Panasonic 50" 3d plasma P50ST30 $1130 shipped

[OILFIELDTRASH]

If you know your tv's you know this one. Great picture and one of the best tv's out today. If you've got a Best Buy near you then you can go into their store and check out the picture for yourself. Of course don't buy it there cause they want $1600.
Buy through amazon from electronics expo. $1020 for the tv $110 shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIER...1886254&sr=8-1

$1200 if you feel more comfortable buying direct from Amazon which is still a great deal.

 

[cubeless]

hmmm? from amazon...

TV Low Price Guarantee
We are working hard to make sure that our prices are the best around. If you find another site that offers a lower price within 14 days after the date we ship your order, let us know and we will credit your original payment method for the difference. If we lower our own price within 14 days after we ship your order, let us know and we will refund you the difference as well. Learn More

 

[Powermoloch]

damn...I remember when I bought my 32" LCD for that much lols !

hot

 

[TestKing123]

This TV is now available for $1195 shipped from buy.com (cheaper than amazon):

http://www.buy.com/prod/panasonic-vi...220137358.html

Although, I'm still torn between this ST30 and the GT30 that's a few hundred dollars more.

 

[manimal]

Best Buy matched this price for a buddy of mine yesterday.

 

[Craig234]

Best Buy matched this price for a buddy of mine yesterday.

I'm not sure how a business who pays the rent, construction, staff and inventory to stock and display the tv near your house, is supposed to price compete with the internet seller.

Not to digress, but when I see these 'go look but don't buy' posts, I think it's fair to ask how they expect the store providing that service is supposed to stay in business.

 

[Soccerman06]

Unlike popular belief, they make a large chunk of change from selling tvs at their regular price.

 

[lothar]

I'm not sure how a business who pays the rent, construction, staff and inventory to stock and display the tv near your house, is supposed to price compete with the internet seller.

Not to digress, but when I see these 'go look but don't buy' posts, I think it's fair to ask how they expect the store providing that service is supposed to stay in business.

Best Buy makes a lot of money from selling overpriced Monster cables, surge protectors, electronics, and extended warranties to people who are either uninformed or are too stupid to use the internet and conduct their own due diligence.

 

[gevorg]

Best Buy can rot in hell for all I care.

 

[libertyl]

Best buy is a wart on the ass of electronics.

 

[TestKing123]

I nearly pulled the trigger on this internet deal because it was too good to pass up, but I decided to stop by my local best buy to check out the picture quality. THANK GOD I DID.

I was VERY disappointed in the brightness level of this Panasonic Viera ST30 TV. It is literally quite a dim set. The 3D itself was spectacular, but the dimness kept nagging me inside. My current Vizio LCD (5 years old) was way brighter than this. I even set the mode to vivid, cranked up the contrast/brightness to maximum level, and the picture quality was still disappointingly dim (and this is in 2D mode, not 3D where its naturally even dimmer because of the way shutterglasses work). Just to make sure it wasn't just this particular TV set, I checked another VT series they had on display. Same thing.

I know Plasma isn't as bright as LCD, but these Panasonic 3D Plasmas were dimmer than the other plasmas on display. Even the regular Panasonic Plasmas (same size, non 3D) were brighter than these.

I walked away disappointed. Thank goodness I didn't hastily pull the trigger. I guess for some people the brightness won't be much of an issue, but it was too big a difference for my tastes. The 3D glasses made the picture quality even dimmer.

By the way, this Best Buy wouldn't price match the internet offer I walked in with ($1156 from Electronics Expo, printed from Amazon's website).


I checked out the other 3DTV's and settled for a Samsung 46" LED 240HZ 3DTV. Naturally, I refused to pay $1999 at best buy and got it for $1499 shipped from Amazon last night.

Oh, and Best Buy definitely needs to change their name to Worst Buy. I waited 25 minutes to get any assistance in the home theater section because they only had 1 on staff (the other associates couldnt help because they belonged to other departments, all they could do was "page" repeatedly).

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm not sure how a business who pays the rent, construction, staff and inventory to stock and display the tv near your house, is supposed to price compete with the internet seller.

Not to digress, but when I see these 'go look but don't buy' posts, I think it's fair to ask how they expect the store providing that service is supposed to stay in business.

I can't believe this post is on the Hot Deal forum! If we cared about our corporate masters like you do, no one would touch loss-leading Hot Deals because we would feel guilty about ourselves.

Save this rant for regular people who paid full price. Maybe you can make them feel better, like it patriotism or something to pay a markup. There is no corporate loyalty in this realm.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I nearly pulled the trigger on this internet deal because it was too good to pass up, but I decided to stop by my local best buy to check out the picture quality. THANK GOD I DID.

I was VERY disappointed in the brightness level of this Panasonic Viera ST30 TV. It is literally quite a dim set. The 3D itself was spectacular, but the dimness kept nagging me inside. My current Vizio LCD (5 years old) was way brighter than this. I even set the mode to vivid, cranked up the contrast/brightness to maximum level, and the picture quality was still disappointingly dim (and this is in 2D mode, not 3D where its naturally even dimmer because of the way shutterglasses work). Just to make sure it wasn't just this particular TV set, I checked another VT series they had on display. Same thing.

I know Plasma isn't as bright as LCD, but these Panasonic 3D Plasmas were dimmer than the other plasmas on display. Even the regular Panasonic Plasmas (same size, non 3D) were brighter than these.

I walked away disappointed. Thank goodness I didn't hastily pull the trigger. I guess for some people the brightness won't be much of an issue, but it was too big a difference for my tastes. The 3D glasses made the picture quality even dimmer.

By the way, this Best Buy wouldn't price match the internet offer I walked in with ($1156 from Electronics Expo, printed from Amazon's website).


I checked out the other 3DTV's and settled for a Samsung 46" LED 240HZ 3DTV. Naturally, I refused to pay $1999 at best buy and got it for $1499 shipped from Amazon last night.

Oh, and Best Buy definitely needs to change their name to Worst Buy. I waited 25 minutes to get any assistance in the home theater section because they only had 1 on staff (the other associates couldnt help because they belonged to other departments, all they could do was "page" repeatedly).

Yeah you should stick to edge lit LCD if you like cartoon like colors, uneven lighting across the screen, and motion blur. Leave the high end plasma's to people like myself that like accurate colors, a more natural picture, and non blurry sports on our TV's.

 

[Gibson486]

Yeah you should stick to edge lit LCD if you like cartoon like colors, uneven lighting across the screen, and motion blur. Leave the high end plasma's to people like myself that like accurate colors, a more natural picture, and non blurry sports on our TV's.

I have an LCD and Plasma....the whole thing about motion blur is way overrated.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I have an LCD and Plasma....the whole thing about motion blur is way overrated.

How about the color black? You like it? I do too. That's also another reason I like plasma over LCD.

 

[TestKing123]

Yeah you should stick to edge lit LCD if you like cartoon like colors, uneven lighting across the screen, and motion blur. Leave the high end plasma's to people like myself that like accurate colors, a more natural picture, and non blurry sports on our TV's.

The ST30 isn't a high end plasma. Maybe if it had a brighter image so I can actually watch it in my living room with the lights on I would have purchased it on the spot. Or maybe if Panasonic included a cell light option in the menu (like Samsung does for its Plasmas) to raise phosphor brightness to my liking I would have purchased it on the spot as well.

Deep blacks don't mean anything if the whole image is dim in the first place. Many people like you can obviously adjust to it, I can't.

I demoed the Samsung 55" 1080p 3D 240 Hz LED HDTV (which was right across from the ST30) and was blown away by the image quality, compared to "meh" with the Panasonic. The blacks were deep, the image bright, crisp and vivid, and I noticed no motion blur, and the 3D looked just as good as the Panasonic (better actually, since the image was brighter and crisper).

To keep it in my budget I settled for the 46". But I know I'm better off feeling happy with this purchase rather than consumed with doubt about "forcing myself to accept the dimness" if I had gotten the ST30 instead.

Choosing a TV is like choosing a wife. You're going to be stuck with it for a long time, so you damn better make sure you choose the one YOU think is the right one for you, not what other people say.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yeah you got a much better deal by buying a 46" edge lit for $1500 over a $1200 50".

I'm glad you're happy in cartoon color world where everyone on tv looks like they have been sprayed in a fake tanning booth for 48 hours a piece. I enjoy my panasonic plasma just fine in any amount of light. It's funny that cnet's top performing TV's for picture quality are plasma's. I guess you'd know better though right?

 

[Gibson486]

How about the color black? You like it? I do too. That's also another reason I like plasma over LCD.

The blacks are better on a plasma....but it not OMG better. To the normal viewer, they are really not going notice it.

 

[TestKing123]

Yeah you got a much better deal by buying a 46" edge lit for $1500 over a $1200 50".

I'm glad you're happy in cartoon color world where everyone on tv looks like they have been sprayed in a fake tanning booth for 48 hours a piece. I enjoy my panasonic plasma just fine in any amount of light. It's funny that cnet's top performing TV's for picture quality are plasma's. I guess you'd know better though right?

Yes, a much better deal because it's a superior TV for my eyes. According to your train of thought, why didn't you get an old 70" rear projection TV for $500 instead of your hot deal above?

It's also quite obvious you haven't seen in person Samsung's new 8000 series LED 240hz TV's. You know, the one praised by CNET here?:
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-high-definition-tvs/

Funny, I don't see your Panasonic ST30 listed there...do you?

And what's this "cartoon-like", "tanny" color you speak of? Oh, I get it...you think the one LED TV you looked at with jacked up color/saturation is indicative of all LED TV's. Go figure

Or (more likely), your eyes became so accustomed to dim, shaded colors on your low end ST30 that anything just a bit brighter, crisper and vivid is suddenly alien to your eyes

 

[TestKing123]

The blacks are better on a plasma....but it not OMG better. To the normal viewer, they are really not going notice it.

Exactly. The blacks on premium LED TV's are actually quite pitch black. I couldn't tell a difference in black levels on the low end ST30 compared to the Samsung 55" LED 3DTV. What I could quite clearly tell a difference however was the difference in sharp, bright (and vibrant) picture quality.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Maybe you forgot to look here for the top 5 TV's where only picture quality is concerned.
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs/?tag=
All top 5 are plasma's. I paid 1474 for a 55" st30. Less than you paid for your edge lit 46". The st30 and gt30 use the same panel and picture quality on the st is nearly identical to the gt except the gt has slightly better blacks. Calling the st30 a low end model is just ignorant and it makes it obvious you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Zivic]

Yes, a much better deal because it's a superior TV for my eyes. According to your train of thought, why didn't you get an old 70" rear projection TV for $500 instead of your hot deal above?

It's also quite obvious you haven't seen in person Samsung's new 8000 series LED 240hz TV's. You know, the one praised by CNET here?:
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-high-definition-tvs/

Funny, I don't see your Panasonic ST30 listed there...do you?

And what's this "cartoon-like", "tanny" color you speak of? Oh, I get it...you think the one LED TV you looked at with jacked up color/saturation is indicative of all LED TV's. Go figure

Or (more likely), your eyes became so accustomed to dim, shaded colors on your low end ST30 that anything just a bit brighter, crisper and vivid is suddenly alien to your eyes

I'm sorry, you are comparing TVs based on Cnet reviews and viewing them at best buy under "optimal' conditions and complaining about brightness?

I can promise you the panny has more natural colors and has plenty of brightness capacity for a proper calibration. Any TV on the market will have the capability to run brighter than need be.

LCD has its place in computer monitors, but plasma still bests them when it comes to TV displays. To get an LCD at a comparable PQ to plasma, you are likely spending 3 times what the plasma will run you.

If you like the look of an LCD, more power to you, but in a general sense, LCD is still not up to par with plasma when it comes to PQ.

 

[TestKing123]

Maybe you forgot to look here for the top 5 TV's where only picture quality is concerned.
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs/?tag=
All top 5 are plasma's. I paid 1474 for a 55" st30. Less than you paid for your edge lit 46". The st30 and gt30 use the same panel and picture quality on the st is nearly identical to the gt except the gt has slightly better blacks. Calling the st30 a low end model is just ignorant and it makes it obvious you don't know what you're talking about.

Funny, I don't see an ST30 on that list. Do you? Perhaps its because the GT30 has better image processing resulting in much better PQ overall? Look, I'm the one who bumped your thread with a decent deal on the ST30. I've had the intention of buying the ST30 (and strongly considered the GT30) and read all the ST30 vs GT30 reviews/threads I could find. Bottom line is when I checked out the ST30 in person, I was disappointed. Not by the picture quality itself, but the fact it wasn't bright enough for my tastes. Can you get that through your dense head of yours? Arguing about picture quality and black levels is getting you nowhere, especially since Samsung's newest line of LED HDTV's have just as good (and better) IQ.

Now let me ask you a question. Have YOU seen a Samsung UND8000 series in person? Not last years C series, or 7 midrange series (which are notably worse than Samsung's newest 8000/9000 series). Because it's painfully obvious you're the ignorant one here talking out of your ass. I SAW BOTH TV'S SIDE BY SIDE, and decided the Samsung was the better TV FOR ME. I spent a good amount of time playing with both TV's settings. The Samsung was sharper, more vibrant, BRIGHTER, JUST AS GOOD BLACKS (to my eyes at least), no motion blurring (I like the fluid motion effect), and the 3D was just pure awesome.

And you want to tell me otherwise just because you're stuck with a low end ST30 that you're comparing to some oversaturated LED LCD's you saw at Fry's?

I'm also going to build a Sandy Bridge microATX box to use as a PC console on the TV (primarily for stereoscopic gaming). According to your OWN thread here, Plasma would be a major concern because of image burn-in and image retention, something Plasmas just can't get around:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2139153&highlight=

You don't need to convince me about Plasma vs LED. Obviously high end Plasmas are better than LED's. But you're jumping over a high cliff trying to convince me and others your ST30 is better than a Samsung UND8000, especially since ALL your arguments (cartoon-like colors (lol), backlight bleeding, blacks (lol)) have absolutely NO MERIT at all, making yourself look absolutely ignorant.

BTW, I went back to Best Buy and HHGregg to check out more TV's, and wound up haggling a display model (same 46" Samsung LED 240hz D8000 as I ordered online) for $1300 (those commission based saps at HH Gregg are fun to negotiate with :lol: ). Cancelled the amazon order and ended with an even better deal.

I'm sorry, you are comparing TVs based on Cnet reviews and viewing them at best buy under "optimal' conditions and complaining about brightness?

I can promise you the panny has more natural colors and has plenty of brightness capacity for a proper calibration. Any TV on the market will have the capability to run brighter than need be.

LCD has its place in computer monitors, but plasma still bests them when it comes to TV displays. To get an LCD at a comparable PQ to plasma, you are likely spending 3 times what the plasma will run you.

If you like the look of an LCD, more power to you, but in a general sense, LCD is still not up to par with plasma when it comes to PQ.

You're arguing in favor of Plasma in general, however not all Plasma's are created equal, especially cheap Plasma's. A few weeks ago I found a "hot" deal on a 50" Samsung C680 1080p 3D Plasma for $800. The reviews just werent good concerning PQ (too soft).

My issue with the ST30 was the brightness, which I was concerned about for 3D viewing (I own an IZ3D desktop monitor for stereoscopic gaming, and the ST30 in 3D was noticably darker than this). I'm not the only one that noticed the ST30's generally dim view as well. I checked other forums/user reviews and low brightness is definitely one of the things noticed, although those who purchased it say they become adjusted to it rather quickly, and other TV's just seem too bright rather than the ST30 seeming too dim. These Plasma's will never be as bright, or come close to the brightness of an LED, no matter how it's configured/calibrated. I know I won't adjust to it, considering I do alot of 3D gaming on my desktop 3D monitor as well and really picky about 3D settings.

 

[Zivic]

You're arguing in favor of Plasma in general, however not all Plasma's are created equal, especially cheap Plasma's. A few weeks ago I found a "hot" deal on a 50" Samsung C680 1080p 3D Plasma for $800. The reviews just werent good concerning PQ (too soft).

My issue with the ST30 was the brightness, which I was concerned about for 3D viewing (I own an IZ3D desktop monitor for stereoscopic gaming, and the ST30 in 3D was noticably darker than this). I'm not the only one that noticed the ST30's generally dim view as well. I checked other forums/user reviews and low brightness is definitely one of the things noticed, although those who purchased it say they become adjusted to it rather quickly, and other TV's just seem too bright rather than the ST30 seeming too dim. These Plasma's will never be as bright, or come close to the brightness of an LED, no matter how it's configured/calibrated. I know I won't adjust to it, considering I do alot of 3D gaming on my desktop 3D monitor as well and really picky about 3D settings.

Yes, I will argue plasma in general.... but I will also contend that properly setup, the ST30 will provide the necessary brightness. If 3D viewing is your primary concern plasma should be your tech of choice. LCD doesn't do as well with it (motion) and has an inherent flicker.

Your brightness argument falls on deaf ears with me. If you are arguing that this display can't get bright enough, means you don't care about PQ and thus your opinion is about as worthless as my uncle's review of a running shoe ....

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'm a 3d geek Testking. I use a 120hz asus and nvidia 3d vision on my desktop pc and 3d looks better on my plasma. Less ghosting/crosstalk by far, brightness is way more than I'll ever need, and depth seems better. Your eyes get use to the picture and it looks more natural. When I watch my LCD in my bedroom it's just fake looking.

If you're looking to game on a tv you're doing it wrong. They only allow 60fps and in 3d 30fps each eye. 120Hz monitors are the only choice for gaming.