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- My rating: 0 stars
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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"best first time switch from CRT to plasma"
Pros: This is a very good first-timers purchase of a Plasma set. Excellent colors, resolution, and upgrade options, gives PIP, aspect adjustment for both HD and non HD
Cons: reveals flaws in media both broadcast and DVD discs
Summary: Most people may have seen this Industrial line up and become a little wary about buying or even considering buying a Plasma display without a tuner and speakers. But in all honesty if your current home set up is where you have a cable/satellite box, (or even an VCR/DVR with built in tuner) and a audio system ranging from a 5.1 surround sound to boom box with stereo RCA jacks. Then you primarily are just using your TV-set as a monitor and not as a full-fledged television. Thus no different then a Plasma display unit/monitor. The only exception I?ve found so far is closed caption which is not accessible, but again if you used it hooked up primarily to a DVD then you get subtitles there, (yes I know subtitles are not the same as CC), however a small price to pay.
I don?t have a detailed knowledge of HDTV/EDTV, but enough to make sure that I try to get the best value for my money and get plasma that won?t burn a hole in your pocket and need upgrading. I know this set is a EDTV, but with the advancing technologies and reduction in pricing you can feel very rest assured that this is perhaps the safest purchase you can make right now.
Before ordering I went a compared picture quality of various plasma screens in local stores and I would suggest before ordering to do the same. Now since the main Panasonic plasma TV?s really have the same ?display-engine? as the industrial line up they served as the nearest guide to compare other manufactures models. In all I found that the Panasonic line up gave excellent good picture resolution both on the HDTV and EDTV current line up. Of course these are the TV and priced well above the Industrial line up so it already means you about to get a good deal with the industrial sets.
One of the biggest headaches is finding a reliable dealer online that you can trust and then also the shipping cost factor. My purchase was from ww.BUY.com. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=201700957&SearchEngine=Shopper&SearchTerm=201700957&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=15889
I?ve been using them from over 7 years and they have been very reliable for me, in addition they were also offering free shipping. An added incentive is as a buy.com visa card holder they had emailed a coupon for 125-150 dollars off a purchase over 1000 dollars, so I got the display shipped for around 1400! (One note check to see that you have an actual plasma screen inside and not a bag of sand since there is no security seals on the plastic tags on this packaging, as unfortunately found by another CNET member-see forum, http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7596-0.html?forumID=60&threadID=147007&messageID=1642070).
What you need to get display up and running out of the box.
A word of caution is that this model i.e. ending in UK does not come with a stand/pedestal so unless you have wall mounting equipment you need to order this at the same time. This can be hard to obtain since availability is the question, but the best price/availability was at www.nerds.com for around 135 dollars. This was my first time using them, and I ordered over the phone and was not disappointed with the service. One may feel that 135 is little expensive for a stand, but it is made of very study metal construction and quite streamline too.
In addition, you will need 3 x BNC to RCA adaptors for the Component connection (radio Shack), 1x component leads (to hook up DVD player) and 1x S-video lead to hook up cable box (buy.com). Again as other have said you can get all these at radio shack or cheaper online. I connecting things up with the Monster THX no frills cable 8ft and Monster video-2 S-cable. For audio I used a standard Digital Optical cable out from the DVD player to receiver and normal stereo RCA jacks from cable-box to receiver.
It?s best advised to hook up the component cable first before mounting the display on it?s stand as there isn?t enough vertical clearing between the BNC-RCA-cable and the base of the stand. I guess is you use other cables you may be okay.
This should now have you hooked up to now hear and see you display in full effect. Note: if you want to hook up a VCR then connect this via the second slot, again you will need 1xBNC to RCA and converter and cable.
Picture
I have an old 1998 DVD player and all though the picture quality is a massive improvement over my old CRT, I was not happy with the resolution. Since the display has Picture in picture mode and connected the DVD via both component (best) and S-video (good) connectors and compare pictures side by side. This is a perfect way to see how much clearer component is over S-video, colors are truer, picture for crisp. Importantly the flaws where still present in both pictures which either meant cables or DVD. Cables seemed fine so I decided to test it out with a basic progressive DVD player
I purchased a basic Philips 642 Progressive scan DVD player (has both component and Digital optical output) and hooked this up and now watch that grin appear on your face. I used Finding Nemo and the Incredible as first test movies and the detail is absolutely amazing, colors absolutely vivid, you now see details that you never could see before, for example surface details on the rocks, leaves, the gills on the Nemo and Marlin. In the Incredibles movie the same could be said, for and ED set this is really excellent, of course to the trained person they may see the difference, but for nearly all the ED resolution is outstanding.
Concerns
As with all big displays the larger the screen the more obvious will be the errors in the picture so this is native trait to all big screen TV. The only major concern was that this set does emphasizes flaws in pre-recorded material in particular broadcast and some DVD movie disc. The display happily shows all the graininess and pixilation on some of the Cable channels. I did upgrade my box to a HD box and this does solve the problems and give very crisp pictures BUT there are only perhaps 5 channels in HD so you are stuck with the rest. Calling the cable company up to look at the problem didn?t solve the picture resolution; just some non HD channels are good, other really bad. Hence, these higher def sets really pull out all the flaws in picture/signal delivery even for ED
Summary
Overall it?s very hard to make a purchase and worry that a new emerging technology will be out there cheaper and better, but hands down this is a very good first investment for any one waiting to make the switch from CRT to plasma. Also at this price it is above and beyond the best value set if you can handle ordering online.
Lastly what is also an advantage of this display is the slot in cards; two are filled with the 3rd slot free. Thus you can readily buy a HDMI slot in card when, which is needed if you what you use the DVD player with upconversion. So lack of inputs as has been previously stated is only if you think that the ?glass is half empty?. Many people who have previously spent 1000?s on the early plasmas will not have HDMI and are thus stuck, whereas with this line up you just upgrade! When need be -Not bad.
Lastly on the back of the display you will also see a manufacture date which is good indication that you have a brand new display and not a grey import, also I've just noted that buy.com has increased its price as has most online vendors, which is indicative that it is in high demand and a good buy!
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Question?
Can you see the closed caption? -
PANASONIC TY-FB7HM HDMI INPUT card can be obtained for around 120-145
Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK:
