42' Plasma price war

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › 42" Plasma price war

scuderia

11 posts

Geek

# 17871 15-Dec-2007 23:36

Hey guys, Ive search the forum as much as I can and I have a specific question.

I have been thinking about updating my telly. I have done a lot of research and viewed a lot of TV's at various shops etc. I have decided on an entry level 42" plasma, maybe Samsung or Panasonic. Any suggestions here are welcome.

I was planning on buying in January but I have noticed a price war starting leading up to christmas. I was sold on the Panasonic before this and now, pretty much all shops have discounted it the same give or take a few bucks. Great deal I think, $1790 right now.

Whats the deal? Is there a catch, should I be worried? it seems to good to be true. Even the LG and Samsung's are $2000 or over.

1 | 2

6972 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 100203 16-Dec-2007 09:41

The new pana 7series are pretty damn good, and a good price to boot, I have installed quite a number of them, no issues I am aware of that would cause the cost to be so low other than a very keen market player.

Cyril

scuderia

11 posts

Geek

# 100208 16-Dec-2007 10:42

Sweet

Any idea if the price will stay the same after christmas?

cyril7

6972 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 100209 16-Dec-2007 10:56

riahon

931 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 100213 16-Dec-2007 11:40

I'm going TV shopping Boxing Day. I am gambling for better specials then.

rscole86

4352 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 100223 16-Dec-2007 12:57

scuderia:
I was planning on buying in January but I have noticed a price war starting leading up to christmas. I was sold on the Panasonic before this and now, pretty much all shops have discounted it the same give or take a few bucks. Great deal I think, $1790 right now.

Who is doing it at that price? Everyone that I know of is selling it at around the $1999 mark.

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 100229 16-Dec-2007 13:17

Are they 1080p or does 'entry level' make them 1366x768?

richms

22524 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 100230 16-Dec-2007 13:33

And does auto aspect ratio switching work on them?

I have a panasonic crt and it only works for ntsc feeds and they just said "oh well" - flatmates 32" panasonic lcd doesnt even have auto as one of the options.

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

6972 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 100236 16-Dec-2007 14:03

They are 1024x768, which seems a good compromise to higher res panels which are typically dismal at portaying SD material, these panels are as good as I have seen at SD.

The dont have an Auto mode but they do appear to correctly switch to full 16:9 when the source signals 16:9 on the WSS, however you can still override any setting with the aspect button.

Cyril

scuderia

11 posts

Geek

# 100248 16-Dec-2007 16:07

rscole86:
scuderia:
I was planning on buying in January but I have noticed a price war starting leading up to christmas. I was sold on the Panasonic before this and now, pretty much all shops have discounted it the same give or take a few bucks. Great deal I think, $1790 right now.

Who is doing it at that price? Everyone that I know of is selling it at around the $1999 mark.

JB, bond and bond etc at New Lynn mall. Stereo World, mt Eden has them $1787 I think.

rscole86

4352 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 100251 16-Dec-2007 16:26

Very nice, just seems a bit weird that I cannot see that online at any of their stores. Maybe it is just a local pricing?

Just to make sure, are you sure that the price is not ex-gst? As that would make it close to the $1999 that most places are selling it at.

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 100254 16-Dec-2007 16:47

It's just me, but I don't like the idea of buying a 42" plasma with such a low res. 1024x768 is a very 2005 spec.

sbiddle

28269 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

# 100257 16-Dec-2007 16:54

Fossie: It's just me, but I don't like the idea of buying a 42" plasma with such a low res. 1024x768 is a very 2005 spec.

All 42" 720p Plasma's are typically 1024x768 resolution, 50" Plasma's are all typically 1280 or 1366x768 resolution.

The 1024x768 is really only an issue if you want to use it for PC stuff since it's a 4:3 and not 16:9 aspect ratio. For video it's not an an issue.

The only way to get a 42" Plasma that's got better resolution is to get a full HD one and they're a bit expensive over here still.

scuderia

11 posts

Geek

# 102230 30-Dec-2007 01:55

$1748 at JB now

webstereo

58 posts

Master Geek

# 103113 6-Jan-2008 08:37

Isn't it an issue for video if you want to watch high def from a Blue Ray player?

As far as auto switching is concerned for watching TV in NZ using DVB-S it's not relevant as the broadcasters don't utilise it. I don't know about sky.

cyril7

6972 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 103118 6-Jan-2008 09:23

1024x768 is plenty of resolution especially when we are only talking about 42-50" screens. BBC controlled tests found that less than 5% of viewers at normal viewing distance could see any image improvement between 720 and 1080 resolutions and of those 5% none could consistantly pick it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, if you have seen one of these panas on the end of a BR player the results are simply brilliant, to see a full 1080 pic beside it demonstrates that screen res is not everything.

Naturally the panel has to scale 720 or 1080 to its native size, however the panas current digital processor seems to have that pretty well sussd.

Sky use active AR switching on all there 16:9 channels, which in the case of the movie channels I find odd as pretty much 99% of all movies are 16:9, then they switch to 4:3 for a promo break which normally is just announcing the next movie, then bang straight back to 16:9, dunno why they just dont leave it in 16:9 and create 16:9 promos, or leave the promos out all together :)

Cyril

1 | 2