Just bought a Panasonic 42V20 this weekend.
My wife and I have been looking for a TV to replace my ancient Sony 32" Wega CRT for several months. I am a senior engineer in post production company and my wife is a film editor. Between us, with the exception of the Pioneer 500s which my wife generally requests for work and I use at mine, no LCD/Plasma TV has come close to satisfying our extensive PQ requirements.
I have spent days trawling through umpteen magazine + website reviews, going to John Lewis, Richer sounds, Currys etc, etc to try to find a replacement. I had shortlist after shortlist - but when we eventually saw them 'in the flesh' none had come close to making us want to part with our hard earned cash.
Just to give you an idea of our critial evaluations, the 40" Philips 9704 + 37" 9604, 40" samsung c7000, b8000, b7020, sony hx/nx703 all failed to pass our viewing tests. All were subject to fairly extensive viewing - and fiddling with 'shop' modes when possible.
Through much evaluation we both preferer the look of Plasma pictures, despite current trends towards LED tech. It helps that we both have the Pioneer Kuros for reference. We watch lots of films, and a bit of TV. No football - though I will make an exception for the World Cup!
We had seen and been impressed by the 50VT20, though 3D support is not really of much interest to us - until it is viewable without the ridiculous glasses that is. More to the point the 2D images we saw were excellent. The only downsides were it was both too expensive, and too big. It looked good off, too.
Call me superficial, but I have to say most Panasonic have left we decidedly underwhelmed as far as the stying goes. I was wowed by the beautiful new sony monoliths and nearly placed an order pre-release 'assuming' they would have great PQ. Wrong! My wife and I went to see a NX+HX703 as soon as they were on display in a nearby Sony center, and were quite frankly shocked by their medioce images. Ironically my parents have just upgraded thier old CRT to a Sony HX703 and are wondering why many pictures look 'all blurry'. Now they are having to buy SKY HD to give them HQ source they were probably shown on the shop floor.
So thats the history pre-purchace, which I imagine will not be dissimilar to many prospective 'upgraders'. Being a technician means I can humour salesmen by pretending I dont know anything, but infact let then dig holes for themselves. Needless to say I have found many more expert opinions on the web. There is so much marketing hype and misinformation these days I would hate to be Joe Public - though if you are happy with your purchace then I suppose it is a non-issue.
So am I happy with my purchace? I wasted no time in watching some films this weekend, and I can say a resounding YES! The strengths are obvious. Blacks are blacker than a black hole. Colours are rich and detailed. Motion is smooth. Contrast is outstanding. In fact, you may be suprised to learn I do not own a bluray player - though it is next on the list. I watched Michael Clayton on BBCHD Freesat last night and it looked stunning. I cant wait to watch some high bitrate HD! I have not calibrated it yet, just using the THX preset - but definitely will do.
On a slightly less positive note, SD transmissions looked ok, but then again it looks better than anything I else we have seen, so that's not really a failing of the TV, only the content. Upscaled DVDs from my denon 1940 look pretty good.
I cant comment on the sound as I use a B+W / Denon AV setup, but the youtube app is useful, havent tried the other Viera cast apps yet. Also I didn't realize it came with a wireless dongle. Result!
All in all this is a great TV and as far as I am concerened is peerless in the current saturated flat screen market below £2000. Given the price I paid (£1179 w/ 5yr warranty) it is also a bargain.
I look forward to seeing what the what-hi fi team make of it, but considering nobody seems to have stock it might be some time......
My wife and I have been looking for a TV to replace my ancient Sony 32" Wega CRT for several months. I am a senior engineer in post production company and my wife is a film editor. Between us, with the exception of the Pioneer 500s which my wife generally requests for work and I use at mine, no LCD/Plasma TV has come close to satisfying our extensive PQ requirements.
I have spent days trawling through umpteen magazine + website reviews, going to John Lewis, Richer sounds, Currys etc, etc to try to find a replacement. I had shortlist after shortlist - but when we eventually saw them 'in the flesh' none had come close to making us want to part with our hard earned cash.
Just to give you an idea of our critial evaluations, the 40" Philips 9704 + 37" 9604, 40" samsung c7000, b8000, b7020, sony hx/nx703 all failed to pass our viewing tests. All were subject to fairly extensive viewing - and fiddling with 'shop' modes when possible.
Through much evaluation we both preferer the look of Plasma pictures, despite current trends towards LED tech. It helps that we both have the Pioneer Kuros for reference. We watch lots of films, and a bit of TV. No football - though I will make an exception for the World Cup!
We had seen and been impressed by the 50VT20, though 3D support is not really of much interest to us - until it is viewable without the ridiculous glasses that is. More to the point the 2D images we saw were excellent. The only downsides were it was both too expensive, and too big. It looked good off, too.
Call me superficial, but I have to say most Panasonic have left we decidedly underwhelmed as far as the stying goes. I was wowed by the beautiful new sony monoliths and nearly placed an order pre-release 'assuming' they would have great PQ. Wrong! My wife and I went to see a NX+HX703 as soon as they were on display in a nearby Sony center, and were quite frankly shocked by their medioce images. Ironically my parents have just upgraded thier old CRT to a Sony HX703 and are wondering why many pictures look 'all blurry'. Now they are having to buy SKY HD to give them HQ source they were probably shown on the shop floor.
So thats the history pre-purchace, which I imagine will not be dissimilar to many prospective 'upgraders'. Being a technician means I can humour salesmen by pretending I dont know anything, but infact let then dig holes for themselves. Needless to say I have found many more expert opinions on the web. There is so much marketing hype and misinformation these days I would hate to be Joe Public - though if you are happy with your purchace then I suppose it is a non-issue.
So am I happy with my purchace? I wasted no time in watching some films this weekend, and I can say a resounding YES! The strengths are obvious. Blacks are blacker than a black hole. Colours are rich and detailed. Motion is smooth. Contrast is outstanding. In fact, you may be suprised to learn I do not own a bluray player - though it is next on the list. I watched Michael Clayton on BBCHD Freesat last night and it looked stunning. I cant wait to watch some high bitrate HD! I have not calibrated it yet, just using the THX preset - but definitely will do.
On a slightly less positive note, SD transmissions looked ok, but then again it looks better than anything I else we have seen, so that's not really a failing of the TV, only the content. Upscaled DVDs from my denon 1940 look pretty good.
I cant comment on the sound as I use a B+W / Denon AV setup, but the youtube app is useful, havent tried the other Viera cast apps yet. Also I didn't realize it came with a wireless dongle. Result!
All in all this is a great TV and as far as I am concerened is peerless in the current saturated flat screen market below £2000. Given the price I paid (£1179 w/ 5yr warranty) it is also a bargain.
I look forward to seeing what the what-hi fi team make of it, but considering nobody seems to have stock it might be some time......
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