Blurry panasonic th42px80b

[admin_exported]

Hi, I could sure use some help! I was in PC world yesterday comparing the th42px80b next to samsung's entire range (plasma and lcd) and a couple of philips' sets as well and there is no other word for it the panny looked-blurry. Surely there can't be some settings that make the picture blurry (what would be the point). It was blurry compared to the samsungs in both sd and hd. When i pointed it out to the shop assistant-very helpful by the way-he couldn't understand why i thought the viera range was any good in the first place. Could it be one dodgy set? Does any one else think the panny is blurry? Surely a best buy five star tele can't be bad in any way? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SpiceWeasel]

There could be many reasons for this :

You can take most "sales" peoples views with a huge pinch of salt, especially large retail stores. Especially if they don't have the model in stock or don't stock them in the 1st place. Or have old/inferior stock they are trying to shift.

Some people prefer lcd's to plasma, lcd's tend to be sharper than plasma. Plasma tend to have more natural colours and are better with fast motion. There are good and bad tv's with both technologies though. That's not set in stone though, todays lcd and plasma's are alot closer in performance than they used to be.

Also has the tv been properly calibrated or are they using the "factory" settings. The factory settings are usually miles off and a bit of tweaking can work wonders for the picture quality.

How are the tv's connected, do they have 30 tv's all running off the same feed. Are they using decent cables ?

Are you viewing the tv's at the optimum viewing distance?

Store lighting can have a huge effect on picture quality, ideally you want to test your shortlist in home lighting conditions or even a dedicated testing room. Any retailer worth their salt will be more than willing to do this.

There's probably a few more reasons I have missed as well.

The best advice I can give you is to make a shortlist of tv's you are interested in, then get a proper demo in home lighting conditions with properly calibrated tv settings and decent cables. If you have any other equipment already ie dvd player or blu ray player etc that will be used with your new tv then take them along with you and see what looks best on your shortlist. Make sure to view them at your intended home viewing distance. Look at both SD and HD content and take along any films you are familliar with. Test out how well the tv's can handle fast motion as well. And how good/bad the tv's sound is etc.

There are alot of very happy Pany owners on these forums, and I am one of them. I have the 42"PZ85 Pany plasma and sd content from sky looks pretty good on most channels. Upscaled dvd's through my PS3 look amazing and Blu Ray's take your breath away, absolutely stunning.

Only you can decide what's best for you by viewing the tv's your self. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

Too right and well said Spice me old son. I have a Pana px70 and once tweaked looks pucker and I bet it eats most lcds (around the same price range) alive for overall picture quality.

 

[murg]

I know exactly what you mean. I bought the 37px80b and it was blurry too. I compared it to my lcd side by side and there was just no contest. the lcd had far better detail and sharper focus. So the plasma went back to the shop and I dont regret doing so. Its all down to personal choice. For me, the image was just too soft and slightly out of focus, to others it would be great.
Trust your eyes,not others opinions

 

[HDNumpty]

When I first saw the PX70 37" I didn't think it was as sharp as the 32" LCD from the same range. There is no doubt this TV isn't as sharp, however it will handle SD and especially broadcast better than virtually any other TV on the market. The Sony W2000 40" I bought was unwatchable on Freeview at anything less than 4m - the 37" Panasonic is perfectly good at 2m+ and stunning at 3m. It is still sharper than my tired eyes at the end of the day with HD!

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Murg to a certain extent about the sharpness of the image on some lcd's but this can of course be a flaw at times because it can create mosquito, block noise etc in the image and a lot of lcd's around the same price cannot handle motion as well as the Pana.
Also, do trust your own eyes but also please take into account what others have to say which is one of the ideas of this forum. Besides- The pana can't be that bad as probably half the UK have one, lol.

 

[Anonymous]

Lots of thanks to all of you who replied to this. prob will take plunge with this bargain panny as saw it in curry's next to all the other lcd and not blurry at all???!!! thanks again guys.