Panasonic Plasma prices dropping early

[Generic Moniker]

Originally posted by: Jenova314
a bunch of HD screens, and not a single 1080i-compliant one... i think i'll pass

they're all 1080i compliant. but, nobody broadcasts that high.


[edit]: SMOKIN hot; i've got one, and it's amazing

 

[jasonja]

Originally posted by: fr
$195 shipping! No deal for me.

How much would you expect to pay for shipping on something that weighs 80lbs, is extremely fragile, and has to be insured for $2k and freight delivered?

 

[Jenova314]

Originally posted by: Generic Moniker

Originally posted by: Jenova314
a bunch of HD screens, and not a single 1080i-compliant one... i think i'll pass

they're all 1080i compliant. but, nobody broadcasts that high.


[edit]: SMOKIN hot; i've got one, and it's amazing

well, if you look at the resolution, none of them support 1920x1080, which, if i'm not mistaken, is what true 1080i signal is broadcasted at. 1080i-compliant, i'm guessing, just means they can accept the signal.

what i'm more interested in, is using these suckers as DVI panels for my PC, so high-resolution is very important!

 

[dcdomain]

Hmmm... was going to just buy a DLP, then a plasma (HD), now I'm thinking about just saving the money and getting the plasma (ED). Thanks for convincing me to save money guys! I think this is the first time Anandtech has 'saved' me money. Really heheh.

 

[Storm]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: Apex

Originally posted by: Storm
Kind of a noob question but regular digital cable channels look good or bad on an hdtv?

Relatively bad.

Here's the issue:

The source (digital cable) quality is rather poor.

On a low resolution, poorly focused device, especially a small one, the flaws are relatively hidden.

On devices such as this, it's far easier for your eyes to pick up the defects in the source material.

Also, with some poorly compressed digital channels you have terrible artifacting in the image sometimes. The VH1 Classic and MTV Hits channels on my digital cable are so pixellated that you'd think you were watching the channel on Realplayer. Encore, IFC and Sundance on the other hand look close to DVD quality. The HD plasmas and LCDs have to take the standard definition signal and upconvert it to the native resolution of the panel, which often leads to pixelization as well (you usually notice it with videos that have a lot of motion or crossfades). Take the pixellation that comes with the crap compression job some channels do and combine that with the pixelization that occurs sometimes with the upconversion and it can get pretty ugly watching SD channels on a HDTV.

That's what bugs me about Comcast right now. My network affiliates all have HD versions that my Comcast DVR box will downconvert the HD signal to 480i DVD quality to my standard definition TV w/ 5.1 sound. Most of the good digital channels look great as well and some have surround sound to boot. The regular cable channels like FX, TNT and SciFi all look like crap since they are still being shown in analog even though I have digital cable. TNT is especially atrocious looking. All snowy even though FX is one channel up and still looks tolerable.

My apartment won't let me get satellite, so I'm kinda stuck with sucky looking regular channels until they eventually do away with the analog signal completely.

So to summarize you would want to get an EDTV panel with regular digital cable or plain cable.. and a HD panel for only HD... The problem lies with te amount of channels available in HD?

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Storm

So to summarize you would want to get an EDTV panel with regular digital cable or plain cable.. and a HD panel for only HD... The problem lies with te amount of channels available in HD?

Yeah, the problem is that the network affiliates are the main channels on my cable that are HD and most of what they air is crap anymore, while the cable channels with all the good shows are in really crappy quality analog SD. It pretty much sucks. Even Discovery HD doesn't have all my favorite shows (like Mythbusters) in HD.

I'm sort of tempted to get a cheap EDTV to tide me over for for now, since it can natively handle the SD channels that are the majority of what I watch right now. You cna still see the HD content in widescreen and it looks pretty decent on an EDTV even though you aren't watching it at full HDTV resolution. Then the plan is to upgrade to a 1080p HDTV in a few years when the prices are lower and almost all the cable TV content will have shifted to HD (not to mention BluRay DVDs).

The prices of the 30" LCD HDTVs have dropped so low, though, that some days I sort of feel like saying screw it and just getting a cheap 720p HDTV and being done with it. Since I don't have an extra $1000 laying around, I've got plenty of time to make up my mind.

 

[MOCKBA1]

Resolution isn't so high, but price is so high. I have a nice CRT TV which works for over 10 years and I paid only $600. It's madness to pay for TV over $700, unless you get a million $$$ from your uncle.

 

[dcdomain]

I trolled through the avsforum and it looks like the Panasonic 42PD50U comes highly recommended as an ED Plasma. Anyone know how that compares to the 42PWD8UK found at Visual Apex? The 42PWD8UK is newer right? Like the black bezel too. Going to be making a purchase in a month or so... trying to plan everything out. Found plenty of reviews of the 42PD50U, but the 42PWD8UK, since I guess it hasn't been released yet I can't find much information.

The 42PWD8UK is cheaper probably because it has no tuner, but that doesn't seem like a problem to me, I can always pick up a tuner on it's own.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: dcdomain
I trolled through the avsforum and it looks like the Panasonic 42PD50U comes highly recommended as an ED Plasma. Anyone know how that compares to the 42PWD8UK found at Visual Apex? The 42PWD8UK is newer right? Like the black bezel too. Going to be making a purchase in a month or so... trying to plan everything out. Found plenty of reviews of the 42PD50U, but the 42PWD8UK, since I guess it hasn't been released yet I can't find much information.

The 42PWD8UK is cheaper probably because it has no tuner, but that doesn't seem like a problem to me, I can always pick up a tuner on it's own.

The PWD8UK is the industrial model. There are some good points (cheaper, can get into service menu to get a much better calibration, better looking thinner bezel [IMHO]) and some bad (stand is extra, speakers are extra, tuner is extra, DVI is extra, etc).

I'm partial to the industrial models myself.

 

[JackBurton]

Good stuff man! I'm looking at the ED Plasmas now.

 

[dcdomain]

Oh yeah Apex, love your site by the way. I go there all the time for the latest Dell deals and audio visual stuff.

I'm partial to the industrial model since I already have a sound system. I'll just need to worry about the tuner (which the cable box should take care of correct?) and DVI if I'm looking to connect my PC.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: dcdomain
Oh yeah Apex, love your site by the way. I go there all the time for the latest Dell deals and audio visual stuff.

I'm partial to the industrial model since I already have a sound system. I'll just need to worry about the tuner (which the cable box should take care of correct?) and DVI if I'm looking to connect my PC.

Thanks.

The cable box will take care of the tuner, correct.

I'd suggest skipping the DVI blade and getting the HDMI one instead. The HDMI blade gives you backwards compatibility, and better compatibility, IMHO. For instance, the DVI blade's HDCP implementation seems to have a bit of trouble completing the handshake with the LG LST-3510A. To connect to your PC, simply buy a cheap DVI to HDMI cable.

 

[Zendeath]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
I've had the Panasonic EDTV commercial for a couple years, and it's fantastic. I originally bought the commercial because I didn't need the tuner or speakers - the audio was provided by my home theater setup.

However, I eventually moved the plasma into my bedroom, so ended up buying Panasonic's side speakers. They weren't cheap (a couple hundred I believe), but they look fantastic and sound pretty decent for what they are.

I also purchased mine from VisualApex. Pretty good company (they don't ALWAYS return calls, but they're not bad).

Shipping is high, but it comes freight (not UPS or FedEx) and they delivered right into my house, so it was worth the piece of mind.

i ordered mine from VA also, but it was shipped DHL, then transfered to a local trucking company for home delivery. It was delivered on a small panel truck with only a driver who looked like he wouldn't be able to lift the cardboard box, much less the plasma in it, so my son and I carried it in the house.

 

[Ciber]

Only reason to get the consumer model is if you're planning on sticking it in a small room where you won't have space for real speakers. You'd have to be insane to buy the consumer model for a HT.

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: Zendeath
Unlike the commercial models, the consumer models have no access to a service menu for grayscale ISF calibration.

But they have speakers!!!


Who the heck needs speakers on a TV these days anyway? If anything they the make the TV unecessarily big and ugly. At this point of the game a separate audio system is mandatory.

 

[merlocka]

I just picked up the 42" TH-42PD50U EDTV model for 1598 shipped from PCconnection.

For my application, which will be mainly DVD's and some games, I'm very happy. Only down side is no DVI or PC input. THe PQ of this panel (IMO) is better than many other HD plasmas.

LInk