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Hot Price on a 42" Panasonic Plasma $635

Discover has 5% cash back too at Sears (cash back at ebates/fattywallet too -- suspect can't combine with Discover cashback if it is via their portal).
 
still a decent deal. heck, i've seen 720p 42" plasmas for $800, and those aren't bad deals either. i'd certainly take that over a cheapo 1080p lcd.
 
AVS thread on the set

Text

This is an awesome, awesome deal. Thanks to the OP for posting this and it should look way better than any entry level 1080p set.
 
I agree, excellent set for a very low price. Only 2 years ago a set of this quality would easy demand $1k or more, and the black levels would be inferior. I know because I've owned several Panasonic plasmas from that era.
 
Thanks for the thread find Blackjack.

Funny. Best Buy didn't have that TV earlier in the week. They had the other model, TC-P42C1, for $699. I checked just to be sure as I was gonna Price Match and use the BB Rewards points.

Older Panny

Newer Panny

Oh well.

I got the TV on Friday from Sears and it is a good TV. I have an older Panasonic DVD player with HDMI and the TV does make regular DVD's look way better.

The Sound is acceptable. The Picture is of course Plasmalike. You can blast it to make it look like an LCD. I am gonna test it with my Blue Ray player as soon as I get it unhooked. I can tell the TV is source limited with the standard DVD and Direct TV HD signals. Should be a fun test.

As far as the PC hook up. It goes beyond 1024 x 768. It will do 1920 x 1080. It looks good. However my LCD looked better and the desktop fit the screen perfectly on all accounts. But its a TV not a monitor and I did not buy it for gaming. A 32" LCD TV is perfect for this nowadays considering the prices they have dropped to. That would be your best bet for a gaming monitor with decent size.

Anyways. The Panny is a good set. You would have to spend an extra $100+ to get the Samsung plasma with similar quality at this price point or go with the Panasonic G series for $400 more but thats 1080P and a totally different set.

 
over the lifespan say if you watch 25 hours of tv a week (got kids) what is delta on power usage of say a 42" plasma versus led lcd (versus ccfl lcd)?

you have the direct cost (watts) and then the heat (which could be a plus in winter)
 
Originally posted by: Macgyversite
Thanks for the thread find Blackjack.

Funny. Best Buy didn't have that TV earlier in the week. They had the other model, TC-P42C1, for $699. I checked just to be sure as I was gonna Price Match and use the BB Rewards points.

Older Panny

Newer Panny

Oh well.

I got the TV on Friday from Sears and it is a good TV. I have an older Panasonic DVD player with HDMI and the TV does make regular DVD's look way better.

The Sound is acceptable. The Picture is of course Plasmalike. You can blast it to make it look like an LCD. I am gonna test it with my Blue Ray player as soon as I get it unhooked. I can tell the TV is source limited with the standard DVD and Direct TV HD signals. Should be a fun test.

As far as the PC hook up. It goes beyond 1024 x 768. It will do 1920 x 1080. It looks good. However my LCD looked better and the desktop fit the screen perfectly on all accounts. But its a TV not a monitor and I did not buy it for gaming. A 32" LCD TV is perfect for this nowadays considering the prices they have dropped to. That would be your best bet for a gaming monitor with decent size.

Anyways. The Panny is a good set. You would have to spend an extra $100+ to get the Samsung plasma with similar quality at this price point or go with the Panasonic G series for $400 more but thats 1080P and a totally different set.
Click to expand...

It won't do 1900x1200... it has 1024x768 pixels, no more no less. No matter what input you pass into it it's going to scale it to 1024x768, which may or may not look good.

Anyway, I mayyyyyy go get this tomorrow..... plasma >>>>> LCD

 
As I said it will still do 1900x1200. It may scale but your desktop is smaller and better than 1024x768. Most people think it will just do only 1024x768. That is why I stated what I stated. So you may use it at higher resolutions and get a better experience if you connect a PC to it via HDMI.
 
Originally posted by: Insomniator
Originally posted by: Macgyversite
Thanks for the thread find Blackjack.

Funny. Best Buy didn't have that TV earlier in the week. They had the other model, TC-P42C1, for $699. I checked just to be sure as I was gonna Price Match and use the BB Rewards points.

Older Panny

Newer Panny

Oh well.

I got the TV on Friday from Sears and it is a good TV. I have an older Panasonic DVD player with HDMI and the TV does make regular DVD's look way better.

The Sound is acceptable. The Picture is of course Plasmalike. You can blast it to make it look like an LCD. I am gonna test it with my Blue Ray player as soon as I get it unhooked. I can tell the TV is source limited with the standard DVD and Direct TV HD signals. Should be a fun test.

As far as the PC hook up. It goes beyond 1024 x 768. It will do 1920 x 1080. It looks good. However my LCD looked better and the desktop fit the screen perfectly on all accounts. But its a TV not a monitor and I did not buy it for gaming. A 32" LCD TV is perfect for this nowadays considering the prices they have dropped to. That would be your best bet for a gaming monitor with decent size.

Anyways. The Panny is a good set. You would have to spend an extra $100+ to get the Samsung plasma with similar quality at this price point or go with the Panasonic G series for $400 more but thats 1080P and a totally different set.
Click to expand...

It won't do 1900x1200... it has 1024x768 pixels, no more no less. No matter what input you pass into it it's going to scale it to 1024x768, which may or may not look good.

Anyway, I mayyyyyy go get this tomorrow..... plasma >>>>> LCD
Click to expand...
I thought it could do 720p. Isn't that 1280x720?
 
Originally posted by: Hacp
Originally posted by: Insomniator
Originally posted by: Macgyversite
Thanks for the thread find Blackjack.

Funny. Best Buy didn't have that TV earlier in the week. They had the other model, TC-P42C1, for $699. I checked just to be sure as I was gonna Price Match and use the BB Rewards points.

Older Panny

Newer Panny

Oh well.

I got the TV on Friday from Sears and it is a good TV. I have an older Panasonic DVD player with HDMI and the TV does make regular DVD's look way better.

The Sound is acceptable. The Picture is of course Plasmalike. You can blast it to make it look like an LCD. I am gonna test it with my Blue Ray player as soon as I get it unhooked. I can tell the TV is source limited with the standard DVD and Direct TV HD signals. Should be a fun test.

As far as the PC hook up. It goes beyond 1024 x 768. It will do 1920 x 1080. It looks good. However my LCD looked better and the desktop fit the screen perfectly on all accounts. But its a TV not a monitor and I did not buy it for gaming. A 32" LCD TV is perfect for this nowadays considering the prices they have dropped to. That would be your best bet for a gaming monitor with decent size.

Anyways. The Panny is a good set. You would have to spend an extra $100+ to get the Samsung plasma with similar quality at this price point or go with the Panasonic G series for $400 more but thats 1080P and a totally different set.
Click to expand...

It won't do 1900x1200... it has 1024x768 pixels, no more no less. No matter what input you pass into it it's going to scale it to 1024x768, which may or may not look good.

Anyway, I mayyyyyy go get this tomorrow..... plasma >>>>> LCD
Click to expand...
I thought it could do 720p. Isn't that 1280x720?
Click to expand...

plasmas have rectaungular pixels.

The scalers in the TV will scale it to 1080i x 1920 supposedly. I saw this set at best buy about an hour ago (same price ther etoo) and it does look quite nice. Too badthe 10% coupon is on $799 and up tvs.
 
The older model was better from the research that I saw. Sears advertised it from November to February or so they advertised the older model but every time I plugged in numerous random zip codes and the model was not available anywhere in the country. Classic bait and switch.

This now model also seems to have good reviews about any place one looks.

There is a 5% rebate also... if you look on fatty or slick... on electonics over $299.

I think it's a great deal, thanks Op. Just ordered one on the phone for local pickup.


 
Go to the AVS LINK and dial the TV in. As in any Set. Calibrating makes a huge difference in picture quality. Just follow their settings and it makes the TV spectacular.

Here are links to the specs of both models.

C model

X Model

 
Originally posted by: hans007
Originally posted by: Hacp
Originally posted by: Insomniator
Originally posted by: Macgyversite
Thanks for the thread find Blackjack.

Funny. Best Buy didn't have that TV earlier in the week. They had the other model, TC-P42C1, for $699. I checked just to be sure as I was gonna Price Match and use the BB Rewards points.

Older Panny

Newer Panny

Oh well.

I got the TV on Friday from Sears and it is a good TV. I have an older Panasonic DVD player with HDMI and the TV does make regular DVD's look way better.

The Sound is acceptable. The Picture is of course Plasmalike. You can blast it to make it look like an LCD. I am gonna test it with my Blue Ray player as soon as I get it unhooked. I can tell the TV is source limited with the standard DVD and Direct TV HD signals. Should be a fun test.

As far as the PC hook up. It goes beyond 1024 x 768. It will do 1920 x 1080. It looks good. However my LCD looked better and the desktop fit the screen perfectly on all accounts. But its a TV not a monitor and I did not buy it for gaming. A 32" LCD TV is perfect for this nowadays considering the prices they have dropped to. That would be your best bet for a gaming monitor with decent size.

Anyways. The Panny is a good set. You would have to spend an extra $100+ to get the Samsung plasma with similar quality at this price point or go with the Panasonic G series for $400 more but thats 1080P and a totally different set.
Click to expand...

It won't do 1900x1200... it has 1024x768 pixels, no more no less. No matter what input you pass into it it's going to scale it to 1024x768, which may or may not look good.

Anyway, I mayyyyyy go get this tomorrow..... plasma >>>>> LCD
Click to expand...
I thought it could do 720p. Isn't that 1280x720?
Click to expand...

plasmas have rectaungular pixels.

The scalers in the TV will scale it to 1080i x 1920 supposedly. I saw this set at best buy about an hour ago (same price ther etoo) and it does look quite nice. Too badthe 10% coupon is on $799 and up tvs.
Click to expand...

not going to do magic though, its downscaling any 1920x material to 720p. anyways its native res might be odd.. sometimes it was something like 1365x768 or whatever
 
I stopped by the local Sears to look at it. Colors are brilliant, and off-axis viewing beat the LCDs even at shallow angles.

The problems I saw with it are resolution and refresh rate. They were playing the same Disney animated movie on all the sets so I could compare. There was a Vizio LCD right above it. With .9mm horizontal DP, the Panny had some fuzzy edges. Of course, to be fair, I was just about 1m away.

What was annoying was the "shutter effect" of the slow refresh and/or image processing. When one of the cartoon characters went flying across the screen, I could literally see successive frames, like flipping pages of a book. I didn't notice this as much on the LCD. I'm really sensitive to flicker (I can't use a 60Hz monitor), so I guess I'll have to hold out for a 120Hz set. Maybe it depends a lot on the source -- I don't know if/how the 120Hz sets do motion interpolation.
 
Originally posted by: Emulex
over the lifespan say if you watch 25 hours of tv a week (got kids) what is delta on power usage of say a 42" plasma versus led lcd (versus ccfl lcd)?
Click to expand...

I have a 50" 720p Pannasonic plasma that is almost 3 years old now and still looks awesome. It's prolly been on an average of 7 hours a day.

I have to agree with the cnet reviewer, you can't go wrong with a 720p unit. Going from SD CRT to a HD widescreen will blow you away. Also I would definitely choose a larger 720p unit over a smaller 1080p TV at the same price point. Or take the extra money and get some descent sound. Kills me when people spend a couple grand on a TV then use the built in playschool speakers.
 
The sweet spot for this plasma is 6' away for me anyway. Its pixel size is to big to be view at 1m/3'. 5 feet was too close.

I have mine at this distance, 6', to the right of my computer desk in the basement. I too saw this, the pixels, at Sears but bought it knowing what I read in the AVS forums. I was trusting what so many others had said. It has quite a following.

The flicker? What flicker. I would say it was the Sears display source, their power supply, or some type of interference causing this. Remeber their display source is spanned over many sets and really isn't a good judge of a display. The big advantage of a Plasma is the fact that they excel in fast moving things on the screen. And their Blacks. Wow.

This display is Source limited. Get it home. Follow the setup guidelines as suggested in the AVS forums. Give it a few days. If you dont like it. Sears has a great return policy.

Used with my Sony Blue ray player. You can reach right into the set. Or so it seems. Beautiful picture.

Remember it is only $630 with tax or less if you use your Sears card and maybe some other offer. You just cant beat the price/performance ratio.
 
Originally posted by: Emulex
over the lifespan say if you watch 25 hours of tv a week (got kids) what is delta on power usage of say a 42" plasma versus led lcd (versus ccfl lcd)?

you have the direct cost (watts) and then the heat (which could be a plus in winter)
Click to expand...

cnet has this to say on what looks like a 1080p version of this same generation:
Compared to 720p 42-inch plasmas like the Insignia NS-PDP42 (203 watts), Panasonic's own TH-42PX80U from 2008 (190 watts), and the Vizio VP422 (146 watts), or especially to same sized LCDs like the Toshiba 42RV530U (115 watts) or the Philips 42PFL5603D (98 watts), the TC-P42S1 is not the greenest TV on the block. Still, if you want a plasma, the improved power consumption of the Neo PDP panels is definitely a good thing.
Click to expand...
 
I saw this tv in person, was not impressed at all. I can cleanly see the jaggedy edges in text if you pay close attention or sitting very close to the TV.
 
Originally posted by: hans007
The scalers in the TV will scale it to 1080i x 1920 supposedly.
Click to expand...


that makes no sense


You can't show anything beyond its native resolution. If that is 1024x768, that is all you get. No 1080P, no 720P


 
I have a Home Theater setup with a 120 inch screen and projector. It looks great showing movies especially when playing some of the better HD movies. What I didn't have was an HDTV.

I bought this from Sears a few weeks ago because of the price, the reviews, and the fact that I hate the look of LCD TVs for displaying anything but still objects. It didn't impress me in the store, but it looks great at home. It has a terrific analog and digital tuner and given it's relatively small 42 inch screen size you will not notice the difference between this set and a 1080p set (just like the experts claim) Maybe if you are right on top of it you might notice some things, but you shouldn't be that close anyway. Moreover, when playing HD movies it looks fantastic and can be tweaked (after around a 100 hour break-in period) to suit any taste. I would not judge a TV using cable channels which are marginal at best and vary almost daily depending upon your service provider and the time of day - a situation likely to get worse as large corporations finish taking over the entire nation.

Given today's prices, this set is one of the best bargains I have seen.

John
 
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