up to. Once the boards blow it will cost you about 600 to fix. Look elsewhere!!!! HP states 60000 hours of viewing but this is not he case.
Summary: If you are fine with a TV that lasts a little over 2 years you should buy this. Its craptacular!!!
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"HP TV PL4260N - Do NOT buy this CRAP!!!" on by hp_sucks
Pros: The sales people were good con artists.
Cons: Brochure advertises video life of 60,000 hours, my video FAILED after 5700 hours. This essentially means my TV is a doorstop after 2 years. Buyer beware, HP is selling an inferior product which technical support refuses to acknowledge or address.
Summary: Early lifespan. This was one of the worse purchases I ever made.
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"worst product ever purchased" on by sassymam
Pros: it worked for 1 year (though i don't really consider that a good thing, since it broke soon after)
Cons: it broke after one year, and apparently this is an extremely common display problem with this model. HP knows this, but still won't fix it after the warranty
Summary: lost pixel/ display (whatever the issue may be) after 1 1/2 years. HP refused to fix it after 2 tries over 2 years, even though it is a very common REOCCURRING problem. HP will cover 2 components for this issue, neither of which seem to fix the problem longer than 1 month to 1 1/2 years max for people. i will NEVER buy HP products again. most reviews i've ever seen on this model are unfortunately from people who recently bought the product, so the 1 year mark that the problem usually starts occuring hasn't yet happened. most of these tv's have this problem after 1-3 years, and HP will not fix it, except for trying to send a tech for 2 components. many peoples' tvs won't get fixed with either of these components, or will only stay fixed for 1 month to 1 1/2 years. When the product breaks again (with the same display issue), HP will then do nothing for you, except ask for a $629 fee to attempt to further try to fix the same reoccuring problem it always had. this is what happens to most people with this problem, from what i learned out of reviews from other sites. don't buy it based on reviews of recently bought tv's. don't make my mistake. HP has horrible customer service for this tv. they temporarily fix it, then when it finally isn't fixed by either of the 2 components, it's long out of warranty. i've yet to find anyone that owns this tv after 3 years. i've yet to find a good review from anyone owning it over one year, around the time the problem usually starts. some people have the problem after 1 to 2 months of purchase, think it's fixed, then it keeps reoccuring. in the meantime - no tv watching, and tons of hassle. HP is bad, bad , bad. they know of this issue, and don't care at all. good luck!
i meant to give this "1/2" star - not "1"! i didn't realize 1/2 was an option. i'd give it a zero if that were possible.
Updated on Feb 7, 2009
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