36 out of 36 people found this review helpful.
Panasonic VIERA TH-42PX8OU 42 in plasma TV
Date of Review: May 16, 2009
The Bottom Line: Good price, good product so far.
Hubby and I decided to buy a new flat screen television. We'd seen the test on tv determining whether or not a box would be needed for the television in our family room once transmission methods were changed in February.
I read several Epinions on the site and printed them out and off we went to BrandsMart with the copies and some of the newspaper advertisements we'd gathered. We had decided to get a Panasonic and we went to BrandSmart because we had purchased numerous appliances from the store with good results. We purchased the Panasonic TH-42PX80Ua 42 " plasma with 720 pixel resolution. This set works with a camcorder, SD memory card, set top box, DVD player, DVD recorder VCR and a home theatre system. You need to do some assembly to put the pedestal together and/or you can put your optional wall hanging accessory up and hang this set. We mounted ours "on" our wall unit. Hubby said when buying a flat screen you buy it to fit the room not the furniture. Now it looks like there was a hurricane and it blew a tv onto our wall unit but Hubbs is happy. Flat screens are rectangular and wall unit openings rarely have the proper space for this design. The Panasonic is also v 1.3 compliant, has deep color and offers x.v.Color Suppport. It has a widescreen ratio of 16.9, a Motion Adaptive 3D Y/C Digital Color Filter.
You get noise reduction, a built-in HD tuner, Game Mode, Cinema Mode, Standard, Vivid and Custom modes and anti-reflective coating to reduce unwanted light reflections. It weighs 57 to 62 lbs depending on whether you're including the pedestal. The Panasonic has 2 built-in speakers with audio output of up to 20W qt 10% THD at 70-17,000 Hz. You can connect other Panasonic devices to this set with VIERA link using one remote.
When you change channels there is a brief pause and then it continues on to the new choice without anyone having to use "enter" something I need to do on other controls in the house.
The picture looks nice, seems to have no distortion and despite being near a huge window we get no glare. The picture is very crisp with great contrast and great color. Because of the width I think some people look a little "off". They look rather pudgy but maybe some of them just gained weight. Hubby says this is due to whether or not the program is being presented in a form ready for flat screens. If I watch from the angle of my kitchen there is no distortion, something I noticed on other flat screens in the store.
Hubby did the channel set up using select/deselect and this didn't take very long. He had choice of language as well. The remote is easy to use, seems very lightweight, maybe a bit flimsy but I've already dropped it on our tile floor without any bad results. The power consumption when the television is on is 255 KWh/24hr. When you are running your initial set up you can enter your address, postcode and other details on the television.
You get JPEG format by simply inserting your SD card to the built-in slot of your Panasonic HDTV. The Panasonic offers Gallery Player , this is the bundled software that lets you enjoy the art and photography images on your Panasonic HD plasma TV. You can use the software to download and purchase various collections of masterpieces. I imagine you can have this running all the time so it looks as though you have apiece of artwork displayed when your television isn't on. You get a resolution of 1920 x1080 so that colors are more vivid. If you are displaying a picture it may be retained or imprinted on the screen.To prevent this the screen reactivates every few minutes.
You get sub menu that you can list with a secondary audio program, you can access information recall, you can cycle through aspect modes or retrieve a favorite channel with the favorite feature.. This style of telelvisoin suppports HDAVI control 3. You can connect to a DVD recorder, DIGA, HD Camcorder, Player theater, Ram theatre and an amplifier, your HDMI cables allows you to interface automatically.
I am still learning to work my cell phone so unless my daughter comes and works these for me most of these features will be wasted on me. You also get high definition multimedia interface so you get high definition digital images and high quality sound. I definately notice the clarity of the sound and picture. It reminds me of the first time I actually saw our first television. There is really quite a noticable improvement on our old television.
As a Panasonic owner you get a booklet offering you Panasonic Concierge service. You can get priority service scheduling meaning a representative will call you 24 hours to schedule a service call. You get a toll free hotline with a team of experts to help you trouble shoot any installation questions you may have. You can access a Live Chat for instant advice on your plasma TV and related products. With Panasonic you get a 1 year limited warranty and you can also choose an extended warranty. The 1 year warranty covers all parts except the glass panel or CRT for 1 year, labor and on site or carry in service. It only covers failures due to defects in material or workmanship. This being our first flat screen we got the extended warranty. We read many epinions about different flat screens but still felt , for once, we'd add a little protection. We've since purchased three more flat screens without purchasing a warranty for any of them.
Installment Warning: Route all cords and cables so they cannot be grabbed by children. Place it where children cannot grab at it. This information is in the instruction booklet along with a page of trouble shooting suggestions.
To clean unplug set first. Use only a cleaning cloth since the front of the display panel has been specially treated. Use a clean,soft cloth for cleaning he cabinet and pedestal as well.
The price was $668.00 at Brandsmart. We also purchased some co axial cables and the whole purchase didn't take us more than 1/2 hour from in the store to out.
