- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 21 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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15 out of 16 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Best Purchase I Ever Made"
Pros: Picture Quality, Looks.
Cons: None for the moment.
Summary: I received the TH-42PWD8UK on July 27th 2005. Proceeded with unpacking and setup. Hooked up my HD PVR, immediately switched to an HD (720p) channel and... WOW! There are no words to describe the clarity and depth of the images. Colors are impeccable, saturated, but not overly emphasized. Just perfect. Contrast is superb. Even the finest details (grass on football field) are clearly visible, without artifacts or jaggies. Blacks are great. Whites are pure and are very close to the 6500k ideal temperature.
I would describe the entire experience as "looking through a window" but its actually better, since my windows are dirty and my plasma is clean
Hooked up my prog. scan Sony DVD player with component cables, used AVIA for calibration: Panasonic's mid-point setings are amazingly dead-on: Picture: 0, Brightness: 0, Color: 0 (yes, I did the color filter check), Tint: 0, Sharpness: 0 (I pushed mine up to +3 since I do like a slighly crisper look, especially when watching SD channels).
DVD (480p) is absolutely stunning. Watching some of the best DVD transfers available, one can almost mistake the image for HD. Its that good. This set being ED, it just loves 480p signals.
Watching Standard Definition channels ranges from ordinary to very good, depending on the source, of course. My digital cable provider overly compresses most channels so, obviously, mpeg artifacts are often clearly visible due to the insufficient bandwidth. Not the plasma's fault.
This unit has a dark charcoal bezel and I purchased the optional tabletop stand. I also hooked up a pair of Logitech Z-680 satellite speakers to it (6 ohms) and the TV's built-in 8W (x2) amplifiers drive them beautifully (when I don't feal like turning on the entire home theater gear).
All in all, the best purchase I ever made.
- 3 replies to this review
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Can you comment if you are able to obtain the closed caption on this plasma?
It will be terrible to spend 1500 and then I can't get the closed caption, since I have to use it to watch tv. -
I have a worry:
The consumer model adds a tuner and speakers (I don't need a tuner, and the speakers are nasty little weenies). But, what really worries me about buying the 42PWD8UK is the lack of standard HMDI interface... and the HMDI interface socket to go into the empty slot, part # TY-FB8HM, appears to cost about $300!!!
If my DISH, or whatevever you've got (DirecTV, Cable) forces an "upgrade" from YGB into an HDMI-only receiver, the owners of this monitor will have to spend a FISTFUL OF $ on the HMDI interface board (unless you can sneak around it with adapters, it looks to me like you can get to the DB15 "computer" interface from HDMI via two adapters HDMI -> DVD-D -> digital DB15).
I hate the "silver" color on the consumer model, it detracts from viewing the program. (Hey Panasonic: in Theaters, they use DARK curtains, not silver ones!) and the speakers are worthless. But I worry, the HDMI might be worth way more than $100. Please advise! -
do you know when it came out
Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK:
