I've wanted an HDTV for a long time. When Flat Screen HDTVs were just starting to become more mainstream, I was, unfortunately, a newly graduated IT Student...and dead broke. After moving to the East Coast and back again, and owning two beautiful JVC CRT sets (a 27 inch and a 32 inch), I finally, finally, FINALLY managed to amass the capital needed to go flat and hi-def for real (thanks in part to a decent paying job and putting off buying a car when mine died for an entire year). Was it worth the wait all these years? Oh yeah!
First of all, after a lot of thought and effort, I decided to go plasma instead of LCD for several reasons. First, you can buy a 42-inch plasma for about the price of a 32 inch LCD (give or take). Second, the stuttering of LCDs is noticeable and unpleasant to me, and plasmas handle motion with greater fluidity. Thirdly, the black levels of plasmas are better (though they do require lower light to look their best, which is no problem as I'm a low-light kind of guy who lives in the dark overcast Northern West Coast).
I had initially tried to buy a Samsung from Amazon using their slightly-used-like-new Amazon Warehouse, but after more than a week the TV was delivered shattered. I returned it, sending an email to Amazon requesting they simply replace it rather than give me a refund...and my email was ignored. I was given a refund instead of the TV I had ordered. Starting to lose my patience, a friend from work helped me get a great store deal for this beauty. $450.00 with no tax (no sales tax in my state). Nice.
When I took my TV home and unpacked it one of the first things I noticed is the fact that not only would it not fit in my parents' TV cabinet in the living room, but it wouldn't fit in my room either. I had to completely re-arrange my furniture to make room. When I first hooked it up to my ridiculous home setup (Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, Saturn, VCR, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Computer) I was slightly disappointed to find that it only has two HDMI Inputs (if I buy a PS3 I may have to buy an HDMI switchbox). On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised to find that you can hook analog sound input into the component in, and it will play through the TV while using the corresponding HDMI (you don't have to have an audio signal on the HDMI so you can use your computer's analog out and a DVI to HDMI adapter for PC output. The only real downside to this is that the edges of the PC video in are cropped. Oh well, it beats analog video input an day.
The picture on this TV is absolutely outstanding, but you will want to adjust it to your liking in all probability. First of all, by default, like the iPod Touch, the screen dims with the ambient lighting. What this means is that when you have the room nice and dark as you should for optimal viewing, the screen will be so dark you can't see it. You will have to go into the menus and turn off C.A.T.S. if like me you can do without that "feature".
Some people like to adjust the color temperature or fidelity to make the picture warmer, but personally I like white to look white, not pink. And while the cinema mode certainly is bright it makes image artifacting and pixelation stand out, so I prefer to leave colors and brightness on the standard settings.
Personally, I like my image to appear softer as opposed to pixelated, so I set both MPEG and standard noise reduction to on, and set my Xbox 360 (which I use as a DVD player) to output 1080p signal. This results in the image being up-sampled and then down-sampled, smoothing edges and making DVDs have a more "film-like" appearance.
With those settings changed, this display went from good to absolutely amazing. The richness of the colors, outstanding contrast, and overall image smoothness and clarity made video games look outstanding (I actually decided to keep a game I was going to trade in because it looked so much better on this TV), and animation is draw-dropping. Well-mastered DVDs look as good as they possibly can, and I can't wait to get a PS3 so I can try out the Blu Ray discs that are sitting on my shelf.
The sound on the TV is actually very good for a TV once you break in the speakers, and the only real downsides to this TV overall are that it produces a lot of heat, it has bad glare in direct sunlight, and you might need to be a LITTLE more careful than with a CRT about screen burn-in (the TV has a mode to clear after-images, pixel shifting, and a screen-saver, but over the long-term it's probably best to try to wear the screen evenly by not over-doing 4:3 and content with black bars on the top and bottom).
And last but not least, I love the aspect ratio abilities of this TV. The standard aspect ratio is academy flat which is perfect for wide-screen TV programs (including wide-screen anime), and if you want to watch 4:3 content stretched (as I very often do) there are two modes to do so. The justified mode condenses the center of the screen so that character in the center look less stretched. I watch pan-and-scan content and old anime in this aspect ratio and it looks outstanding.
Flat-screen plasmas have been around a long time, but I am very glad I waited to get mine. The current generation handles wide-screen and regular content well, have a digital tuner built-in, and the contrast, color, and overall image fidelity are magnificent. The black levels will probably fade over time, but around the time this TV dies I will probably be getting a 3D TV that doesn't require glasses, or spending my time in the holodeck... Overall I could not be more pleased and would highly recommend this TV to anyone looking to go hi-def and flat.
We purchased this TV last weekend. We initially went into the store knowing a general idea of what we wanted, but not sure what we could get with our limited budget. We were very impressed with this TV in the store, and I'm glad to say that it has continued to impress at home. We also purchased a Panasonic Blu-Ray player at the same time. I absolutely love how easy it was to hook everything together. We basically took the TV out of the box, plugged it in, plugged in the blu-ray and Wii, and we were ready to go.
I love the picture quality with the blu-ray and this television. My children played wii bowling a few nights ago, and it was a totally different experience than what we had on our 36" crt. At first I was worried because this television seemed so much smaller than our crt, but I realized it was because our old TV was so bulky. It fits in our room just perfectly.
We have been thrilled with this purchase, which is a good thing because it is our Christmas present between my husband and I. We searched around for the best price, and the store we went to was willing to match the lowest price we found, so we paid $499 for this television. We love it!
"Having Regrets", 2010-10-06I saw this for less than four hundred dollars. Although I knew it wasn't 1080p, I had no idea it wasn't 1080i at least. The most you get is 720p, and it's a very soft, odd-looking version at that due to its 1024 vertical lines. The picture looks soft and the text is not crisp. It's bothersome. It's like a giant regular TV; any edges that move are a parade of fluttering pixels, fighting for their turn to display. This TV even makes 480 broadcasts look poorer - I'm not exaggerating. I was initially impressed with the color and smooth gradation but the image quality gets to me.
This set's info menu shows the current program's title without a program description. It would be nice to know what's on next, but that's not happening here. It also displays the resolution of the signal coming in such as 1080p, 1080i, 720p, etc.. It's just a shame it's not capable of displaying the 1080i or higher resolutions.
I wish I didn't take my 22" Samsung LCD back that I got for a great price; it was a small TV but the image was sharp and captivating, and now it costs $75 bucks more.
There's nothing beautiful about the images displayed by this set. This TV would be great for someone whose eyes aren't what they used to be, but for anybody wanting high def, this set may wow you for fifteen minutes, then disappoint you for having gone to the trouble of setting it up. I'll try to like it, but I'm really feeling like I'm missing out. My Blu-ray movies are nowhere near as compelling as they used to be. When you squish the other 342 vertical lines in with the already insufficient 1024, it really makes for a highly inferior viewing experience.
I give it three stars because it's affordable, but I've come to this conclusion: I would rather have a small, high-quality picture than a large crappy one at the same price.
FINAL EDIT: I've bumped it up one more star. For four hundred dollars it tends to keep me satisfied when I consider that truly breathtaking sets hit the thousand dallar mark. If you're not going to get an outstanding set, then why spend mid-range money? I have not changed my mind about what it lacks in picture quality, but to be more fair based on the way I rate products, by the value for the money, I think this set deserves three stars. Watching action on a 42" screen is pretty cool even if it's not sharp and beautiful, and for the price the TC-P42C2 is a good value.
"Steal of a Deal to upgrade to HD!", 2010-10-05I have had this HDTV for almost 2 weeks now, and couldn't be more pleased with it. I was able to get it on sale for $400 plus tax. This HDTV replaced a 27' SDTV. I feel this is the perfect TV for anyone who is on a tight budget and looking to upgrade to HD without adding a home theater system. I have my HD cable box, and my upconverting DVD player connected via the 2 HDMI ports. I love the look of the plasma glass like picture versus the flat LCD picture. MLB and NFL really pop on this set compared to my 4 year old 46' Sony 720p LCD. I have not noticed any motion blur, and the blacks and dark scenes look great. The HD channels look great, the digital channels look good, and the SD channels look okay. This set offers options to fill or stretch the screen for non HD programs and SD channels. I haven't really fooled around with these options, as I now have about 100 HD channels. If a program comes on one of these HD channels that isn't HD, I just watch it with the bars on the side. The sound on the TV is good enought for me, I have not had to turn the volume higher than 30.
This HDTV is in my living room, which is bright during the day. You will get reflections on the screen if you can't shut any blinds or curtains. At night I usually keep the light on in the corner on the side of the TV. Even with the blinds open during the day, or more lights on, you are still able to watch the TV with the reflections. The seating distance in my living room ranges from 6 feet on the sides and about 10 feet in front. The viewing angle from the side is very good, and much better than a LCD TV. If you can get a good price on the 50 inch model, I would go for it. I was happy to get the 42 inch model, as it fit in to my Jeep without a problem, and was not too heavy or big for one person to carry and unpack. The base stand that comes with this TV is very easy to put together. The remote control is good size and simple to use and the owner's manual is very helpful. The on screen set up of the TV only takes a few minutes after you have it connected to your HD source. There are enough options to fine tune the picture and sound. You can go to the AVS board to get more info on settings. This TV is very quiet and is not hot to the touch. The all black finish matches perfect with the black stand and HD box.
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