Panasonic TH42PZ85B

[Anonymous]

Hi Spice weasel, would be very interested to see how you get on with gaming. i have an xbox360 and have been trying to find out if the TH-42PZ85B is any good and has all the right technology to prevent burn in and image retention.

I have really fallen in love with this TV since i realised i couldnt justify spending 3.5k on the full hd pioneer model and this one really does seem the best alternative.

However, i downloaded the manual and there is a massive bold warning about image retention saying that gaming and channels with a static icon should be avoided all together and to boot any problem of this kind with the TV falls outside of warranty cover. Though this could be just a disclaimer to cover panasonics bottoms - does anyone know if there is anything to really worry about?? most games i play have a hud which is most important and i need at least 4 hours at a time to play oblivion!!!!

Did read an article saying it could be avoided by not playing games for the first 100 hours until the screen is "broken in" - dont know how effective that is.

Does the TH-42PZ85B have any of the anti burn in/image retention or other similar technolgy to help prevent this?? And does it have a "game" mode??

 

[Anonymous]

Help

I tried to price match this at John lewis in Oxford Street with Richer Sounds in Holborn and it failed bacuase they said that Richer Sounds didn't have any available on the shop floor.

Has anyone in London price matched JL in Bolton with the Sound and Vision in Bolton? Did this include the delivery to London.?

 

[Anonymous]

I have rung up JL in Cheadle, the one that was mentioned before with the Sound and Vision in Bolton, and quoted the £1043 price, and they will ring back tomorrow, and will post here when the reply comes,

And I am from Bucks so, it would be great if i could get it for this price.

 

[Anonymous]

Nice one will check that out also... cheers

 

[SpiceWeasel]

[quote user="timbles909"]

Hi Spice weasel, would be very interested to see how you get on with gaming. [/quote]

Hi there, Don't worry I know exactly how you feel. I was worried about image retention / burn-in as well,as you can see from some of my earlier posts. Especially as I was upgrading from an old 8 year old 32" Pany Quintrix to plasma and all the myths surrounding them.

So far I have had no problems what so ever. On the weekend I had a bit of a sesh on the PS3 , 4 hours straight on GT5 which looks bloody amazing in 1080p on a big 42" , then about 2.5 hours on Burnout. I then had my 1st blueray experience and watched Spiderman. My god the picture quality has to be seen to be believed,to say it looks life like is an understatement. On the close ups you can see every eye lash, strands of hair and even skin imperfections.Unbelievable, every one who has seen it so far has ended up touching the screen just to make sure there wasn't some sort of witch craft going on. Good job you get a free cleaning cloth with the tv.

I have been limiting my watching on programs with constant channel logo's though, although 2 hours of top gear repeats on Dave and there was no retention or anything. It does have inbuilt gadgetry that is supposed to prevent retention and screen burn. It does this by moving the pixels around at set intervals. Don't worry it's unnoticeable to the naked eye.

I found this that explains the whole running in period "Break-In is the time period from when a Plasma set is brand new until the plasma phosphors have aged (or hardened), to a point where it is less susceptible to image retention (IR). Phosphors are their "hottest" when new. You may notice when passing by a new plasma set that it gives off a lot of heat but runs cooler after 100 or so hours of use. During this break-in period, burn-in can occur more easily." Off the Samsung website http://samsungplasmatvfaq.com/index.php/Break-in,_burn-in,_and_image_retention#What_is_pixel_shifting.3F

I think this all came about from the older sets from a few years back, nowadays it seems to be very very unlikely to happen what with all the new technology and jiggery pokery going on inside the tv. But I am still going to take it easy for the 1st 100 hours with channel logo's etc just for peace of mind.

No it doesn't have a game mode, the "game mode" is just a preset with different contrast,brightness colour settings. I set mine up on cinema mode for the PS3 using the THX optimizer on the star wars dvd. Really good and free,makes a big difference once set up.Looked very good on dvd's and blueray, although I did find that GT5 was a bit to dark on these settings. So I set up Normal mode for tv viewing, by using the tweaked Cinema settings as a base and then it needed a few notches on the brightness/contrast. This worked alot better on GT5.

Make sure to turn off IFC in the menu unless your watching 24fps blueray's. I also turned off the overscan function as well, it basically zooms the picture in abit incase you can see jiggly lines at the edge of the screen with it turned off on normal tv stations. Well I turned mine off and didn't notice and funny buisness, apart from a boost in picture quality especially on sd content as it wasn't zoomed in a bit. Both are set on as default.

Remember to do this for each input you use and the different modes,cinema, normal etc.

Also give the BBE VIVA fake surround mode a go, seems to work pretty well. And it sounds very similar to having fake surround turned off, but with added surround soundiness.

EDIT: whoa just posted this and noticed how long it was, sorry

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Spice Weasel, dont worry about the length of the post, it was a damn good read and has given me the final push i need to join the panny plasma army!!!

I am thinking of adding an AV receiver and cinema system, anyone have any reccomendations there? Not sure wether to splash out on the AV receiver i dont fully understand what they do to be honest - but i do want to make sure i have at least a 5.1 surround system, and if i can find one with wireless rear speakers would be cool. Also want it to double up as my stereo system for my music (cd's, mp3 player, laptop, mixing decks etc..).

Did think about getting the panny system that JL are selling it with but dont really like the look of it, i quite fancy one with tall standing speakers like the LG set, but i dont like the gloss finish they come in.

If anyone can link me to any posts for AV receivers and cinema systems would be great.

Meanwhile i am giong to order my TH42PZ85B from JL !!! Cant wait!!!

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="timbles909"]
Did think about getting the panny system that JL are selling it with but dont really like the look of it,

[/quote]

Wise decision - recent Panasonic home cinema systems have been woeful. As you'd expect with their pedigree in DVD players/recorders/TVs, the picture is fine, but the speakers are dreadful.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Clare, who is the market leader for cinema systems at the moment?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I received the return call from John Lewis as the price from Sound and Vision in Bolton had gone down to £1030. John Lewis said that they can price match the T.V to £1039 with the 5 year Guarantee as we are so far away from the quoted store (about 300 miles!) so we are getting it delivered on Tuesday.

Not bad for a few minutes reading and although Digital Direct was the cheapest that I could find at £1001, I would prefer to spend the extra £38 on the warranty.

So I hope this helps many of you who are looking and that John Lewis can price match from practically anywhere in the U.K as they say on their site. JL did at one point suggest a fee of £75 would have to be paid for the T.V to be delivered from the John Lewis in Cheadle, so I had to ring up the "undersales department" so they would sent the item from the nerest store in High Wycombe.

Cheers guys!

 

[Anonymous]

Nice one - asked the same from JL yesterday but still haven't had a response - Ayman how long did your take to come through.

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="timbles909"]

Thanks Clare, who is the market leader for cinema systems at the moment?

[/quote]

Depends on value or volumes, but top three (no particular order) are LG, Samsung and Sony.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"][quote user="timbles909"]

Did think about getting the panny system that JL are selling it with but dont really like the look of it,

[/quote]

Wise decision - recent Panasonic home cinema systems have been woeful. As you'd expect with their pedigree in DVD players/recorders/TVs, the picture is fine, but the speakers are dreadful.

[/quote]Clare - I was thinking of teaming up a top-end Panasonic cinema system with the new TH46PZ85B, but (thankfully) your words of caution have put me off - or at least partly. I am interested in using the Viera-link technology for TV/DVD/Cinema system, so my question to you is would all the Panasonic hardware still talk to each other via the single-remote feature if I bought and installed better quality compatible speakers? And if so. what would you recommend? Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Ayman"]
Hi,

I received the return call from John Lewis as the price from Sound and Vision in Bolton had gone down to £1030. John Lewis said that they can price match the T.V to £1039 with the 5 year Guarantee as we are so far away from the quoted store (about 300 miles!) so we are getting it delivered on Tuesday.

Not bad for a few minutes reading and although Digital Direct was the cheapest that I could find at £1001, I would prefer to spend the extra £38 on the warranty.

So I hope this helps many of you who are looking and that John Lewis can price match from practically anywhere in the U.K as they say on their site. JL did at one point suggest a fee of £75 would have to be paid for the T.V to be delivered from the John Lewis in Cheadle, so I had to ring up the "undersales department" so they would sent the item from the nerest store in High Wycombe.

Cheers guys!

[/quote]

This discussion and the excellent hdtvtest site have just about convinced me to go for a TH-42PZ85B.

BTW, I found PRC (www.prcdirect.co.uk) have this TV for £1015 at the moment and they have stores and are giving a free 5 year warranty if you buy it in store. So when house is ready - about 3 weeks away, will try the price match with my local JL in High Wycombe.

I have a room about 4.5m wide with a viewing position around 3.2m from
the screen. I was originally going to go for a 46" (as there is
certainly space on the wall) but given I watch a lot of SD TV, I was
concerned that a 46" might be too large for lots of SD watching and thus this seems the best 42" option. Does
anyone have a view?

Cheers

D

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Well I have the 42" and find that sd content looks best from about 10ft away. If you get any closer you start to notice a drop in quality. You might be ok with a 46" but if you can I would try and have a look yourself in a shop just to see what you prefer.

Personally at my viewing distance I find the 42" is about right. And im glad I didn't go bigger.

Also if you don't have a proper surround setup you may be best to get the 42" and use the remaining £500 left over from a 46" to buy a nice surround setup. Or any other extra's you might fancy

EDIT: Just measured and my tv is 3metres from where sit. So I think a 42" would be the best at that distance for good sd viewing

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Mark how you doin! What is the Sony like?? do you know if you can put those tiny speakers on the wall or not? would love to hear your full honest review of it & any pros/cons ... cheers matey ;0)

 

[Anonymous]

I just bought the 42" Panasonic PZ85B and I'm stoked.

After much deliberating and to the annoyance of the shop guy (no he was cool) I chose the 42" plasma over the 37" LZD800.

The LZD800 was better. But the 42" is bigger... and that sold me in the end.

I'm not disappointed either. The PZ85B is handling SD very well. I'm about 10ft away and it's about right. Any less would be bad. More distance would be just fine.

Can't wait to upgrade to HD...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,1st time post.

I've just bought my th42pz85b last week,after 4mths of looking and finally plucked up the courage to go for a plasma.

I got it from my local empire direct for £1099,BUT they gave me a panasonic DMP-BD30 blu-ray player for an extra £100,making tv and player £1199.

and you can get a 3yr warranty for £30.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="SpiceWeasel"]
Well I have the 42" and find that sd content looks best from about 10ft away. If you get any closer you start to notice a drop in quality. You might be ok with a 46" but if you can I would try and have a look yourself in a shop just to see what you prefer.

Personally at my viewing distance I find the 42" is about right. And im glad I didn't go bigger.

Also if you don't have a proper surround setup you may be best to get the 42" and use the remaining £500 left over from a 46" to buy a nice surround setup. Or any other extra's you might fancy

EDIT: Just measured and my tv is 3metres from where sit. So I think a 42" would be the best at that distance for good sd viewing

[/quote]

Thanks Spice. That makes sense, and yes, I'm going to put the ££ saved towards the Q Acoustics QAV. I saw and heard them at the Bristol show and thought they were really amazing in both design and sound, and incredible value against the £1k style speaker systems. Add an Onkyo amp and I'm nearly sorted!

 

[Anonymous]

hi it took 2 days to go through even though they said it would take up to 7, but anyway, have it now and it is Awesome, so connected to the XBOX 360 Elite is great, and at a great price, I am very happy with my purchase and I hope you will be as well with yours.

Ayman

 

[SpiceWeasel]

No probs deehell. I had another check on the quality of the sd again, I would say 7ft is the min distance before you start to see a decrease in picture quality. From about 10ft (just under 3m) sd looks very good. HD off blueray looks amazing no matter how close you get to the screen.