UPDATED -- Gone for now : Pansonic's 42" SD Plasma Display - TH42PWD7UY - $1599 including ground

[seacoastguynh]

[edited to update shipping information]

PC Connection has Panasonic's very well rated ED plasma monitor (not the full blown TV version), model TH42PWD7UY, for $1,599 with free ground shipping on all web orders (only) through May (updated apparently as when I originally posted it ended April 30th)

Link

Lots of great press on this Plasma monitor, and though the price is right in there with many other web-only Plasma stores, the free ground saves you $150 to $200.

Of course it's not true HD, but no 42 in is, and this one is the best out there right now. And, if you already have your own A/V systems and don't pull TV off the air anymore (do people still do that anymore?) then this is a great price.

Have mercy on me, this is my first post.

Cheers,

seacoastguy

*** UPDATED AGAIN *** Looks like the price just got bumped by $100. Now $1,699 delivered. Sorry guys.

 

[BadThad]

Welcome to the forums!

Specs:

Audio
Sound Output Mode Stereo
General
Television Technology Plasma
Television Type Plasma
Diagonal Size 42 in.
Performance
Contrast Ratio 4000:1
Viewing Angle (H/V) 160/160
Image Aspect Ratio 16:9
Video
Max Resolution 852 x 480
Actual Weight 63.9 lbs.
Contents Display, remote control, documentation
Ports/Connectors (1) Component
(1) Composite
(1) Composite Output
(1) S-Video
(1) RS-232 D- Sub 9 pin
(1) PC RGB & audio M3 stereo plug
Power Notes Power Consumption 290 watts
Power Supply 120v, 50/60Hz
Warranty - Labor 1 Year
Warranty - Parts 1 Year

 

[1sikbITCH]

I've got to wait another 2 weeks before I can pull the trigger on this tv I've been watching the deals get better and better though so hopefully waiting will be good too.

 

[seacoastguynh]

Yea, every computer component or TV like this comes down in price the moment you click "submit my order", so there's seldom a best to buy, only degrees of better times to buy. Right now, this is the best price I could find and the free shipping is a big help.

Cheers

 

[Tu13erhead]

Hey, I'm near the NH seacoast!

 

[ajskydiver]

NM

 

[Apex]

Wow, nice price on a great set. I've gone through my share of plasmas (not counting the non-Panasonic models: TH-37PWD5U/p, TH42-PWD6Uy, TH-42PWD7Uy, TH-50PHD7UY), and I have to say, the PWD7UY is a great choice for the money.

 

[Ammocan]

Excellent price being that I spent over 1k more 14 months ago. But is has been worth it! Excellent TV and watching HDTV on DTV makes an incredible picture. Don't be put off with people saying since this is EDTV it isn't as good. Its better.

 

[Ducati]

Originally posted by: seacoastguynh
Of course it's not true HD, but no 42 in is, and this one is the best out there right now.

great find...just had a friend pay $1,800 a few days ago...oh well...

one thing though...what do you mean no 42" has true HD??? explain. There are plenty of 42" that are true HD.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: Ducati

Originally posted by: seacoastguynh
Of course it's not true HD, but no 42 in is, and this one is the best out there right now.

great find...just had a friend pay $1,800 a few days ago...oh well...

one thing though...what do you mean no 42" has true HD??? explain. There are plenty of 42" that are true HD.

It depends on what your definition is.

If we're talking pure theory, HD is either 720p or 1080i, with 720p being the easier requirement, pixel wise.

720p is 1280 x 720 progressive in a 16:9 format.

The highest resolution 42" plasma is 1024 x 768 progressive, using non-square pixels, in a 16:9 format. Because 1024 is obviously lower than 1280, no 42" plasma can, in theory, fully resolve 720p.

In practice, you're really not going to get the full horizontal resolution out of 720p (or any video, for that matter), so you're losing very little with the 1024 x 768.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Apex

Originally posted by: Ducati

Originally posted by: seacoastguynh
Of course it's not true HD, but no 42 in is, and this one is the best out there right now.

great find...just had a friend pay $1,800 a few days ago...oh well...

one thing though...what do you mean no 42" has true HD??? explain. There are plenty of 42" that are true HD.

It depends on what your definition is.

If we're talking pure theory, HD is either 720p or 1080i, with 720p being the easier requirement, pixel wise.

720p is 1280 x 720 progressive in a 16:9 format.

The highest resolution 42" plasma is 1024 x 768 progressive, using non-square pixels, in a 16:9 format. Because 1024 is obviously lower than 1280, no 42" plasma can, in theory, fully resolve 720p.

In practice, you're really not going to get the full horizontal resolution out of 720p (or any video, for that matter), so you're losing very little with the 1024 x 768.

That's good to know since I have been debating a 42" or less HD and ED sets.

 

[lazarus000]

i still don't understand the difference between Enhanced definition and high definition

is it just that ED isn't 1080i?


and if so, isn't 1080i going to be the standard by 2007 ... so ED will be dead by then?

 

[golemite]

most ED plasmas, though capable of only resovling fully 480p, will accept hidef 720p and 1080i signals, converting them to their native resolution, so they are capable of displaying hd signals.

really the differences at normaly viewing distances are small, you should check them out in store and see if you can notice the difference between a true hd plasma and an ed one. i was at best buy for a few hours yesterday trying to determine if the difference was big enough for me to notice and even though i think ill go with a hd panel in the end i must admit any visual difference was pretty small at 4ft or so.

 

[SithSolo1]

I saw this earlier today. Been looking at these for quite a while and hoping will be getting one in the next few weeks.

 

[lzpoof]

In theory watching regular TV on an EDTV is better than on a true HDTV... so unless you're getting all HD channels EDTV is a good middle choice. Sicne it's 480 native you don't have to do interpolating which never works right .

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: lazarus000
i still don't understand the difference between Enhanced definition and high definition

is it just that ED isn't 1080i?


and if so, isn't 1080i going to be the standard by 2007 ... so ED will be dead by then?

ED is 480p. 480p is 720 x 480 in a 16:9 format (thus, non-square pixels). On a square pixel fixed pixel device, it takes 854 x 480, though sometimes, they lop off the single pixel column on either side, taking it down to 852 x 480.

480 * 16 / 9 = 853.333

ED is the "perfect" resolution to watch DVD on, since it's basically native. It's also one of the best for standard definition broadcast, since very little scaling is necessary.

ED is not enough to fully resolve HD resolutions. This being said (and this is the important part), resolution is surprisingly low on the importance scale in terms of overall visual quality for video. This is the thing that computer users often confuse. Resolution is important, don't get me wrong, but it's far less important than contrast, black level, shadow detail, smooth color gradients, accurate colors, good scaling, good deinterlacing, etc. These are things that should definitely be considered over resolution.

Also our eyes only have so much resolving power. If you take two basically identical, high quality panels (ie. The 1024 x 768 TH-42PHD7Uy and the 852 x 480 TH-42PWD7Uy), at a certain viewing distance, our eyes will not be able to tell the difference between them, even with a HD video source. For the vast majority of people with good vision (20-20 or so), the point at which the two become indistinguishable for most video material is roughly 8-10 feet or so (some slightly closer, some slightly further away). So, if you're planning to buy a 42" panel for video use, the only reason to spring for the "HD" version is if you're going to BOTH:

1. View mostly HD material
2. View from about 8' or closer

The reasons people like this specific Panny plasma are (as I see them):

1. Contrast is extremely high. It's rated at 4000:1, though in the real world, it cannot hit that. It's functionally higher than pretty much anything else out there (including the 5000:1 LG panels, though I'm not sure about the newly released 10,000:1 Samsung).
2. Black levels are extremely low. In fact, they're nearly a match for a "perfectly" calibrated CRT.
3. Shadow detail is very impressive. This is a big one for those of you who like dark movies (LOTR, Dark City, etc).
4. Scaling is reasonably good
5. Deinterlacing is reasonably good
6. Bezel is nice and thin, industrial looking. Goes well with many rooms.
7. Has a good number of inputs, plus more can be added with reasonably inexpensive plug in blades
8. It calibrates well
9. The colors are very natural, at least when calibrated. You don't get the cartoonish colors you do with many other panels and technologies
10. The energy consumption is good, especially this generation. The max is 290w, but real world consumption will average closer to 100w, even with speakers attached.

 

[JackieO]

Just want to shout out to Apex for one of the best posts I've read in a long time RE: ED vs HD. I have both a TH42 and the new 50 HD Panny, and from further than 8 feet there is visually no difference to my eyes between the two (aside from size). Unless you're really worried about the resolution, will be using it as a computer monitor, or sit closer than 8 feet from the set, this plasma @ 1600 is a really flippin' good deal.

 

[ntdz]

I got in on that Vizio deal, $2000 from Costco for HD. It looks better than my 65" mitsu projection hd and suprisingly, looks as good as my 50" Pioneer Elite. So who knows, this tv could be a hell of a tv as well at a nice price. Only problem is that the res is a little bit lower than true HD, but unless you are obsessive about video quality, you won't see much of a difference.

 

[maximo]

this looks very nice. I thought plasma dont last as long as LCD Tv, can someone tell me if plasma are reliable or not?

 

[Apex]

q]Originally posted by: maximo
this looks very nice. I thought plasma dont last as long as LCD Tv, can someone tell me if plasma are reliable or not?[/quote]

That used to be true, but is no longer.

When we talk about 1st tier current gen Plasma panels (like this Panasonic set), the vast majority have a 60,000 hour half life. Half life is the time it takes to reach 1/2 brightness. For your reference:

If you have absolutely no life and watch 10 hours of TV a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, year after year, on average, it will take you more than 16.4 years to reach 1/2 brightness. At 1/2 brightness, your typical plasma will still be brighter than your typical tube based CRT when brand spankin' new.

Panasonic has announced their next gen panel, which is rated at 100,000 hours.

Burn in is related to this half life rating. The first few generation panels used to burn in very easily. They lasted 10k to 15k hours. The current 60k hour panels are much MUCH harder to burn in; they're noticably better than panels only 1-2 generations older (that's like 1.5-2 years ago). All you need to do is take some common sense steps (ie. calibrate your set using DVE, which costs $15 shipped) to keep your plasma from being experiencing burn in.

Current gen LCD's have a rated 50,000 hour life. This being said, we need to take a closer look at the best backlight manufacturers. NEC is one of them. Their latest and greatest long life CCFL does now reach 50k hours, but conventional CCFL's (which most LCD TV's have) hit 50% brightness at roughly 20k hours.

http://www.nelt.co.jp/nhe_hp/cfl/cfl.htm

One thing that people bring up with LCD's is the fact that some models have replaceable backlighting. Unfortunately, replacing the backlighting costs as much or more than simply buying a brand new LCD, so in my opinion, that's not much of a perk.

Reliability, I'd say, is a wash. I've seen plasmas go bad, as well as LCD's. Both are high quality displays these days, but there's always a chance you'll get a dud, no matter which technology you go for.

 

[czech09]

Mmm...I might have to try to convince my dad on this one. We need a new TV for our house, we've had the same 20" panasonic tv for the past 15 yrs no joke lol...imagine connecting your comp to this beast and playing some game on this....

 

[mindblendeR]

Panasonic TH-42PHD7UY

Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)...

 

[JackieO]

Isn't that an S-vid blade only problem? I haven't really been keeping up with the progress on the issue but I was under the impression that it only manifested itself on sets with s-vid blades produced pre-jan 05. Most sets being sold now are past that production date. Of course it is still a concern. Panasonic and Pioneer had a similar production issue with their last generation plasma/LCDs, but it was taken care of.

 

[flot]

I went to CC to take one last look at the plasmas they had on display and was fully ready to go order this one - but after taking a good hard look at all (they had 12-16 or so) of the units on display, the true hi def models really did look appreciably better. Even more of a relief, the LCD high def models looked just plain great. I think I'll be holding off a bit longer... there was even a Panasonic rep standing there (who oddly was some old lady in her late 50s?) and she was like "doesn't the picture look fantastic?" -- but it was blown out of the water by the LG High Def LCD (I think) that was sitting right next to it.

 

[seacoastguynh]

I'm sure that some of the higher pixel count devices do end up looking better. The trouble with this sort of purchase is, as it always has been, how much is good enough given the ever-changing price & tech nature of electronics. I know that simple equation is what has made my choice take so long.

Given the majority of material out there that I will be watching (incl DVDs), combined with price I can absorb (and isn't that the kicker!), $1,599 shipped for this panel is a great unit at a great price.

I could move up to a 1024 x 768 version of the same panel, but that's an extra (approx) $1,100 for some small margin of improvement which I am unlikely to notice at 8 ft viewing distance. I could go to the TH-50PHD7UY for an extra $2,700 and get "true" 1366 x 768 HD but "ouch!", that's just more than I can spend for what I need.

I have no doubt that in 2 to 3 yrs time I will be spending about this much, or perhaps sightly more, for a much better panel (what will we be on then, 10th - 13th generation??) at that time and likely get much closer to true HD then (plus there will be more content).

For those that have the coin, this might not be the absolute best bet. Sub $2,000 however this seems to be the display to beat.

By the way -- free shipping deal still on (extended through May) so $1,599 price delivered is holding.

Thanks for all the input folks, it's been great seeing other thoughts and opinions out there.