42' Plasma Advice

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hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#62452 7-Jun-2010 18:09

In the next month or so i will be in the market for a 42" Plasma, would love to get the new Panasonic V20 but im not sure the budget will stretch to it, looking more in the $1200-$1500 range. Parents have a 50" G10 plasma and it just blows all the lcds ive watched out of the water, not sure i could go back to an lcd now. In parents houses and batches i regularly watch 40" LCDs (Sony S series and an older v series) and the blacks just dont cut it for me.

Will be mostly used for Freeview HD, will also be hooked up to a my sky hdi through a splitter aswell as a PS3 for gaming and blu ray movies. PS3 games with lots of dark scenes are so difficult to play on an lcd (ended up pumping the brightness way up just to see where im going in and it looks horrible) admitedly they are fairly low end lcds ive been using (low end Sonys mentioned above).

The obvious choice should be a Panasonic U20 but in store i havent been overly impressed with them, last years G10's looked alot better in store in my opinion. Are Samsung or LG making anything worth looking at with their new models? Or can i be convinced the U20 will look ok properly callibrated at home?

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#339318 8-Jun-2010 11:46

The obvious choice should be a Panasonic U20 but in store i havent been overly impressed with them, last years G10's looked alot better in store in my opinion. Are Samsung or LG making anything worth looking at with their new models? Or can i be convinced the U20 will look ok properly callibrated at home?

It is widely understood that all store TV's look "great" in store and thats why people buy them. But they are actually crap and every TV should be properly calibrated when you get it home. Your lack of impression is probably more due to a major lack of care by the store to even give the TV half a chance of looking good. Your memory may also be a bit tainted by time or the store viewing conditions may be different - so your not comparing/recollecting like-for-like.

I reckon theres a real good chance the u20 will look a lot better when you get it home. But then so will a Samsung or LG if you were to calibrate them as well. Perhaps you'd be better to look at calibrated home user reviews of these TV's rather than rely on store viewing.

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#339369 8-Jun-2010 14:14

I certainly wouldn't agree that TV's look great in store (the stores and Joe Bloggs comsumer probably do though). There is a bit of a wow factor at first but for plasmas they will always look alot worse in store as they are in a brightly lit environment and so the store turns up the brightness to compensate for this, meaning the black levels are nowhere near where they should be.

Also after having watched HD tv (My SkyHdi and Freeview|HD) and blu ray movies for the last 2 years regularly on 2 different 42" LCDs and a 50" G10 Plasma there is no real wow factor looking at tvs in store anymore.

The only real comparison i can make in the store is which model looks better in those store conditions, in which case the V20 looks a mile better than the U20.(which i suppose doesnt matter that much when your at home not looking at them side by side)

Masterpiece

247 posts

Master Geek

#339818 9-Jun-2010 15:16

I second store setups as bad.
Usually the modes are set too dynamic and or store mode, which is a mode that returns the TV to a default condition after a period of time. Again this mode is generally a mess.

Me:"I'm not a robot!"

ET: "Maybe; you have some freewill, but you chose your path by arrangement"

Me "That sounds like a program with no freewill?"

ET: "We will catch up when you end this cycle"

Me: "Sounds like a 'KPI'!"

ET: "Did you read the terms and conditions?"

Me: .....

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#340117 10-Jun-2010 11:13

The u20 is a nice tv when calibrated in the right room it just seems to have a fit whenever you shine a bright light on it.
The samsung equivalents, the C450 or the C550 are also very nice tvs, I've not had huge experience with the LG plamas but they generally don't rate as high as the other two.

From my viewing the panasonic has better blacks and owns any dark scene but the samsung has more saturated colours and still quite good blacks and gives it a run for it's money, especially in lighter scenes. You made the right decision by going with plasma, both of these sets comfortably owned the new 3D LED from samsung even when viewed from the sweet spot.

If you're in auckland I'd be happy to let you view them with the lights off to see for yourself.

Desktop: i7 920, GTX 275, asus P6T, antec 1200, 6gb ram, 1tb spinpoint f1, 1tb spinpoint f3, Logitech Z2300, Zero DAC, Shure SRH440
Laptop: Toshiba satellite, T5300, Go 7300
Home Theatre: 32" loewe CRT, Harmon kardon amp, dvd player, image 418 speakers, rega planar 25 turntable :)

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#340155 10-Jun-2010 12:40

Yes i am in Auckland and that would be very useful, thanks

samwooff

219 posts

Master Geek

#340189 10-Jun-2010 13:38

Cool, give me a pm when you're keen.