Panasonic 2008 Plasmas - The mother of all questions...

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Anonymous

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Hi

Any news on the costs or are Panasonic going to sit on the fence on this as well

Nice work Clare on the above info
 

Clare Newsome

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You can't pin lack of pricing on Panasonic - it is, after all, illegal under European law for a manufacturer to state an RRP for a TV!

But judging from the prices on the models released so far, pricing's going to be similar to last year's sets - which i'd take a wild guess as meaning the 85 and 800 sets will come in at a few hundred quid pricier than the 80 equivalents.
 
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Anonymous

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Clare, do you know when the TH-42PZ85 and/or the TH-46PZ85 will get reviewed in the magazine?

Really would like to see a review before getting one.

Thanks,

Dan.
 

Clare Newsome

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Hi Dan. No exact date yet, but we've been promised a steady stream of new flatscreens as they arrive - from Panasonic and others. The '80 sets are first up, so i'd expect the 85s next - still a month away, though, I'd predict.
 
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Anonymous

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i had a th42pz70 on order from john lewis sheffield, when i called them to let them know i was just going to wait for the new ones the lady on the phone was super helpful and did a search for the th42pz85, she seemed to know alot about it (maybe she is a bit of a geek too and reads the whfisv forum aswell!) she told me jl will be stocking that model (she didnt know when) and be selling it at £1299 with a 5 yr warranty.

by the way clare (and the rest of the team) thanks very much for all your help, im sure you have more important things to be doing like editing a magazine rather than emailing panasonic every 2 minutes! im sure everyone on the forum appreciates it!
 
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Anonymous

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Is all this stuff really necessary? Obviously, for some people it seems to mean a lot, but for the average Joe do we need to know whether it's '4.4 pulldown' or '96 hz or 2.2 or 2.3 or whatever?

Sounds very Jeremy Clarkson to me.
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="Very Annoyed"]
Is all this stuff really necessary? Obviously, for some people it seems to mean a lot, but for the average Joe do we need to know whether it's '4.4 pulldown' or '96 hz or 2.2 or 2.3 or whatever?

Sounds very Jeremy Clarkson to me.
[/quote]

Dear Average Joe,

Mr Clarkson may be a tad annoying at times but he cerainly knows his onions. The thing is that there are a lot of us that just want to get the best spec per pound (or buck) spent. So little technical specs sometimes become important. Not always but just sometimes. Manufacturers are sometimes a little economical with the info they give out hence the wonderful help given out free by Clare Newsome et al here on this site. If its all a bit too much for you may I suggest Early Learning HiF.com and I hope you are not comparing Clare to Mr Clarkson as I would have to direct you to the Top Gear web site for a "Stigging" :)
 
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Anonymous

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With all due respect Jeremy Clarkson does not know his onions. He just reads out the manufacturers spec sheet. He sits there and rambles on about horse power and miles per hour, 0-60 in 3 seconds and every bit of new technology under the sun, but when his own car had a puncture he could not fix it, and had to call out a breakdown truck to change a tyre. Pretty pathetic for some one who "knows his onions."

As for Clare, I most certainly am not comparing her to Clarkson. He would not have the patience.
 
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Anonymous

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Dear Very Annoyed

Sadly 24fps and 2:3 Pulldown does mean a lot to avid Hi Def watchers

I have just spent £1050 on a Panny PZ70 to watch Blu Ray, on slow panning shots the screen judders quite noticeably this i can tell you annoys me, some people struggle to notice it others do.

Comet when i contacted them had no idea about 24fps which if they had i would have purchased the Sony or Pioneer, these forums are important for this reason
 

Clare Newsome

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[quote user="Very Annoyed"]

As for Clare, I most certainly am not comparing her to Clarkson. He would not have the patience.

[/quote]

I wouldn't mind his income!
emotion-2.gif
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
They are important to you, and I am not questioning that. What I am asking is does the avergae Joe in the street need to know about this stuff? I don't know if it makes any difference to the picture quality, But I would think if it does, Panasonic would be shouting it from the roof tops.

I am not questioning your right to ask these questions.
 

Clare Newsome

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[quote user="HolySmoke"][
To clarify, 4:4 pulldown means it will be able to run at 96hz and so display at 24fps, correct? It's a bit of an odd frequency, so I thought I'd ask.

[/quote]

Yep, 24/96....again, confirmed by Panasonic this afternoon.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="Clare Newsome"][quote user="Very Annoyed"]

As for Clare, I most certainly am not comparing her to Clarkson. He would not have the patience.

[/quote]

I wouldn't mind his income!
emotion-2.gif

[/quote]

Wouldn't we all Clare! Great mag, great forum.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="Very Annoyed"]
Is all this stuff really necessary? Obviously, for some people it seems to mean a lot, but for the average Joe do we need to know whether it's '4.4 pulldown' or '96 hz or 2.2 or 2.3 or whatever?

Sounds very Jeremy Clarkson to me.
[/quote]

It's very simple: just to say something "plays back 24fps material" gives no guide as to how well it does it. It has been muddled all over the place - Which magazine states WRONGLY that certain TVs work properly with high def dvd players when they do not do even pulldown (2:2, 3:3, 4:4). If it is e.g. 3:2, as with the US models, things WILL judder in the absence of other smoothing. The average Joe who might read such advice is entitled to better information.

This admittedly "techie sounding" issue is critical to whether we can believe a new generation of tellies is future proof for the time being. (Until we all start wondering about built in HD freeview). The forums all over the place have been debating this one as Panasonic Europe made a mess of explaining what they had done, referring meaninglessly to "pulldown up to 96Hz". This might have meant that just one model (probably Z80s) had 4:4 but all the others might have been 3:2 at 60Hz.

Do you really have a problem with consumers trying to establish the facts before spending over a grand on a piece of equipment?

Oh,... and thanks for comparing me to Clarkson. I take it as a compliment.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="Very Annoyed"]

As for Clare, I most certainly am not comparing her to Clarkson.
[/quote]

To right you cant compare Clare with Jez she is far better looking.

A bit technical this 4:4 pull down lark. Im looking at the new models so i get faultless judder from blue ray 24 fps so is it a yes or no for 24 fps.

Many many thanks
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="thornton"][quote user="Very Annoyed"]

Is all this stuff really necessary? Obviously, for some people it seems to mean a lot, but for the average Joe do we need to know whether it's '4.4 pulldown' or '96 hz or 2.2 or 2.3 or whatever?

Sounds very Jeremy Clarkson to me.

[/quote] Oh,... and thanks for comparing me to Clarkson. I take it as a compliment.[/quote]

I rest my case!
 
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Anonymous

Guest
This thread certainly cleared up a few things, so thank you all for that.

However, I still have a question that I haven't seen an answer to: Will all the sets capable of displaying 24p without 2:3 pulldown also be able to correctly deinterlace film material NTSC DVDs and display it at 96 Hz?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
The source material must output at 24p. This is for Blu Ray and HD DVD. I am not aware of any DVDs that support 24p. So, the answer as far as I know is No. DVDs will just be the normal 60Hz for NTSC discs. I don't know if there are any technical limitations for DVDs or if it is a feature they cannot accomodate. All NTSC DVDs must be 60Hz at the very leaast.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Clare,

I just wanted to say thanks a lot for chasing this up with Panasonic. You have certainly made A LOT of people happy! Thank you for your great work and perseverance in getting this important information.

Viper
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="ViperGRM"]

The source material must output at 24p. This is for Blu Ray and HD DVD. I am not aware of any DVDs that support 24p. So, the answer as far as I know is No. DVDs will just be the normal 60Hz for NTSC discs. I don't know if there are any technical limitations for DVDs or if it is a feature they cannot accomodate. All NTSC DVDs must be 60Hz at the very leaast.

[/quote]

I'm not saying that NTSC DVDs (or NTSC televised movies) are anything other than 60 Hz interlaced. However it is possible to use reverse pull-down (3:2 pulldown or inverse telecine) to reconstruct the original 24 fps of the film material. Therefore I'm asking if all the new panasonic plasmas are able to do that.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hi Clare and all Panasonic fans!

I have discovered that TV and Hi-Fi specialist retailer AV4U.co.uk are already taking pre-orders for the new 2008 Panasonic sets. They are priced on their website at £1199.00 for the TH-42PZ85 and £1499.00 for the TH-46PZ85. AV4U appear to have overcome the RRP situation by simply making an early judgement call on their own retail price. I know from speaking to the owner that he is prety tight with Panasonic senior executives, so he may have a bit of insider knowledge with which to base his own pricing! I hope you all find this useful. I myself am thinking seriously about the 46" and can't wait for the reviews!
 
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Anonymous

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Hi all i have just pre ordered my Panasonic TH-42PZ85 from 1st Audiovisual and will get it the last week of march £1.075 inc delivery.
 

JSM15

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Hello Clare, I am interested in either the 37LZD85 or the 42PZ80. On paper and from your experiences with the corresponding models that these replace (LZD70 in the case of the LCD) which would you be leaning towards?

Also does the PZ80 have 100hz like the PZ85/PZ800 and LZD85 have?

Thanks!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="Clare Newsome"][quote user="HolySmoke"][

To clarify, 4:4 pulldown means it will be able to run at 96hz and so display at 24fps, correct? It's a bit of an odd frequency, so I thought I'd ask.

[/quote]

Yep, 24/96....again, confirmed by Panasonic this afternoon.

[/quote]

Hallo Clare,

just a short introduction to myself: I'm not British, but I travel a lot and (especially) read the mag very often (my preferite choice to buy in airports...
emotion-5.gif
), so first of all my sincere congratulations for your job

Then, coming back to the issue on how the generation 8 of PZ plasmas handles the 24fps, I would like to ask you a clarification (and maybe forward it to our Pana friends...):

the first version of the manual of the th42pz85 quotes "The 24p source data of movies is converted into a video signal with 6 frames/0.1 second", which would be then a 60fps, which is in the end not really what is reported in this forum (pulldown 4:4, 96 fps PLUS the IFC for the PZ85 and PZ800)....so which one??

For the sake of completeness I shall say that some other manual on the panasonic.co.uk manual's page do not report the a.m. phrase at all....maybe a typo on the first issue of the english manual??

Thanks again
 

Clare Newsome

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Hello, and welcome to the Forums.

I'd trust the word of numerous Panasonic product designers over an early-edition product manual (that probably didn't get seen by anyone in the technical department before it was printed!). But I will check. Again!

We've also now got the set in....
 

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