Drop, charge, and lose the cords
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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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25 out of 25 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Very impressive performance and features at a low price"
Pros: Excellent connectivity options; Superior HD picture; Excellent DVD picture; Ambilight; Price
Cons: Average (for plasma) SD picture; Difficulty with PIP;
Summary: I have had this plasma for 2 weeks now, and I am absolutely thrilled with it. The picture quality, particularly on high def sources, is stunning, and the monitor itself is beautiful. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about ambilight. Everytime I show the set to someone new, I demonstrate the performance with and without ambilight. And in each case, with different audiences each time, ambilight was the preferred viewing method. And it's easy enough to turn off if one were so inclined.
I am a bit confused by the editors' review. First and foremost, there is no way this set should rate a 5 out of 10 in picture quality, which in my mind means "average". The picture quality on this set is not only good, it is superior. Whether it is as good as the Panasonic the editors seem so keen to point to throughout this review I can't say. What I can say is this: I watched the first 20 minutes of Alien when I first got the set, and I thought it looked fantastic. These are the same scenes with which the editors found so many problems. I will say from my personal experience, even before reading this review, that there was absolutely no false contouring, and the blacks looked truly black. In fact, after reading this review, I watched the same scenes again to look for the problems they mention. Again, I was floored by the quality, and found no problems. Ditto 2001: A Space Odyssey's black space scenes. Dark gray, the editors say? Not from my seat.
A few other points worth noting. The editors mention how difficult it was to navigate the menus. Here's how it works...Up, down, left right. I picked it up in about 5 minutes, so I'm confused by their aggrevation. Finally, in my neck of the woods, this set is currently $100 cheaper than the Panasonic they mention so often. So their criticism about this plasma being overpriced is completely inaccurate.
I enjoy CNET quite a bit. But this review has me baffled. To each their own, I suppose, but I completely disagree with nearly everything written in this review, and I will look with a more critical eye at their reviews going forward.
